We skipped a report for yesterday because skiing was that fun. Monday brought bluebird skies combined with an east wind and cold temperatures. That meant that the snow stayed soft and cold all day, and if you knew where to look, blew into some places, doubling our fun. It was with tears that I had to drag myself away from the fun little bumps that have formed. I could have kept doing laps on Summit from Sunspot to Red Ridge and right back to the chair all day.
Today, the skies turned gray in advance of the next little storm. While the bumps were still small and soft, the visibility was not great. Once you have gotten past a certain age, there’s really no goggle that can really make it great. My usual choice, the Smith Chromapop Everyday series does well as long as there are a few rays of sunshine. When that occurred today, I darted off toward the nearest bumps, often being chased back to the groomed slopes as the clouds covered the sun again.
The amount of groomed slopes is slowly growing at Alpine Meadows and that is a good thing, as many people did stick to the groomers today. Things got a bit hectic at times on Sherwood Run, Dance Floor and Alpine Bowl. Fortunately more terrain will be available tomorrow, with the opening of the Scott chair for the first time this year. Many of us are rooting for mountain ops staff to get Lakeview ready for the weekend, as holiday crowds arrive.
The next system will arrive during the day tomorrow. The HRRR model is showing 1-2 inches of snow during day time hours at Alpine Meadows. Fortunately, since it’s been cold the last 2 days, we may not have to call it “dust on crust” as the underlying snow remains mostly soft. Call it a minor refresh. Winds could be a bit of a problem for some lifts. Snow levels run 3500-4000 feet tomorrow.
We’re still looking at a bigger system for the weekend. Fortunately for holiday travelers, the system timing has been slowed. Snow is not expected until Saturday evening, which will ease the odds of another Friday night Highway 80 destruction derby. Snow amounts and snow levels are still a big question.
One of the greatest things that happened today was that someone gave me these two stickers. While I have no idea who made them, it shows that the Alpine Meadows spirit is still alive. Thanks to those responsible!
Crews were definitely working at both top and bottom of Lakeview today as I toured past.
The backcountry report is: good, fast, untracked snow in the north facing slopes – higher is better of course. I skied 4-6″ fluff top to bottom today. Should stay good with another couple inches of refresh tomorrow. Anything with sun exposure is baked and scary – even the trees are extremely variable on non-north-facing slopes.