ExcelsiorTheFathead

Sunday April 21. Day 85. Sunny and over 42F at the 0830 Slide side open. Same as yesterday the Slide bowl was pretty good. I rode it for an hour and it was starting to get noticeably softer. Some lady on the chair said that she is on her 155th day. That must be close to every open day. From what I hear from locals, grooming has been poor this season. A number of key members of the grooming crew all quit early in the season because of conflicts with management (so I understand). From my personal experience the easy-to-groom trails have been fine, but anything steeper has not been good. The seemingly poor grooming of the Big Bonanza trail is the biggest disappointment for me. I hope it gets better.

Friday-Saturday April 19-20. Day 84. The resort's tracking system says I have 84 days, so I'm adding one more to my count. Sunny and warm weather continues. On Friday I started on the Rose side but KC Bowl was too firm. Slide Bowl was pretty good. Saturday is similar and the Slide Bowl was good carving at open. I only rode for an hour. Mush-out happens pretty quickly.

Thursday April 18. Day 81. The week has been sunny and warm. Well above freezing during the day and just below freezing at night. On Thursday I went up for the 9 AM Rose side open. KC Bowl was groomed well and had good grip despite being firm. Nice turns were made. The view of Northwest from the chair showed a bunch of tears and rips so I didn't go there. Slide Bowl at 10 AM was already soft. KC Bowl was getting soft by 1030.

Saturday-Sunday April 13-14. Day 80. Saturday was sunny and warm, just above freezing at open. The bowls were smooth and firm. Carving was possible if you went slow and deliberate. Sunday morning is cloudy and 17F cold with 1-2" of new snow. Even with the new snow the surface is way firm and not good. I finally got my Oxess back from the shop. The tail repair looks pretty good. The next possible riding day is Thursday and there is a long warming trend in the forecast.

Friday April 12. Day 78. I was at the Rose side for 9 AM open. Temp is 34, mostly sunny and windy. KC Bowl is a little firm; not good carving, but not raspy firm either. The lower Ponderosa and Galena runs are turning to mush right from the start. I hit the Slide bowl at 10 AM. It was soft but big carves could be made. From tonight it will cool down and there is a chance of a tiny amount of snow. The resort will close on Mon, Tues, Wed for the next two weeks. Closing day is Sunday the 28th.

Wednesday-Thursday April 10-11. Day 77. I went up for the Rose side 9AM open on Wednesday and found things to be too firm for enjoyable carving. I mostly cruised the greens. Sunny and warm. Thursday I waited until 11 AM but things were already soft. The Ponderosa collector trail was a vacuum table so I stayed on the Slide side which was softer but less vac-u-sucky.

Monday-Tuesday April 8-9. Day 75. Relatively cool temperatures with nice weather and reasonably good groom. Turns were made. Tuesday afternoon temps went into the mid 40s with lots of sun so I expect things to get firmy firm. After 10 years the tail bumper piece of my Oxess skwal fell out so I have it in the shop getting kludged up. Riding the Coiler skwal for now.

Sunday April 7. Day 73. Saturday morning had 3-5" of new. Sunday morning starts at 13F with generally smooth groom and clouds with flat light. Even with the new snow, the runs are still a little on the firm side from the very hard frozen underlayer. I made some good turns but it isn't optimum. A warming trend is in the forecast that will bring lots of springy thaw-freeze.

Friday April 5. Day 72. Another 1-3" overnight with only 11F at open. This is cold for April. A little breezy with thick clouds just above the summit and light-to-modest falling snow. The light is very flat and I fell twice on the Slide side from losing my horizon. Slide runs are very firm. The KC bowl had a little more of the new mixed in with the groom and was somewhat carveable.

Tuesday-Thursday April 2-4. Day 71. Tuesday had excellent grippy smooth groom at open, but afternoon temps were slush. Wednesday was too firm everywhere. On Thursday the temperature has plummeted and there is 1-3" of new with high winds. I went to Slide and put all my gear on but when I got to the lift it had gone on wind hold. I had to get out of my gear and drive to the main lodge. The groom is very firm, covered with a thin layer of new, with patches of windblown at least 4" thick. While it was sunny at open, by 10AM a cloud bank socked in the mountain and is bringing more snow.

Monday April 1. Day 68. Saturday had 10-12" of new. Sunday had 11-13". Monday had 1". Monday morning is 16F at open with bluebird wx. The groom is pretty good with slight stripeyness in places. It is on the soft side and cuts up by the end of the first hour. Some good turns made.

Friday March 29. Day 67. It snowed 8-10" Wednesday night into Thursday. Thursday had high winds that kept the summit lifts from opening until the afternoon. On Friday morning there is a small break in the weather. I had overslept so I went up an hour late. The snow is soft and the groom is cut up. Flat light, cloudy, bad viz, snowing lightly. Not good for carving. I rode the chair with 3 monoski people all riding Codas built by THE CHAD. They all admitted to being friends of MonoDude. The weather was deteriorating rapidly as another storm approaches so I didn't stay long. Significant new snow is forecast for the weekend.

