Game Day!!

We’re not talking about the Final Four here, even though “the best game ever” apparently happened over the weekend. There’s a lot of games to talk about today, so much that we’ll give you some handy links to skip down the post:

• Weather Games
• The Golden Egg Wild Goose Chase
• Badges? Apparently I Do Need Badges…
• FIS Race Games

The weather played games with our heads today. It seemed like the weather models had given up on the idea of any precipitation for today. I swear, when I left my house this morning it was partly cloudy with some blue skies and winds. Then the drizzle started, and then the snow started. By 9:45, it was done and blue skies returned. In one hour, somewhere between 9 and 10 millimeters of snow fell.

While it felt like velvet under my skis, it skied more like Velcro. It helped to stay on edge, especially as the sun started melting that new layer, making for very high surface tension between the snow surface and your p-tex. By noon, most people I know were done with the herky jerky conditions. Spring temperatures resume tomorrow, and as long as we get a decent freeze we should be back to prime corn conditions for the foreseen future.

The Golden Egg Wild Goose Chase

The traditional ski area golden egg hunt happened yesterday, notable for being the first “special event” event of the year at Alpine Meadows (not counting ski races). I haven’t participated in the actual hunt for several years, after missing out on a golden egg hidden near Gunner’s Knob by about 30 seconds, several years ago. Since then I have figured that I can comfortably afford to pay for my ski pass and always hope that someone less fortunate will find the golden egg.

The SVAM Twitter feed reported that the golden egg was found at Alpine Meadows shortly before closing. The hiding place was along the eastern boundary of Alpine, near the top of the old Scott T-Bar. The clues were pretty misleading, sending many on a wild goose chase, especially those that were not up on their Alpine Meadows history. Here’s the clues:

Clue #1 – E.B.: Many took this right away for either “Easter Bunny” or “Estelle Bowl”. In hindsight, it apparently meant “eastern boundary”

Clue #2 – 1 of 3: The assumption here seemed to be that it referred to the Three Sisters. Combined with clue number 1, we saw some people inspecting the Beaver Lip area, connecting the Sisters and Estelle Bowl. In hindsight, it apparently meant 1 of 3 T-Bars. (Scott, Plateau and ???)

Clue #3 – 2290: We are totally mystified by this clue. The length of the Scott T-Bar was about 2700 feet.

Clue #4 – Almost to the peak: What peak? Is there a peak near Estelle Bowl? These are questions we heard in lift lines yesterday. In hindsight, it apparently means almost near Scott Peak. In case you did not know, Scott Peak is actually over toward the top of Lakeview. I did not, until I looked at the topo map last night.

Clue #5 – On not over: In hindsight, this appears to mean the egg was on the boundary line, not out of bounds.

Clue #6 – Done in ’75: This was not very helpful. Again, you have to be on top of your Alpine Meadows history. The Kangaroo chair was completed in 1975. The Scott T-Bar was built in 1967 and ran until 1984. So 1975, who knows?

Clue #7 – T-Bar: The Scott T-Bar ran from the low end of Scott Meadow to point midway between the current Scott lift and Lakeview.

Hopefully some awesome deserving person found the golden egg. For those that want to know more about the history of lifts at Alpine Meadows, I’m working on a mega-post on that subject that will likely run sometime in the off season.

Badges? Apparently I Do Need Badges…

Back in early March, the official SVAM app was updated to include badge challenges. Badges can be earned for various accomplishments, and some of them are interesting challenges. I am not super competitive when it comes to things like racing, but I do enjoy these sorts of personal challenges. I have now earned 17 of 23 possible badges. The rest would require going to the Valley With No Name.

The most difficult badge to earn was the “Easy Rider Achievement”. It requires skiing 10 green circle runs in one day. With colder conditions and firm snow expected for today, it seemed like a great day to take on that challenge. Not wanting to ride the Meadow lift ten times, my plan was to ride the Hotter Wheels lift instead. My skiing route was East Creek, past the Chalet and Scott chair, and across the flats over to the Meadow Run, taking me back to Hotter Wheels.

It was a great plan, until that new snow fell this morning, making the surface akin to Velcro. It was quite a slog across the flats! Still, I got into a zen mode and completed the run 11 times, just in case one of them did not register. I learned this from experience the first time I took on the “Hard Core Achievement”, which requires 20 runs on a black diamond run in one day.

If you like these sorts of challenges, there’s no prizes other than your personal glory. Some of the Alpine ones are no longer possible with Subway and the Roo done for the season. I’m not sure how motivated I am to go for any of the challenges involving the other side of the mountain.

FIS Race Games

You’ve probably notice stacks of red fencing appearing all around the Wolverine area over the last week. An FIS race event is slated to take place at both Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows this week. It is a part of the Western Region FIS Spring Series. Looking at the schedule, both the men’s and women’s slalom races will be held at Alpine Meadows from April 8-11th.

We saw fencing being set up along Werners, Boomerang and Charity this morning. When all is said and done, there’s quite a bit of the lower mountain that will not be open for public access during the event. That’s okay, there will still be plenty of mountain available for the rest of us! Some people like to watch racing, and it’s a great opportunity for regional skiers to build some points towards moving upwards in the standings for next season.

Expect a bit more mid-week traffic around Alpine Meadows. Consider altering your “go to” routes down the mountain over the next week to accommodate the race. Enjoy Scott, Lakeview and Sherwood while you still can…