That evil east wind was back today, keeping parts of the mountain extra crisp, and keeping the Summit lift closed again. At least it was not stripping away new fallen snow, and the added chill probably did something to preserve the snowpack near the ridge.
That’s not to say that skiing was bad today. There was some skiing that was not so good; and some of the better skiing was delayed a bit longer than usual. But we also found some very fun skiing today. So it was all a matter of timing and being in the right place at the right time.
It was a good day to arrive late at the mountain. Warm temperatures yesterday, followed by cooler evening and night temperatures present challenges for the grooming crew. Some areas were quite a bit firmer than we have seen over the last month, and failed to soften much at all over the first couple of hours.
We even searched the upper mountain for some soft snow, after noting that ABC was added to the schedule in place of Summit. I chose to take a long traverse over to Sunspot, which was akin to traversing across lava rock in a volcano crater. Once I arrived, Sunspot was locked up solid.
Around 10:30, we did a “Sherwood test run” on Weasel 1 and found that it was starting to soften. We arrived about the same time as many others, leading to crowded conditions on a narrowing groomed run. After 4 laps of exploring, we found some fun in the slush bumps of Sherwood Face.
At midday, we made the transfer to Scott, with perfect timing. Perfect smooth corn was just softening on Ridge and Bobby’s. This was about an hour behind the usual schedule. I had to check out shortly after to do some errands, but I assume that Lakeview softened appropriately later in the day.
It seems like we’ve had a lot of these east wind and north-east wind events this season. It’s the nature of a dry season. With a ridge parked offshore, the clockwise flow of winds going over the top of the ridge and around the back side draws in that cold air from the north. As the winds are forced up and over the mountains, the wind speeds increase due to a variation of the Venturi effect.
As we have mentioned before, east and northeast winds above 50 mph cause Summit shutdowns. It’s not a choice that operators make, it’s the design of the lift and it’s location. Fortunately it is the only lift at Alpine Meadows that is affected with nearly every east wind event.
There’s still a chance of rain and snow in the forecast about one week out. It still looks inconsequential to our snowpack. Word on the street is that at the end of March, Alpine Meadows now sits at 75% of average snowpack for this time of the season. So even though we did see 40 inches of snow over the month, we fell further behind. You had better ski it while you can…
I waited until after 1 to allow the snow to melt into spring conditions. Between 1 and 3 I found some nice soft snow on the groomed, but well used main Sherwood Run and not bad, but still a bumpy under the chair. Mountain View was just about perfect as was Ridge Run. A quick tour of Rock Garden and Dance Floor turned up a mixture with some areas in the shade still firm. I dipped my toe into God’s Knob which was a total mistake.
I wished I could ski longer today. But the snow tires are now off and it would seem that could bring more snow. I washed the cars yesterday as well.
At Mammoth the top of Chair 23 is well enclosed which allows it to operate in high winds. Really impressed with the design of that.
That’s a fixed grip chair that has different challenges and physics. The top unload area has little to do the operation in wind. Chair 23 is legend tho.
I noticed today (3/31) that the panty/necklace tree in Scott Chute has been cut down. Necklaces all over the snow. Including an Hawaiian style necklace that I placed there last week in honor of my mom who passed away last year
We noted the same. It’s unusual for them to do that sort of trimming mid season if it’s not absolutely necessary. My best guess is that the top broke and was endangering the chairlift. I had a couple of memorial pieces on there too.