A helping hand for holiday snow
Manmade flakes, higher elevations offer brighter outlook
Tahoe woke up Wednesday to fresh snow at lakeside, and though just an inch or so, it transformed the landscape into a winter wonderland. The short-lived storm fed the Sierra Nevada with 3 to 6 inches of snow above 4,000 feet, and up to a foot on the crest.
While it is not the big dump needed to open all ski areas for the ChristmasNew Year’s holidays, it will refresh the runs already open from snowmaking at the big resorts.
That makes the holiday outlook — of snow conditions, operations and prices — for the 23 ski areas across California and Nevada a patchwork landscape that spans all possibilities.
In the big picture, the snowpack is fair to decent above 8,000 feet, where the resorts perched at the higher elevations, including Mammoth Mountain, Mount Rose and Kirkwood, are in the best shape. Squaw Valley reports that it has more runs open at this time of year than during last year’s epic season of snow.
A big payoff for holiday skiing and boarding is the investment that many of the resorts have made in snowmaking operations. By night, the jets shoot water through
big turbines, and when the flecks of water hit freezing air, make piles of snow. By morning, the drivers in snow cats have spread the mounds to cover specified runs.
The result is that some resorts can offer at least one run that spans top to bottom. The biggest snowmaking operations include Squaw ValleyAlpine Meadows, Heavenly Mountain, Northstar, Mammoth Mountain and Sugar Bowl.
One of the best early-season experiences, for example, is at Diamond Peak out of Incline on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. You can take the Crystal Express Lift to Diamond Peak at 8,540 feet. When you then sail down the hill, you get a full view of Lake Tahoe and miles of Sierra Crest on the horizon. One morning this past week, a low-level fog enclosed the lake surface where it looked like you were sailing into a giant bowl of fog.
Though the Diamond Peak has opened only four of 31 runs, you get a top-to-bottom experience on intermediate terrain.
“While we are slow to receive natural snow so far, we have a phenomenal snowmaking system, and we’ve been able to open top to bottom on a 3- to 4-foot base,” said Jaclyn Ream at Diamond Peak.
The ski areas with the most runs and terrain available include Mammoth Mountain, Kirkwood and Squaw Valley.
Mammoth posted base depths measured this week of 20 inches at the main lodge, 45 inches at mid-mountain and 60 inches at the ridge. In turn, Mammoth reports 27 of 28 lifts open for access to 120 of 151 runs. Mammoth has also opened five of 13 terrain parks, with access to 20 of 100 jumps and 36 of 50 rails.
At the other end of the spectrum, as the storm arrived Wednesday, the shore of Lake Tahoe was snowless, and only an inch or so was forecast to fall at lake level. Across California, several resorts were still closed. For those at low elevations or with no snowmaking, the scene is grim as the holiday season approaches.
At the Yosemite Ski Area at Badger Pass, Dodge Ridge and Mount Shasta, the runs were mostly bare dirt Tuesday, in need of major dumps, not a passing sprinkle.
At the smallest hill of all, Granlibakken on the west shore of Lake Tahoe near Tahoe City, even a few inches of snow can make a difference. Compared with the big ski areas and their higher elevations and snowmaking, “It’s a different planet here,” said Kay Williams at the resort.
Though many take issue with this annual outlook, the Farmer’s Almanac correctly predicted a wet November followed by a dry December. It calls for an exceptionally wet January and wetter-thannormal February. Where the snow levels fall is even a bigger wild card.