Conditions were substantially better at Alpine Meadows today than yesterday. More of the mountain was closer to being a corn consistency, and there were plenty of smiles on people’s faces during the first hour. It wasn’t until my 10th lap that I found myself pushing to make it around the corner to Charity.
The air itself did not freeze last night, but through some magical combination of radiational cooling and evaporative cooling, there was some firmness on much of the mountain for the first couple of runs.
The runs that seemed to offer the most consistent experience today continued to be D8 and Charity, with Alpine Bowl also in contention. That said, by 11am today, the runouts were getting sloppy and sticky. Many people reminisced about the old 8am – 2pm spring schedule this morning.
The good news is that temperatures seemed to have peaked and we should see significantly cooler conditions until at least Monday. That should get us back to decent spring corn.
Many people mentioned that today was their last day of the season. It seems like a pretty decent chunk of Alpine Meadows regulars and employees are in Hawaii already or headed there very soon. I’ve been hearing the date of May 9th a lot this week, and based on the diminishing snowpack at the base, that seems pretty likely. Go skiing while you still can…
