Hello Skiers and Riders,
It has been a strange week at Alpine Meadows. Monday, in my opinion, was one of the worst days of year for skiers. It was cold and windy which froze the mountain solid. On top of the ice was a 1/4 inch of new snow. It was firm on the groomed runs and impossible off piste. Frozen ruts waited just off the groomed areas.
Tuesday I did not ski, but Summit was closed due to high winds. It was cold again which kept the slopes firm most, if not all, of the day.
Today the sun arrived and the winds slowed to a mild breeze. It was cold over night which slowed the thawing process and kept the wind drifted 1/4 inch of snow from Sunday night from making the transition to corn. Thus, we were greeted with melting icy patches that might be called corn or slush, separated by old wind packed powder everywhere else. The old powder stuck to the bottom of my skis causing severe slow downs that nearly brought me to a stop at times. Of course, there were some areas that were firm, or consistent slush, but they were followed by back-breaking glue. D8 and the area near Alpine Bowl Chair were acceptable, but the run out to The Face and Terry’s Return slowed me to the point of wanting to remove my skis and walk.
Perhaps it will be better tomorrow, especially, if the heat of today melts everything and it freezes again tonight.
Enjoy your day,
Andy Wertheim
Editor’s Note: I managed to have some fun on Monday, even though Andy laughed at me for suggesting I found a few good patches. But today was another story. Several people had the glue horror stories. Hopefully we get corn by the weekend!
I like your guys blog here but, get a grip, the season is over. You need to put your efforts to stopping the invasion of Squawly World. These carpetbaggers like KSL will continue to ruin the area, then they too will move on.
I disagree with Beartrack as Alpine has always been known as the Spring skiing capital of North America. True, this has been a challenging season but Spring skiing can still be done here once the corn cycle has commenced. Don’t fully disagree with Beartrack’s assessment of KSL, but at least they had made the effort to keep Lakeview open this season for example, which is more than can be said by what JMA did when they owned Alpine. And with the absurd amount of snow stockpiled under the disguise of a terrain park on Dance Floor Alpine Meadows could easily keep the mountain open through the middle part of May.
The skiing Tuesday was terrific. Sure, the ride up ABC, and the hurricane blast in the face coming down Alpine Bowl was nearly unbearable, but, Blue, Red-Green, Yellow, and the terrain park transformed into some incredibly smooth corn, with no piles anywhere. Ultra-fast GS turns to be had! The 4 of us agreed that this was spring skiing at it’s best. We just had to be satisfied skiing off Roundhouse. No biggie. Brian is correct, that Alpine has some of the best spring skiing anywhere (Mammoth, too). The season is NOT over! When the chairs quit spinning, then we go skinning!