April 7 & 8, 2005, Sierra at Tahoe

The past 2 days have been classic Sierra powder days with winds along the ridges at 30-45 mph with gusts over 75 mph. The upper lifts at Alpine, Squaw, Heavenly,Rose, Sugar Bowl and Kirkwood have been in limited operation or closed. We have been staying in S. Lk Tahoe and it's only 19 miles to Sierra. We used our Alpine Spring Pass to buy a reduced $30 lift ticket. All the lifts were running both days and the only wind affect was the top 100 vertical of the Grandview and West Bowl chairs. Skiing midweek certainly has its benefits. We cycle through the lift entrance as fast as we can shuffle and ride the high speed quads to the top. Thursday was a constant snow shower that refreshed our lines within 2 hours. By days end 6" fell and it was still snowing as we descended to S. Lk. Tahoe where it was sunny and dry. Friday was a full on blizzard wth another 4" overnight and another 8" while we were skiing. The trees had about a foot of light powder and Jill had a giggle fest weaving thru knee deep dust in the trees. The powder was light and it seemed like a December storm day. It appears that winter just won't end. We'll probably spend this weekend touring on a Sierra Club outing with a high pressure system forecast. The long term forecast is for another storm cycle midweek. As an ole powder sage once said - "never leave great powder in search of better powder". I think we've found a powder honey hole around Tahoe. It's snorkel time in the Sierras. Zap & Jill<br>