The sacrifices you make for the good of the group...
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California/Nevada 2016-17 Tahoe Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups Thread....
- Thread starter Jed Peters
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Wait, did I shave my legs for this?
Ok, if I do make it to Rose, I will hang out with @Bobalooski . He cares
NEXT WEEK..I promise...Wait, did I shave my legs for this?
Ok, if I do make it to Rose, I will hang out with @Bobalooski . He cares
Al's blog mentioned Pali's terrain has reopened and that the lift will be open the next 3 days. That should make up for most of that terrain being closed last weekend.
Yeah, there is a cold front that will stay a day or two, then you are on your ownMy rule of thumb is 50F / 10C, That's where it gets funky. Rather, when temps clearly cross that boundary. Oh well, such a Blessing to have ANY snow at this time of the year. AN hour is an hour. My biggest issue is driving 7 hours or 8, if I will perhaps ski 2. It does make it a tough decision ...
Ok, I hate to quote myself, but I just checked. The hourly whether forecast is for temps to be at that level at 9am. Ouch! Not great, but I thought I would share in case it helps others in planning.
Leo, this morning the face runs on the Rose side stayed reasonably firm till after 10. I was skiing them quite happily on a 190/35 GS ski. Skiers left of KC also held a reasonable surface
Actually most of the terrain was open everyday through Mother's day for (at least) part of the day.
Pali wasn't fully closed until afternoon on Sunday.
@SBrown and I hiked from the Cornice to Pali but opted to ski Slalom Slope instead because the snow was sooooo good and no one was going there. In fact, several people in our group skied Pali through Sunday.
I'm betting East wall below the traverse and land of the giants skied great today.
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Is this a CA or CO forum?
Skied Rose until 2 pm today after skiing Squaw until 3:30 yesterday. Did 10 laps into Chutes and set off some small, slow moving sluffs in PM that ran for a while.
Rode chair with patrol director, who said his legacy is opening Chutes 13 years ago. He expects Sat to be Chutes last day as a (light) freeze predicted for Fri night, then no freeze until after Memorial Day.
Skied Rose until 2 pm today after skiing Squaw until 3:30 yesterday. Did 10 laps into Chutes and set off some small, slow moving sluffs in PM that ran for a while.
Rode chair with patrol director, who said his legacy is opening Chutes 13 years ago. He expects Sat to be Chutes last day as a (light) freeze predicted for Fri night, then no freeze until after Memorial Day.
Interesting. That doesn't stop the steeps at the top of Mammoth from opening. I would think the Chutes would have a similar stable coastal snowpack. Sustained warm weather just backs up the closing hour at Mammoth.
Hope to be at Rose on Sunday for a few AM runs.
Maybe it's that most of the steeps at top of Mammoth are over 1,000' higher than top of Rose and will have some freezing even when lower or mid part of mountain is above freezing. Or could it be that Chutes have longer sustained steeps that become more dangerous without freezing?
Closing earlier in day also would help as I did not see the snow moving until afternoon. The sluffs were very small and slow moving, like rivers of snow flowing between the bumps. Most of them I knew I started, but there were a couple that I was not sure about.
I have skied Hangman's as late as July 2. I have been told by some snow safety people (not at Mammoth) that very deep snowpacks have a subfreezing core well below freezing that stabilizes the snow. One evidence of this is the natural pond skimming I did at Mammoth in 1982 and 1991. This implies solid ice in the snowpack that prevents meltwater from percolating through and leaves it on the surface as a pond. These were big ponds, 30+ feet across and waist deep if you fell in. Here's a large surface pond on the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina in Nov. 2011:
The same snow safety sources describe an isothermic snowpack as being 32F from the surface to the ground, typically 3 feet or less deep. Isothermic snowpacks are considering dangerous and subject to sudden collapse. Patrol at Mammoth will definitely close selected runs up top as the snowpack thins. But the most wide open areas with deepest snowpacks, notably Climax and Cornice, always stay open to the closing date in my observation over the past 40 years.
One factor with the Mt. Rose Chutes may be that they are forested. In winter trees protect the snow from sun and preserve powder/packed powder conditions. By May the impact of trees upon snowpack is negative. They transmit heat into the ground. You will often see snow melted out in a circle at the base of trees when snowpack remains farther away. Rocks show this heat transmission effect even more. You will see the bare ground expand rapidly from the larger exposed rocks near the Wipe Outs, Monument, Paranoids, etc. in June/July. But the big bowls Cornice and Climax where the rocks are most deeply buried hold up the longest.
The overnight low at top of Squaw Friday night was in the mid-40s so I may have gotten the last two good (or long) lift-served days of May skiing at Tahoe. Rose's patrol director was expecting overnight low of 33 which he said was low enough for snow to firm up. This morning Rose says "Chutes are open with selected gates."
I noticed a lot of discolored snow in Chutes on Friday which I think mostly came from trees. At Squaw, there were many openings in snow below and around rocks. Some of them were marked, but many had grown way past where they had poles.
I noticed a lot of discolored snow in Chutes on Friday which I think mostly came from trees. At Squaw, there were many openings in snow below and around rocks. Some of them were marked, but many had grown way past where they had poles.
At Squaw today. My daughter is in their U16 GS camp on Sat/Sun. The race kids and coaches load up the Funitel at 8:00am. General public started at 9:00am as usual. Her camp went on till 12:30pm.
We stopped skiing around 1:45pm. Didn't feel it getting grabby yet. Definitely no overnight freeze. Even the first runs were soft, but everything held up surprisingly well. Pretty hot day too.
Palisades were open. So my wife and I spent some quality gaper time in the area
We stopped skiing around 1:45pm. Didn't feel it getting grabby yet. Definitely no overnight freeze. Even the first runs were soft, but everything held up surprisingly well. Pretty hot day too.
Palisades were open. So my wife and I spent some quality gaper time in the area
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Andy Mink
Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Andy Mink
Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Rose skied really well today. Was kind of surprised!
How late did it ski well?
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