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[Ottime]

That is a brief early window. This next week looks very warm.

My kid has a the first week in June with no school or camps. We had been planning on bringing skis and bikes to Mammoth, but now I'm just hoping for a cold snap that moves the corn window closer to 11am
And we can tour around KW and Carson for the week.

Anyone know if Corral is snow free yet? Maybe we can bike as well.

And BTW, every time I get up to OV I'm reminded of how much continuous strep terrain you have there. Too bad is all so low in elevation. I especially enjoyed the west face zones late in the day.


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[dookeyXXX]

Today the window was much smaller than yesterday and earlier in the week.
I am still figuring out the aspects at OV, too.
Shirley was still firm at 9, but then it gets super soft around 11 ( when the race kids quit).
I did some Sibo laps from about 9:20-10 and it was soft.
But I missed the window in GC (I hit the area to the looker’s right of the lift under Granite Chief proper probably a little after 11 and it was pasty down to the creek).
NW was smooth cream cheese at noon, though.

[TahoeBC]

Ottime, Connector and corral are running good.

[old goat]

Today the window was much smaller than yesterday and earlier in the week.
I am still figuring out the aspects at OV, too.
Shirley was still firm at 9, but then it gets super soft around 11 ( when the race kids quit).
I did some Sibo laps from about 9:20-10 and it was soft.
But I missed the window in GC (I hit the area to the looker’s right of the lift under Granite Chief proper probably a little after 11 and it was pasty down to the creek).
NW was smooth cream cheese at noon, though.

The are no aspects at OV, at least compared to AM. The one big advantage OV has is the option to operate the upper mountain only. I would gladly trade a better spring season at AM for a longer season at OV. YMMV.

[PB]

Yeah, Spring Skiing Capitol is a very unfunny joke.

[heckacali]

Baileys BEACH man!!!!!!

[powdork]

Ottime, Connector and corral are running good.

even getting soft and they haven't opened the first gate yet

[Ottime]

Today the window was much smaller than yesterday and earlier in the week.
I am still figuring out the aspects at OV, too.
Shirley was still firm at 9, but then it gets super soft around 11 ( when the race kids quit).
I did some Sibo laps from about 9:20-10 and it was soft.
But I missed the window in GC (I hit the area to the looker’s right of the lift under Granite Chief proper probably a little after 11 and it was pasty down to the creek).
NW was smooth cream cheese at noon, though.

If there is a hard freeze, I usually start with a few on Gold Coast and then over to Siberia for a few laps. Then back over and down Shirley to Granite Chief, before sing back to Shirley Lake. Usually all groomers. That terrain to lookers right of GC is hard to time and has a very short window, I think on Friday a hike to the peak, dropping before 10am would be ideal.

Once through the groomers, I then he'd of to Headwall if its running, and work the sunny aspects (Face & Slot), then down to KT for the side in the morning sun. Around noon thirty, over to West Face area and eventually back to Headwall to lap North Bowl for a few nd finish the day on KT.

The are no aspects at OV, at least compared to AM. The one big advantage OV has is the option to operate the upper mountain only. I would gladly trade a better spring season at AM for a longer season at OV. YMMV.

Yes, compared to AM, OV lack aspects, but it really does have a lot of aspects. They had Sunbowl closed Friday, which was a bummer. It had snow and the traverse out also looked plenty well covered (I would be willing to walk a bit). But OV, even with spring ops, has a lot of aspects. In fact, it faces the sun too much for late spring skiing IMO. I'd gladly take Kirkwood not facing slopes over OV in spring.

As for AM, I think running Summit only is some of the best spring skiing anywhere. Start the day on the long (for Tahoe) groomers. Sunspot to Weasel, Alpine Bowl to Yellow. Alpine to Dance Floor, then as they soften over to Wolverine. Maybe a lap or two out to the Beaver and or Estelle. Then hiking to High Yellow and Keystone as they soften up. So much variety and access of that one lift.

But, I'll take what is open and spinning. I have to say, with Headwall spinning, OV skis pretty well in spring. Once HW and KT closes, then it gets kind of boring. I guess there are always the Palisades to keep you entertained, and Granite Chief has great terrain, but it gets so sticky over there for some reason.

