All Systems Go As The Snow Keeps Falling On Sierra Resorts.
Credit: Dodge Ridge
As the East Coast got a taste the last couple of months of what’s it like when the inclement winter weather fails to show up, the situation has been quite different on the West Coast. After four years of a crippling drought, the rains have returned to the flatlands and the snow to the Sierra Nevada mountains. Although California is not home-free yet drought-wise, things were looking good when the California Department of Water Resources did its December 30th water content survey off Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort. The snow depth this year was 54.7” or 136 percent of the January 1st average. A year ago, the snowpack state-wide was at just 50 percent of normal.
Credit: Homewood
Although there haven’t yet been any of the legendary Sierra storms that can dump up to eight feet of snow in a couple of days, the small yet persistent stream of snowfalls thus far this winter has resulted in a gangbuster season. Every single ski resort in the Sierra is open (some opened as early as Thanksgiving), with all or most lifts operating. And the base and peak numbers for the high-altitude resorts are impressive (as of January 13): Mammoth, 75”–115”; Kirkwood, 76”–80”; Sugar Bowl, 57”–96”; Mt. Rose, 63”–92”, as are the stats at resorts that struggled mightily to open last year: Homewood, 60”–76”; Dodge Ridge, 50”–72”; Badger Pass (Yosemite), 60”–72”.
“There’s no comparison to last season; it’s been night and day,” says Jeff Hauff, marketing and sales director at Dodge Ridge. “It’s phenomenal. Everybody’s happy! We’ve had a total of 179” of snowfall so far this winter, with 38” in just this last week. It’s been staying really cold, in the teens and 20s.” That would be “California cold” to our Midwest and East Coast readers!
Those cold temperatures are giving Sierra Nevada skiers an experience they don’t often have: day after day of FLUFFY white stuff to fly through rather than having to deal with “Sierra cement.” Plus the combination of smaller storms with spaces in between them has made the trip “up to the mountains” much less of an ordeal than it often is.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer, Tom Stienstra, headed to the Sierra recently and observed in his latest column that he had run into “dozens of people who said they had not skied in years, and some said they had been away for more than 10 years.” Nothing like a four-year drought to make people long for those idyllic days on the slopes! If El Niño continues to deliver like it has been for the first two weeks of January, Californians will have ample opportunities to get their ski and board on this season…and on powder if temperatures continue to stay low!
Editor Note: Here’s a cool video from Sugar Bowl about the El Ninuary experience in the Sierra.
