A Day for Fools

What happens when the sun shines too many day in a row? Skiers tire of repeating the same routine day after day. Do you know what I mean? We ski the same trails in a certain order because we are familiar with their conditions. The weather has been pretty consistent over the past couple of weeks. It is cool in the morning and then warming toward noon. This pattern indicates that the trails in the shade that held an edge the day before would most likely still have a firm winter surface the next day. Likewise, trails facing the sun would most likely soften as the early morning turns into mid-day. This morning it was sunny and beautiful once again, however trails facing good sun exposure remained solidly frozen into the early afternoon.

The Alpine Meadows trail crew has been making snow on Charity for the past couple of days in an effort to obtain enough manmade snow to allow grooming to occur on a second trail coming down from Roundhouse. This morning the guns were turned off, partially because the pond holding water for snow making turned up empty.

The crew seems to have made enough snow to allow a portion of Charity to be groomed, a blessing for those seeking a smooth non-mogul filled trail. There was one section of the trail that was not groomed. As you can see in the photo taken this morning, a small section of the trail was left in rough condition from the groomer. This area was made up of very firm frozen cat tracks. It was not meant for a skier’s use.

What does a fool who is tired of retracing the same trails over and over again do when his foolishness finds its way to the surface? He challenges himself to ski a ludicrous patch of snow. In addition, he agrees to allow a fellow skier to take his picture as he attempts to prove nothing of importance to himself.

My ski writing partner loves Sunspot. Perhaps it was something he ate earlier in the morning, but on his second or third run off the Summit Chair he decided it was time to ski Sunspot. A skier does not have to be a genius to see that it was frozen more firmly than the surface of a hockey rink. Tiptoeing through the frozen moguls, he was able to complete the foolish task, without falling. Upon completion of the task he indicated it was an 11 out of 10 on the Pucker Factor scale. Not to be outdone, I decided to give it a try about an hour later. Softness had not returned to Sunspot. Hard, icy, chunky, moguls remained in place attempting to trip me up so I might slide down the incredibly hard surface from top to bottom. Once again a fool met the challenge without having to put up with the embarrassment of falling in front of friends who may have been watching.

A normal person would think this idiocy would come to an end after two leg burning trips down icy trails, but “NO”, more were required to complete the day of foolishness. Another trail for normal people to avoid today was Kangaroo Ridge. This was not as steep as Sunspot, but no less difficult. Picking my way slowly over small mounds of ice surrounded by exposed rocks, tree tops, and other vegetation, with a tightly puckered up rear end, full filled my need for proof that I am an idiot. Of course that was not enough. One more frozen, jarring, episode for the day occurred as we fought our way down Chicken Leg.

For those of you who do not care to die sliding down a frozen mountainside, I would recommend the lovely groomed runs off TLC (Weasel), Summit (Alpine Bowl), and Roundhouse (Dance Floor, and Charity). If grooming is too easy for you, then firm, but not frozen trails are the best. D7 and D8 are filled with moguls, but they hold an edge. Werner’s Schuss, Palisades and others will test your ability and bring pain to your thighs.

Hopefully, the snow that is forecast, beginning tonight and continuing off and on into Monday, will fill the deep troughs between mounds of snow and recreate a soft smooth surface for us to enjoy for period of time. Hard slippery ice and bumpy disk crushing moguls, be gone!

Fun photo. Below is a fun photo of a patrol dog sitting on a snowmobile.

I am not the weatherman at Unofficial Alpine, but I can read the Palisades Tahoe snow forecast for the next couple of days. According to the app we may have up to 1 inch of snow tonight (Wednesday). Tomorrow 3 to 7 inches of snow is forecast for the daylight hours with an other 1 inch overnight. Friday, we may see 1 inch during the day and 1 to 2 inches overnight. Saturday is the big day. 6 to 10 inches are scheduled for the daylight hours and another 3 to 7 inches at night.  Sunday really is nothing as sun will be returning. Temperatures are not all that cold with tomorrow looking like it will be the coolest (High of 27). The other days will have highs in the low 30’s. The above is the forecast for the 8200 foot elevation. Perhaps there will be less snow at the lower elevations and more at the ridge within the Alpine Meadows terrain.

Enjoy your day,
Andy