Goodbye Spring, For Now

The lovely little blast of spring we have been enjoying the last few days is just about over. No matter when you think that spring begins, seasoned Tahoe veterans know that winter can reappear again in April, May and even June. We are about to see that happen over the next 24 hours. Fortunately the upcoming storm slowed a bit, giving us one more chance for spring skiing tomorrow. I’ll take it, as it has been really fun over the last two days.

Not surprisingly, I have been Chairlift Champion on the Palisades app for the last two days on Sherwood. I’ve stacked up nearly two dozen runs on Chute Zero alone. I’ve been especially eager to leave Summit and head to Sherwood, as soon as the test runs off of Roundhouse feel softer due to the brisk winds the last two days. Both the groomed slopes and the ungroomed slopes at Sherwood would rate four out of four on the corn scale. Although there’s a lot of traffic on the Sherwood groomed run in the morning, by 11:30 the place is empty. Skiing Sherwood Face all of the way to the farthest reaches of South Face, you can choose a line and call it your own. The beauty of corn season is that you can do it over and over and it’s still great.

For people looking for the winter snow experience, it’s been a rough couple of days. There’s a lot of shine coming off some of the north facing slopes these days and it is very firm. The groomed slopes are good early on and the cookies today were smaller, so there is that. Grooming has been a bit more limited lately. Today we noted that Ladies Slalom and Boomerang weren’t done the last two days, and they both make good routes for avoiding traffic on the main thoroughfares. Over at Sherwood, grooming is being reduced most likely to thin cover. Yesterday we noted a cat that was broken down below Sherwood Face. It looked like it had ingested some rocks. I also noted rocks reappearing on the main Sherwood Run where it crosses the summer road.

Over at Lakeview, things are getting very thin at the top of Outer Limits, Scotty’s Beam and Mountain View. I think those areas had a net loss of snow in the last storm. Hopefully the wind will be a bit kinder with this next storm.

Slightly Bigger & Shorter

The models have been trending with slightly higher snow totals for the weekend storm, and that trend has been consistent for most model runs. The start of the storm has been delayed, and the end of the storm somewhat curtailed. It now looks like about 36 hours of snow from late Friday through Saturday night. The latest GEFS model for total snowfall through Sunday is below. Putting the cursor near Alpine Meadows shows 26 inches of snow.

Looking at the point forecast for Alpine Meadows, which basically pulls from the NAM model, it shows a range of 26 to 42 inches of snow. I feel like the GFS, and the related NAM model, have been overdoing it this season. Whomever wrote the Winter Storm Warning for NOAA seems to think the same. It still mentions 1 to 2 feet of snow in the Sierra, with up to 3 feet on the highest peaks. Snow levels start around 6-7k on Friday afternoon and rapidly drop to around 4k feet for Saturday. That is good for skiing but bad for travel.

The winds may not be as active for this storm. Right now the winter storm warning only mentions winds to 45 mph. There is not the usual mention of higher winds over the Sierra ridges, and that is not something we have seen this winter. It might be nice to have some powder than is not wind packed. That said, the angle of the sun in the sky is now higher, so as soon as the sun comes out, that powder will be quickly cooked.

The second storm next week is still a bit uncertain. It’s there but it’s not a big one yet. What does look certain is that this cold snap looks to last through the end of March, or about 10 days. So if you have shifted to spring attire, you may be wanting to switch back. The GIF below is the temperature anomaly through the end of March. That is a lot of blue!

Simple Side Notes

• The official Palisades Tahoe blog did a really nice piece on Alpine Meadows ski instructor Chip Lambert. Lambert has been here for 57 years, or through about 92% of Alpine Meadows history. I high recommend reading the piece by blogger Kavita Aiyar. Then you’ll know all about Chip’s Challenge the next time you’re on Gunner’s Knob. You are a legend Chip!

• There’s some great opportunities for music coming up. I’m not talking about Winter Wondergrass. I would like to see Paul Cauthen, but not with the thousands that will attend WWG. I would love to sell you on some of the great music coming up on the Alpine Meadows Sun Deck, but there is still no listing of bands at Alpine Meadows this spring anywhere on the Palisades Tahoe site.

So I will tell you about an event being put on next weekend at the new Fox Cultural Hall in Kings Beach. If you have been around at UA for awhile, you know that my son is one of the producers responsible for the popular Lost Sierra Hoedown at the Johnsville Ski Bowl. While continuing to look for a new venue for the Lost Sierra Hoedown, several smaller shows are on the horizon. Mike Clark and The Sugar Sounds will be playing at the Fox Cultural Hall in KB on Saturday, March 30th from 8-11pm. Tickets for the show are still available at $25. The talented Rachel McElhiney of Reno will be joining the Sugar Sounds on saxophone and she is an amazing addition. So you know who you are hoedown people, come to the Hoedown At The Hall next week.