This was just the practice round. The storm moved in a couple of hours ahead of schedule today, and came in just about as forecast. As I was leaving Alpine Meadows around 12:30, there were starting to be some breaks in the clouds. Somewhere around 3-4 inches of new snow fell at the mid-mountain level. It sure felt nice to be making smooth winter turns again.
This was not a game changer storm. The only really good skiing was on groomed runs with fresh snow. With few people at Alpine Meadows in the morning, it was easy to find fresh tracks. As the day wore on, the pace of the new snow didn’t keep pace with the arriving skiers and boarders, resulting in runs getting more bumpy and scraped.
That was my signal to start experimenting with some off piste terrain. I did a lap through Chicken Leg, where the lower pitch provided some turns that almost felt bottomless…almost. A second run down Fall Line, which has a much steeper pitch, left me hitting ice on every turn, frequently slipping out. So storm wave number one will not be the storm we need to bring much new terrain back into play. Then again, we already knew that.
This is a great opportunity to point out the refreshing honesty of the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows marketing department. Rather than focus attention on the possibility of huge new storms next week, they chose to focus on the reality of conditions for this weekend. Kudos to that department for the honest assessment!
This was my first day out on the hill with my new Glade Adapt goggles. It’s been a few years since I’ve bought any new goggles, and I have to admit, it is the price of the big brands that holds me back. I went with the Adapt model, as it has a well rated photochromic lens that should meet the needs of most days. For today’s storm day, they offered excellent vision and contrast with zero fogging, which is a huge win for masked skiing. I went with the Mountain Gazette collab model ($120) as I didn’t want the boring white strap…and supporting great media is always a good thing. Someday I’ll do a more in depth review on these.
Update: Just 5 days later and the model above is completely sold out. In fact all of the Adapt model is sold out except for the red lens with white strap. After using these goggles for a week, I have found them excellent in all conditions for comfort, contrast and not fogging. The only complaint I have is that the white frame that is on the inside of the goggle sometimes reflects on the inside of the lens, most noticeable in flat light. It’s easy to ignore.
What About Waves Two, Three and Four?
The second in this series of storms is still on tap for the Sunday afternoon into Monday morning time frame. The most recent GFS run still calls for 6-9 inches of snowfall, with snow levels running into the foothills. The commute downhill on Sunday evening already looks positively painful.
It’s the third wave that everybody has been talking about, sometime around Wednesday. That’s the one that looks like we get set up with an AR and a cold low in Northern California, which is the perfect combination for big snows. Some models have called for as much as 10 feet of snow. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen. That much snow would require vast amounts of work to dig out and reset the mountain, while also likely closing roads and knocking out power. I’m liking the latest GFS run that keeps it at closer to 4 feet possible….if everything holds together. That’s still a huge storm.
The models bring in a fourth storm for the next weekend, looking quite similar to the third storm. With back to back big storms like that, we would likely see more of the mountain open, provided an adequate number of employees can be found to make it happen. It’s a challenging year to be a ski resort operator. Recent transplants to the area are also about to find out that living in snow country is not “the easy life”.