Wow it’s cold this morning! We had some early season snowfall yesterday all of the way down to about 6000 feet in North Tahoe. It’s a beautiful thing to look at and it certainly makes many of us dream about skiing. Yesterday, my social media feeds were full of images like this from just about every ski area in Tahoe:
It got me thinking about skiing enough that I took a moment to head to the Tahoe Sports Hub and dropped off my new skis to get mounted with bindings and get a new ski prep. West River street in Truckee has been in the midst of a construction project for what seems like a year now, and the current phase makes it look like access to the Sports Hub is nearly impossible. But the parking lot across the street is now paved, and it is possible to navigate your way into the store through the mud and various ramps. If you do so this week, you’ll find that it’s not busy at all right now due to the construction. Rob, Jaques and the rest of the crew will be eager to help you out and they appreciate your patronage during this slow time.
Setting Realistic Expectations
That new snow looks great indeed, all two inches of it. Over the next few nights, there will be excellent temperatures for snow making. That said, I will not be surprised if there is not much snow making done other than testing equipment. We are still on that rollercoaster of weather. We have had a nice period of almost winter-like weather this week. I hate being Debbie Downer, but there is some warming weather again next week. It’s not going to be swimsuit weather, but day time highs will reach into the 50’s next week. Night time lows will creep back up to the 30’s.
Here’s the temperature outlook for the next 8 to 14 days. It’s the opposite of what we want to see at this time of the year. Yeah, I know, but it just means that there will be more opportunities for biking and maybe a chance to head for the coast.
In terms of the potential for more storms, that situation continues to look a bit ugly. Below I am showing the CFS model for potential snowfall through November 26…beyond the scheduled opening day. Yikes! That is some strong ridging in place.
Update: This morning the GFS models were starting to show some storms moving through about a week out on the operational models. There’s some hope there, the ensembles are not there yet.
I checked the webcams at some of the other potential early opener ski areas. Mount Rose is making snow this morning top to bottom. We will have to see how that progresses as temperatures warm next week. Mammoth Mountain received barely a dusting of snow from this storm and has not yet started making snow. Mammoth plans to open two weeks from now and that looks questionable.
We are committed here to tell you what’s up, whether we like it or not. Be patient. The models do flip at times and we are looking for that sign.
Technical Difficulties
Over the last two years, we have been experiencing technical difficulties with the email version of our reports for those of you that are subscribers. During that time, the emails that get viewed on iOS devices (iPhones and iPads) have not properly displayed photos. We have explored the issue with WordPress support, JetPack support and with Apple engineers. We have only gotten a lot of finger pointing for answers, and promises that future updates would solve the issue.
Unfortunately, things are even worse with the latest release of MacOS, as our photos are now also missing in the Mac Mail app. All of this has to do with Apple’s desire to protect you from devious spammy behaviors, Our photos are remotely hosted separately from the rest of the post. That speeds up page loads and allows us to create neat photo galleries and slideshows. But that also triggers the photo blocking that we can’t seem to resolve.
I’ve got some major behind the scenes updates that need to be done and I need to consider doing a re-theme on the site to fix the problem. Hopefully I can find some time in the next few weeks to make that happen. Until we get a fix, I would encourage you to look at those emails as just a nudge to come look at the website.
Just a reminder, the paid parking reservations for next season at PTAM will be available on Monday, October 30th at 10am. While I am not planning on paying for any reservations, I will certainly take a dive into it to see how it works…expect another report Monday.
I thought you already had the Bobs? Love all of the J Skis!
My previous pair of Bobs was on the J Skis All Play ski, which is park oriented and my nose butter game is way off. This year’s Bobs are on the J Skis Masterblaster ski, which adds in some titanal metal, making it a much more versatile all mountain ski. I sold the old Bobs to a friend that is about half my age.
Love your new skis… be careful of those rocks!
I enjoy your newsletter everytime. No problems viewing photos or with formatting. I have an Android! Something to think about iphone users. Maybe we don’t need to spend 50-100% more for the coveted iPhone. I use an apple laptop and android phone. It all works seamlessly! Come join the dark side. We can save money for reserved parking this season.