The Simplicity Of Skiing

It’s been 41 days since the end of the Alpine Meadows ski season. While I have been skiing at Palisades Tahoe a handful of times in the last month, there’s been a lot of other stuff going on. With the weather back into a more stable spring scenario, I dug out the ski gear once again and headed out for the corn harvest. I have got to say I have absolutely missed it, the simplicity of just getting up and going skiing every day.

That said, April and the first week of May have been wet and even a little snowy. There’s people out there on the internet saying that the Sierra has seen more snowfall in the last 5 weeks that in January, February and March combined. I have not seen the official stats yet to verify that claim. For the moment, it looks like we are possibly done with rain and snow for this season. Temperatures are expected to get into almost record territory over the next five days. The models show only a hint of another possible cut off low off the coast about 10 days out. It could provide some cooling.

All of that snowfall during the last month did not do much to add to the snowpack at Palisades Tahoe, but it did slow the rate of snowmelt. That has allowed Palisades Tahoe to stay open quite a bit longer than what people were thinking after a very warm and dry month of March. A closing date for Palisades has not been announced yet. Will they make it to Memorial Day? Shirley looks like a pretty solid bet right now. But Siberia and Gold Coast are getting thinner, especially near the loading areas. There was a huge snow farming effort above GoldCoast, probably last night, to fill in key areas of the mountain.

It’s clear they are trying very hard to keep things going. It’s tough to run just Shirley without Gold Coast to get you there. Then they have got to keep enough snow on the Shirley transfer road to get you there and on Ramp Run to get people back to the Funitel. It could happen, but with temperatures in the mid 60’s on the upper mountain and lows in the 40’s, the rate of snowmelt is going to really accelerate. It’s possible that they only get to the 17th.

The groomed runs were skiing great today until noon, with pretty much perfect corn conditions. Off piste, those few inches of new snow that fell this week are still stickier than whipped honey. Starting tomorrow, Palisades switches to spring hours, with lifts running from 8am until 2pm. That will be a welcome change, given the upcoming hot spell.

Skiing is fun, and given the simplicity of just going skiing, my new plan is just keep skiing every day. When you’re not just skiing, life throws many challenges your way.

We’ve been dealing with a sick Corgi the last few weeks. She’s going to be okay after three vet visits and a lot of antibiotics. Ka-ching! Our first camping trip of the season was somewhat of a bust, requiring a new radiator 200 miles away from home. Ka-ching! We did have a fantastic time on the beaches of Maui, with the exception of all sorts of delays and sitting on the tarmac in SFO, both going and coming back. Yes, just going skiing is way more simple.

Then again, if you are throwing kids in the car before dawn and driving to Tahoe on a Saturday morning, buying $7 a gallon gas, then dealing with rental equipment and an AirBnB…maybe it’s not so simple. I am very grateful to be where I am at.

The Spring Skiing Capital…

For this season, there is no doubt that Palisades Tahoe is the Spring Skiing Capital of the Tahoe. The mountain ops teams have been doing a fantastic job of keeping this season alive for the people that want to continue to slide on snow. To me, that is what it is all about. I don’t need a DJ blasting out tunes at the KT Base Bar. I don’t need to a pond skim, nor do I need to dress in a costume to enjoy a spring ski day. Having that Funitel to transport guests up to where the snow is at 8200′ and then back to the parking lot is gold in this day and age.

The relatively low base elevation of 6900′ at Alpine Meadows is going to become more and more of an issue as we face warmer temperatures in Tahoe. Here’s the current view at the base of Alpine Meadows:

There is pretty much no way that even massive amounts of snow making or snow farming could have kept Alpine Meadows open into May this season. That’s a sad fact of our changing climate. Hopefully we will see some big winters in our future that offer a stable snowpack that allows for a nice long season at Alpine Meadows. The pundits are still calling for an almost 100% chance of a strong El Niño next fall and heading into winter. While we are not sure what that means exactly just yet, I plan to take a dive into the statistics about previous El Niño years some time in the coming months.

The skis and gear are in the car for tomorrow…making it one step simpler than going today.