Now That’s More Like It!

That closed low to our south delivered another round of snow overnight, with differing sources saying anywhere between 3-10 inches of snow falling at Alpine Meadows. Because temperatures were just a couple of degrees colder, this new snow was far more skiable than anything else during the last few days. As I ripped through some terrain off of Roundhouse this morning, the description of “hero pow” crossed my mind. But the definition changed quite a bit as I toured various areas of the mountain. Ward Peak, which includes Summit and Roundhouse, was shrouded in clouds that clung to the crest just about all day, with occasional snow showers and strong winds in the morning. Over at Scott Peak, which includes Lakeview and the sunny slopes of Scott, and Sherwood (even though that is on a ridge off of Ward Peak.) The sun was out, it felt 15 degrees warmer and the new snow skied very differently.

Also, we are done with Presidents Weekend and the vast numbers of people it brought to Tahoe. Yes, there are still a lot of people around this week, but the upper lots did not even fill. Most of the mountain was open, although Summit was delayed until 10:30ish by strong ridge winds. Once Summit opened, there were few lines on the mountain, and just about all of the mountain skied pretty well, allowing most skiers and riders to venture off piste somewhere.

I had very consistent buffy powder turns this morning on God’s Knob, Rolls and Knolls, the poultry zone, Yellow Chairline and Tiegel Open Slope. In an afternoon tour of the mountain, the new snow was transitioning to a spring-like slush pretty quickly. I enjoyed some great small bumps on Robin Hood, Sherwood Right Face and the non-standard part of Standard Run. Over at Lakeview, I skied more moguls on Outer Limits than I ever have done.

I never made it to the top of the mountain, as I am still playing Peter Griffin for this week. Dave reported that the skiing was “really great”, as Summit was not open yesterday at all. I also heard from Andy that Gentian was skiing well this afternoon, with the exception of the large moguls at the entry. I’m enjoying playing tour guide still. There will be more powder days.

A Look At Stats

With all of the snow that has fallen over the last week, it seemed like it was time to assess where we stand now relative to other seasons. I mentioned a week or so ago that it looked like we might see average snowfall at Alpine Meadows during the month of February. All other months of the season have been well below average. But as of today, we are there for the month of February. We have seen 76″ of snow in February and the 53 year average for February is 76.3 inches. Season to date we are at 162″ of snowfall at the base, compared to about 350″ by this date last season.

Another 5 to 9 inches is in the point forecast for tonight before a ridge starts building in for the end of the week. But February storms are not done yet. It looks like there could be one more relatively weak storm late Sunday into Tuesday. The latest GEFS runs call for 6-14 inches, which is still a lot of model variation. I would not count on it just yet. The longer range guess-o-meter suggests a larger storm into the the first week of March. The models have been far from reliable at forecasting these non-Alaska low storms we have been seeing lately. This latest storm wasn’t a total bust, but it certainly came in below the lowest range of model estimates.

What Does The Mountain Look Like?

I referenced the total snow fall at the base area above, but the bigger key is what snowpack is currently on the mountain. Currently the snowpack at the base measuring station is 77″. Up at the upper measurement point near the top of The Sisters, the snowpack is at 137″. While these are not really near average for this part of the season, they are also not terrible.

I considered taking a lot of photos today to really show what that looks like, but that seemed silly. Andy and I post photos just about every day of the season. So today I thought I would try something more descriptive, using words to describe areas of interest.

• All of the rocks are well covered now in the Alpine Bowl, Tower 19 and Sunspot region
• Just about all of the trees in Pygmy Forest are now back to pygmy status due to the deeper snowpack
• All of the main groomed slopes on the mountain are rock and brush free, including most of Sherwood Run
• Gods Knob and Sympathy Face are just about rock free
• Most of the rocks in the “fruit salad” zone are just about covered
• Scott Chute is looking almost normal at this point, with most obstacles covered, in particular the rock band at the upper choke. There’s also more than one pathway to the bottom other than the one mogul choke near tower 4.
• You can ski the Promised Land, Gentian Gully and much of High Traverse without running into willows near the base of those zones.

It’s a good thing, as my QST’s are pretty throughly thrashed with four core shots, and it feels like the bases are starting to swell after the temporary P-Tex patches let loose during the last arctic blast. It’s probably time to just replace those now. Hopefully the ski sales will start soon, as they traditionally do after Presidents weekend.

See you out there tomorrow, because skiing is fun.