Early Snow Blankets the Sierra

There were a couple early warning light dustings of snow on Mnt. Rose back in September. Then we got another even more significant dusting during the night of October 7th.

October 8th Alpine Meadows
I heard that some guys got a run up at Mnt. Rose on the 4" of fresh on the rocks (shaken not stirred). Then on the night of the 8th and am of the 9th it really dumped above 6,500 feet in the Tahoe region. I heard rumors of almost 2’ over in the Donner summit area.
Not wanting to let this early gift go unappreciated, Steve Price called up the BoardZ Tahoe crash pad to generate an afternoon snowboard session. Our goal was to ride the low tide conditions, but try to minimize potential contact with rocks and other hazards. We thought about a Mnt. Rose trip. Since it dumped so low, we agreed that 8" on top of grass would be better than 1’ on top of rocks. So with the help and blessing of Alpine Meadows, we hiked up and enjoyed the 8" of fresh muck (it rained a little on top of the new stuff) covering the smooth grassy base of the run called Kangaroo. Those nice people at Alpine plant grass and flowers to help minimize the environmental impact of the areas with more traffic. They also remove most of the rocks that protrude from these areas to help them operate under low snow conditions (it also helped us, we didn't hit any rocks!!!).The quickly chosen rock board (my last years Santa Cruz) did not have any wax on it, so Steve’s 1st run was pretty slow while I went back to my car to get some NO-WAX (Teflon). With the Teflon and a boot packed track to our little jump, our 1st snowboarding session of the 97-98 season was in progress. With one board and one camera, we were at snowboarding and videoing tag team. Of course the sun only came out when we were hiking, so these video-stills are not as pretty as they could be, but they work to chronicle to day. Snowboarding on October 9th at 6,900 feet elevation at the base of Alpine Meadows. It is snowing again right now!!!! Does this mean that this could be one heck of a year. Could BE?

October 9th, 1997
What a differance a day makes!

All images above are of Steve Price and his dog.

CyberWill

BoardZ Home

BOARDZ.COM
Voice: 408-479-0620
Email: gwc3@boardz.com
URL: http://www.boardz.com/