Hello Skiers and Snowboarders,
I woke up this morning, after driving home from Reno in a rain storm, to a layer of white on my driveway that was thinner than a piece of white paper. A gray cloud hung over the mountain making it difficult to see the top to determine if I wanted to head out first thing in the morning. I chose to run errands instead of heading to the slopes.
The gray ceiling lifted later in the morning so I headed out in the early afternoon. The sky was still cloudy with an occasional peek of blue showing through. I had not checked the Palisades App to see what was running so I was a little surprised when I realized that Summit, Scott, Alpine Bowl Chair, and Yellow were not running. Winds that were stronger before I arrived on the scene had died down a little, but they were still blowing reasonably strongly.
What I found were groomed trails that had received an inch or two of snow overnight. The skiing was okay between areas that had been shaved by previous skiers leaving slick ice and small piles of snow where an edge could grab. Off-piste was a different story. If the snow had not been broken up by a previous ski or board, then a breakable crust was left to easily trip the skiers who dared to seek an untouched area. Yellow Trail had been skied and was traversable, but not the easiest it has ever been skied. I found ice, where snow had been shaved off a mogul, and an occasional crust that would send one ski in one direction and the other ski in another direction.
Long and the short of it was what a fellow chair passenger on vacation from North Carolina shared, “on a scale of 1 to 10 the skiing is a 2 or 3″.
The temperature needs to warm up and the sun needs to come out for skiing to get better, unless we receive a new dumping of new snow.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
I did 6 Roundhouse laps, 99.9% on groomed slopes in the morning when visibility was much worse with fog and blowing snow. The 0.1% represents about 1 foot of tracks into Yellow, followed by a big nope. Heard from some patrollers that conditions were similar all of the way to the top.
I took a break, hoping for the sun to come out and for some other people to break up the crust. But that failed to materialize and I went on with my day. Will try again tomorrow, but I hope they groom a whole lot of stuff overnight.
At least you got a few photos in and out to world. We are a rare breed. Those of us who love the winter. Best to you. Thanks for your thoughts
From our house on the west shore it sounded like aggressive avy control in the ward creek area early to mid afternoon. Getting Sherwood ready?
One would hope so!
Lots of thick, non boiler plate snow on Lower Dog Leg over the hill today,but so sorry closed to prep forWC Race in 5 weeks.
In jackson hole right now via south shore of tahoe. Same story here. 2023-24 just bites