Today turned out to be just a bit more busy than we would have anticipated at Alpine Meadows. All parking lots were full for both Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows by 11:00 am, and that meant that slopes were busy in the usual busy spots.
Vail has been in the news the last two days. What would be a rather routine 17 inch powder day for the Sierra has turned out just about just about every Epic pass holder in the state of Colorado. Here’s one sample picked from Twitter today:
There’s something to be said for parking being a limiting factor for getting skiers on the slopes at Alpine Meadows. Maybe we don’t want to create that much more public transportation to create 2 hour lift lines. It would be a very bad thing if every Ikon pass holder in the region showed up on the same day!
So there were some very significant lines today around the mountain, with Summit and Sherwood topping the list for longest average waits. But not all of the lines were long, and the name of the game was to find those lifts and then find the best suitable terrain for you. Lakeview was a great alternative today, I spent all afternoon there. Some runs were busy, but you could avoid that with just a tiny bit of effort and knowledge.
Tomorrow, the forecast just got a little bit better and a little bit worse. In the good news department, the chances for snow are down to 20%, and the forecast calls for mostly sunny skies after 11 am. The bad news is that winds have been upped again tomorrow, which is not surprising as winds were already cranking up today. So dressing a lot warmer is going to be very important. Temperatures are still supposed to max out around 30°, but if we get some good sun, we will see south face slopes soften again. See you out there.
Old news but here’s a response from Vail’s COO:
https://www.summitdaily.com/news/vail-mountain-coo-beth-howard-offers-apology-context-on-massive-lift-lines/