I Went To Sherwood Today…And Never Left*

The official reports for Sherwood did not do much to create hope this morning. If you didn’t read the official operations blog yesterday, here’s what it had to say about the opening of Sherwood:

I did not really think that was a completely accurate description of the situation, having seen the SnoTel data, seen multiple photos from residents on that side, and looked at it with my own eyes several times since they opened the top of TLC. I also have “more than average” experience riding the terrain. I have ridden the Sherwood chair 1142 times since I started using the Palisades Tahoe app for tracking,

Arriving at the mountain this morning, the word of mouth reports from various mountain staff were to the effect of thin, rocky and icy and “less than a foot of snow.” That’s not very inspirational. But to the group I ski with the answer to that messaging is “Challenge accepted!”

Because conditions were warm yesterday afternoon and cold and cloudy this morning, it was not my intention to go to Sherwood right away. Things were miserably icy just yesterday morning. So to Roundhouse we went for ride number one, enjoying buttery soft corduroy in Rock Garden. It wasn’t more than a few minutes before someone suggested going to Sherwood. In my mind I was remembering some adage, something like “Don’t leave good snow without a promise of finding better snow.” But off to Sherwood we went, via Hotter Wheels to the top.

I have experienced the top parts of Sherwood the last few days, finding a lot of breakable crust in the trees. I had also viewed the ungroomed Sherwood groomer run yesterday, which had a number of ruts from poachers, patrollers and snowmobiles. Being that it was left in an ungroomed state, I felt no need to go there. Instead we tentatively checked out the smooth untouched areas of Robin Hood, Maid Robin Tucks and the lower parts of Sherwood Face. In those windswept areas, we found a very supportable surface of a firm corn-like snow. If you ignored the noise, it was very edge-able.

I ended up doing 21 laps at Sherwood today, making sure it was good. We gradually worked our way across Sherwood Left Face, Sherwood Face, Sherwood Right Face and Chute Zero. I saw that patrol eventually did open South Face, once things softened a bit and the possibility of a slide for life was reduced. I never bothered with the hike because the skiing was so good with no hiking required.

Ultimately, this may be the best non-powder day ski day I have ever experienced at Sherwood. Generally in the spring time, it’s rare that the slopes start out baby butt smooth. On your typical spring day, the optimum window for corn is only an hour or two long. Today, it was skiable at 9:20 and still good at 2:15 on my last run. Just the flat areas near the bottom were starting to get a bit sticky.

We might not get another day like this all season. Tomorrow there will still be greatness there, but it won’t be quite as smooth. So you’ll likely want to wait for it to soften a bit. Word from patrollers today was that they were hoping for High Traverse today or tomorrow. I would not know if it opened today, since I never went to Summit today.

The Sherwood groomed run is really the only thin spot, and that is basically on the right side just below the summer road breakover. This is usually where rocks first appear in the spring. With some snow farming, the groomer could be quite acceptable. For the record, in 21 runs at Sherwood today, I hit zero obstacles.

Thanks to the mountain ops team for getting the Sherwood chair and terrain open. It will really help spread out the traffic on the mountain. It looked like today that Ski Patrol may have also opened more of the Lakeview terrain, as Reilly’s Run was open, as was all of the terrain below Return Road. From a very long distance i think they may have removed signage from Mountain View and Scott Meadow. I never went to Scott today to confirm that. Hopefully we get enough snow to get Lakeview open soon!

* I did leave Sherwood to get a quick lunch at Treats, and then immediately returned to Sherwood for some final laps, which explains two trips on TLC

Variable Weather Ahead

The good news is that the chance of rain for Saturday has been scaled back to just 30%. This is a good thing as snow levels have now trended up to 9500 for tomorrow. Yuck. There were a few drizzles today, but nothing awful. Will cloudy skies and high snow levels reduce the crowds for Saturday? Probably not. But hopefully we can get in a good ski day without too much wetness.

Temperatures will stay on the warm side and dry side through the end of the month. Again, we have not yet experienced June-uary this year, so it needs to happen, or it would not be a Tahoe winter.

Forecasters are still talking about a deep low moving in around next Wednesday or Thursday to start off a wetter February. Just two days ago this was being billed as a possible ARKstorm event, the type that Noah prepared for way back in time. Now the forecast discussion talks about a more typical Sierra Winter storm, bringing 1-2 feet of snow at about 5000 ft. By Monday, it would not surprise me if we are talking about another cutoff low. We shall see, I am not much of a believer in any model more than three days out this season.

It’s Been A Difficult PR Year For Palisades Tahoe

It’s been a challenging season for the public relations team at Palisades Tahoe. It started off with the challenge of an unpopular parking reservation system, immediately to be followed by a very slow start to the season, due to a lack of cooperation from the snow gods. Then we had the back to back inbounds avalanches, first at Palisades, and then at Alpine Meadows.

Imagine my surprise when I got a text from a friend today asking if I heard about a shooting at Palisades! I thought, “Nah, that doesn’t happen!” But an hour later, my mother called me midday while I was riding the Sherwood lift. I answered “So there was a shooting at Palisades Tahoe!” I don’t have much in the way of solid details on the event, other than it happened far away from where the general public would be and was a very unusual set of circumstances. My thoughts are with all Palisades Tahoe staff affected by the incident. It shouldn’t have to happen this way.

I will say, it is perfectly safe to ski on the Palisades Tahoe side of the mountain. The skiing is always better on that side, so you should go there this weekend.