This morning started out as a fun but wet and blinding lower mountain storm day. If you were out between 9:00 and 11:30 you got some smooth turns on the upper portions of KT but chances are you got one heck of a workout for the legs and added several pounds of water weight to your wardrobe. Anything below the top of Exhibition was heavy. Anything above that was about a foot of creamy Sierra cement and plenty of fun to plow through.
In the afternoon the snowfall let up a bit and the light started to peek through the clouds.
Around 1:00 pm the clouds started to break up and you could begin to see what you were skiing much better. The snow on the upper half of KT was sweet! Classic Sierra cement chop that is tons of fun to drive through as long as you can see where you’re going. Alternate chutes were holding good snow, Red Doge Ridge was still fun to ski even though the elevation is lower, even areas like Dead Tree and Rock Garden were still fairly smooth.
Then, a little after 2:00 pm, the sun really popped! With the flat light no longer an issue you could charge the crud all over. East Face, GS Bowl, Oly Lady, it had all been skied and broken up a bit but the traffic for most of the day was in the trees and areas with better contrast, so once the sun was out, and if you had any steam left in your legs, you could rip fast in the open bowls. It was a blast!
Tomorrow should be awesome on the upper mountain. It’s all untouched! Temps at 8200 ft today never rose above 27 F! For tomorrow, forecasts are calling for overcast conditions and breezy. Winds out of the Southwest in the 20 mph range. Gusts on the ridges will be higher. As long as the winds stay moderate tomorrow we should have some incredible skiing waiting for us on the upper mountain!
