Alpine, Mammoth & Squaw: The Year of Skiing Marginally Continues

Switzerland: Fog and ice patches.
PNW: Depending on the day, but fog and ice patches also.

Tahoe: Drought!

Was at Alpine for the first time ever on Wednesday. It looked like this:

The terrain looks awesome; shame not to be able to ski it — it’s amazing that they’ve kept the place skiable at all I guess. The groomers were nice and satiny until 9:45 or so. Unfortunately there was really only one skiable run from the top (Alpine Bowl). By 11, Werners (the second photo) had gone from too-firm to pleasantly chalky, which was nice. And by 12:30 most of the snow was way too soft.

Visibility was absolutely fantastic, though, so that was a plus.

Then this was Mammoth:

Like, miles of this.

View at the mid-station.

 It started snowing on the 395 on the way back up to Reno — at least a trace fell on the road (!). Those playful tricksters at the CHiP decided to put out their Chains Required sign about 20 miles (I think?) north of Lee Vining. I actually saw someone turning around and going back. Haha, punk’d!, etc.

Finally, then, to close out my Tahoe-area skiing for the year, here are three photos from Squaw from 1/25:

• Beautiful light today. Should have brought my DSLR.
• Trees smelled great. Reminded me of that one part of Soarin’ Over California at Disney’s California Adventure (the part with the trees).
• I’ve ridden the Red Dog lift twice in my life now and both times it’s stopped with me dangling over the deepest part of the ravine. I don’t much care for that lift.

And now my Marginal Conditions Tour goes on hiatus until March when I’ll bring some combination of drought and fog with me to Utah and Jackson Hole. Maybe get some locust swarms and fiery rain too.

bkd