Regardless, it is always fun to get up there and poke around for a little variety. And there really are a bunch of steeps at OV, even the rollovers on the groomers coming off Siberia have these short steep pitches.

I would think that Mammoth with be the spring skiing capital. Most years they are open through the entire spring and into late June or later. Higher elevation and mostly north facing out of Main, keeps the snow firmer longer. In the eastern Sierra thread, there was an OV skier complaining about the lack of aspects at Mammoth compared to OV. I think both have plenty of option, but that is coming from a person who skis a hill that is mostly north facing, and I'm used to that.

/rambling post

[dookeyXXX]

Window today was short.
Hiked “Mainline Chute” and dropped in about 9:45 and it was already setting up (it was decent enough whipped cream cheese, though, but woulda been Rockefeller about 30-minutes earlier).
Found more cream cheese in the “Teenage Wasteland” area.
Shirley chair kept stopping a lot today for some reason…

[jahroy]

That is a brief early window. This next week looks very warm.

My kid has a the first week in June with no school or camps. We had been planning on bringing skis and bikes to Mammoth, but now I'm just hoping for a cold snap that moves the corn window closer to 11am
And we can tour around KW and Carson for the week.

Anyone know if Corral is snow free yet? Maybe we can bike as well.

And BTW, every time I get up to OV I'm reminded of how much continuous strep terrain you have there. Too bad is all so low in elevation. I especially enjoyed the west face zones late in the day.


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I'd argue that the low elevation of KT is its most redeeming quality for spring skiing.

When we go into high pressure, KT gets the hardest freezes on the mountain due to inversion.

That's why West Face is closed in the morning and so good in the afternoon (on days when Headwall is cooked by 9am).

The last week of April and the first week of May were righteous. Some of the best spring skiing in ages.

Unfortunately the fresh snow killed the corn and there was no way to recover before the hot temps came.

[jahroy]

They had Sunbowl closed Friday, which was a bummer...

They closed Sun Bowl for the season a couple weeks ago, which was a major bummer.

It looked so good... and had the most consolidated corn on the mountain after the late April storm.

But... There was apparently a bear hanging out down there hogging all the good corn [emoji35]

[dookeyXXX]

Heard there’s been a bear hanging around GC and Smoothies area, too…

[jahroy]

Heard there’s been a bear hanging around GC and Smoothies area, too…

I was told it's the same bear that was hanging out at Granite earlier this year.

[Ottime]

That means the bear went all the way across the Gold Coast zone at some point. That would have been fun to see. And I'm less disappointed in Sunbowl being closed if it kept me from being eaten.

I can see the value of the low elevation a bit. But higher elevation would keep it going longer and minimize the bottom burning out. And I like how Main Lodge at Mammoth can freeze solid overnight into June and July. OTOH the lower elevation makes for better early spring skiing I guess.

Regardless, I get the love for KT. I've only skied it once in good winter snow and man that is awesome. Spring is fun, but I don't have the timing fully dialed yet. But I'm getting better at it.


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[jahroy]

That means the bear went all the way across the Gold Coast zone at some point. That would have been fun to see. And I'm less disappointed in Sunbowl being closed if it kept me from being eaten.

I can see the value of the low elevation a bit. But higher elevation would keep it going longer and minimize the bottom burning out. And I like how Main Lodge at Mammoth can freeze solid overnight into June and July. OTOH the lower elevation makes for better early spring skiing I guess.

Regardless, I get the love for KT. I've only skied it once in good winter snow and man that is awesome. Spring is fun, but I don't have the timing fully dialed yet. But I'm getting better at it.


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Please keep mentioning when you'll be around.

I meant to look for you on Friday.

[old goat]

There's a discussion about the Palisades parking system in the current Moonshine Ink--available online. Needless to say the Palisades rep says it was a great success. The customer not so much. No word on how the local non skiing community feels about it.

[TahoeJ]

There's a discussion about the Palisades parking system in the current Moonshine Ink--available online. Needless to say the Palisades rep says it was a great success. The customer not so much. No word on how the local non skiing community feels about it.

