Spring Snow?

Not every moment of every day is about skiing. The evening sky was a beautiful pink color as the sun dropped down below the horizon, and a few thin clouds hung around before darkness took over. I should have snapped a photo of the moon that followed the pink sky. I do not remember ever seeing a brighter or a more round full moon moving through our night sky, than the one I witnessed last night.

Sky is not all that is worthy of a picture in our area. The photo below, of the Truckee River, between Alpine Meadows and Olympic Valley, seemed worthy of a photo as we walked along its banks late this afternoon.

My body did not seem overheated on the mountain this morning. However, temperatures appeared to be a good deal warmer than those we experienced yesterday. Today was another day of clear blue sky and bright sunshine at Alpine Meadows. Summit Chair was on windhold, and Sherwood Chair was on Mechanical Hold, but the rest of the mountain was open. Grooming was once again excellent, allowing one to make wide sweeping turns on a smooth corduroy surface. Skis easily held an edge the well groomed corduroy. Of course, the morning surface was somewhat firm, but as the day moved along the surface softened into more of a spring-like topping. Bobby’s trail was spring-like in the early afternoon. We traversed across Alpine Bowl from the top of Alpine Bowl Chair to make tracks on the less skied groomed slopes of Sunspot and D8, as well as Wolverine. I enjoyed the same sweeping turns, with some speed at times, on Bobby’s, Ridge, Standard, Outer Limits, and Mountain View reached from Lakeview and Scott Chairs.

Wolverine Bowl with just a few tracks on the smooth groomed slope

One reason for sticking to the smooth slopes this morning was the fact that I was skiing with my son, and my relatively new sixteen year old step grandson. I was blown away with my step grandson’s ability, or should I say lack of fear, today. He has had 5 ski lessons at the Tahoe Donner Ski Area. He is not skiing like a professional, but we skied every groomed run at Alpine with the exception of Sherwood, because it was closed. After skiing Alpine they went to Palisades and skied most lifts including the grooms run off Granite Chief. I thought that was quite an accomplishment.

After all those groomed runs, I needed a little variety before hanging the skis up for the day. Without mentioning the name of the trail that we skied, because some people want to keep certain areas out of the public domain, I can report that there are still slopes with more winter snowpack than ice. These are slopes with moguls, some of them well forested, and others wider and more open. They were enjoyable to me.

I am actually hoping that the warmer weather we may have over the next few days will soften the south facing slopes and turn them into spring corn.

By the way, Sherwood and Summit opened later in the afternoon. Hopefully the mechanical issues at Sherwood were resolved, and winds will not be as high tomorrow allowing Summit to spin for the entire day.

Enjoy your day,
Andy