Arrived at the parking lot around 12:30. Most of the usual suspects were already there as I arrived. “The Captain” was my co-pilot on this mission.

Although the lower elevation runs down to the parking lot runs looked tempting, we decided to see what the conditions on Thunder Mountain were like. Skyline was in the sun and the snow was plenty soft. The Tube was also open but the snow looked a little firm. I picked the line on the skier’s left were the snow pack tends to be the deepest. Once you broke through the crust, the spring corn peeled away nicely. “The Captain” favored the sunny side to the skier’s right were the snow was a little softer. We rode deep enough down the gulley that we had to traverse back and then hike out back to Chair 3. We also mixed in a lap directly under the chairlift later in the day – no complaints about those turns either.

After 4 o’clock, we rode up to the top to dig up some cold Sierra Nevada’s that we had buried in the snow earlier. Cold beer always tastes better above 8000 feet! We ended our upper mountain adventure with spring turns somewhere between Andy’s and Herb’s. Doesn’t look the snow on that side of the mountain is going to last too much longer. Let’s hope we get some of that storm energy in our mountains next week.

As the ski patrol waived us off, we uploaded Chair 2 and opted for the fire road trail back around to the pond. Along the way, we stopped to survey the South Bowl – lots of good riding to be done there yet this year – and wicked steep from that perspective. Since the road dumped us out that the entrance to Nightmare, we opted for something different. The entrance was thin but once you got onto the wide part of the slab, the snow was perfect. There’s a few rock starting to surface near the very bottom but you can still ski all the way to your car! We uploaded Chair 1 and ended the day with a final lap down Morgan’s Grove.

…just another perfect “half-ternoon” of local skiing!!!

Wind and weather permitting, I’ll be back on the mountain on Friday.

MHS