We finally are seeing our first winter storm in quite some time. How long has it been? The Alpine Meadows snow tracker shows that the last thing to qualify as a winter storm was all of the way back on December 8th. Since then, we’ve had a dozen snow events, with few providing more than a few inches of snow.
The morning started off with Roundhouse being the top of the mountain. We did get in 4 rockin’and rollin’ laps there before it was put on windhold, followed by Yellow and Kangaroo. Sherwood ran all day, as did that beast known as Hotter Wheels.
Conditions on the frontside were better than those at Sherwood this morning, as there was a lot of wind scouring on the Sherwood side. But does that really matter? No, it doesn’t, because it was absolutely dumping today. There was still a hint of sun when lifts spun at 9am. By 10am, the first flakes were falling. By noon, that “two inches per hour” forecast by NOAA came to fruition. So by the time anyone goes skiing tomorrow, the mountain will be reset.
For those that have been crying tales of woe about Turbo Weasel destroying powder stashes at Hidden Knolls and Arts Knob, they missed the beauty of terrain that can now be served up on a storm day. Many people were enjoying the ability to access Sherwood Cliffs and get the bonus of coming down through Hot Wheels Gully or the lower parts of Yellow. Have you noticed we like that new chair?
The very faithful were rewarded today. After the squall line passed and winds started to die down in the afternoon, Roundhouse was reopened some time after 2 pm. Making matters even better, it re-opened without a Tweet or notification. We’re sure that it would have been far easier for Mountain Ops and Patrol to just let it ride out the day on windhold. I imagine there were some people that might call today their best day of the season because of the choice to stick around.
You know it’s going to be insanely crowded over the next 96 hours, right? We just had a big powder dump, and tomorrow is a Friday before a holiday weekend. Those that are blacked out for the weekend will likely be showing up tomorrow. The rest of the weekend will likely be busy, even though it is a blackout period. Fortunately, the weather is supposed to be conducive to getting the whole mountain open.
There’s another storm brewing on the near horizon, next Tuesday. Contrary to this storm, the models started small and have been building it bigger. Today’s runs are showing that it could turn out to be larger than today’s storm. So if you miss this round, the next round is already in sight.
Friday morning update
The mountain is reporting 15-25 inches of new snow this morning, right in the range we forecast for the storm 5 days ago (18-24 inches). Enjoy this cold storm as the next storm on Tuesday is including the R word. Hopefully that changes!