First off, reporting on ski conditions, today was the same as yesterday, which was the same as the day before, and so on. Sparing the repeating of any details, our run of the day was Twilight Zone around 2 pm. It delivered ultra smooth corn all of the way right back to the Lakeview lift. Yesterday traffic was little bit heavier in this zone, so having fewer people on on the mountain today was a nice touch.
In other mountain news, lift ops tried out the alternating diamond system at the Summit maze today. It’s good to see them testing new arrangements out to see if there is something that works better. We think it’s definitely improved the situation at Scott, Sherwood and Lakeview over the last two years.
We heard a lot of mixed reviews on the setup today. As setup today, it was very difficult to navigate a group of six people through the maze together as the resulting lanes were a bit narrow. Overall, because the queues are setup after the RFID gates, there’s just not much room. At Scott and Sherwood the queuing process happens before the RFID gates, and at Lakeview there are no gates. Summit seems to get the most backed up when traffic stacks up outside of the RFID gates and we can imagine that happening a lot on weekend days. We’ve also noticed that singles and doubles lines often get ignored unless there is a host to do line control anyways. We’re curious to hear your thoughts.
In weather news, most of the models have eliminated much of any thought of snow falling on Friday or Saturday. Saturday looks to be warmer again, with another north wind event on Sunday. The lack of precipitation is definitely beginning to be something on peoples’ minds, and not just as it affects ski conditions. Just 35 miles north of Truckee, a 102 acre brush fire broke out in the Sierra Valley, after a debris burn escaped containment lines…in the middle of February. That does not bode well for the upcoming fire season. There’s still not any consistent signs of a change on the way, other than people pointing out that it has happened before.
Andy has been off the hill the last few days tending to some other business. We hope to have a report from him again soon.
Alpine invented the “front row come out” system. It seems that Summit needs a ring-master to make that work but that’s the best approach to me. Doing the alternating mesh is not practical for six at a time. A sign that says “front row, please come out one row at a time” could help the intentionally dumb folks!!
I agree that the double and singles get ignored without management. People see that not working and then as a single get in at far left with a group. This then leaves no open spots for people in the right hand single and doubles lines.
When managed people see singles line moving and get in there.
Agreed about the singles lines, had to take it upon myself to add to a group of 5. I’m thinking they’ll get it together…..
More like hoping but trying to stay positive
You know it’s getting tough when the ski report has photos of fires.
Some skiable sugar on north aspects of Incline Peak – you made a track in soft snow! Some skiable corn on the SE aspects at 1:15 pm. The backcountry is pretty hammered. Skin tracks are 4 feet wide as people avoid the glistening, slick track. SE aspect was good, but rough with lots of ski traffic having pushed snow around. Boulders and brush were melting through on the SE even at those high elevations. At 9400′, below tree line but near the ridge, I measured 1.3 meters of snow. It was sugar all the way to the ground. Welcome to Colorado, our snowpack is beat.
Finally will be back at Alpine tomorrow. Best hill in Tahoe. Post Presidents = the real season.
The diamond lanes today were a good experiment and they are best run on a light day like today. As you note, the lanes are too narrow for 5’s and 6’s and even foursomes do not allow for doubles to jump ahead and join another double which is the Main Value of a real human doing line control. Let’s go back to the Big Picture. Why have 3-4 Mountain Hosts standing around smiling at people when one of them can be doing line control?????? This ain’t rocket science. Answer: keep the diamond lanes for light days and people will learn to drift left and fill in enough to satisfy the singles line. BUT on busier days, get a human.
PS. The hidden benefit is that Ski School had to alternate–and that is a good lesson for the little ones. I really enjoyed listening to an instructor get is three little charges to wait for the other side of the lane.