On The Hunt For Wind Buff

As promised, those strong and very chilly east winds arrived today in the Sierra. There were winds strong enough to close the Summit lift all day and the shiny boxes for most of the afternoon. The temperatures were brisk, which not only added to the wind chill factor, it kept a lot of the off piste terrain in a highly undesirable state. The general mantra on these sort of days is to “follow the wind” and look for those places where the snow is being smoothed out and new snow deposited. Depending on the direction of the wind, that location can vary.

About the time I left the house this morning, the wind speeds at Summit were dropping below 50mph, which is approximately the threshold for a wind closure when the wind is from the east. But as we neared the 9am hour, they ramped back up. The Summit lift started the day on wind hold and ended the day in the same state. So the first half dozen laps were off of Roundhouse, just figuring that things would be a bit crispy at Scott, Lakeview and Sherwood. Every groomer was firing during that first hour. It was just a matter of how much additional wind chill you were willing to tolerate when the base temperature was already a chilly 22°.

It only took a lap or two before I was looking for some off piste terrain with some bumps and wind buff to slow my pace down. After a very busy weekend, the areas with the bigger bumps were too big to be softened much by blowing snow. There were some lines on Rolls And Knolls that were worth repeating, but not all of them. I found better conditions between Ladies Slalom and Fall Line under Yellow chair. The unfortunate part was that the snow that filled in the upper parts had been stripped from the lower parts.

Around 10:30 we noted that ABC was opened to replace the Summit lift, so we continued the hunt. The temperature was 19° at the top, with the winds running at about 75mph. The resulting windchill was -5°. No new snow was being deposited anywhere in Alpine Bowl. The opposite thing was happening. Skiing would have been great on the other backside of Alpine Meadows, into the Granite Chief Wilderness. You should not go there as it is permanently closed, as the only way out is on foot escorted by Ski Patrol or Search and Rescue. There was a mandatory soup stop at Treats after a run through Alpine Bowl. Thanks Melanie!

Once the blood was flowing we continued the hunt for wind buff, heading over to Sherwood. Nope.

Onward to Lakeview, where theoretically the east wind could have brought snow from over the ridge into Outer Limits or Scotty’s Beam. That was absolutely not happening. In the lower elevations, whatever new snow there was got a bit cooked into place. There’s just not that much to blow around except at the higher elevations, where the snow is drier and the winds are higher. We did find a nice patch of blown in snow right near the bottom of Shooting Star. The trouble was you had to endure about a half mile of scraped smooth Outer Limits to get there.

On our way to the Scott Chair, I noticed that right along the edge of the trees in the Fast Lane that there was some delightfully soft turns. More likely this was a case of “not blown away” snow versus newly deposited snow. Scott Chute was closed, making Gentian Gully the last hope for today. Seemingly the wind could have picked up snow from Hemlock Bowl and blown it past the Broccoli Tree into Gentian Gully. Alas this was not the case. Gentian Gully was a seeming random mix of soft powder turns and frozen ruts that wanted to send you into a tree stump or branch. My lowered core temperature and frozen extremities at the time contributed to some really poorly executed skiing on that run.

It seemed like a good idea to end the hunt on that note. Hopefully the winds will abate enough to allow Summit to open tomorrow. The D Chutes and North Peril should have benefitted from the wind today. Yes I could have hiked there from ABC, but there’s always the possibility that Patrol had closed that terrain. Having to do any sort of rescue in below zero wind chill is not ideal.

This wind situation is really not all that big of a deal. A lift closure and cold temperatures are definitely first world problems. This same weather system is bringing the same very strong winds to southern California, where it is also as dry as a popcorn fart. The fire danger is in the exceptionally high area and multiple wild fires have started today. The largest of those is oddly coincidental in that it is named the “Palisades Fire.” At this time that fire is 1260 acres and has caused large scale evacuations and the loss of homes already. Unfortunately these winds will continue through the week.

Short Term Windy Outlook

The weather will still be excellent for kite flying this week as the parent low pressure system hangs around almost until Friday. The point forecast tries to bring temperatures up about 5-8 degrees and slightly reduces the winds over the next two days.

The Reno AFD (area forecast discussion) uses a more “blended guidance”, looking at all of the models. They are not as clear about losing the wind until Friday. The wind simply changes direction as a weak front moves to our north. We might get warm enough to soften the off piste terrain, but not warm enough for any corn development.

Longer Term Uncertainty

The models have been very flippity floppity in the longer term. Two days ago the models kept us in a ridge until day 10, then put us into a strong trough where we could see bigger storms. That all went out the window. The last three model runs I just looked at now call for the Saturday storm to again retrograde into southern California. This would bring us another east wind event next week. Then it puts us back into a more zonal flow again, that flow that brings us weaker and warmer storms. That is not an ideal pattern.

I would love to look back at the snowfall on a storm by storm basis for the season. I don’t think we have had a storm that has dropped more than 18″ of snow yet this season. This information used to always be on the Snowfall Tracker page at PalisadesTahoe.com. Sadly, it has not been updated at all this winter. I am not sure whether that is just a matter of someone new not knowing that was one of their duties; or is it something more sinister like the marketing department not wanting people to really know it has not been a great snow year (yet).

Hoping to find some wind buff tomorrow. My buddy says that hunt may take us to the other side of the shiny boxes. See you out there.

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Operation Baby Watch 2025 has concluded! I can tell you now that Dashel Blaze was born to my son Drew and his wife Lauren on January 3rd. That officially makes me a grandpa, which is no big deal as my middle school students started calling me that about 25 years ago. You may know Drew, who grew up on the Alpine Meadows Freestyle team and has coached freestyle and big mountain teams ever since then.