ExcelsiorTheFathead

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.

Do the Bali carvers still ride there?

Friday February 23. Day 47. Another nice day. Rather than being hero firm, it was about the same as yesterday. Great carving early in the bowls but the snow started to come apart after an hour. I got a few runs with James. Yesterday I met another hardbooter in crazy old gear. I tried Big Bonanza early but it was disappointingly soft and uneven. I also have to say that the Silver Dollar run always seems uneven. It looks like a great carving run, but maybe it needs 10 feet of snow to flatten out.

Thursday February 22. Day 46. Sunny and cool at open with good groom that is a little soft on top. Daytime temp is going just above freezing. Hopefully tomorrow will be firm, tight hero snow. Here is Slide Bowl before open.

Wednesday February 21. Day 45. 2-4" of new reported. Both the Slide Bowl and KC Bowl have a couple of inches of new over groom. Some carving is possible but it gets unpleasant once the surface gets bumped up. No new is in the forecast for the next few days. Thursday should be a "first day of groom" situation. Friday might be an epic firm groom day.

Tuesday February 20. Day 44. Perhaps 2 feet of new snow fell since Friday, with 6-8" of it last night. Tuesday morning is partly cloudy with a little wind. Lots of people are here at open, with many families. I heard that some parts of N. Cal are on break. The snow is soft and there are varying inches of new snow and windblown everywhere so carving isn't possible. I ended up down on the easy green runs which were the only ones groomed just before open.

Friday February 16. Day 43. 12-14" of new snow fell by Thursday morning. On Friday at open it is a little cloudy but the light is pretty good. The Slide Bowl side is nicely groomed but too soft. The KC Bowl is a bit firmer and feels like it is on the 2nd day of groom. I had good carving runs down the bowl until it started to come apart. Snow started to fall by 10 AM. I'm blacked out for the 3-day weekend and a bunch of new snow is expected.

Monday-Wednesday February 12-14. Day 42. Monday and Tuesday were good carving days. I had high hopes for Wednesday even though a storm is approaching. In the early morning it looked a little windy on the cam but there was no announcement on the resort website calling for wind holds. Just after I left home in the car a squall rolled in and by the time I arrived at the Slide parking lot the Zephyr lift had been shut for the day. I drove to the main lodge to find that both summit lifts there were on hold. My only choice was to ride the green Galena lift in furious headwinds and make the best of the shallow run there. Shudda stayed in bed.

Friday February 9. Day 39. Cool, high clouds, a little breeze and 1" of new. Good groom everywhere. I heard that the Chutes opened yesterday at 2 and opened today from 10. Bonanza was good but a little soft. I did my other runs in the bowls. James was seen on Northwest. A string of nice weather days is coming up but daytime temps will start to go above freezing.

Thursday February 8. Day 38. Nice sunshine with broken clouds at open. Cool temps and 1-2" of new. On the Slide bowl side there is a little bit of new over groom. The KC Bowl is bare smooth groom, so I think it gets groomed on the AM shift. I got first tracks down Big Bonanza which I tried for the first time. The lower part was good carving. After a few runs down the KC Bowl I met up with James and we did a run down Bonanza. The resort has been bombing the chutes and testing out the Chuter lift. I suppose they might open it soon but can't be certain. I don't really care cuz I'm never going there. If it opens it will draw more people away from the groomers.

Wednesday February 7. Day 37. Cold, windy, and cloudy, but with some of the best groom yet this season. James was on the steeper runs again while I stayed in the bowl. As the morning progressed the wind got stronger and snow began to fall. The combined effects were a little punishing but it was worth it. When I left at 10:30 much of the hill was stuck in clouds with lots of blowing snow.

Tuesday February 6. Day 36. The resort claims more, but my safe guess is that there has been around 2 feet of new snow. Much of it got groomed in yesterday, and there was another 2" overnight. This morning is pretty cloudy with some freezing fog. I got some early runs in the KC bowl with grooming that was far better than I expected. A little soft but not ridge-y and held carves well until it started to chop up. I saw James from the chair but he must have been on the steeper blues.

Friday February 2. Day 35. There's something like 6" of new since Wednesday. This morning is much cooler at 17F with lots of clouds in the Slide Bowl. I stayed in the lodge until 9 then headed for the KC Bowl which had soft groom. The first few runs could be carved, then it got pushed around. No hard carving today, but it was good to be there. The "atmospheric river" is supposed to strike on Sunday and Monday, with forecasts calling for "feet" of snow.

Wednesday January 31. Day 34. 31 F at open, cloudy and windy. The Slide Bowl side is closed because of wind and this has kept many people away. I rode the first hour down the KC Bowl and it was good. Firm but grippy and it didn't come apart. Easy to get a clear run because very few people are around. Some thin spots are appearing at the top of Northwest and also in the bowl. Wind is increasing during the day and the snow should start in the evening.

