Harvest Time

It’s time to harvest the corn…again. We had a great corn cycle in January and here we are again. Over the last few days we have been doing the difficult transition from winter conditions to spring conditions. But on many aspects of the mountain the corn is really awesome now. That said, if you’re not into the spring corn, and instead prefer winter snow, you’re going to be pretty disappointed in your hunt for winter snow.

I had to make a temporary new hybrid meter to explain current conditions. It came out sort of sloppy, as I’m a bit late in starting this report. Here it is, with a corn rating and an ice rating:

We did just a few runs off of Summit this morning. Honestly every one of those was just seeking out those “Sherwood Test” patches of snow that can give you a clue when it’s starting to soften over there, without actually going to Sherwood. It took one Summit run longer today due to colder overnight temperatures leading to a harder freeze. (Four was the number today)

As we headed up Hotter Wheels toward Sherwood, we noted the very firm icy conditions in the north and north-ish facing aspects. Art’s Knob, Hidden Knolls and High Yellow had a shiny glare that almost made you think they had waxed the snow to make it faster. It still looked the same in the afternoon hours.

The groomed trails (Sherwood, Maid Marian and Robin Hood) all were perfect corn today, hence the four corn rating. The off piste terrain at Sherwood was a little bit more variable, resulting in the three corn rating. It had to do with how well skied in the snow was. Sherwood Face was at four corns once enough people had skied away the ruts and chunder left from yesterday’s stiff slush. I convinced a half dozen people to ski out Chute Zero with me and by a half dozen runs, it also was skiing very well.

Looking out toward South Face, the well skied lines were doing well. The lesser skied lines needed more traffic. So pick your line and work it! My buddy Randy also mentioned that much of High Traverse has gotten corny, but it was very aspect dependent. Reports from yesterday is that it also was elevation dependent. I probably need to explore that tomorrow.

When Does Winter Return?

Right now it looks like we get four more days of spring before we see a significant possibility of storms. The Thursday system appears to be a bust, right now showing only a 10% chance of snow showers. We will see bit of east wind over the next couple of days. But temperatures look to remain spring like.

Then snow showers potentially return Saturday night. I mentioned two days ago that it looks like we drop into a zonal flow, which typically only delivers weaker storms. What that currently looks like is day after day of small refreshes of snow, but not any major powder dumps. I did the GIF below differently. Instead of showing total expected snowfall through the 16 day forecast, it instead shows snowfall over a 24 hour period through the next 16 days. It’s not detailed or certain enough to plan for a powder day, but it’s here to show you there is nothing big, just a series of days where we could see 3 to 4 inches each day.

You would think that might add up to something but we are talking the month of March, where it’s difficult to really build much more snowpack without a major dump. Typically we get a few inches and it’s gone the next day. We will look for that bigger storm, but it’s not there yet.

New Maps In The Palisades Tahoe App

My buddy Mark_The_Skibum pointed out the new maps that are a part of the latest release of the Palisades Tahoe app. I never look at the maps on the app so I had not noticed. The old maps were basically static 2D maps with little detail. The new maps are 3Dish and allow you to spin to a different perspective and zoom in to get a better perspective of what things really look like. There’s also a deeper level of labelling as you zoom in. It’s not perfect yet but the developers are seeking feedback.

Unfortunately this new map is only available in the app, not on the Palisades Tahoe website. I would love to see it in a bigger version where you can really play around with it.

A Two Sport Day

We finished out our day with a bike ride out across Martis Valley. That should not be possible in late February, but here we are. You may as well embrace what you have. We saw a few other bikes and a number of dog walkers enjoying the 50° temperature.

See you out there tomorrow for more corn harvesting.