For the best skiing conditions look to the volcanoes.

<a href=”http://www.mammothmountain.com/”>Mammoth Mountain</a> is of course still open for lift access skiing through July 4^th. But more importantly you should shift your interest to the volcanoes to the north. Have you ever skied in a lava tube? Mt. Lassen, ...drum roll begins... the BIGGEST ACTIVE PLUG DOME VOLCANO ON THE CONTINENT, has a healthly snow pack and is still putting out over 3000 vertical feet of sustained skiing. Lassen has received enough significant snow during these last couple storm cycles to completely smooth the mountain out. It is skiing excellent and so are the smaller peaks surrounding it. Mt. Shasta, reportedly, received the brunt of this last storm and by saturday received well over a foot of fresh snow. More snow was expected during the weekend. Once those fresh snow melts down a bit, it should provide for excellent spring corn conditions. These storms were the perfect cure for any sun cups woes these mountains were having.

    Last but not least, don't give up on local tahoe skiing opportunities. After cancelling an excursion to the north this weekend, because of weather concerns, I hoped to salvage the ski weekend locally. The mountain peaks clearly got a little fresh snow out of this last storm cycle, but the question was how much? Recently we received reports of the slide chutes being in bad shape snow wise and requiring a healthly walk out. So, I decided to try the summit. Additionally, the summit got the bulk of the snow from the this storm as the storm didn't seem to have the guts to make it past the sierra crest. Most areas on the summit such as Castle Peak or Mt. Judah appeared to have some snow but required a very significant hike in on dirt. So, I decided to go see what the conditions were like at Sugar Bowl ski resort. To my delight Mt. Lincoln was still covered all the way down to where it flattens out. The real suprise, was that it had received 2-4 inches of thick snow in the last couple days, leaving it as smooth as one could hope for. The skiing was good although the snow was a bit sticky. I am sure it would have been perfect in the morning, but I hit it right in the middle of the day. Let this be a lesson to not forget the local ski areas just because the lifts shutdown. When ski areas are born, generally the would be owner picks the best of the litter in terms of mountains. You aren't going to find many successful ski areas that are on a mountain that is in a rain shadow or is so exposed that the snow doesn't stick or has only southern aspects that melt out quickly. So resorts like Sugar Bowl, Squaw and Alpine still have great coverage on a lot of aspects.

    The short term weather outlook looks great for spring skiing. More cold nights should extend our currently decent spring skiing conditions.