TRUCKEE – Spencer Sherman and his family trekked from Sebastopol to Lake Tahoe on Christmas Day anticipating a holiday week of cross-country skiing in the High Sierra.
Instead, they've been hiking over dirt and rocks on the area's cross-country ski trails as Mother Nature continues playing Scrooge with the snow. Northern California's favorite winter wonderland is anything but white, and also unseasonably warm.
"We're OK with no snow this week because the hiking is so beautiful," Sherman said, interrupting a snowball fight with his son, Jeremy, at Tahoe Donner Ski Area in Truckee on Wednesday.
"Oh, that one hurt," Spencer Sherman said, taking a direct hit from Jeremy, 12, as the battle resumed on a patch of crusty brown snow near the clubhouse.
Tahoe Donner, noted for its gentle, beginner-friendly slopes, hosted a "Let It Snow Party" for children with an inflated bounce house, bean bag toss and making of gigantic S'mores on the clubhouse patio.
"Everybody bring a pocketful of snow?" the Tahoe Donner shuttle bus driver playfully asked arriving families.
The ski lift carried visitors to the top of Eagle Rock, at 7,350 feet, for a panoramic view of the rolling terrain, dressed in green and brown. To the south, Northstar's ski trails, coated with machine-made snow, formed white fingers down the mountain.
Big ski resorts like Northstar, Alpine Meadows, Heavenly and Boreal reported 12 to 26 inches of snow, most of it machine made, with about 20 percent of their terrain open.
Tahoe Donner, lacking the machinery for snowmaking, depends on natural snowfall to cloak its slopes, which revealed bushes and grass on Wednesday.
"We call it farming – almost," said Rob McClendon, ski area manager. "We're waiting for the water." After last winter's epic snowfalls, the Tahoe area has little relief in sight from a snow drought that has lasted since November.
A front coming off the Pacific Ocean offers a 30 to 40 percent chance of precipitation early Friday, possibly bringing the ski areas a "couple of inches" of snow, National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Faucette said from Reno.
After that, it could be the middle of next week before more precipitation arrives. Snow that fell in Lake Tahoe early in November is "all gone," Faucette said. Daytime highs are in the 40s and 50s this week, with a balmy 58 late Wednesday morning in Truckee.
Tahoe City on the lake's shoreline received 65 inches of snow last November and December, most of it in December. This year, Tahoe City got 14.5 inches in October and November – none so far in December. Last snow seson, Tahoe City totaled 268.5 inches.
Still, skiers and boarders are making the best of it.
"It was really, really fun. We had a great time," Monica Sheffer, 16, of Santa Rosa said after skiing for six hours at Boreal. There were some grassy patches up high, but otherwise the snow was fine, she said.
Paul Heran of Rocklin, who led Sheffer's youth group, said the Boreal slopes, made a bit slushy by a sprinkle of rain, were ideal for snowboarders like him. "If we fall, it feels better on our butts," he said. Icy cold snow "hurts more," he added.
Fresh natural powder is the best stuff, Heran said, but after it's been on the ground a while, he "can't tell the difference" between natural and manmade snow.
Brian Tercheria of Colorado Springs, Colo. said he was dismayed to see "so much rock showing" on the slopes. But he still got in 10 to 12 runs on Tuesday at Alpine Meadows.
"I can't complain. I had a cold beer afterwards and the chili was hot," Tercheria said in downtown Truckee, devoid of snow.
At the Truckee 76 gas station, Junior Espinoza said he hadn't sold a single set of chains this season. The chains are in storage and will stay there until snowflakes fall.
"It's easy to get around," said Linda Pendleton at the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce office.
Business has been good, with "people spending their holiday cash," said Morgan Boehm at Marilyn's Cat Walk, a downtown Truckee clothing store.
While last winter was a banner year for the ski resorts, it also came with blizzards that closed roads and caused multiple collisions, she said. "It was terrible."
At her home in Prosser, five minutes from Truckee, Boehm said she had to dig holes in deep snow around the house to let light in the windows.
There's no snowmobiling, which is Boehm's sport, around Truckee because there's virtually no snow on the ground. "It's dirt," she said. "You can't even snowshoe."
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