There’s some debate about whether or not Wayne Gretzky was the first to suggest that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Nonetheless, it’s an idea that I try to keep in my head when conditions look less than ideal. It didn’t help that the first tweet of the day that I saw was this one:
The second tweet, stating that Summit was on wind hold, was no surprise. I had already been hearing the winds blow overnight. So I made sure to pack an appropriate jacket, which doesn’t always happen, and headed to Alpine Meadows. None of the usual midweek ski crew had made the same decision, which is too bad. Skiing turned out to be really fun for the first few hours today, until the rain began falling around 11:30.
While the off piste conditions were less than stellar today, the on-piste groomers were ripping. They were fast enough for fun, and just dense enough for perfectly carving turns, without leaving deep trenches for the next lap. There were also no worries about hitting that random slick spot or icy patch that developed since the last storm. The SquAlpine app confirms that I laid down my fastest runs of the season, so far, today.
In the spirit of just trying things out, because you never know, I did take a test run down Yellow and Charity. Each had been smoothed out nicely by the few inches of slop that fell since closing yesterday. But my freshly waxed skis were no match for the suction power of the water trapped in the snow. The app reports I maxed out at 18 mph pretty much straight-lining Yellow.
The newly minted terrain park on Tiegel currently has 7 and a half features, mostly boxes and rails. Jumps will likely need another round of snowfall, or colder temps for snowmaking. But there were a number of people happily taking advantage of the faster laps possible on Weasel On Speed to get to the park.
Speaking of more snow, the forecast is looking better than yesterday. Snow levels look to be dropping faster than previously forecast, which means it’s possible that we should see all snow for most of tomorrow and then even colder snow through Saturday. The point forecast is now showing a few inches of snow overnight and up to 18 inches at mid mountain by Sunday morning. I am certainly liking that lower trend in temperatures. Confidence continues to build in the next big system for the following weekend and maybe a weaker introductory system on the 18th.
Sorry we failed to find you for a run especially since your crew was absent. Pretty good groomers and somewhat hazardous to inadvertently wander off of them into the glue. Not getting rained on was a big upside to our expectations!