Stormin’ Norman Post-mortem

It seems I’m always apologizing for living in the past.  Between $DAYJOB and a double equipment failure (boot and binding this time!) I wasn’t able to ski over the weekend or Monday.  I’ll try to stop slacking and get a little more on top of letting you know how it is in the now.

On the topic of last weekend’s storm, it wasn’t great, but it turned out a lot better than I thought.  There was snow, rain, snow again, and everything in between.  Sugar claimed 24 inches, which might be a total added over several days at the peak, but realistically, there was about a food of new ski-able snow on top.  Bottomless or super-light, no, but pretty freaking amazing nonetheless.

Friday was closed as the storm came in with super high winds.  Saturday was pretty heavy.  There’s a reason they call it Sierra cement.  I was able to take one run down Lincoln before a bolt sheared off in my boot and ended my day.

Word is that Sunday and Monday were pretty decent.  On Tuesday Sugar re-opened Disney and I was finally able to make it out again.  Still not sure why it was closed, but it was a real treat to get out there and make fresh lift-served turns on a weekday a few days after the storm, that’s for sure.  No Crow’s lift, but — even better, lots of fresh terrain over there and barely anyone skiing it.  Almost like the old days!

Coverage wise it was really amazing what a small amount of snow can do.  All of the troublesome thin spots were gone, and off-piste lines I hadn’t skiied in weeks were do-able again.  There was proper ski-up cave access again.  You could get out to Roller or Sugar Bowl and not worry about picking your way back.  Well, unless you were a snowboarder.

Unfortunately with solid suns in the forecast and the holiday weekend, I don’t think it will last very long.  I’m going to get it while I can!

Finally, I’ve also been slacking on the pictures, but here’ s a taste of what you missed (or not!) on Tuesday:

small_feb_storm

– John S.

Just another Truckee local who spends too much time at Sugar Bowl.