Another day at Heavenly with hardly any runs open. This is the reservoir they use for snowmaking.

Skiing the runout below Killy’s at Squaw.

Another day at Northstar, with less and less open. Backside and Lookout are both completely closed.

Working the snow patches on the Springboard run on the frontside. The (very brief) run was good, but the runout was terrible, just icy ruts, rocks and dirt

Northstar had their annual pass holder party, with a free lunch and beverage.

You gotta hand it to Northstar, it’s more than Squaw gives you.

Granite Chief is still fun, if you don’t mind big bumps and a sketchy exit. The chair is actually closed for the year because the bottom is burned out, but you can get to it from Emigrant.

Granite Chief was another group of runs that were never groomed this year because the snow was never deep enough to keep the grooming machines from hitting rocks.

Skiing out the bottom of the Loggers Loop run at Northstar. Last day for this run.

The totally bare run in the background is called Boondocks. We haven’t skied it in two years. No snowmaking = no snow.

Skiing the Squaw Creek run—and this is the upper part! We assumed this would be Squaw Creek’s last day, and it was.

I took a couple of runs on KT-22, one each on Chute 75 and West Face. Chute 75 was firm at the top, with a patroller retrieving the skis of a girl who fell at the top and slid all the way down. West Face was really good—thin, but with the warm overcast softening the firm middle section.

edit: Nobody knew it at the time, but this was also KT’s last day.

We went down to Heavenly for the day just because the skiing everywhere is so one-dimensional we just wanted a change of scenery, and maybe some sushi.

I’ve skied Heavenly about 10 times, and I’ve yet to ski Gunbarrel, Heavenly’s iconic steep bump run, because it’s always been closed—a couple of times for ice hold, but lately for lack of snow.

Skiing Squaw in so-so conditions. Nancy is looking at some new prayer flags on Headwall Face put up by Ski Patrol to mark the site of an avalanche accident from 2009.

I skied with Chingus all day at Squaw (after he was delayed an hour by locking his keys in a running car.) The upper mountain continues to ski really well—even a little snow goes a long way.

Finding some nice snow in Horse Trails.

The area next to Garbage Chute off of Headwall looked good, with two feet of fairly fresh snow in it. We’re eagerly anticipating the sweet turns, but…

It sucked—there was nothing but jagged rocks under the new snow. I nearly went over a couple of times.

Mark Standen came up for a ski visit at just the right time, after Squaw’s upper mountain was freshened with a couple feet of new snow.

Northstar got upwards of a foot of snow over the last two days.

We ended up skiing Polaris on the backside, as it had the least amount of ice under the new snow. Kinda fun, except for all the scraping sounds.