Exceptional

I try to be careful about using words like “exceptional” when it comes to mountain reports, as sensationalizing the conditions on the mountain only leads to bigger crowds in the days ahead. But before you pack your bags or take the day off tomorrow, I’ll warn you that a very unique set of circumstances came together to make today exceptional. We only had 4-6 inches of snow over the last two days, but then the wind machine turned up to 11 and conditions stayed pretty cold. That meant that the wind buff was amazing this morning, and if you knew where to look there was even some boot top deep powder.

But those great conditions can be very temporary once the temperatures rise or we get a good amount of sun. By mid March, we are already 83 days past the Winter Solstice, that point where the sun is lowest in the sky. Even with cool temperatures, the snow quickly gets cooked by solar radiation.

This morning was akin to being like a kid in Wonka’s candy store. Exiting the Summit chair, there were just so many choices of places to head. High Traverse and the upper bowls both opened, and while they were likely good, my mind kept saying “Why bother hiking when the skiing is so good without hiking?” So we made hot laps of mostly north facing terrain that had collected snow over the last two days: Palisades, the D Chutes, North Peril, High Yellow all offered soft and stable wind buff. I abandoned Sun Spot because the Tower 19 zone to the right and the Tower 18 zone to the left just skied softer and smoother.

Lower on the mountain, Sympathy Face, Rolls and Knolls and Yellow Chairline were all superb buff. There was also extensive grooming done overnight, but honestly that was not the ticket today. Even my corduroy loving friends were in the spirit this morning.

I finally wandered over to Scott around 11:30, wanting to explore the Gentian Gully zone, keeping an open mind. While the primary lines down the gully had been already hit quite a bit, I am no stranger to Gentian. Finding untracked lines was pretty easy, making it much like a classic Alpine Meadows midweek day. It wasn’t all good, as there were some big wind-lips in places. If you worked too far over toward Lower 40, that aspect had been blown off, it also looked pretty blown off above Ice Cliffs. On our second lap, we traversed back toward Promised Land instead of riding Subway. That’s when I first felt the signs of things getting cooked.

I noticed that same manky cooked pow feeling after lunch on Sunday School and in the poultry zone. Those are two zones that get a lot of spring sun, so a guy has to test things out before writing a report. If we get the east wind chill tomorrow there is definitely going to be some coral reef tomorrow. I never made it to Sherwood or Lakeview today.

I had an opportunity this afternoon to take a few laps with Liz Worgan, the Web and Content Manager for Palisades Tahoe. Liz is better known as the voice of the official Palisades Tahoe operations blog. I know some of you think I might be getting too cozy with management here, but the reality is having the open communications with management is not a bad thing. You’ve probably already noticed that I have been complementary of the operations blog, as it’s certainly an effort at being more transparent than pretty much any time since I have been around at Alpine Meadows. Do you remember the old “snow phone” days where every recorded message always used the term packed powder and the word “rain” was never said?

Before becoming the official blogger of Palisades Tahoe, Liz had some other roles at Alpine Meadows. She started her career on the park staff and later moved up to the pass scanner role. Besides noting that Liz is a good human that has the same passion for the mountain that we have, I came away with one takeaway. For the official blog, Liz has access to all of the information she wants, but is limited in what she can say. For the unofficial blog, I have more limited access to official information, but I do have the freedom to say whatever I want. You live in a world where you can read both. Lucky you.

Weather: Windy, Then Maybe Warm, Possibly Another Round of Winter

The next two days are going to be very windy and potentially brisk. The High Wind Warning calls for north to east winds, reaching as much as 100 mph along Sierra ridges. The winds are supposed to be considerable all of the way down to 4000 feet. You’re probably going to be happier to understand right now that some lift closures are almost certain over the next two days, with Summit being the primary suspect at Alpine Meadows. Here’s the wind forecast for Thursday and Friday. Based on this model run, the wind looks more north for Thursday and more east for Friday.

For Saturday through Wednesday, we get our first solid streak of spring, with mountain temperatures nearing the mid 40’s and mostly sunny days. It’s likely we will have to deal with some transitional days with manky snow and sticky conditions before we get to corny goodness. Much of that will depend on overnight freezes. As of today, that looks good. Multiple freeze and thaw cycles is what delivers good spring snow.

In the longer run, we could possibly see another round of snow during the last week of March. Some of the teleconnections are coming together in a scenario that could produce an AR event type storm. Here’s the ingredients: a negative PNA index, an MJO in phase 8 and a negative PDO or AO or one of those other things. The weather dweebs are chattering. The model consistency is not there at all to even begin to think in terms of certainty.

See you out there tomorrow!