Do No Harm

First, do no harm... It's a long way from Hippocrates' Classical Athens to Captain James Tiberius Kirk's 23rd Century United Federation of Planets and The Prime Directive. Whether the founding of Western Democracy, or one of it's most fully realized Science Fiction futures, the Principal endures. As it should.

The quality of early season ski trails isn't a life and death issue the way medicine or a balky warp drive can be, but those trails are My Universe, and they do seem perilously frail, given the forecast outlook and skier interest.

This season's quiescent start to the water year is unlike any season I've experienced in my 30 years on My Mountain. KCRA3's Chief Meteorologist, Mark Finan cited the record books for his 11 O'clock News Tuesday night. Mark said in the past 100 years, 19 winters started in similar fashion. Of those 19, three finally finished above normal precipitation-wise.

From my memory, I would cite the 1990/1991 Season as most like this one. Californians will remember that winter for it's "March Miracle". The season ended with about normal precip after a slow start. I have a feeling that it was the 90/91 winter that was responsible for finally bringing snowmaking to Northern California.

So here we are tonight...My Mountain is running half of it's chairs, and one fourth of it's trails...all on 100% Man-Made Snow. The AFD's say clear weather for the foreseeable future. One side effect of the entrenched blocking high off the Pacific Coast are the Temperature Inversions plaguing the Tahoe Sierra snowmaking crews. Which brings us to last night.

I pulled into the shop parking lot at the usual hour. The compressor farm was running and there was a breeze coming from the East. I donned my slicker for the walk to the shop. This was an improvement over Sunday's shift...No wind Sunday=Inversion Layer=No Snowmaking Temps.

Snowmaking was marginal at midnight. Warmish for snowmaking, the fans and guns weren't pumping much water, hence not a lot of snow was being made. As the night continued, the breeze died down, and temps slowly rose from bottom to top (classic inversion profile) until my 2-Way crackled. Jeweler wanted my advice.

We met 10 minutes later. Jeweler was looking a little tortured, his shift was turning from bad to worse. He wanted an ally to help him justify the Shutdown Call. He made his case, and ran through his laundry list of increasing negatives. I stopped him before the bitter end. "Don't make rain" I told him. "Right" replied Jeweler. We discussed the options, and I reminded him of the Prime Directive, and said we can't afford to make a mistake we that can't recover from on that shift... making rain would be that worst case mistake. Crestfallen but slightly vindicated, Jeweler transmitted the decision to his crew and rumbled into the night.

Two and a half hours after the snowmakers went home, the east winds began to freshen and the temps plummeted into the teens. As I tiptoed about the trails, I ran through the inventory of my shifts since I started back on Friday night.

Thanks to the coordinated attack of our snowmakers and groomers, I'd watched the conditions improve every night until last night. Skier Visits are holding steady at around 1000/day. 1000 happy sliders is a lot of sharp edges scraping away our precious piste. Throw in some stiff east winds and that snowpack can shrink daily. At least we held our ground last night...we didn't improve from the previous night, but we forestalled any degradation.

So that in a nutshell is our mission for the rest of the year. Hold the line...improve wherever possible...don't make any unfixable errors, and those 1000 will tell their friends about the amazing conditions at My Mountain, and 1000 scrapers daily will come and enjoy our wares.

Looking as I always do at the remote sensors, there will be great temps tonight. The winds are up, hopefully they'll stay low enough to ward off the inversion and allow us to capitalize on what the Reno AFD says will be a couple of cold dry days.

We should do fine as long as the well doesn't run dry...but that's a story for another night

Dispatch From the Front

Non-productive cough aside, I had a great night at work Wednesday. Temps have been cold since the last system moved on. Hero Snow as far as the eye can see.

Even though Jeweler and I teamed up for a 30 minute push project this morning, I was still punched out at 0915.

The week ahead will be storm-free. We are enjoying a record early snowpack, and crowds are good.

Local media is on the story.

After work, I hit the Safeway...Dungeness crabs on sale for $1.99/lb. After my collapse/nap, I enjoyed a crab dinner with fresh baked San Francisco Sourdough, and a bottle of Blanc de Noirs by Domaine Chandon.

Should be another good night tonight...

Getting Dialed

Good coyote! Watching Boreal's groomers

Funny, my sleep schedule this season is shaping up as a two part affair...fall asleep during the Noon News, wake up for the 5PM News, nap from 8-10PM...so far it's workin' OK

So between sleep shifts I check the web for weather intel...I read the AFD's, scan the PWS's, watch the weatherman's standup on the TV News...Winter Storm Warnings have been issued for Noon Friday through 4PM Sunday! Today I even received an email newsletter on the forecast deluge. This one gave me pause. It's from The Storm King, Mark McLaughlin our local Tahoe Weather Historian.

Here's the takeaway that might keep me awake:

"Weather watchers like me have been somewhat expecting a potential flood
event this winter, especially in December. The influence of the strong La
Nina event in the Pacific Ocean trends toward a weather pattern that can tap
a moist subtropical flow known in the West as the “Pineapple Express.”
Virtually all of California’s most destructive floods have occurred during
La Nina-influenced winters, so this approaching potent system should come as
no surprise. Another one is expected next week."

"This winter is off to a strong start; precipitation in October was 253
percent above normal and November dumped all that snow. The saturated soils will be unable to absorb much of the expected rain which increases the flood potential. Interestingly, this winter’s precipitation plot line is closely following the trajectory of 1982-1983, the wettest year on record. During the winter of 1983, nearly 90 inches of precipitation inundated the region,
including 56 feet of snow measured at Donner Pass."

So, maybe we'll be making history this season...O, how well I remember 82-83!

