Wet and Deep
Wednesday morning it was raining and/or snowing very wet, large flakes.
The Unofficial Alpine Meadows Ski Report
Produced by Andy Wertheim
Tahoe/Truckee Realtor
email: andyw@sierra.net
Our real estate website: www.tahoeriverfrontrealty.com
Hello skiers,
Wednesday morning it was raining and/or snowing very wet, large flakes. This continued into the late morning or early afternoon. I did not ski Wednesday but reports from those who did venture onto the mountain ranged from pretty good on the upper slopes to terrible on the lower slopes. One friend took a couple of runs on his snow board off the Roundhouse chair and gave up claiming the snow to be so sticky at the bottom that he had to take the board off to get back to the lower lift station. Another skier claimed D7 to be good, but Our Father to be crap. Still another telemark skiers said it was not bad until 1 in the afternoon when he just gave up after taking a header off Scott Chair in deep mush. This morning I had to hit the hill as the sun was shining for the first time in days. Winds were non-existent, and the air temperature was in the upper 30's at the opening. Looking up the mountain was a beautiful site, as Beaver Bowl, Estelle and the High Traverse had not been skied the day before. Smooth fields of snow stood ready to be skied by the small group of people waiting in line at the base of Summit Chair. A ski patrolman walked up to the status sign and began writing closed next to most of the runs. I inquired as to the reason for closing everything but the main runs. He response was a simple, “the skiing is horrible off piste”. As it turns out, the overnight temperatures were above freezing and the off piste areas consisted of deep, soft, mush. Skiing off piste was not an option this morning. We did ski the groomed runs off Summit and Sherwood. These were actually pretty good as the snow was already soft at the opening and well groomed. I ventured off the groomed runs and skied D7, Sunspot, The Face, and one run on South Face at Sherwood. The snow was soft, and turns were possible with a little lift in the middle of each turn, but the piles of snow left from the day before were mentally disturbing making the skiing more difficult. The snow on South Face was soft, cut-up, and deep around 10:00 o’clock. The Sherwood Run was getting sticky. We need a few sunny days with freezing overnight temperatures to turn the snow on the mountain from Sierra cement to spring corn. The weekend forecast does not look as if it will be much assistance in this matter as rain is predicted for Friday to the 7500 foot elevation and snow should fall Saturday and Sunday. The warm sun certainly feels good today.
Enjoy your day. Andy
