We got a hard-hitting storm overnight that dumped about 15” of snow at the house, and a couple feet at the ski areas. It was snowing 2” to 3” an hour, the biggest single storm we’ve had this year, and our first snow in two weeks.

The snow was not especially wet, yet it was extremely heavy to ski in, except for the steepest terrain. You can see the conga line of stuck skiers as Nancy sits way back to keep her tips up.

Nancy went in for a couple of hours (she’s recovering from some nasty food poisoning two days ago), and I did laps on the the steeper runs on Lookout, getting the first over-the-head spitting-out-snow face shots I’ve had in years. I got fresh lines every run as people were afraid of getting stuck if they ventured past established tracks.

Squaw barely opened, and Alpine Meadows closed for the day due to scary avalance conditions.

They plowed our street while we were gone, so we had a nice big berm to deal with when we got back home. There’s our garbage can in front of the mailbox for reference.

The temps are staying unseasonably warm, which means soft bump skiing.

Tower 16 is fun with great big slushy bumps and the killer view of KT-22.

I went back to the Sunrise Bowl area for some more backcountry, looking to see if there was any dry snow left in the north-facing bowls. After a week of dry, warm weather, the pow was all gone, replaced by consolidated snow and crust.

Here I’m looking at Sunrise Bowl (Donner Ridge) from the top of Hawk’s Peak. The area Nancy and I skied last week is in the left center of the photo.

I traversed west from Hawk’s Peak and then south to the top of Donner Ridge. The snow in Sunrise Bowl was variable at best, so I skinned back up Hawk’s Peak and got some nice corn snow on its southern aspect.

Here I’m on top of Donner Ridge looking west toward Castle Peak and the Frog Lake Cliffs.

We made a rare foray to Alpine Meadows to take advantage of their soft snow.

The temps have warmed and there’s no snow in the forecast, so we’re starting to look at southern exposures and spring conditions.

We got some comp tickets to Homewood, my first time skiing here. It’s a funky little old ski area with awesome views of the lake.

Homewood is located on the west shore, a 5-iron from the waters edge. It’s very old school—slow lifts with plywood seats and no safety bars, and very few people on the hill.

It has great tree skiing and open boundaries to the west, so you could bring your skins and take off for the higher ridges. The whole place has the feel of lift-accessed backcountry.

The ski areas have started creating banked courses that they call “family fun areas.” Unfortunately, the banked turns aren’t steep enough or tight enough to be much fun.

We took a Saturday off from the crowded ski areas to do some backcountry skinning at Sunrise Bowl on Donner Ridge, just west of the Tahoe Donner Ski Area.

On top of Donner Ridge where it drops off into Negro Canyon, looking southwest toward Highway 40 and the peaks of Sugar Bowl.

The northeastern aspect still has dry snow, despite it not snowing for a week.

Putting the skins on to head back up.

Skinning back up.

Sunrise Bowl is a popular area because it’s right off the road above a neighborhood and it holds a lot of snow.

It felt good to spend a Saturday away from the liftlines. You get about 500’ vertical with each run.

It hasn’t snowed for a few days, but the snow is staying cold and dry.

I coaxed Nancy into a rare bump run on Stampede, the steepest run at Northstar.

We had a nice day skiing Squaw, getting soft snow in Sun Bowl.

Afterwards, we went to an open house at a title loan company in Truckee where a friend of Nancy’s works.

We got out to Northstar early, not really expecting much. We got another inch of snow at the house and about four inches at Northstar.

However, a cold north wind helped fill in the tracks from yesterday, so we did a bunch of really fun laps in the trees on Lookout.

Once again, we were pretty much the only ones skiing out by the boundary, so we got untracked snow for a couple of hours.