Tuesday-Wednesday March 26-27. Day 66. Good firm groom. Tuesday had nice weather and was very enjoyable all around. Wednesday had high winds from an incoming storm but was still mostly sunny. Northwest lift was closed due to wind so I got trapped on that side and had to take a shuttle back to Slide. It was pleasantly uncrowded because many people were scared off.

Monday March 25. Day 64. The weekend brought maybe a foot of new. Monday morning has cool nice weather with good groom everywhere but it is a little on the soft side. Hopefully tomorrow is more hero-ish.

Tuesday-Friday, March 19-22. Day 63. A week of springy conditions. The Slide Bowl side has been icy and awful. Kit Carson Bowl has had reasonably ok conditions depending on the time. A refresh is forecast for the weekend.

Monday March 18. Day 59. A Monday after a warm sunny weekend. Temp is 30F at open with sunshine. The Slide Bowl at 0830 is firmy firm and unpleasant. KC Bowl at 0900 was much better; firm but with grip. I tried Northwest and Waterfall with James but they were unevenly groomed with loose snow from scrapy skiers. I hit the Slide Bowl again on the way out at 1015 and it had improved quite a bit. Thaw-freeze is here in a big way.

Some skier on the chair this morning at Mt. Rose asked me if I know Steve from Ohio at Heavenly. I guess maybe I do?

Friday March 15. Day 58. Another NWS warning for strong lake winds seemed to have scared many people off. A cool 13F at open with only light winds. It would have been sunny if not for the one big a-hole cloud that sat over the hill all morning. Groom is very good. Firm and fast. A warming trend is coming that will take resort temps into the 40s over the next several days. Reno is supposed to hit 70 in the city.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday March 11-14. Day 57. Monday was cloudy and windy and challenging. Didn't ride Tuesday because of bad wx. Wednesday was pretty good. NWS had posted a high wind warning for Thursday which seemed to have scared lots of people off. It was mostly sunny and a little windy, but not at the levels which would cause lift holds. Temp at open was only 9F, making it one of the coldest days yet. Conditions on the Slide Bowl and Silver Dollar were hero good. At 9AM I did one run down the KC bowl which had a strong headwind and so-so grooming with unpleasantly firmy snow. I went back to Slide and tore that up for an hour. Very few people on the hill.

Sunday March 10. Day 54. I went up on my first Sunday now that my pass is unrestricted. I get to the Slide lot early and the wind is howling. Windows in the lodge are shaking. I got first chair on Zephyr and made a run down the bowl. The grooming is smooth but the winds had scoured all of the fine snow out, leaving a bunch of raspy snow pebbles over firm cord. I headed for the KC Bowl around 8:50 and Zephyr went on wind hold. On the KC traverse I encountered a softbooter sitting on the trail who couldn't make any progress into the screaming headwind. I got to the bowl and got first tracks on firm, fast, smooth groom. The light was flat at first but quickly turned into sun breaks. I think I got around 4 laps on the Lakeview lift when Northwest went on wind hold. The lift line at Lakeview became unreasonably long so I bailed out and had to take a shuttle back to the Slide parking lot. I got a few good runs with good turns. It was kinda worth the trouble. Kinda.

Wednesday-Friday March 6-8. Day 53. Generally good riding these days with the snow gradually getting firmer. Thursday was good for the first 90 minutes then a cloud bank socked in the entire mountain for the rest of the day. Friday was sunny and crowded. I made good turns on the top of Silver Dollar which is finally flat and well-groomed.

Tuesday March 5. Day 50. The Slide parking lot was closed so I went to the main lot and lined up at the Lakeview lift for the 9 AM open. It was cloudy with high winds. Grooming in the KC Bowl was not great but not bad either, given the circumstances. I made some good turns when there was enough sun to actually see the surface. The steep blues under the chair looked fairly well groomed but I didn't try them. I wanted to go try the Slide side but was afraid of getting stranded there as both the Northwest and Zephyr lifts were going on and off of wind hold.

Monday March 4. Mt. Rose just re-opened finally, reporting 7-8 feet of new snow since last Thursday. The road is only open on the Reno side, and is still closed towards Incline Village. Winds are howling and the summit lifts may or may not operate.

Sunday March 3. Mt. Rose is closed again for the 4th straight day. The resort claims well over six feet of new snow. I read that Palisades recorded a 190 mph wind gust. Maybe it will open tomorrow if everybody can get ahead of the snow, including road crews.

Tuesday-Wednesday February 27-28. Day 49. Monday had bad weather but Tuesday and Wednesday were good carving days with nice weather and groom. Now on Thursday the resort is closed due to an oncoming storm. The area is under blizzard warning for the next 3 days. 4-8 feet of snow is expected with peak winds exceeding 100 mph.