It wasn’t even Fall yet but last week the slopes of the Sierra looked like the start of Winter.

“Anytime you see snow covered hills this time of year it gets everybody excited.” says Rich Bailey, Mountain Manager at China Peak.

“It’s unexplainable, it’s just the rush, just seeing those flakes fall one by one.” comments Eric Montez, a regular at the mountain.

Last week’s four inches of snow at China Peak may not have stuck around for long, but Bailey says it’s the first step in making for a solid Winter season, saturating the ground.  

“It fills in all the poreous space between dirt molecules, dirt chunks, gets down in there, that sets up for a perfect snowpack to come.”

High hopes for a white Winter may be seen from high-up in the mountain’s biggest addition in years, China Peak’s first 4 person chairlift, also known as a quad.

“We’ll be able to double our capacity going up hill at any one time we have 90 carriers that can hold 4 people each,” says Bailey.  “The line speed is a little faster than the previous chairlift, each chair comes by about every 8 seconds.”

A massive lift that everyone up here hopes meets a massive snow pack, much like last year’s.

“The snow walls were higher than the cars, higher than my RV, if we could just re-live last season that would be great!” recalls Montez