Given the outlook for a very crowded weekend with World Cup skiing happening at Palisades, good snow on the mountain, and the promise of beautiful sunny skies, we decided to take a couple of days off. We headed over the hill in the opposite direction of skiers who were streaming up the hill toward Truckee and Tahoe. A couple of days tasting wine, soaking views of rolling green hillsides, often covered with grape vines, and enjoying small old Gold Country towns is good for the soul.
We had a nice visit with Ruggero, a good friend, who owns Mastroserio Winery in Fairplay
Today I was back on the hill wondering if the snow was as good as it was last Thursday. The good news is that the snow was still in very good condition on the groomed slopes and north facing slopes. South Facing slopes such as Sherwood were turning to soft spring snow at 11 this morning. I happen to like spring skiing, but many people do not consider spring snow their favorite. Spring snow also tends to turn to ice, or something very firm, overnight making the next morning somewhat unpleasant. Most of trails we skied this morning, along with a good crowd of other skiers and snowboarders, were groomed slopes. Wolverine, Sunspot, Solar Flare, Alpine Bowl, Yellow, Werner’s, Charity, Banana Chute, Rock Garden, Dance Floor, and Ladies Slalom were excellent choice off the Summit and Roundhouse Lifts. Bobby’s was lovely off Scott Chair as was the main Sherwood Run on the backside. I made some turns off the groomed areas on north facing runs filled with moguls. Generally the surface was packed powder with some areas that offered a more firm topping.
Grooming was exceptional this morning.
A number of people were at the base of the Stifel World Cup in Squaw Valley yesterday reporting the viewing to be exciting. Evidently, finding a spot to see the race was not difficult. Parking lots were pretty full today, but the lines were not excessive. I suppose the fact that almost every lift on both sides of the mountain was in operation helped to keep the lift lines from becoming unruly.
Beautiful weather tends to make for good skiing and happy skiers. Today was one of those days. Tomorrow might be a different story as the word on the street is that high winds, some snow, and colder temperatures are in the forecast.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Banana chute all groomed up, how lovely
On Friday of ski and skate week, Da Bowl groomed it all out. Very nice.