Waking up to an angry inch of snow this morning was not an exciting prospect for a day of skiing. I expected to see “bonafide D on C” conditions (that’s Dust on Crust for those of you in the square community).
And don’t get me wrong, this was not a powder day of epic proportions. We still are in desperate need of some serious snow. But the skiing today was a pleasant surprise.
- Takers on the Reverse Traverse to Headwall
The southwest wind drifted and packed the two inches of ambient snow we got onto north and east aspects creating some fairly pleasant, smooth skiing. The reverse traverse to Headwall opened providing some new, interesting turns on the rarely skied terrain. The Carnells, Magoos and north aspects in Granite were skiing extremely well, staying chalky all day.
It was possible to link 10 silent turns in a row. Many runs have been a series of deafening scrapes to get to the bottom. It stood out how quiet the wind-drifted snow was today. While this may have been the exception and not the rule, it was still a pleasant surprise when there was only ¾ of an inch sitting on my car this morning.
The long and short is that the skiing was surprisingly good today. What a difference a tiny amount of snow can make in California. …Still praying for snow…