I drove my Miata to Alpine Meadows today. That should not be possible in mid-February. But we have to accept the weather the way it comes. So spring skiing it was again today. Lifts again spun early, offering soft groomers and uncrowded slopes to those that arrived early. Once again, Alpine’s groomers seem to be on a quest to groom anything and everything that can be groomed. Today we found new lines groomed between Werner’s and Boomerang and also between Yellow and Skadi Hill.
All of those extra little lines proved valuable as things got a bit crowded on the frontside this morning. Colder temps kept frontside off piste runs from softening before noon. There was also a ton of traffic from Squaw Valley teams today. There were moments this morning where you would find yet another Squaw team no matter where you went. I had to laugh because I continue to see Squaw coaches asking patrol and lifties for directions around Alpine. Just for the record, I was not the guy that sent a large Squaw team to go explore the ice rink that was Broccoli Tree and Gentian Gully this morning.
Sherwood had a maintenance hold this morning. The unofficial word from Kate was that mice had chewed a fiber optic line at Sherwood. Finding someone to repair that on the Sunday of a holiday weekend apparently is a problem, but lift maintenance was able to get Sherwood up and running right about noon. Sherwood was so smooth and fast that ultimately two patrollers were stationed to check speeds near the Ice Bar. South Face was actually a bit too mushy by the time Sherwood opened today. That just meant that it was time to move to Scott for a fine spring afternoon.
The Tahoe Junior Freeride Series also went into a second day of competition on Pond Slope, with a large crowd watching from Kangaroo. We also saw the first band of the season on the deck. The California Honeydrops put on a great show to a packed deck. I heard many people say this was the best band to ever play Alpine Meadows. It was a great spring day at Alpine…except that spring is still 5 weeks away.
Looking Ahead….
Everyone seems to agree that it is going to snow on Tuesday. There continues to be some significant differential in the precipitation amounts. They run from the minimalist 2-5 inches up through 20 inches. The models tend to change with every run, as it’s difficult to track these sort of lows that tend to drift down the coast instead of being forced over the Sierra crest. In the short term forecasts, NOAA seems to do a reasonable job with precip estimates and as of this evening has issued a Winter Weather Watch with precip in the 6 inch range. It’s worth noting the lack of a snow advisory or winter storm watch. Strangely though, the point forecast shows 12-18 inches for Alpine on Tuesday. We shall see how the forecast changes again tomorrow.
Beyond that, some of the bloggers continue to call for a relatively wet pattern over the next two weeks, with small storms every few days. Paul at TahoeWeatherBlog.com shows an EC model with 5 inches of liquid over the next 2 weeks. That would be awesome. But the NOAA 6-10 day shows a dry scenario. The PNA goes back to positive after being neutral this week and the MJO has weakened and wanders around near Phase 4 and 5 (drier) in the current models. There’s really not much to suggest any big pattern changes yet. We are all ready for something to come along that is truly a game changer.