Velvet To Velcro

It’s unusual for me to miss four days in a row of skiing, but it happened. Reviewing what I missed: the biggest storm since January brought 8-10 inches of snow to Alpine, 100 mph east winds took away much of that snow the following day, apparently it was super busy over the weekend…and we’re back in the mank cycle now.

Skiing started off excellent today. Everything was creamy good right on the first run off of Summit, even off piste at Tower 19 and 20. But alas it was short lived. When new snow falls in the spring it doesn’t take long for it to become a hot sticky mess when temperatures warm again. By noon today, we were sticking to the snow, like velcro, just about everywhere on the mountain. Thats not surprising with temperatures in the parking lot at 61° at noon.

I could find little evidence that new snow fell just last weekend. We found turns were softer in some off piste locations, some severely wind affected sastrugi on east facing slopes below summit. But overall, things look just about the same coverage-wise as when I was last at Alpine on Friday. Groomers were able to regain control of the rock situation at the top of D8, but the deterioration continues on Red Ridge, Ladies Slalom, Mountain View and Outer Limits. We need a much bigger storm, followed by an extended cold period to see significant terrain recovery. I didn’t make it to Sherwood today to see how it is this week, as it got sticky too soon.

Hopefully, with another freeze-thaw cycle overnight, we’ll get a little closer to corn tomorrow with less stickiness. By Saturday into Sunday, the next system moves in. The latest model run predicts up to 16-20 inches of snow accumulation by next Tuesday, with potentially another foot in the week after that. I would be skeptical of those predictions as these cutoff lows tend to wander around without much direction. Thursday morning update: Model runs now calling for 2-3 inches instead of 16-20…cutoff lows are extremely difficult to predict! 

I would expect that these storms will be similar to the last, in that the “powder fun” will be short lived, they may not significantly add much to the overall base, and we’ll be spending more time in the mank cycle every time the sun comes out. Timing is everything in these situations…ski early, do something else later in the day when it is sticky. No matter what, it sure felt great to get back on the hill today!