A slow start in the Sierra

Nice grooming at Heavenly, December 2023

The last 2 years spoiled us.  By this time last year we had received 143″ of snow at our house.  The year before it was an even more massive 152″.  This year we’ve had only 2 “storms” and a total of 12″!

Dodge Ridge in the central Sierra isn’t even open yet and most of the open resorts have very limited terrain available, but we’ve gotten out a few times.  Our plan to ski Sierra at Tahoe over Christmas failed again.  Last year it was too much snow and this year too little.  Resorts with a lot of snowmaking like Heavenly are doing OK and we’ve been skiing there the most.  The views of Lake Tahoe are reason enough to go up and make some turns.

Snowmaking at Heavenly, December 2023

The plan

With only 2 more resorts to ski it’s a pretty easy plan this year. We will be heading up to ski Marmot Basin in Jasper, Alberta in mid March for our 99th resort.  In February we will be heading back to Utah to ski Solitude again. It’s changed considerably since we last skied there 13 years ago in 2011 and the review needs an update.  We might be able to squeeze in another trip somewhere in late February depending on snowfall which has been lacking pretty much everywhere in North America so far.

Bring on the snow!