How bad is the drought? Today—the end of February—was the first time I’ve used the snowblower this winter.

And it was only six inches of snow.

As the result of four years of drought, the local ski areas are increasingly engaging in more guest service and non-ski activities to try to stem the decline of skier visits.

Northstar is now doing “tōsts” every day at 2:00 with a half-glass of champagne to celebrate the season.

It’s free, unless you get there at 2:05; then your half glass of bubbly will cost you $6.

Just a picture of an interesting sunset.

Getting some turns in thin conditions on Granite Chief at Squaw.

The runs on the Backside that don’t have snowmaking are open, but they haven’t been groomed all year from lack of snow. They’re pretty fun when they soften up.

One problem is the runout at the bottom. It’s at 7000’, and when it burns out the runs are closed, whether they are skiable or not.

The upper mountain is still fun skiing, despite the lack of snow at the base. We found nice snow on Hogsback off of Headwall.

It’s still a springish winter in Tahoe. The skiing in the Funnel was especially good, although I came in too hot one run and went skittering over the rocks.

Here’s Nancy about to drop in.

Nice spring snow in the Funnel.

We got a few inches of snow, which is kind of a powder day, I guess. I tried skiing in the trees but it’s just way too sketchy.

Pet me!

Going for a walk on a drippy day.

We drove home in a howling wind storm. It blew so hard that all the ski areas closed for the day, and the street gutters in Kings Beach filled up with sand blown up from the beach.

Here’s Nancy on the beach at South Shore, looking at Mt. Tallac and “The Cross” on its east side.

There’s very little open at Heavenly—just the runs with snowmaking, and even less today with the California side cut off by wind hold. Our skiing was limited to about four groomers and the usual abundance of traverses.

Nice views, though.

Despite the hard pan conditions, we went down to South Shore for a couple of days to get a change of scenery. Day 1: Kirkwood.

Kirkwood has more snow than the other ski areas around Tahoe, but that’s not saying much. Here’s Nancy skiing the Sunrise side of Kirkwood with Round Top (10,381’) in the background.

There was no soft snow anywhere, so unfortunately you couldn’t really get off the groomers. Still, we’ve been here in worse conditions.

Riding the link over to Lookout.

Do you see any snow on the trees? Didn’t think so.