Well considering I only have 5 ski days this season due to various ailments and injuries I feel like I can weigh in (also I’m 100% not claiming local status by any means because I split time from the north bay and can’t legally move my kids up here, but I’m still around a lot). When it was always a shit show before it was still a shit show and the difference was negligible. Did the 89 backups start a bit later? Yeah maybe a little but it still wasn’t reliable and if you wanted to get ahead of it you’d still leave pretty damn early.

Of course Palisades says it was a huge success - they made a bunch of money and gaslighted themselves a new revenue stream under the guise of fixing a problem. We all know there are real fixes that wouldn’t contribute to their bottom line and it would actually cost them money for the good of local communities, so it’s much cheaper to put out a press release patting yourselves on the back instead. I’m not really that mad about it, it’s exactly what I expected and said as much earlier in this thread before the season started. Same old shit, different day. Such is life…

[powdork]

I'd argue that the low elevation of KT is its most redeeming quality for spring skiing.

When we go into high pressure, KT gets the hardest freezes on the mountain due to inversion.

That's why West Face is closed in the morning and so good in the afternoon (on days when Headwall is cooked by 9am).

The last week of April and the first week of May were righteous. Some of the best spring skiing in ages.

Unfortunately the fresh snow killed the corn and there was no way to recover before the hot temps came.

I don't think we get as strong inversions with high pressure in the spring like we do in the winter. I think breezes are more common in the spring cleaning out the inversions more. We never start out with fog on the lajke like we do in our winter high pressure,.

[jahroy]

I don't think we get as strong inversions with high pressure in the spring like we do in the winter. I think breezes are more common in the spring cleaning out the inversions more. We never start out with fog on the lajke like we do in our winter high pressure,.

I'd say the remote temperature sensors disagree.

10-12 degrees of inversion is pretty typical on warm (50+ degree) days in the spring.

It's something I’ve been studying for 20+ years as a KT corn enthusiast.

This morning it was 39 degrees at the base at 7am and 48 degrees at mid mountain.

I actually wrote an app that scrapes the 3 Olympic Valley remote weather sensors, so I could constantly monitor the temps and wind at the 3 sensors. They're at 6200, 8000, and 8700 feet and my app scrapes the data and displays the temps side by side for all 3. Unfortunately they moved the data about 6 weeks ago and took away the temp sensor at the base, which broke my app.

All that said, you don't need data to back this up. Just wait for a warm day and sample KT vs Headwall at 10am. The bottom of KT will be frozen and Headwall will be cooked.

Note: we've had some seriously atypical weather lately (e.g. last week's east winds) where this has not been true.

[dookeyXXX]

^
I slid off the ramp at the top of KT this morning at about 8:30 and it was classic “Tahoe boilerplate.” Skidded and scraped my way down “The Saddle” to Headwall chair.

I skied under the Headwall lift just a tad after 9 and it was already well into being cooked.

The area between the two groomers offa Siberia was pretty decent and consistent whipped cream cheese between 9:15 - 9:35.

Parts of the Shirley chair area were still firm at 10, especially if in the shade, but the stuff over by the wiggles was nice.

I called it at 10:30.

[jahroy]

West Face was skiing really nice when they decided to suddenly close KT for the season at 11am...

Pretty shocking and heartbreaking... But it's been a great spring.

Will probably have to hike KT a couple times just to get a little more fix... Was really expecting 3 more hours of great laps to say goodbye.

[dookeyXXX]

Ah man.
I cut out at 10.
Rode the funi down and almost skated over to KT, but called it a day.
Oh well.

Interesting to note: according to the Palisades site and blog they plan to keep GC spinning until close. Yet today it definitely was not running.

Anyway, based on today and the extended forecast, 8-10 is gonna be the window from here on out, imho.

[GKWood]

What happened to keeping things “open until you can’t ski it”? Pretty lame to put that in a blog post and then immediately go back on it. Unless there is some real reason I’m not aware of.


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[TahoeJ]

What happened to keeping things “open until you can’t ski it”? Pretty lame to put that in a blog post and then immediately go back on it. Unless there is some real reason I’m not aware of.

Super lame and it’s purely to save money. People were skiing it just fine on Sunday.

[dookeyXXX]

They should close Headwall at 11 and then open KT…