Those of us that have skied Alpine Meadows for most of our lives know that Alpine Meadows truly is the spring skiing capital of California. While the neighbor over the hill has appropriated that title, due to having a swimming pool and hot tub at 8200′ – we know what makes spring skiing great. It’s having slopes that have varied aspects to the sun, allowing you to follow the sun to that perfectly ripened corn snow. That’s what we did today.
Everything off of Alpine Bowl was money right off the bat this morning. Even the ungroomed terrain around tower 19 is getting more consolidated and spring like. The line at Summit was short, and top to bottom hot laps were all great. The only exceptions were Kangaroo Ridge, which again was ungroomed, and Dance Floor, which has been hockey ready for much of the week.
We also found that skiing was great at Sherwood this morning, and not just on the groomer. There’s been good consolidation of the snow pack off piste as well. We found fun conditions around Sherwood Face, Sherwood Creek and along Power Line. We also got several reports of excellent conditions on High Traverse this morning. A good rule of thumb to follow is to ski either terrain that is unskied, or ski terrain that is well skied in. The temperatures have not really been warm enough yet to smooth out ruts or lumps in lightly travelled areas.
There’s quite a bit a brown starting to show on the Sherwood side, and as more rock and dirt is exposed, the melt gets exponential. So ski it while you can!
As we got into the afternoon, Scott and Lakeview came into play. My absolute favorite run of the day was Twilight Zone. Brush is starting to show on some Lakeview runs, reminding us that this has not been a big snow year. Enjoy that terrain while you still can!
The models toyed with the idea of some snow on Monday, but all hope has been dropped in the last few runs. The GFS is bullish on a strong winter-like storm around the 11th, but the Euro and Canadian are calling that fake news. So enjoy spring time for what it is…
Lastly, we are not done with COVID just yet. If you follow skiing news, you already know that Whistler-Blackcomb was forced to shut down this week due to COVID. That will be the end of their winter season. Revelstoke was also forced to close for some days due to a lack of available staff after COVID exposures.
You may have seen that Alpine Meadows is short of liftees at this time of year, and some of our favorite lifts are being run by lift mechanics, mountain ops staff, patrollers and managers. A COVID outbreak amongst Alpine Meadows employees would likely bring our season to a screeching halt as well. The fact that you may have been vaccinated does not allow you to forego wearing your mask. You not wearing your mask only gives permission for others to not do so too. Temperatures at the base area reached the mid-50’s today. That “wear the buff all day” solution may not be the best idea. We’re all in this together. Let’s get to the natural end of the season…when the snow is gone.
Nice report. I agree on the snow. Either skied down or not. In between rough going. Good commentary at end on safety
Scott Chute was open today (apr 3rd). Still not bad, though starting to get more rocks peeking out.