Fresh Tracks
Wind and snow fell most of yesterday finally
The Unofficial Alpine Meadows Ski Report
Produced by Andy Wertheim
Tahoe/Truckee Realtor
Email: andyw@sierra.net
Office website: www.tahoeriverfrontrealty.com
Hello skiers,
Wind and snow fell most of yesterday finally letting up in the early evening. I imagine we received about a foot of snow between Monday and Tuesday evening. The winds scoured the ridgelines leaving an icy surface on many exposed areas. A few mogul tops remain exposed and shine with rough ice, as do some upper elevation areas such as CB’s. The sun was shinning this morning over much of the area, however Ward Peak remained in a foggy cloud for a good portion of the morning hours. The wind driven snow was well compacted on many slopes, but very skiable. We made turns in fresh untracked on South Face, Yellow Trail, Standard Run, Scott Meadows, Expert Shortcut, and the lower section of Sun Bow in the High Traverse area. We tried CB chute, but found narrow streams of powder sitting between fields of rough ice. A group of snowboarders traversed across the upper section of CB’s continuing around the corner toward South Face in an effort to find snow. The sound emanating from their boards as they gently moved across the ice field reminded me of jets taking off and landing at a busy airport. I have never heard anything like it. I spotted part may down the run to watch them move across the ice and listened to the incredible sound coming from their collective boards. After negotiating the ice patches 1/3 of the way down CB’s, the snow turned back to soft, easy turning fun. We found good powder in the trees where the wind had not treated it to compaction. The trees at the top of Sherwood were delightful, as were the turns in Gentian Gully and Standard Run off Scott. Sympathy was just right, but God’s Knob was a quilt of ice. I had a lot of pleasant turns on Yellow Trail. We never really skied Summit today, but it looked just fine watching people dive into Idiot’s Delight or Upper Beaver Bowl. Today was a very good day. We just had to pick our runs with a little care. Of course, the groomed areas were very good.
Forecasters are giving various reports from the next couple of days from blizzard conditions with feet of snow to shower activity and not too much accumulation. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens next.
Here is another description of skiing from my pocket dictionary. Skiing: The art of catching cold and going broke while rapidly heading nowhere at great personal risk.
Enjoy your day. Andy
