About That Soft Opening…

Alpine Meadows, and that sister resort over the hill, both opened today, one day earlier than scheduled. I will not take credit for the idea of having a soft opening, rather than opening on a super busy holiday. It’s a pretty common business practice. Although I caught wind of the earlier opening sooner than many people, I can’t post those sort of things here. It would be like giving away a powder stash.

The early opening was announced via social media channels yesterday afternoon, and through an alert that I think came through the SVAM app installed on my phone. I figured that it might end up being really busy this morning, but it was not. Either people have stopped looking at social media after a long and tedious election, or they just had other plans today such as working or going to school.

How was the skiing and riding?

It was certainly one of the better opening days in recent memory. It was not just the Roo on manmade snow. Alpine Meadows spun both Weasel On Speed and Roundhouse this morning. The lines were short at both lifts and people did a good job of spreading out, with the exception being the squeeze through the RFID gates. At no time did the line exceed the capacity of the small mazes, but I believe the next few days will require larger mazes.

None of the slopes ever felt crowded today. Again, that is likely to change over the next few days. It’s obvious the amount of effort that snowmakers have made for the groomed terrain off of Weasel On Speed. The main groomed runs are full width, smooth and well covered. The snow felt fresh and without icy patches, even after a couple of days of race training and staff training over the last weekend.

Off of the Roundhouse lift, it was a was more of your average opening day on Roundhouse conditions. Rock Garden and Dance Floor were groomed in a fairly narrow path, several cats wide, but not full width. Early in the season, neither of those runs are smooth and wide open. There are a lot of little dips and valleys that add to the interest for experienced skiers like myself, but will prove challenging for beginners and low intermediate skiers.

To be honest, there’s not much to offer for beginner skiers just yet at Alpine Meadows. I kept meaning to take a peak over at the Meadow lift today to see if it looks anywhere close to opening. But for now, this would not be a good week for learning to ski.

There was a surprising amount of ungroomed terrain that was skiing quite well today. Charity, Boomerang and Werners all offered ungroomed skiing where I would regard the coverage as “generally safe”. That means I would ski it on newer skis without too much worry about finding obstacles. This morning, the powder from the last storm even felt relatively fresh and light. Expect that these runs will get bumpy over the next couple of days, as there’s not quite enough snow yet to run groomers in those areas.

We also experimented with Fall Line, Yellow and Hot Yellow. All of this terrain also skied well. But this area is also quite a bit more rocky underneath the snow, so it really helps to know where the prominent rock bands lie. Proceed with caution.

Some areas were just a little bit too hinky, or closed. Patrol closed off the traverse toward The Face from Roundhouse. Things looked just a little too bony on Ladies Slalom and around Gunners Knob. Some people looked like they were having fun on Rolls N Knolls, while others were using four letter words after finding rocks.

Looking ahead toward tomorrow, it’s a no brainer that it will be more busy tomorrow. I would also expect that the snow conditions will change. Temperatures reached the mid 40’s today at the top of Roundhouse. Tomorrow has a forecast high of 33, with a 40% chance of snow showers. any ungroomed terrain that was in the sun today will not be near as pleasant tomorrow when it refreezes.

More terrain opening?

There’s no official word on anything. Kangaroo looks like it has pretty good coverage, but today it looked like they were doing some load testing on the lift. It looks like Yellow could run to take pressure off Roundhouse, but that would not access new terrain. (Yellow is now confirmed for tomorrow) Summit is not quite there yet. The loading pad looks good, but the runout from Sandy’s Corner to Summit is still a bit wonky. Alpine Bowl looks pretty close but not there yet.

The snowmaking team has a huge fleet of snow guns parked near the Sugar Shack, but its not clear whether they are hoping to widen out Dance Floor or drag them uphill to Alpine Bowl first.

It’s still only November. It’s early season. Last year, I had nearly 90 laps on the Roo before anything else opened. I am super grateful for what we have now. With no significant storms in the forecast, what we have is what we have.

What About The Lodge?

I did a quick run through upstairs today to see how things look. It’s going to be really alarming if you have not been paying attention. Don’t show up with any expectation for inside services and you will be happy.

• There is no inside seating available. Period. Full stop. This is not a season to bring grandma to hang out in the lodge; to do alternating shifts with your spouse while one hangs out in the lodge with kids; to hope to catch part of a football game; or ski part of the day and work part of the day. While we are in the “purple” zone, there is no indoor seating. I am saying this here now because I overheard several people express their shock and dismay when they discovered this today.

• The Sun Deck at Alpine Meadows looks the same as it always has. The usual benches and tables are in place and there is the same fire pit that has been there the last several years. As of today, no additional heaters or fire pits have been added. There was also no sign yet of any additional shelter umbrellas, or anything, in case of inclement weather. Plan now on your vehicle possibly providing your best lunch experience on a cold day. I do believe that there are some intentions of improving the deck experience, but just try going out and buying an outdoor propane patio heater right now.

• I’m not sure what food services will be offered upstairs yet. They were not ready when I was upstairs today. I asked the F&B manager to do an interview regarding the food and beverage options at Alpine this season and don’t have a response yet. That said, I know Dan is incredibly busy getting it all figured out and it was his birthday last week. Happy Birthday Dan!

• I did talk to Melanie at Treats yesterday and she will be open beginning tomorrow. If last season is any indication, you may want to get in line tonight. I know I am craving both Melanie’s bacon and her chocolate chip cookies. Yes, those go together quite well.

I am super grateful to be back on skis. I counted and it has been 255 days since I was on skis. Thank you to everyone at Alpine Meadows that has been working to make sure that we can ski and ride, even when faced with a pandemic. I’m also super appreciative to everyone that wore a mask correctly today and made sure that everyone had a comfortable amount of space. Let’s all keep it up.