I came out for a couple hours before work to clatter down the icy groomers. I found a tiny bit of soft snow on the right edge of the Castle Peak run where it was catching the sun.

We came out to ski on my birthday, although the snow wasn’t much of a present. Icy groomers covered in marbles—yeesh!

We wandered the mountain like nomads looking for something that would hold an edge.

The only soft snow we could find was on the Christmas Tree run, a short, southeast-facing pitch. Unfortunately, the snowpack is so thin that anything that softens in the sun is also doomed to burn out in a few days.

Our first day at Squaw! And it's horrible!

It got cold overnight with a nasty east wind blowing, and the rain from yesterday turned to ice. Siberia Bowl was closed due to all the skiers missing their first turn and sliding out of control all the way to the bottom.

The snowpack is so thin there's only a few groomed runs, all of which suck. The off-piste is a threat to your meniscus.

It was so crappy we left after an hour and a half.

We were going to go ski at Squaw on our day off, but the crest was socked in with clouds that drizzled all day, so we hiked the 4-mile trail by our house instead. We had to break trail for about 1.5 miles of it.

The trail loops around to provide a view of Martis Reservoir, which is partially frozen over.

The Prosser run opened officially today. Here’s the view from the top, of a (finally) white Martis Valley.

It was a warm day with soft snow. It was sooo nice to be teleing on something other than ice. The snow in the trees has turned to snot, so we’re back to just skiing the groomers. Fun carving, though.

Here I am hopping off the cat tracks on the Iron Horse run.

Two months into the ski season, and we get our first powder day. It snowed about two feet overnight, heavy snow, but not too heavy that you couldn’t turn.

Ski Patrol had a “soft closure” on a lot of runs, meaning the run was closed, but they weren’t enforcing it. Here’s Nancy “soft poaching” fresh tracks on Rail Splitter.

After getting a bunch of untracked snow on Backside, we tried going over to Lookout, but there was very little open and the snow was considerably wetter.

Nancy left at noon because she was tired from working a grave and then skiing. I then did ten straight runs on Backside before work, traversing out to Sierra Grande and Challenger to get fresh snow every run.

Squaw locals like to make fun of “Flatstar,” but you can’t argue with a day in which you get about fifteen untracked runs.

Everyone laughed at me when I came in with my octopus beard.

We’re supposed to get around a foot of snow tonight, so I’m filling up the wood bin ahead of time.

It poured rain all evening and all last night with a snow level of about 9500’ and didn’t turn to snow until about 4:00 a.m. So instead of getting four feet of snow, we only got about four inches.

We got so much rain that a lake formed at mid-mountain next to the Vista chair. They had to close the lift and the run, dig a ditch through it, and lay down a pipe at the end of the ditch to drain the lake.

Nancy came out first thing after work and promptly got sandbagged. They opened the link to Lookout by mistake, and Nancy wound up at the bottom of the Martis Peak chair with about forty other skiers. The problem was, the chair was frozen from all the rain and wasn’t running anytime soon.

She stood at the bottom for an hour and a half until a shuttle bus arrived to take them back to the village. After that, she was so cold and disgusted that she almost came home, but I came out before work to ski with her.

I met Nancy in the lodge where she was trying to warm up and we headed out to find something good to ski.

Here’s some low-angle freshies on the Castle Peak run, still sticking to the man-made snow on the groomers. As you can see, there’s still very little natural snow in the trees. There’s also still lots of ice on the groomers.

The day started warm and wettish, but the temps dropped throughout the day and it kept snowing off and on, so the skiing progressively got better.

There were actual bumps on the Iron Horse run. This was my first run of the year skiing snow that wasn’t flat.

We finished off the day by semi-poaching a couple of runs off of Vista (the runs are closed due to the thin coverage), putting down the only tracks on the runs. There was just enough snow to—for the most part—keep from hitting the ground underneath.

January 21, and this was our first run of the year on all natural snow. Crazy.

We’re supposed to get snow tonight and tomorrow, but for the time being it’s just a warm drizzle.

Wow, we actually got an inch of snow last night. This ended the longest winter drought in the recorded history of Reno—56 days without precipitation.

I was going to meet Nancy at Northstar for some skiing, but she said not to bother—everything was a sheet of ice with a little dusting of dry snow.

There were some nasty skiing accidents at Northstar today. We were holding some skis for the friend of an injured skier to pick up. When the friend came to get the skis, she told me about the accident: her friend simply fell forward on the ice and broke both shoulders.

Nancy came out early to ski after work. Northstar is blowing snow on the Iron Horse run, trying to get another run going.

Something we do a lot every evening—locking doors, unlocking doors, checking alarms, re-locking doors that we just unlocked, re-arming alarms, etc.

I got the shingles on and put the siding on the back wall. I still need to check the lumber yard in Tahoe City to see if they have the same siding for the side wall.

The roofline in the back is screwy because the existing eave wasn’t level. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with it.

Trying out the asian bowl at the Zephyr Lodge. Not bad with the 50% employee discount ($15 without!).

It’s gotten cold enough to blow snow again, so the runs had a little bit of give to them. Nancy got about 30,000’ vertical in.

There’s an invasive species threatening Tahoe’s famously pure waters—the freshwater bighead Terrier.

They are easy to spot: they drink way too fast, burp up half of what they drink, roll around in the grass and then want you to pet them.

Near the end of “doing a group”—checking houses that we have patrol contracts with. Full moon, cold temps, they’re blowing snow again.

This is my first day skiing since Christmas, as I’ve been recovering from the holidays. And what a lousy day for it—flat light, icy conditions with lots of brown spots, woo-hoo!

The snow took a beating over the holidays. The temps rose considerably after Christmas and the crowds—small as they were—left the groomers very, very firm and dingy-looking.

Yeah! A day off!

Normally there would be three feet of snow on the front lawn, but instead I’m raking up needles because I’m tired of waiting for the snow to cover them up.

I came in early for a day shift because we’re short-handed, took the dog for a walk after work, and then slept for about 14 hours.

I didn’t realize how tired I was—haven’t had a day off for a couple of weeks.

The crowds have left, and the dumpsters are so full it looks like a landfill.

The lack of snow created a unpleasant vibe during the holidays. People weren’t burning up energy skiing and snowboarding, so kids in the village were causing more trouble than usual and guest interactions tended toward the bitchy side.

We’re constantly chasing families with plastic sleds off the runs (ski areas don’t allow sledding due to liability), but they don’t have anywhere else to go because the only snow around is man-made. Irate, sarcastic parents, sad little kids.

Relaxing with the dog after working New Years Eve.

As you can see, there’s not a whole lot of snow on the trails. Make that zero snow on the trails.