Journeys›Photograph

Early Season Bluebird Turns at Alpine

·Placer County, California·#winter#tahoe#skiing#snow#bluebird day
Bright sun over snowy mountains and dense evergreen trees, with ski tracks and two prominent lift cables crossing.

Drove over to the Alpine side of Palisades for some early season bluebird turns. Not a cloud all morning, and cold enough that the groomers held up well past when they usually go soft.

Coverage is what you'd expect for the first week of December — the ridgelines are all rock and the bowls have that pattern where every boulder is still poking through, tracks threading between them. People had clearly been up in the steeps anyway; there were lines cut through the rocky faces below the crags.

Rode over toward Lake View mid-morning and the lake was flat and dark blue, no ice yet, the valley around it mostly bare. Snow line is sitting high right now — everything below the base looked more like October than December. The Sierra crest to the south had decent white on it, but the shaded aspects are the only thing really holding. A few more storms would fix a lot.

Lifts were empty enough that we never stopped moving.

Snow-covered mountains and evergreen forests extend under a clear, bright blue sky.Snowy mountains covered in evergreen trees under a clear blue sky.A blue "LAKE VIEW" sign points left against a backdrop of snow-covered, forested mountains under a clear sky.A snow-covered mountain slope with trees overlooks a deep blue lake surrounded by dense forests and distant blue mountains.Snowy mountain landscape under a clear blue sky, with rock faces, evergreen trees, and ski tracks.A snowy mountain slope with evergreen trees and dark rock formations under a bright blue sky.

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