Squaw Valley, CA Jan 4, 2020

My first ski day of the season. We went to San Diego over the New Year so we didn't ski until now. This is a brief TR with some pictures. I don't have the expertise to describe snow conditions accurately but I hope pictures will speak for themselves.

Some friends were going to Squaw so I tagged along. When we arrived at 9 AM it was snowing. We got the parking in the carpool lot. It was still a bit of a walk through the village.

We had a 1 boat wait for the tram. It was windy and snow was blowing when we got out. I started with Bailey's Beach lift to get a feeling for the snow. That section was smooth. Next, I went to Mountain Meadow lift with a slightly longer beginner run. There were some spots with blown soft snow and some icy spots. and decided to take it easy and did a few runs there.

Around 11:30 the sky cleared up. I decided to go to Big Blue Express. The lines at Big Blue were around 10-15 minutes mid-day. There is a flat section that leads to Big Blue and it had very well compacted snow. It wasn't icy but there wasn't much loose snow. I did a couple of runs there. I didn't go right underneath the lift as there were many exposed spots that I could see from the lifts. I think a lot of snow had washed out because of the recent rains. The landing area of Silverado lift was very brown and that lift was closed.

We took a long break to enjoy the scenery as it was clear and sunny at lunchtime. After lunch, I ventured to the Shirley Lake Express lift. It was icy and scraped in places so I decided not to go on another run there. I did a few more laps on trails off Big Blue and eventually tried a run from Gold Coast lift. It was also icy, so I went back to Big Blue. Around 3 PM, there was no line on Big Blue, so I did 4-5 more laps until 4 PM and downloaded the tram.

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