Snow Year at Western States?

After enduring a rather wet winter here in California, I’ve been anxiously watching the snow levels in Squaw Valley. With only 24 days before the start of Western States, its looking more likely, if not certain, that we will be running a significant portion of the first 30 miles of the course in snow. Gulp!


How many miles will we be on snow? Not sure, but race officials sent the following email to race participants…."How many miles of snow should we expect on race weekend? We should have a better idea what the race weekend snow conditions will be by June 19th. We'll share that information with you when we have it. Ultimately, we take whatever the mountain gives us.”

Note: italics provided by this blogger for emphasis. We take whatever the mountain gives us. Doesn’t that sound cool!? Wow, now I feel like the Marlboro man getting ready for an assault on some remote peak in the Punjab province! What I really am is a skinny old man trying to get from a posh ski resort to a quaint town named Auburn.

With 78 inches of snow remaining at the top of Squaw as recently as two days ago, my guess for race day is, well, snow. What does that mean? I’m not quite sure. I haven’t done any meaningful runs on snow, so I’m about to find out. I guess I’ll take whatever the mountain gives me!