We Are Skiing

Yes, there were more east winds today and the Summit chair never opened because of that. But we are skiing. We are not in Southern California watching an evolving wildfire catastrophe. We are not waiting to see whether a bomb drops in our neighborhood tonight. We are not wondering where our next meal will come from and if we can find a warm place to sleep tonight. We are skiing and for that I am grateful.

It’s possible that six or seven months into the future that we will be the ones abandoning our cars in the middle of Highway 89, as it seems the only way to escape the approaching flames. Thank you snow for offering us some protection.

Relative to the last two days, the temperatures were slightly warmer and the winds only slightly stronger. The groomed slopes again offered A+ conditions in the morning hours. As the day progressed, some off piste terrain began softening. That gave us a chance to tackle some places on the mountain that allowed you to escape the busy groomed runs and do some skiing and riding that offered more of a challenge. We never left Roundhouse before lunch as there’s my own rule of “Don’t leave good snow looking for better snow”. It’s a rule that works when we are a week out from the last snowfall.

As the sun got a bit more behind Ward Peak and the shadows got longer, the snow off of Roundhouse started crisping up. That sent us to the sunnier slopes of Sherwood, Lakeview and Scott. We managed to find slopes that were softening and even starting to look like QuasiCorn. Here’s the rating:

For Friday, the temperatures are about 5° higher as the wind makes a temporary shift to a west wind. That should make much more of the mountain softer for skiing tomorrow and some of it may be pretty nice. We skied some decent springish QuasiCorn on Maid Robin Tucks, Scotty’s Beam, Bobby’s and Standard Run today. In general, the more skied in snow was better that snow that had not been skied much. There’s a pretty good chance that lesser travelled areas could be a bit manky or sticky tomorrow.

For Saturday and Sunday, the winds return to the north and east, bringing temperatures down about 10°. That will not be ideal after warmer temperatures on Friday. Odds are pretty good that most of the weekend traffic will want to be staying on groomed terrain this weekend as things firm up again. That’s a bit frightening as parking reservations are sold out for the weekend.

Because last week was pretty good, or maybe “super good”, there are people out there still looking for powder stashes. I would almost guarantee you that you, your brother in law that skis all of the time, or the guy that rented you his AirBnB for the weekend will not be able to lead you to a powder stash this weekend greater than two or three linked turns. But every day this week, I have overheard people that believe it’s out there and us “angry locals” won’t tell them about it.

I asked an AI robot what the ski slopes might look like in Tahoe this weekend and here’s the picture it created:

Looking at the next 10 days or so, the models show some very odd dynamics. The last three runs have been consistent on showing a couple of inside slider systems before there’s a wackadoodle system that sneaks into SoCal and strengthens into a very unwinterlike system. I don’t really want to see how that plays out, so I am rooting for a model change.

Tomorrow marks day 50 of the Alpine Meadows season and we have not seen a negative PNA since Thanksgiving Day. This is not the hallmark of an epic ski season. Yet we are skiing, and I am grateful.

Here’s the total snowfall expectation for the next 16 days (consistent over the last four model runs):

We are skiing. Just remember that mantra.