The picture I took today that is attached tells it all. It was a happy gorgeous day. The sun broke out just after the opening. All lifts were open. Alpine reported 15″ to 25″ of new snow. The overnight winds that gusted over 70 miles an hour died down early in the morning. We dropped below tower 19 and chewed up a pristine looking slope.
However, it must be noted that many slopes on the mountain had been wind blasted which left the pack dense. It was not light Alta powder. This condition takes concentration and effort to accomplish consistent turns down the entire distance of a slope. Nothing beats the feeling of looking back up slope at a near perfect set of squiggles or perhaps a set of eights (if you have a good partner with a style similar to yours). Although I have been out on the mountain quite a bit this season, I must admit I was tired by noon.
We did find some less dense snow on the mountain as captured in my photo. A run down Gentian Gully offered up lighter snow. There were plenty of people on the hill, but lines were never out of hand. There were tracks everywhere indicating people were enjoying themselves.
Unfortunately all of our joyfulness was dashed when an inbound slide occurred between Promised Land and Scott Chute. I do not have any additional information than what I read in the news reports. The reports indicated one person died and another was injured. A sad ending to a beautiful morning.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Editor’s note: Our hearts are with the family of Cole Comstock, whom passed in this morning’s incident, and to the other person seriously injured by the slide. We also want to thank the Alpine Meadows patrol and staff that had to deal with today’s situation. Even for professionals, we know it is never easy to deal with death. Hopefully this incident will cause all of us to think about how we interact with the mountain, knowing that the risk is always there, no matter how hard ski patrol and mountain ops staff works to minimize those risks. If you want to read the official account of today’s incident, here’s a link.
