It was a strange day at Alpine Meadows this morning. Sunshine poked through a cloudy sky occasionally. One minute the light would go flat, the sky was gray, creating difficult visibility, and a cool feeling in the air. The next minute sunshine brightened slopes up, increasing visibility, putting a smile on my face, and allowing for easier manipulation through a layer of new snow that had fallen overnight. The layer of new snow was thin, but it allowed me to make turns in soft snow between moguls or on a very low angle slope.
The best conditions that included very nice winter pack were on north facing slopes that had not received warm sunshine the day before. We did not really venture off main trails or tour Low Beaver or hike to the Keyhole Slopes, however we did enjoy Sympathy, D7, Palisades, Medium Yellow Face, and Gentian Gully. These offered soft snow, although some places had rather large moguls.
We did try to make some turns on untracked snow in Scott Meadows, but the surface was soft enough to enjoy as if it was powder. Instead, the surface was slightly breakable making turning somewhat difficult. We took a turn down Sherwood, but it was still a little firm. South facing slopes received sun yesterday, softening into spring snow and then firming up overnight. These runs may have gotten better in the afternoon as the variable sun exposure occurring during the day softened the surface.
Although I did not venture to Low Beaver, it was open. I watched a number of people coming out of Low Beaver and skiing down from the top of The Sisters; however, it was difficult to tell how much they were enjoying the surface condition. Some of them looked very good making plenty of turns and others seemed to be having issues making turns.
The Tahoe Race League was having a race on Outer Limits off the Lakeview Chair. We saw the course, but we did not hang around watching the racers.
Long and the short of the portion of the day that we skied was that the groomed runs were very nice first thing in the morning (soft corduroy) and the north facing slopes were in good winter condition, but the south facing slopes were not the best.
The featured photo was taken from Subway Chair of Promised Lane yesterday.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
I did quite a bit of traversing/hiking today and am not sure it was worth it. Lower beaver was crusty by the time I got to it around noon and a south aspect that opened today where I managed to get fresh tracks wasn’t that memorable either.
The saying goes “If you don’t like the weather in the Sierra, just wait 15 minutes” Today the weather changed every 15 seconds. Variable visibility was the challenge of the day.