Weather Geeks and History Freaks couldn't do better than subscribing to Mark's Newsletter: Tahoe Nuggets. Mark's always a fascinating read, especially for those of us lucky enough to live in the Tahoe Sierra, with all this history under foot...and at times...falling from the sky.

More good times!

Mountain Musings

I won't lie, it's been like a furnace here in the Inland Valley. I can't blame the heat for forgetting to turn my phone back on, or missing Jerry Otto's Fish Camp.

I talked to SturgeUrge this afternoon, and he had a good time up on the West Fork of the Carson River. Get this, they saw the DFG truck stock the river, and caught the crap outta those planters!

I'm sorry I missed it, but I'm falling behind my expectations for the Ancestral Diggins...in a hurry.

I did find the time to muse on all things mountainous, though. I began my day watching the first tiny mountains in this year's Tour de France.

There was big trouble on a mountain road in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium today. Almost every Tour de France racer crashed descending a rain-slicked mountain road. One rider in the breakaway fell, then a motorcycle put it down to avoid the downed rider...spilling engine oil across the road, which caused the whole chasing peloton to crash as well. All the big stars were on the ground today...including the core of my Fantasy Tour Team.

Most escaped with road rash or minor cuts and abrasions...except for American Christian Vande Velde, who I thought was a contender for the podium...if not the overall win. Christian finished the race, and along with two teammates went to the hospital afterwords. X-rays revealed broken ribs, and he withdrew. I'm still waiting to see if up and coming American sprinter, Tyler Farrar will suffer the same fate.

Big-League bicycle racing can be cruel. Tuesday's Stage 3 will be worse than today's massacre. Tuesday the race enters France and is contested over the infamous Paris-Roubaix roads including several sectors of cobblestone roads or as the French say, pavé.

The forecast promises only 20% chance of rain, but it doesn't take much moisture to make a horrible mess for the racers. They'll be in "The Hell of the North"...I'll be holding my breath!

While keeping an eye on my Twitter feed for Tyler Farrar news, I noticed that the Sierra Sun tweeted that business in the High Sierra was good over Independence Day Weekend. They also posted the season's Winter Weather Wrap-Up.

In the Wrap-Up, they reported that Kirkwood did turn chairlifts over the holiday weekend.

OnTheSnow.com reports that five North American Ski Resorts are open in July, including Boreal where they will turn a lift next weekend, July 10th and 11th. The three other holdouts are: Timberline Lodge on Oregon's Mt Hood, Mammoth Mountain in SoCal, and Whistler in British Columbia, Canada.

This just in, Tyler Farrar suffered a broken wrist, and although his Directeur Sportif says Tyler will start in the morning, either way he's not a contender for sprint glory anymore in this Tour. With less than seven hours before the Trade Deadline, I traded up for Contador, so I have two GC Contenders now.

With Armstrong and Contador for the GC, Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd, two Spanish Climbers (in addition to Contador): Juan Antonio Flecha and Juan Manuel Garate, Spanish All-Arounder Luis Leon Sanchez, the up and coming Brit All-Arounder, Bradley Wiggins, and my Russian Ace in the Hole...Vladimir Karpets.

So, about an hour of wrestling with my team it dawned on me...given the capriciousness of this year's Tour, I'd better put together a second team. (I'm a Fantasy Sports Conglomerate now, so sue me)

Now Team CorduroyPlanet is ready for action.

Epic Swells Again

Grab Bag for Geeks
I'll keep this short...think of it as a BonusBlog this week. It's just that the Buzz about the "Epic Swells like 1969" keeps showing up in my Twitter Feed. Maybe these Dudes will get some sleep tonight, but somehow I doubt it...

The Santa Cruz Sentinel weighed in with some news: "Surfers will decide if contest will get the green light Friday" It's kinda nice to see democracy on the rise somewhere these days.

Well the cold got here! Atop the SF/Monterey NWS' Homepage is a red banner that says: LOW SNOW LEVELS MONDAY! The Weatherman on the KPIX 11 O'clock News said snow down to 500ft Monday...That'll do it for the last of the Vine Ripe Tomatoes at the Local Farmer's Market.

Frosty Dawn
The SF/Monterey NWS wasn't kidding. Their full page of weather warnings was bound to get it right, even if you chalk it up to the Shotgun Effect...that many Warnings, Watches and Advisories are bound to find a few targets...

There's frost on the pumpkin here in the Inland Valley Sunday morning. Hanging in bed while the house warmed up, I surfed for Weathergeek data. It looks like the Surf Contest Dudes got some sacktime after all, there's a quiet calm over in their Cyber-Neighborhood this morning.

Filling the Toolbox
Without any new intel from the Surf World, I did some snooping around their websites. It turns out that Surfers, Skiers, Snowboarders, Groomers, Boaters and Fishermen all work or play in similar milieus. As such, the Surfer's Wing of the Weathersphere sports some truly comprehensive Weather Websites. Think of them as Sports/Weather/Buoy/Webcam Aggregators...sort of a "one page fits all" deal. I bookmarked Stormsurf because it's got all the features I want, whether I'm working, traveling, or fishing.

All my reminiscing over the Winter of 1969 made me track down my Local Newspaper's "Sierra Storm King" I've enjoyed Mark McLaughlin's historical weather passions for many years, and I'm eagerly awaiting his new book on Tahoe Sierra Winter Sports History: "Longboards to Olympics" Mark is publishing his latest just in time for the 50th Anniversary of the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 60th of Squaw Valley USA.

Mark's Website made my Weather Bookmarks, too. I'm starting to think he'll have plenty to write about, now that El Niño is coming back to town!

Do you feel the Buzz in the air yet? I'm buzzin' because Winter 2009/2010 could be Epic!