A day on the slopes

Dec. 26 2011

Rather than sitting around waiting for snow, we decided to spend Christmas morning on the snow, or what passes for it these days in Tahoe. We spent the morning at Sugar Bowl.

We bought discount tickets at REI — for $68. That is still a steep price to pay for mostly manmade snow — and with less than half the mountain’s groomed runs open. But it was Christmas, and we wanted to try out some new gear before hitting the backcountry, so we swallowed hard and forked over the cash.

We started the day on Jerome hill out of the Judah Lodge, and it wasn’t bad. The groomed runs were completely covered. I saw one tiny twig sticking up on one run. And there were a few loose pebbles here and there that had probably been kicked up by the grooming machines. But really, these runs skied the same in these conditions as they would have with 10 feet of snow on either side of them. We skied two runs around Jerome hill and two more that we could reach from there via a short path over to the Judah area and the Switching Yard terrain park. The park even had a jump or two and several features set up. There was almost nobody there.

Next we headed over to the Lincoln Chair and spent the rest of the morning doing laps there. The top was kind of sketchy. To get to the good snow you had to navigate a path to the right toward Silver Belt and then do a U-turn and come back along a path under the chair. Or you could go left off the chair and then down toward California street. That wind blown route included the rockiest section we suffered all day, and both of us were left with a nice little gouge on the bottom of our skies.

Once through that unpleasantness, though, we enjoyed the long, intermediate runs to the bottom. With so few skiers there, we were able to open and it up and ski as fast as we liked. And there were no lines.

We skied through lunch and by 1 p.m. we were getting a little bored, and our quads were starting to burn from all the laps we had done on our first day on skies this year. So we called it a day and headed home.

It was better skiing than I expected, even with a few rocks at the top of Lincoln.

I still thought the price was a little high. But at least it kept the crowds away.

Outlook: dry through New Years

Dec. 26 2011

Tahoe continues to bask in record and near-record high temperatures as we head into the week between Christmas and New Years, traditionally the busiest time of the year for the mountain ski resorts.

And not much is going to change any time soon.

The coming week will see the approach of several storm systems toward the west coast, but as of now, all of the forecast models show these waves of moisture coming inland over Washington, Oregon and far Northern California. The southern edge of the jet stream will drift down toward the Northern Sierra, bringing us some windy days and nights and a bit of cloud cover as each system passes by. But none of them appear likely to drop any measurable precipitation on Tahoe’s slopes.

There is always the chance that the southern boundary of this track of storms could slip a little further south and reach Tahoe. But that’s not the way it’s looking right now.

There is nothing significant for us in the forecast at least until New Years Day.

Stay tuned for updates as conditions change.

Next week’s storms looking weak, warm

Dec. 24 2011

Bah Humbug.

The weather news for Tahoe is going from bad to worse, folks.

The pattern change we were hoping for by the middle of next week is indeed going to happen. But for now it looks as if all it will mean for the Tahoe Basin is some clouds and a few showers, warmer temperatures and, possibly, rain.

A trough developing in the Pacific Northwest is expected to send several waves of moisture south beginning around Tuesday and extending through the end of next week. But as of now each of these waves is forecast to break apart as they approach Northern California. The cloud cover and warm air advection ahead of the storm systems will mean warmer temperatures for Tahoe than we have seen over the past week. But the storms themselves will not be strong enough to bring temperatures — and snow levels — back down. If we do get precipitation, it is expected to be light, with snow levels around or above 7,000 feet.

So we could be going from no weather to nuisance weather.

The only good news in all of this is that we are going to get a little bit of moisture, or at least we will be getting it nearby. The high pressure that’s been blocking our normal storm pattern for weeks is beginning to shift. And once that storm door opens, it could mean some bigger, colder storms down the road.

For now, though, the first storm systems through that door will not do anything to put a dent in our early-season snow deficit.

Stay tuned for updates as the forecast changes.

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