Sugar, Corn and Hardpack

We have reached the end of one of the busier holiday weekends of the ski season, and frankly I am glad for that. I can imagine that the mountain ops staff is also glad for that. Although the mountain was not at full capacity, as in number of skiers, the amount of skiable terrain was significantly reduced. Each night the grooming team worked to push the tired snow back into place and create new corduroy, knowing it would be erased within an hour the next morning. Lift ops staff continually worked to rebuild the ramps at Sherwood, Lakeview and Scott, battling the continuing melt and sublimation of snow. Ski patrollers packaged sled after sled of skiers and riders that found moving obstacles on top of the snow or immovable obstacles under the snow. Hopefully the next few days will be a little less hectic.

Variable Conditions Required Your Attention

It’s not a time of year for lazily repeating the same run a dozen times. As nice as things may look covered in new corduroy each morning, those ribs get scrubbed off pretty quickly. The Summit lift opened at 8:45 and by 9:30, Sunspot and most of Alpine Bowl were reduced to a hardpack surface with loose mounds of sugary snow getting pushed around. The sugary snow never really turns into anything predictable like a mogul. Sugar snow has been used and abused, loosing all of the dendrites that help the snow hold any shape. That means it’s time to move on, looking for a secondary run that might still offer a little friction for edges.

Typically this is the point where I look to off piste areas, where things are less scraped down. But warm afternoons over the last few days have caused a lot of icy conditions when the overnight temperatures are below freezing. I tried off piste snow in Tower 19, Rolls and Knolls and Red Ridge and found them to be pretty icy in those morning hours. I saw and heard others struggling with ice on North Peril, Lower Idiots and a few other areas on the north facing side of the mountain. Few tried the off piste zones more than once or twice.

Hunting For Corn

We have had some good thaw and refreeze cycles the last two nights and that really accelerates the corn cycle. Corn is way more predictable, and therefore more fun than sugar snow. After doing some test runs on south-ish facing terrain off of Roundhouse we headed to Sherwood looking for softer conditions and corn right about 10am. That worked today. We found the Sherwood Groomer to be just getting good at that time. That said, “good” is in relation to corn development and offering that perfect level of softness.

On the bad side of things, the Sherwood Run is rapidly shrinking. The portion that is groomed is getting narrower as more and more rocks emerge. Even then there were still rocks to be found. Honestly, you want rocks skis there. Without more snow in the forecast, grooming the Sherwood Run is going to become impossible pretty soon, at least without destroying snowcats. Sometimes Sherwood will remain open in a more wild state for a return route from High Traverse or South Face. Generally the plug gets pulled if Ski Patrol cannot get a sled out of Sherwood with an injured person. No telling how soon that will be…

One run on the groomed run was enough for me. I subsequently checked out Robin Hood, Sherwood Left Face and the Sherwood Face, where the corn is getting very close to very good. Our first two runs were still a bit crispy, but as the chunks from yesterday broke down, the Face skied well. As the corn ripens we should see fewer chunky leftovers. Rocks are a problem on the face too. You should definitely scope out your line from the chair, then still ski with care to avoid rocks.

Lakeview was a more popular option today, as the coverage on Outer Limits and Mountain View is far better than at Sherwood. Truth be told, Lakeview probably had the longest lines of the day, at about 5-6 minutes, at least on one side. If you timed it right, you could get some very nice soft runs. The corn is not quite as developed as Lakeview has a more western exposure. As an example, an afternoon run down Scotty’s beam was awful. Andy said “It wasn’t in the Top 40”. I corrected him and said “It was not in the top 100.” There’s only 109 named runs at Alpine Meadows. Also, the “Worm Hole” shortcut from Scotty’s to Outer Limits is just about burnt out at the end. Yeah, we need snow.

We caught Bobbys, Ridge and Standard around 1 pm this afternoon. Coverage is getting thin there too, but I will still call Bobby’s “run of the day”. Standard Run, in comparison was substandard.

Here’s the current Corn-O-Meter ratings:

Do keep in mind that there’s a lot of variability out there. The angle of the sun in the sky is still fairly low. Because of that we see more variability due to aspects and angles that we see in the typical spring corn season. Then there’s the thin coverage factor. The places that should offer the best corn also likely have the thinnest coverage. Chase corn with care.

Don’t look at any weather forecasts right now. There’s nothing, zip, nada in the 16 day runs. The best I can say that slightly cooler day time temperatures and overnight freezes this week will betterize the corn harvest. That said clouds could be a problem Wednesday and Thursday, keeping the off piste crispy.

Skiing and riding is fun. Today was day 41 of my season. I am not quitting yet. See you out there.