Transparency

Transparency is the word of the day for the forecast. We should be seeing a whole lot of transparent snow in the next 24 hours before we see things turn back to snow. Snow levels are still expected to be rising to near 9000 feet tomorrow before crashing back down sometime Saturday night. As is typical with these storms, it will be that race of how quickly the cold air moves in as compared to how quickly the moisture moves out. The Sacramento office of NOAA did release a Winter Storm Warning today that spells out their thoughts, which are pretty similar to what we suggested yesterday. The latest GFS runs tone the storm down just a bit, but the shorter range NAM ramps it up a bit.

The second part of the transparency theme today is the effort of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings to be completely transparent with people about how operations may happen, or not happen, for Friday and Saturday. The tweet we received pointed directly to the new for this season ski conditions blog. Today’s post was very candid about the possibilities for wind, icing and avalanche danger affecting operations on Friday and Saturday. We have to give kudos to the effort at honesty. It’s something that we have not seen through the last 3 owners, an attempt to be completely honest about the potential for something less than a perfect powder day. Maybe they would rather have people see that on their site than this site…

Here’s what they reported today, which is pretty the same type of warning we have been giving for much of the week:

Weekend Overview

Beginning Thursday night, rain will move into the region and continue throughout most of Friday until it turns to snow later at night. Strong winds will accompany this wave of precipitation that could cause wind holds throughout Friday and Saturday. It appears that snow levels should drop to lake level by midnight-1AM Saturday morning which is also when the heaviest precip is forecast to move in. It should snow for most of Saturday before the second wave of snow moves in Sunday. What will this mean operationally?

 Lift Operations

Winds are forecast to be exceptionally strong on Friday and moderately strong on Saturday. Some lifts, particularly upper mountain, will not be able to open.  When we are unable to spin the lifts, it is common for chairlifts to exhibit significant icing issues that prevent on-time openings the following morning. In short, there is a strong likelihood that we will see wind holds and delayed openings as our Mountain Operations team will need ample time to de-ice effected chairlifts that are cleared to open.

Snow Safety

Forecasts are calling for heavy snow throughout late Friday and most of Saturday before Sunday’s wave moves in. Ski Patrol will be out on the hill as soon as possible to begin snow safety in the morning. Per California law, Patrol cannot begin using explosives until there is enough daylight to see the terrain below them. With snow falling fast and hard, it’s a good bet they will get a later start than normal. Further, having fresh snow fall onto a wet snowpack can cause increased avalanche risk that may hinder Ski Patrol from accessing certain terrain. To summarize: with a lot of new snow falling in a short amount of time, snow safety is going to be critical and given the weather, there is a high probability terrain will have delayed openings or remain closed as patrol works to get it open.

Roads Conditions

Roads will be wet, slow, and busy this weekend. Plan ahead! Keep in mind that Alpine Meadows Road may have to be closed in order to perform avalanche control work.

Keep In Mind

There is a lot of work that goes into opening the mountain every day, but especially when we have big snow and high winds. To stay up-to-date throughout the storm cycle, we recommend downloading the official Squaw Valley|Alpine Meadows app. We will use that channel to push alerts to let you know about lift, terrain, and road status throughout the weekend.