Redemption Tuesday

In my last post on Sunday, I mentioned the hope for redemption on Tuesday a few times. We had a long three day weekend with a decent sized crowd of skiers and riders. Colder than average temperatures with a very chilly east wind confined just about everyone only to the groomed slopes. Redemption on Tuesday was expected to come in the form of far fewer people on the mountain, greatly increased temperatures and reduced winds. All of that would lead to spring conditions and off piste skiing that would be fun. And that is exactly what happened.

Yesterday, I was dressed in my warmest winter parka, and while the skiing was very good off of Roundhouse, it was really cold. That made me pretty line intolerant, leading to a short day. It was hard to notice the change in weather. Overnight at my house, temperatures dropped to 9°. Meanwhile, at our favorite mountain, Ward peak measured 37° when the lifts opened this morning, after wind chills around – 12° just yesterday morning. Yes, this was a different day thanks to a strong inversion.

We started our day on Summit, not having been on it yesterday. The grooming team continues to knock it out of the park. The only misses happened where the crews maybe went a shade narrower than the day before, leaving old untracked snow from yesterday. Most of the skiers in our morning group managed to accidentally make a turn too wide, finding that aged corduroy much more firm and unpleasant. It wasn’t long before we were running the routes that include the “Sherwood Test Runs”. These are places that have some southern exposure that usually mimic Sherwood conditions.

Our first lap at Sherwood was shortly after 10am and I wasted no time with Sherwood Run, craving some off piste snow that wouldn’t remove teeth. The ungroomed Robin Hood offered some smooth corn at first, but as you got further into the thermocline of colder temperatures near the bottom of the Sherwood lift, it got firmer and firmer. That did not stop us from diving right into Sherwood Face on the next lap, which offered smooth rounded bumps that were just beginning to soften. We spent about the next dozen laps on portions of Sherwood Face and South Face to make sure the spring skiing was as good as we thought. It was good enough that we kept right skiing right through the noon hour, knowing how terrible Verizon’s service would be for making parking reservations.

I managed to make both of my reservations on the chair between the top of Sherwood Face and the top station over Friars Tuck. Few people actually know that name. We usually just call it “stupid off camber shady mogul run”.

We ended our day testing Scott Ridge, Bobby’s, Standard and all of the Lakeview runs. We did some extra Beam Me Down Scotty’s because that is not going to make it all that much longer. Everything is really in fine spring form. Notably Scott Chute remained closed today. I did not test Gentian or the Promised land today…maybe tomorrow. Lastly the Summer Road off of Scott is currently a double black diamond run. That switchback turn between Ridge and Bobby’s is not for the feint of heart! I’ve been trying to think of a good name for that zone. In a good season, yes I would just go over the snow fence and short cut directly past that switchback, but new skis gotta stay new for just a bit at least! Those shortcuts are hazardous right now.

The corn is really shaping up for being mid January. On the south facing terrain, it still has some water in it. This causes it to be a bit clumpy. Fully ripened corn just scatters into small grains, keeping terrain smoother. We are not there yet. But it is good. We should continue to see these spring conditions through Friday. Fun skiing, but of course we worry about the future of the season if we are spring skiing now.

Storm Update

I use the term “storm” very loosely here. The weekend does not look great right now. That storm is still in the forecast, even in range of the automated point forecast, which still shows 1 to 2 inches possible. Keep in mind that portions of Florida got three inches of snow today and part of the Louisiana along the coast of the Gulf Of Mexico got up to 8 inches of snow. Tell me again that climate change is not a thing.

One change to note is that most of the different models are pushing this storm more into the southern Sierra, making it more likely that we will get a repeat of last weekend. That looks like a dry cold front that brings no snow, strong northeast winds and very low temperatures. As of today the point forecast shows weekend highs of 23 and 24 degrees with strong winds. Not exactly what we want. Those east winds could continue into the following week.

All I can do right now is really enjoy the heck out of the next few days. See you out there.