Even though yesterday was the Winter Solstice, today was one of the soggier days I have skied at Alpine Meadows. The official tweets were totally honest about it, yet some of us were driven to go try it out anyways. You just had to keep telling yourself that all skiing is fun. When I got to the point to where there were little puddles sloshing around inside of my goggles it was time to stop. That was after roughly 7 laps on Roundhouse.
As long as you stayed on terrain that was groomed by the morning shift, the skiing was actually creamy good. If you accidentally wandered off into the two inches of fresh snow waterlogged by the following rain, you might have had a bad day. That’s pretty much the nature of skiing in the rain. You have to ski a few days in the rain each season so you can really appreciate those fair weather days.
Looking at the forecast, the temperatures are supposed to drop, but not significantly until early tomorrow morning. Once that happens, we should be back to an all snow storm. Eventually that snow level could drop as low as Auburn. There is a lot of snow expected over the next week and beyond. There’s also a lot of wind in the forecast, and that will likely affect operations at times. This is yet another reason to go skiing in the rain today, because you can never be certain you will get to ski tomorrow if a storm is approaching.
Yesterday, I mentioned that the Alpine Meadows logo is being retired. Today I noticed that the rush is on to get Alpine Meadows schwag while it is still available. Estelle sports has it marked at 25% off, making it just pricy instead of over-priced. Judging by the number of full shopping bags I saw today, there’s a lot of people that want Alpine Meadows branded gear rather than the new stuff. Several people I chatted with today agreed that they would never want anything with the new name or logo. Sigh. Wait, maybe I should save these grievances for airing tomorrow during Festivus.
Hopefully we’re skiing powder tomorrow…
UPDATE: Andy Had A Different Experience In The Afternoon
This morning I flip flopped trying to decide whether to head up to the hill and take a few runs. My driveway showed a couple of inches of very wet mushy snow had fallen overnight. Low grey clouds hung over the mountain dropping clear precipitation. I wondered if my ski buddies were brave enough to give it a try.
At some point in the morning a friend sent a text with a report from the mountain which was just confirmed by another friend who stopped in to say hello. According to both it was wet and the conditions, at least on the lower mountain, were terrible. Off piste was impossible to ski and ski packed or groomed was wet and sticky (dangerous according to Andrew who took one run and just wet and pretty bad according to Julie who took four runs).
I was glad I did not venture out in the morning. However, around noon I started to feel like I should have tried it. At one I gave in and headed to the locker room. It was not raining. Graupel was dropping from the sky, but not heavily. Winds were mild at the base and the temperature was dropping. I headed out to Roundhouse where less than a handful of people were braving the conditions.
Surprise! Condition had changed and the skiing was much better than I expected. Werner’s Schuss, Sympathy, Chicken Leg, and off piste made for easy turns. I skied various runs off Roundhouse and then headed for Scott. Empty slopes and fresh snow in between trees put a smile on my face. I skied the trees between Bobby’s Trail and Standard Run for an hour. It was windy at the top of Scott, but not terrible.
Unless you go, you never know.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
