A Nice Dump

Today was a somewhat typical Tahoe winter day.  It has been the type of winter day that greets you with snow falling at a rapid pace, tree branches holding enough snow to almost hide the tree from view, and driveways showing tire marks as it waits for a plow to clear a foot of snow from its face. This morning snow was building up quickly as it dropped from the sky.  However, as the day has moved along temperatures have increase to numbers above freezing.  It may not have been raining at my house this afternoon, but trees have dropped their loads, asphalt is showing through a thin wet layer of mush, and snow that is on the ground is compacting and is becoming denser.

There was a pretty good number of people waiting for Roundhouse to open

I am not an expert in snow safety, but I have a sense that the avalanche danger is extreme this afternoon. Across the valley from my house, I can see small natural slides have occurred on moderately sloped hillsides. Catching glimpses of small crowns left after snow has broken away and slid downhill, that were not set off by a person skiing, are unusual sights in my neighborhood.

My first ride up Scott this morning

It is unusual for Palisades Tahoe (Squaw Valley) to close all lifts before the end of a normal day. Winds and avalanche danger may have combined to require the closing of all lifts.  I applaud management for shutting down today hopefully in an effort to keep us safe.  Alpine Meadows was able to run four lifts into the afternoon (TLC and Roundhouse along with Meadow and Subway), but certain runs off these lifts were closed while avalanche control was performed.  The main access road was closed this afternoon for use of the Gazex units.

The good news for those of us that headed for the hill this morning, to try and catch some fresh snow, was that many of yesterday’s crowd went home. This left plenty of people ready to hit the slopes this morning, but not the overwhelming crowd I expected. The snow was deeper this morning than yesterday. It required a little more effort as it was not light powder.  A low angle slope that was pretty good yesterday was not the way to go today.

Reily’s Run was just steep enough

A steeper slope was needed to suck the most enjoyment out of the new snow. I watched a number of people ski Juniper Face and Scott Chute, but I stayed away for that area. We blew through Gentian Gully, enjoyed tree skiing and some open areas at Sherwood, and split runs between the trees off Scott Chair and Roundhouse.  The upper mountain, Summit and Alpine Bowl Chairs were not open.

It was a good day.  I did hear yelps of joy from skiers and boarders cutting up powder, but I also saw a number of people stuck in deep snow trudging along in an effort to get to a trail that they missed by skiing below a premade track.

I was one of the skiers that dropped below Ray’s Rut, and had a sweat producing trudging to get back to Sherwood

Every day is a good day on the slopes. Please take care the next few days while our snow settles down.

Enjoy your day,

Andy