On the way from Wyoming to Mammoth, we were graciously invited to stay with Bob and Pat in Reno. They lived full time last season in Big Bear, where we skied with them a couple of times.
With the ongoing dry spell over a month in the Sierra, we limited this stop to one night and one ski day at Mt. Rose. The weather was a big change from Wyoming, sunny and high 45F. Bob and Pat said this was the warmest day of the winter so far. Here they are with Liz in front of the Mt. Rose lodge.
Behind the buildings are Mt. Rose groomers at right and some of the Chutes at left.
We first crossed to the Slide Mt. side which gets morning sun. East facing Silver Dollar was already in corn mode by 10:30. But Slide Mt. bends around to north facing Bruce and Bonanza, which still retained winter snow. Most of the Mt. Rose frontside groomers like Northwest Passage were also packed powder.
A little over half of the Chutes were open, and we heard that the ones farthest east had the best snow. I first tried Nightmare, impressively sustained steep, so I skied it fairly defensively in somewhat tight chalk.
Back on the Slide side, Bob and Pat wanted to show us the comfortably spaced trees on either side of Bruce’s: Olympic Trees and Overland Glade. Both of these had smooth chalk and not the bumps I’d expect after a month with no snow. View over Carson Valley from top of Washoe Zephyr before we skied Olympic Trees:
Olympic Trees from below:
The next Chute I tried with Bob was Beehive.
There was a lot of loose snow in here, and several locals came ripping through.
It was now midday so ungroomed east facing had softened. Here are Bob, Liz and Pat on Gold.
Next time we dropped into Macho Bowl closer to the lift. Liz drifted back to Gold, still gravitating to the moguls after all those years in the Northeast.
Bob followed me down the chair line.
We all skied Lakeview down to the Mt. Rose base, where Bob and Pat called it a day while Liz and I took a short break. After a cruise on Ramsey we skied the farthest east Chute Miller Time.
Miller Time is the shortest Chute on the map, but its steepest pitch is still sustained for at least 500 vertical.
I also skied Cutthroat Chute on the west side before we finished the day on Kit Carson/Aida. I skied 23,300 vertical.
This day far exceeded expectations considering it had not snowed in 5 weeks. Snow preservation was on a par with Alta/Snowbird and Mammoth. And perhaps there is more soft snow in the Chutes because they don’t see the traffic that steeps at Mammoth and AltaBird do.
I pondered whether there is another area of this medium size with as high a level of overall terrain quality. The one that came to mind was Discovery. As in Discovery’s Limelight terrain, when you see a Chute marked double black, they mean it. And for less expert skiers there’s a good mix of groomers, bumps and well spaced glades.
With the ongoing dry spell over a month in the Sierra, we limited this stop to one night and one ski day at Mt. Rose. The weather was a big change from Wyoming, sunny and high 45F. Bob and Pat said this was the warmest day of the winter so far. Here they are with Liz in front of the Mt. Rose lodge.
Behind the buildings are Mt. Rose groomers at right and some of the Chutes at left.
We first crossed to the Slide Mt. side which gets morning sun. East facing Silver Dollar was already in corn mode by 10:30. But Slide Mt. bends around to north facing Bruce and Bonanza, which still retained winter snow. Most of the Mt. Rose frontside groomers like Northwest Passage were also packed powder.
A little over half of the Chutes were open, and we heard that the ones farthest east had the best snow. I first tried Nightmare, impressively sustained steep, so I skied it fairly defensively in somewhat tight chalk.
Back on the Slide side, Bob and Pat wanted to show us the comfortably spaced trees on either side of Bruce’s: Olympic Trees and Overland Glade. Both of these had smooth chalk and not the bumps I’d expect after a month with no snow. View over Carson Valley from top of Washoe Zephyr before we skied Olympic Trees:
Olympic Trees from below:
The next Chute I tried with Bob was Beehive.
There was a lot of loose snow in here, and several locals came ripping through.
It was now midday so ungroomed east facing had softened. Here are Bob, Liz and Pat on Gold.
Next time we dropped into Macho Bowl closer to the lift. Liz drifted back to Gold, still gravitating to the moguls after all those years in the Northeast.
Bob followed me down the chair line.
We all skied Lakeview down to the Mt. Rose base, where Bob and Pat called it a day while Liz and I took a short break. After a cruise on Ramsey we skied the farthest east Chute Miller Time.
Miller Time is the shortest Chute on the map, but its steepest pitch is still sustained for at least 500 vertical.
I also skied Cutthroat Chute on the west side before we finished the day on Kit Carson/Aida. I skied 23,300 vertical.
This day far exceeded expectations considering it had not snowed in 5 weeks. Snow preservation was on a par with Alta/Snowbird and Mammoth. And perhaps there is more soft snow in the Chutes because they don’t see the traffic that steeps at Mammoth and AltaBird do.
I pondered whether there is another area of this medium size with as high a level of overall terrain quality. The one that came to mind was Discovery. As in Discovery’s Limelight terrain, when you see a Chute marked double black, they mean it. And for less expert skiers there’s a good mix of groomers, bumps and well spaced glades.
