Waiting for Snow

Occasionally I have a friend who is interested in looking a property in the area. When that happens, it becomes more difficult to stay on the slopes for an extended period of time. Today, I enjoyed the hill until around noon.

During my time on the mountain I attempted to obtain a feel for conditions on various slopes that face the sun from different angles. South facing slopes that were not groomed overnight tended to be rather firm. I would not say they softened enough yesterday to become blue ice, but they were firm. Even the groomed slopes, such as the main Sherwood Run were pretty firm. Trails such as Sherwood Face and South Face (I did not ski these) were very firm and not very appealing (at least to me, and a couple of people I spoke to on the chair who had skied them).

Higher up on Summit we executed turns on the groomed slope of Wolverine and the same surface in Alpine Bowl and Sunspot. These three along with Terry’s Return were pleasant enough, as were the groomed slopes lower down accessed from Roundhouse. I did venture over to Pygmy Forest under Alpine Bowl Chair and found the moguls a little firm, but not icy.
I also took a ride up Scott Chair and Lakeview Chair. Lakeview was better than Sherwood as the surface was more forgiving. Scott was the same. Bobby’s offered a smooth surface that held an edge that was perfect for making fast giant slalom style turns. My problem is that I tend to want to get off the lovely groomed surface that our night crew creates.

This issue led me to Gentian Gully in hopes it’s more protected north facing slope would still have a winter packed surface. This was somewhat true for the upper 2/3rds of the run, although the snow was fairly stiff and a bit grabby. Lower down was not really pleasant as the rubble was very firm and noisy. The best part of the experience was that I was on the run all by myself which was a delight on a very busy weekend day.

For some reason I had signs on my mind this morning. The first is a sign that many people are familiar with, but not everyone knows where it is located. I am not going to tell you where it is, but here is a picture of the sign that is somewhat hidden in a grove of trees. This spot is known as the Bakery.

The other sign, I think I may have mentioned this in the past, is a real trail, between Sherwood and Lakeview. This, on the trail map is Reily’s Run, but the sign attached to a tree naming the trail, as you pass onto it, is spelled Riley”s. Someone should replace it with the correct spelling. It is named after one of the original promoters of Alpine Meadows.

This morning, on my first run of the day, I was passed by a number of skiers at high speed flying over moguls and looking like nothing could stop them. I am not sure if they were from the group of big mountain skiers that were getting ready for a competition on the Palisades Trails next to Alpine Bowl Chair, but they, along with some other people were really moving too fast. Just my observation.

The only other observation I have from this Saturday of a holiday weekend is that the parking lot was not full. It was not nearly full. In fact there were free and paid parking reservations available this morning that could have been used today. If I had know this was going to be the case, I might not have spent anxious time on Tuesday in the locker room with my compatriots, with rising blood pressure, in an effort to secure a space.

I left before the snow began to fall. I assume it started snowing on the mountain at 1pm.. That was the general consensus of a number of people who were staring at the weather radar on their phones claiming it would begin snowing at 1pm.. I am not on the mountain now, but it is 5pm and it is not snow along the Truckee River. Nothing is currently falling from the sky.

Enjoy your day,
Andy