There’s no official word on whether or not it was the busiest weekend of the year or not. But nonetheless, the signs were all there. On Saturday, the main lot was full, as was Chalet Road, White Wolf and Deer Park. It appeared that some cars also parked at the water company and along Highway 89. There were significant lines at most lifts and even some off piste runs got crowded. Sunday was slightly less busy, but still quite busy.
We spent some time riding ABC on Saturday and noted that Pygmy Forest, Palisades and Keyhole were all more crowded than we have ever seen them. For those keeping score, it may even be a safe bet to say that more people used Keyhole this weekend than those that used the terrain parks.
Clearly there was some pent up demand for fresh snow! Alpine Meadows did a great job of gearing up for that demand, with all lifts running Saturday, efficient line control in place, and a lot of immaculate grooming. Nice work.
The “KCRA Effect” was in full force this weekend. Most of the Northern California media outlets had billed this as a great powder weekend, luring people to Tahoe with an expectation of fresh powder. Unfortunately, casual skiers and snowboarders may be unaware of the effects of that big ball of fire in the sky. There really is no such thing as a bluebird powder day in March (or later). A short period of sunshine cooks the snow quickly. While northern slopes offered some chalky winter snow, most other exposures offered soft manky chunder off piste in the afternoons, and firm corral off piste in the mornings. So with the exception of the aforementioned terrain off of ABC, the groomers tended to offer better conditions for most skiers and riders.
The groomers tended toward the busy side, with one nice exception. Alpine had nicely groomed a run approximately one mile long and cordoned it off with ribbon, which kept off most traffic. It made a very convenient expressway from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain where there was virtually no traffic. Alpine also nicely added some fun contours to this run that allowed for some fun slash turns. There were some other pieces of hardware scattered about as if someone had not picked up their toys. I believe this new run is called the “Firing Line”. Again, it was very thoughtful of Alpine to provide this fast, traffic free route down the mountain on this busiest of weekends.
The new snow allowed us to enjoy a lot of places that have been off limits or unpleasant for awhile. The D Chutes were skiing excellent all weekend as was High Yellow, Sherwood Cliffs, Lower Saddle and Counterweight Gully. The Three Sisters were also filled back in and offered some fun turns too.
We had hoped to report on the OakleyAMJam slopestyle event in the park today, but sadly, the event was cancelled due to a lack of participants. There was another park event this weekend at Northstar and evidently not enough park riders to support two events.
The next week is looking really warm…too warm. It’s time to start your snow dance again. We started by washing two cars today…
You obviously are mistaken… Parks were packed today! Everytime I went through the park I was dodging kids left and right. Top of the park on red was so crowded, I couldn’t get through the drop zone.
Give it up!! You whiners can gripe all you want but you just look pathetic. How can you “claim” all these up and coming park skiers on your site like David wise and then bitch about the park?? Get a life!!!!
LOL wow Mr Sensitive. There was not one anti-park sentiment in the post. Yes the park did create an express lane this weekend. It was one of the less crowded runs on the mountain. The park did make a convenient bypass when Charity and Werners were busy. Parks are fine. Uhm yes, I still totally support park skiers and boarders if thats what they want to do. Many people are just looking for balance, a reasonable number of park features in a location that does not affect every skier and rider on the mountain. If you look back over the years, I have suggested that Alpine build a superpipe again so teams don’t have to go to Boreal to train, or wait for Squaw to build one in February.
By the aggro nature of your comments – you need some balance in your life. 🙂 For the record, there’s lame young skiers and lame old boarders too….and lastly, real men use real email addresses. 😛
Given the crowds on Sunday and the excellent conditions on Keyhole slopes, it was annoying that Alpine Bowl Chair was closed. If they could open it on Saturday, why not Sunday. I understand it was on “Money Hold”.
I tried to complain and could not find anyone who cared. The official line is that ABC is only opened when Summit is closed.