Let’s Try This Again…

It’s with a little bit of trepidation that we announce the return of the Unofficial Alpine website. Back in February of 2017, things were getting to be much too much of a headache and we decided to take a hiatus. Casual observers have noted, frequently, that we did not actually pull the plug and kill the site. There has always been some thoughts in the back of our head about bringing it back in some form.

Recently, our friend and contributor, Andy Wertheim, found that he could no longer distribute his Unofficial Alpine Meadows Ski Report through Yahoo Groups, as Yahoo killed that service last week. Andy has been skiing at Alpine Meadows since they opened in 1961, and has lived in the valley for nearly his entire life. He really is a fountain of knowledge about the mountain. We’ve been reading his newsy emails since about 2002. We want to help him continue to share that knowledge with his readers, and ours.

Myself, I plan to write a report or two, for the sake of variety and because I like to write stuff. Besides ski reports, it’s kind of fun to look at the weather and talk about gear and local events. I just need to keep it easy and fun.

Things aren’t going to be the same here. During the ski season, we want to talk about skiing, our home mountain, the weather and the people that love Alpine Meadows. Frankly we’re tired of epic political battles over the Squaw Valley development, the new Gondola, other local property developments, traffic, short term rentals, etc. While we have opinions about all of these things, we prefer to leave those arguments for supervisors’ meetings and NextDoor.

With those goals in mind, we’ve created some ground rules to keep in mind:

• We don’t own the mountain and neither do you. Alterra Mountain Company is going to make the decisions they make, along with local mountain managers. It’s the way it is. The ski industry is rapidly evolving in this age of competing mega-passes and a changing climate. We have come to understand that it is impossible for Alpine Meadows, or any other ski area, to stay the same or return to the good old days. All we can do is choose to enjoy it or not.

• We are not patrollers, lift mechanics, groomers or lift operators or mountain employees of any sort. They’re doing the best they can, given the resources provided by AMC and Mother Nature. Let’s just enjoy the fruits of their labors the best we can.

• The internet and its various social media outlets can be a giant pit of despair and sometimes tends to bring out the worst in people. We don’t want that to happen anymore. We want to promote community interaction, while also promoting positivity and friendly spirit. We’re letting you know that we’re going to moderate comments with a very heavy hand. Just remember what your mother said.

• We’re not going to connect this page to other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. It’s just too much work to moderate all of those points of presence to make sure people are keeping their cool. We thank you for sharing this site with others through chairlift talk and sharing on your personal social media pages.

• We’ve resumed promoting our posts via Facebook as we try to quickly regain some ground with readership. We really prefer that people post comments here so we can keep a handle on moderation. It’s likely that most comments on our Facebook page will be deleted just to keep a better handle on things.

• Although we don’t currently have any stickers to offer, we might sometime in the future. We have to do a better job of keeping them off of mountain property. Stickers belong on bumpers, skis and helmets – not chairlifts. Be respectful of your mountain.

If you want to easily follow this page, the best thing you can do is to put in your email address and click the Subscribe button in the sidebar on the right side of your page. Every time we make a new post, it will magically be emailed right to your box. Yeah, not every body does email, we get that. If you’re beyond email, just tell Siri or Alexa to remind you to come back here every few days.

So there is no real report for today. There’s some snow and rain in the forecast for the weekend. Personally I think we’ll see the lower end of the forecast and higher than expected snow levels. But whatever it is, I’m just going to make the best of it.

The grand opening of the new chairlift of many names (TLC, Hotter Wheels, Turbo Weasel or 3.25) has been postponed due to weather, but you should still come and check it out. It’s going to be a game changer. You just have to be willing to change your game.

Thanks for rejoining us at Unofficial Alpine.

Mark & Andy