What We Miss At Alpine Meadows This Season

For the last few weeks, we’ve been making the best of another challenging season at Alpine Meadows.  We have had some little powder flings, and skied some great corn. We’ve also managed some nice runs on High Traverse, and we’ve skied more than a season’s worth of groomed runs in Alpine Bowl. But there’s some parts of Alpine Meadows that we’ve been missing this season, and we’re beginning to wonder if we’ll ever get to experience them this season. Here’s what we’re missing:

1) Quiet Laps In Gentian Gully

When the rest of Alpine Meadows is buzzing with traffic and long lines, we love to head to Gentian Gully. Even when Gentian gets busy, 90% of the traffic follows the main Gully. There’s dozens of little hidden lines and stashes to call your own. Gentian has only been open for one 4 day stretch this season, while we were stuck working. We can imagine that the exit involved a lot of bush whacking.

2) Hot Laps in Hot Wheels Gully

Hot Wheels Gully is somewhat of a love it or hate it place. While the terrain is marked as a black diamond, regulars know that you’ll see a mix of every ability navigating the natural terrain features. While “the littles” are content to just wind their way down the creek bed, others lover to ride the walls and look for jibs. My favorite game is to see how many I can pass by taking some of the more creative lines through HWG. With the creek flowing strong again in the gully, the odds seem low that it will ever safely  fill in with snow this season.

3) Hanging Out At The Ice Bar

Although the current rendition of the Ice Bar pales in comparison to the original shack, the experience is still pretty much the same. Sitting out in the Sherwood sun on a spring afternoon with a cold beverage and some music while you recharge for another round of corn laps is a big part of our Alpine Meadows experience. Will the snowpack ever get deep enough for the Ice Bar to open…or for that matter, for Sherwood to reopen?

4) Spring Laps on Outer Outer

We managed to catch a few days in a row on Inner Outer this season, which is defined as skiing out of the boundary from Outer Limits but ditching back inbounds in time to catch Lakeview. That feeling of having the place to yourself, while a hundred yards away Outer Limits is looking like Highway 89, is priceless. By the time Sherwood opened, the Outer Outer option of skiing all of the way to Courchevel Road was just too sketchy. With the warm temperatures we have seen, we wonder if that black lava will ever be covered with snow again this season.

There’s our list, what’s on yours?