2023: A year in review
The start of 2023 involved little other than snow. It was one of the snowiest years on record in the Central Sierra, with many areas recording well over 700 inches of snowfall. Paired with unusually cold temperatures, the skiing was consistently amazing, although most everyone was dead in the eyes by March. There was so much snow that we were still skiing in June! Shannon and I then left Tahoe to spend time with our families back east before starting our respective summer excursions. Shannon was going to spend a couple of months on the PCT going from Mt. Shasta to Northern Washington, while I was going to be attempting my North Appalachian High Route (The NAHR) starting in New York.
Sadly, neither of us were able to complete our objectives after Shannon wound up in the hospital for a couple of emergency surgeries. I came back to California to be with her, and once she was able to travel again we spent more time in the Midwest with family. She’s healed quite well and we’re both very grateful nothing happened while she was in the backcountry.
After we had our fill of the Midwest, we drove back to California and bummed around for much of fall before moving in to a new place in Kings Beach. In October I made a trip to Bend, OR for the International Snow Science Workshop with a few coworkers, and by the time we got back to Tahoe we were starting patrol refresher training on the mountain.
This year brought a slow start to winter, but luckily Mt. Rose’s elevation and snowmaking had me working full time in early November. Plenty of other mountains didn’t open until after Christmas, so we were feeling pretty lucky. It’s still been a below average winter, but not catastrophically so. At this point we have the majority of our terrain open, with the rest coming soon. After a year like last, it’s hard to complain too much!
