Conditions Report
Report from Friday, February 23rd, 2024
This past Friday, I made a trek out to Dodge Ridge, California, again for the second time this winter. February has been an excellent month for snowfall in the Sierras and Western US, with El Nino storms finally ramping up and dumping tons of freshies, with more on the way later this week! The resort and the Pinecrest area had been completely transformed from January’s dry spell, with bits of snow popping up around as far as low of elevation as Mi-Wuk village further down the highway. When I arrived at the resort, conditions in the parking lot were perfect, with temps in the low 40s, no wind, overcast skies, and tons of fresh snow deposited earlier in the week. Despite being ski week in the Bay Area, crowds weren’t bad, and I could even snag a parking spot right in front of the main lodge. This would be almost unheard of in Lake Tahoe on Fridays or weekends!
I kicked the day off with a warm-up lap down the Motherlode chair. I scoped out a TON of fresh pow while riding up; all concentrated between Comstock and Silver Bowl, which I had to get to via skating over on the flat section of High Road. As it had been about 72 hours since the last snowfall, there were already some tracks in the pow, but there was still enough of it untouched that I could leave my lines in. I made sure to head as close as I could get to the non-operating Comstock chair, where most of the untracked snow was located, and spent the next two runs getting in on as much of that pow as I could get. Coverage was especially great in Silver Bowl, with virtually no ice, and the groomed sections were an incredibly nice packed powder. After my fourth run down Silver Bowl, I rode over to the Prospector Chair via the Golden Nugget trail.
The Prospector Chair area was fantastic, and like Silver Bowl, the coverage and snow were in top condition. On my trip last month to Dodge Ridge, I particularly enjoyed the mellow and widely spaced glade riding, and Friday was no exception. I got in a ton of tree runs. The glades between Stampede and Flume were perfect, and I liked how easy it was to pop back onto the trail and back. Although there were lots of tracks in the trees, there was still quite a bit of free pow to get. My favorite trail variation of the day in this area was to ride in the trees skier’s right of Stampmill and shred down Bobby’s Freedom Trail, which was groomed and had a lovely pitch to it where you could pick up some serious speed. After getting my fill in, I decided it was time to scope out Granite Bowl and the Boulder Creek chair area.
I started my Granite Peak trek with a lap down High Noon, following directly under the lift line to scout out how to enter the bowl. Like everywhere else I had been to at Dodge Ridge that day, the snow was in great condition, and what made it more awesome was that moguls had yet to form on High Noon. I noticed there was a bit of an uphill portion that I didn’t anticipate where High Noon starts to end, so I ended up riding Boulder Creek back up, and for my second attempt to get into Granite Bowl, I noticed the best way was to take Double Shot down, which I did. Double Shot was quite mellow for a black diamond-rated trail, and I then rode down Hole Shot to enter Granite Bowl. The bowl was completely awesome, with tons of fresh powder, and I had the biggest and stupidest grin, making my way to the bottom. Granite Bowl was full of huge, snow-covered boulders that were an absolute blast to ride over on a snowboard. I was pretty pooped getting out of the bowl, but it felt so good to do a trail I was looking forward to trying all winter. I rode the Boulder Creek lift back up and did more runs via Sundown and Amazing Grace.
After taking a pleasant and relaxing break at the base, I returned to the mid-mountain area for more runs down the Flume, Stagecoach, and Quicksilver trails. One aspect about Dodge Ridge that I love is that on Quicksilver, you can get some fantastic views of the backside of the famed East Bay mountain, Mt. Diablo, about three hours away to the west/northwest. It’s so cool to see your local (non-skiing) mountain with such a clear view! My favorite trail during my afternoon session was Jackpot, a double black trail that was steep and fast and had fantastic sun protection in the afternoon. Even though the last hour of the lifts being spun, the snow stayed in great shape. My last run of the day was a pleasant and relaxing cruise down Quicksilver to return to the base parking lot.
It was great to come back to Dodge Ridge, especially with how much the mountain has been transformed with the massive improvements in snowfall we’ve seen in February. With a ton of snow on the way this weekend destined to dump on the Sierra, the beginning of March looks good for the resort and is worth the drive up from the Bay Area to check out.
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