Tuesday January 30. Day 33. Warm again at open with temps at 34. Cloudy and breezy. Slide Bowl was pretty firm and challenging to carve. This side of the hill is showing a number of thin spots. I got first tracks on KC Bowl in flat light and it was smooth and near-hero for the first few runs. After that it started to cut up and became lumpy. It is supposed to cool off and dump snow late Wednesday thru Thursday.

Monday January 29. Day 32. It was sunny and warm over the weekend, and it continues into Monday. Daytime temps have gone well into the 40s. Even though nighttime temps barely reach freezing, the groom this morning was soft on the peaks of the cord but pretty firm underneath. No easy carving under these conditions and perfect balance is necessary to stay on edge. Fortunately there has been no rain (yet).

Thursday-Friday January 25-26. Day 31. Thursday had nice sunshine and cold temps at open. There was some new overnight so things were variable with bare groom in some places and too much new in others. Good carving in the bowls. Friday was cloudy and warm with base temps of 32 at open. Pretty good groom everywhere. It started to snow a little on top and slush down low. I got several runs with James and I went down Northwest for the first time but found it a bit too challenging. High temperatures will predominate over the weekend and there is a risk of rain.

Tuesday January 23. Day 29. Over the weekend and into Monday there was something like 10-12" of new. Tuesday morning at open had nice sunshine and no wind. The Big Bonanza run is groomed today but I still want coverage to be better before I go try to carve it. Grooming on my typical runs is not bad, a little stripey in places with a soft top. I did most of my turns in the KCB. By 10AM it started to cut up a bit. On my way out a thick cloudbank enveloped the Slide Bowl and made viz so bad that some old skier guys took off their skis and were just sitting in the middle of the run. They couldn't tell up from down. I scratched my way down trying to follow the direction of the cord until I could see some trees and the lift towers.

Friday January 19. Day 28. Cloudy and warm with gentle winds. The runout on lower Mine Train was a good firm carve at the 8:30 open even though the temperatures were already above freezing. At 9 I went over to KCB and got a few good runs in but the crowd grew and soon it was tough to find a clearing. I went back to Mine Train and did a few runs there with few people around. Out at 10. Snow is predicted for the Sunday-Monday period. We need it. There are some obvious thin spots on the Slide bowl side.

Thursday January 18. Day 27. Over the past weekend there was something like 4-6" of new. I rode on Tuesday which was a bit windy and cloudy but not bad. On Wednesday all the upper lifts were closed because of high winds. I think a couple inches of new fell sometime. Thursday was finally a nice day with calm winds and sunshine at open. Upper Silver Dollar looks pretty good but it is impossible to get a clear run right after open. I did a couple of runs on the Slide Bowl side then went to the Kit Carson Bowl at 9 AM. The KCB is still in shadow this early but the snow here was firmer with good groom. I made several loops here with good turns but by 10 it was getting crowded. It seems that there was pent-up demand because of Wednesday's wind event. James and his wife were out this morning but he was riding the steeper blues so I only ran into him on my way out at the top of Northwest. Mt. Rose is one of the windiest places I've been outside of Loveland.

Friday January 12. Day 25. Tuesday had high winds and all the upper lifts were closed all day. The resort preemptively closed for Wednesday which was a day-long blizzard that brought 16-20". Thursday had nice weather but it was a pow day with no firm groomers. So finally I go up on Friday which again is windy AF. Zephyr and Northwest were closed at open, leaving Lakeview as the only upper lift. Kit Carson Bowl wasn't bad but flat light, blowing snow and an imperfect groom made things a bit challenging. I think I made 4 runs then on the 5th ride up I was on the very last chair before they put the lift on wind hold. I waited at the top for everybody else to clear the trail then made my last run without another person in sight. Another storm is coming that should bring more snow. My pass is blacked out until Tuesday.

Monday January 8. Day 24. Back on Saturday there was a pretty good storm that brought 10-12" but it was so windy that who knows where it went. In any case the Slide Bowl looks better covered now and the fan guns have been removed from lower Silver Dollar. Bonanza and Bruce's are now open but they haven't been groomed yet. Monday morning was also windy AF. Lower Mine Train had a nice groom. Silver Dollar is still uneven and hard to carve. The best carving was again in the Kit Carson Bowl but the uphill wind made it a challenge to maintain speed while making turns.

Friday January 5. Day 23 This was the first day back after my off-peak pass blackout period. Back on 12/26 the resort opened the Silver Dollar and Mine Train runs on the Slide Bowl side of the mountain, served by the Zephyr lift. Zephyr opens at 0830 since these runs get nice direct morning sun. The other lifts open at 0900. Over the holiday period there were a couple of natural snowfalls amounting to maybe 6-8", but the opening of the Slide Bowl runs are only possible thanks to snowmaking. Silver dollar isn't that great yet. The snow isn't deep enough to really make it wide and smooth. The lower part of the run has a bunch of fan guns on it. The wide runout of lower Mine Train is a good easy carve but it wasn't groomed this morning. I did most of my laps on the Kit Carson side after 0900. All weekends are blacked out for me during Jan/Feb. Some snow is expected tomorrow.