I Lowered My Expectations And It Worked!

Honestly, I set my expectations low today. You probably read that in my last post. This time of year, it generally gets pretty warm the day after a storm, causing new snow to feel heavy and sticky. But the previous low took its time moving out of the area, meaning we saw a whole lot of northeast winds today, and much more cloud cover than expected. With much cooler temperatures and the cloud cover, the north facing parts of the mountain retained that winter feeling pretty much all day.

I was underdressed for the day. Someday I will learn, but things were busy at home this morning and I never even looked at the weather. So heading up Summit for that first lap, I found out that the temperature was 16°. Combined with the northeast winds gusting around 35mph, the windchill was -5°. Dermabrasion was set to high this morning and it was tough to make my way back toward Sunspot. I bypassed Tower 19, as there was a considerable amount of sastrugi indicating the snow was very wind affected. Instead I headed toward the sheltered aspect of Solar Flare, which offered soft winter snow over reasonably soft bumps.

The retreat was made to Roundhouse, where pretty much everything was skiing just great in the morning hours. We sampled a lot. Scott was a bit more mixed. Sun protected areas in the trees skied pretty well with about 2-3 inches of snow since we were there yesterday. Scott Chute still sounded scratchy, with the exception of the far skiers left edge. Then a heavy bank of wrap around clouds came through, which turned the light flat. It seemed like a good time for lunch.

After lunch, we returned to Summit, where the winds were still firing. The temperatures did rise to a level that was a better match for a light jacket. D8 was oh so perfect, not groomed but with nice fluffy soft bumps. That continued right on down Blue to Sandy’s Corner. That could be my favorite run today. I gave Solar Flare a go in the afternoon, and the snow had been cooked by that time, as Solar Flare gets a lot of sun.

I never went to either Lakeview or Sherwood today. All of the “Sherwood analog” runs on the front of the mountain all exhibited sun damage. With the winter conditions so good off of Summit, Roundhouse and parts of Scott, there was just no reason go south.

A Busy Warm Weekend Ahead

It promises to be a fairly busy weekend ahead. The upper lots at Alpine Meadows almost filled today. There was an unfortunate traffic accident on 89 that probably made people opt for Palisades Tahoe instead. Highway 89 was busy with inbound traffic this afternoon. “Free” parking reservations are sold out for the weekend. The one thing that we have going for us is that many spring sport seasons are now underway and that prevents some families from continuing their ski season.

The temps still look to climb into the mid 40’s so it’s reasonable to assume that many slopes will get that heavy feeling or sticky feeling at midday.

March Miracle Or One Good Storm?

We have mixed news in the weather forecast department. Earlier in the week, it was looking like we might see a distinct pattern change that would really open the storm door. Looking at things today, that does not seem to be the case anymore. Not all is lost, the “big one” one is still out there. Here’s the details:

Monday & Tuesday: This storm has basically vaporized. It’s headed much farther south and basically will add no snow to our forecast. It’s possible we could see more north winds on these days along with a bit of cloud cover.

Wednesday & Thursday: This is the “big one” and by that it’s relatively big compared to what we have seen lately. When it gets down to it, it’s a normal average Gulf of Alaska based low. The GIF below shows the last 13 runs of the GEFS for total snowfall through Friday morning. Overall there is a little less stability in forecast amounts. The second trend to note is that the latest runs show a bit of narrowing of that orange band, indicating somewhat higher snow levels. Snow levels will start near 5500-6000 feet before lowering to about 4000 feet Thursday. So it’s the lower elevations that will see less snow. As of now, most of the snowfall will happen late Tuesday night into Wednesday, then taper on Thursday. Winds will likely affect lift operations on Wednesday.

Also, keeping myself honest, I looked for comparison at the Canadian ensembles for a few runs. The Canadian models keep this storm farther south, and that would be a disappointment. The latest run would put Alpine Meadows right at the northern edge of the storm, where snow fall could vary from 7 to 27 inches of snow. There’s a time in the future where we might be relying only on the Canadian models due to idiotic budget cuts to pay for yachts and private ski areas for billionaires…don’t get me started.

Farther out: It’s looking more like a “one and done” storm rather than a series of storms. If that happens, it will be a disappointment. It should not be a surprise though as this has been a season of disappointing storms.

I am not setting myself up for disappointment. One of my readers disagrees, often vehemently, but we are not in control of the weather. I loved today’s winter snow and cut up powder, but I also love spring corn. I am just happy to be sliding on snow each and every day until someone declares we are done. See you out there tomorrow.