Posted by Big Al on April 28, 2010 under The Weekly Deal | 
The Squaw Snow Phone (530.583.6955×1) says we got 7 inches overnight and 16″ since yesterday morning. KT is open until the bitter end. Other than that it’s Granite Chief and your hiking boots. I can hear avy bombs from the house, and although the Weather Service isn’t expecting much today the dopplar looks crazy-good for this to continue and poop for a while. We shall see. These Springtime gifts are hard to predict – and it’s kind of nice just sitting back and watching. As some guy said, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…”
Speaking of wind, the image below is from yesterday – you can see how strong the storm blew in. Some of us caught a few waves in Tahoe Vista; sectiony and longish rides. My buddy (who’s ‘top brass’ at Ski Corp) rode his last one all the way to shore.
4/17/10 Lake Tahoe Wave Heights
Posted by Big Al on April 14, 2010 under The Weekly Deal |
Heaven, Not Dearth
Tuesday was one of those days. If you’ve been in the Valley on a perfect morning you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t…suffice it to say that the place is its own heaven – both aesthetically and physically – for everyone here. On the drive in, the Valley view opens up wider and wider with prominent peaks like Tram Face, Headwall and KT-22 jutting skyward. As you adventure to different parts of the mountain new and incredible vistas are laid out in front of you. Clouds march through the many smaller valleys like Indians paddling up the Lake. From the chairs you see tracks from all the various critters who call this home (last spring there was a marmot and her baby watching the human zoo near the hot tub). Then there’s the not-too-natural stuff that rounds any perfect morning at Squaw. Booting up you get some thrasher metal from that pick-up; a bit of Grateful Dead from that van; if you’re lucky there’s a little Michael Jackson coming from somewhere! Then the sweet bass of avalanche bombs going off and rumbling around the entire valley. Greeting a couple friends and chatting with strangers in the lot. Then the internal chess game of deciding which of the six (yes, six) lifts to start your ski day from. It’s a festival every time and, man, it’s great to have this happening in April!!!!
Posted by Big Al on April 13, 2010 under The Weekly Deal |
April (and Ski Corp) just keeps on giving… We heard that Silvy was done for the year – that those windy, blown-back-onto-the-chair offloads Sunday afternoon were the Swan Song. But bright and early, the Snow Phone announced that she was a go. After my first lap in there, Patroller Sean joked that there were more people skiing the Chimney Sweep than there were skiing in all of Silverado. It was one of those magical days. No one here, over a foot of perfectly-settled late-season pow. And once again, although it felt bluebird there was still enough cloud cover to keep things skiing great way longer than they should be this time of year. It was another one of those days when I skied by the Blue House and shouted: “THAAAAANKS ALLLLEX!!!!” And now for the eye candy…
Chimney Sweep right before Rush Hour
Ahhh, a little wind in the hair on the morning commute...Chimney Sweep again
Mainline getting Pocketed yet ever so slowly
Cornice II looking as good as it gets in a typical February
Kima's Paw in Silverado: Meeeeyow!
Granite Peak just getting blasted
I don’t want to overdue how overdone the Chimney Sweep was today but I met a snowboarder on Headwall who rode it for the first time today. I happened to snap him in the crux:
Nice work. You can now wear a 'brah'
Posted by Big Al on April 2, 2010 under The Weekly Deal |
So in case you’re wondering what’s going on…Join the Club! Some Tahoe weather geeks mentioned that ‘a big northerly storm’ might dip south enough to hit us and thankfully they were right.
Headwall setting up
This thing blew in Tuesday and has steadily picked up steam ever since. Today the National Weather Service called for 1-2 inches at Squaw. While watching our clothes get covered on every chair ride, it seems the NWS must have meant 1-2 inches an hour! Since Wednesday each day has surpassed the last and it looks like it’s going to continue through the weekend. This is exactly like any awesome storm cycle in the middle of any of the greatest seasons. Thanks, April!
'Bro'cal Billy Haupert takin care o' business in Broken Arrow
