Atmospheric Rivers X 3

Since the storm we had on January 3 during our stay at Powder Haus for Christmas the Sierras (and Northern California in general) hadn’t seen a drop of precipitation. Nothing. So a week-or-so ago when the forecast showed multiple atmospheric rivers spinning in from the Pacific some excitement started to brew in the Valtenbergs household at the prospect of powder days in our future. Unfortunately the storms transitioned in from the southwest, so brought with them warm temps and snow levels way above the resort bases. It’s no fun skiing in the rain so we sat out the first two of the three storms that rolled in. The forecast had temps dropping at the tail end of the second storm, and with Max’s school closed due to a storm-inflicted power outage we didn’t need any additional motivation to head up to the mountains.

It’s always tough for the models to accurately forecast snow levels and air temperatures in the middle of these storms with so much air pressure moving around and the sheer amount of precipitation coming from the sky. The precipitation beat the cold front at the tail end of the second storm and, much to our chagrin, when we made it to Powder Haus on Tuesday night it was raining, not snowing. It was snowing up at Sugar Bowl though, however the amount of moisture in the snow meant that it froze overnight and created a crust on top of two feet of fresh powder. Not good, the kind of snow that gives the Sierras a bad name… We actually missed the best powder by a day: Tuesday morning was the goods, but that was definitely not in the forecast on Monday… The moisture the froze on Tuesday night also meant that rime ice was covering the chairlifts on Wednesday morning – which delayed the resort opening – and high avalanche risk resulted in us waiting for over two hours in the line at Disney while ski patrol dropped countless bombs in the snowpack (the wait sucked but at least we had something fun to watch!).

After a late lunch and some sun on the crust, the afternoon was actually a ton of fun. The resort emptied out as all the locals got their fill of morning turns on whatever powder stashes they could find, and Max and I enjoyed untracked snow on the eastern side of the resort until the lifts closed. My hamstrings sure were tight this morning trying to keep up with Wild Man: “Just one more, Dad!”

The third of the three atmospheric rivers hit Sonoma County early Thursday morning and made its way to the mountains by mid-morning, bringing with it almost a foot of cold snow. We let the fresh snow build up a little before hitting the slopes, by the time we made it to the top of Lincoln we were greeted with boot-deep pow everywhere and pretty much an empty mountain. Exactly what we came for… Max’s passion bucket was overflowing, I lost count of the number of times I heard, “That was sick!” or, “Let’s do that one again, Dad!” It was high moisture content snow but a ton of fun, the kind of day when Wild Man was hucking off everything in sight with the knowledge there would be a pillow of fresh snow to land in on the other side.

I could see Max’s body language change as it was getting close to 3:00PM, tired after charging for almost five hours on the slopes. And the temps were starting to rise anyway, turning the precipitation from snow into freezing rain: time for us to call it a day. Always a good one when we can ski back to the car, high fives in the parking lot for sure! Friday would have been another good one on the slopes, but Wild Man had school and a Valentine’s dance with Mum beckoning us back to Sonoma County…