High Winds, Pent Up Demand, A Quasi-Holiday, A High School Race and More

TL;DR: Many factors, not under the mountain’s control, and some late or inaccurate reporting caused mountain crowds to be much larger than expectations. This was likely not nefarious, just unfortunate.

It was a pretty short day of skiing for me at Alpine Meadows. After three runs, we called it for the day. Many of my friends lasted fewer, or didn’t bother leaving the breezeway. It’s not because the winds were that bad, nor was it too cold. The snow was actually very good in places. But the number of people that showed up to ski and ride on a Monday at Alpine Meadows was somewhat mind boggling. Waiting 20 minutes in line for quick runs on mostly groomed blue square terrain is not ideal. Let’s look at some of the factors that made that happen.

High Winds, They Really Blow

Nobody should have been surprised by the high winds experienced across the Sierra today. They have been well advertised by NOAA, television weather personalities and local weather bloggers. I looked at the NOAA Remote Data site before I was even out of bed and saw that winds were already in the range that would put Summit, Scott, Lakeview and Sherwood on hold. I wasn’t even sure about Roundhouse. It seems like things are getting windier overall over my lifetime. Whether that means lift impacts in the winter or fire impacts the rest of the year, it is the reality that we have to deal with. I was ready for limited options today.

Pent Up Demand

The skiing and riding has been really great lately, even days after it stopped snowing. We have highlighted it, the marketing department has mentioned it, KCRA highlighted it and so have 54,763 Instagram accounts. Alterra Mountain Company has sold a lot of Base level passes. The numbers are not public, but in most years, it’s a given that more Base passes are sold than full Ikon passes. Many of those Base level passholders have been fuming because they were missing out on one of the best weeks in recent years. So they set their sights on Monday, January 3rd, as their date to get back on the mountain. I’m guessing a number of people even skipped school or work to get out there today.

Was It A Holiday Or Not?

It is one of those weird years where New Years Day fell on a Saturday, which leads to the question of whether or not the following Monday is a holiday. As it turns out, the answer is yes and no. It’s not a federal holiday, and local schools are back in session. But many Bay Area schools declared today a holiday, as did some businesses. There’s also those people that never have gone back to work or school…

High School Racing Is Cool

I would have given anything to have had a high school ski racing program in my high school. Unfortunately, that was not really a thing at San Luis Obispo Senior High School. That more than a hundred kids show up at Alpine Meadows for racing nearly every week during the season is really cool. Seeing those excited high school kids exiting the busses and prepping snowboards, checking out the race gates on Kangaroo…so cool. But watching those poor snowboarders having to do a difficult traverse and then claw their way up to the top of Kangaroo…because the Kangaroo lift is not running. Ouch. I am sure that I am not the first to say that is a terrible look for Alpine Meadows. I’ve already been hearing it from race parents last week, when their kids had to traverse over to the course. Inquiring minds are asking…what is up with the Roo?

We’re Not Letting Management Off The Hook Here

Way too many people showed up at Alpine Meadows today expecting a better experience. Had they arrived at 2pm, they may have had that better experience, as the lines are were more reasonable in the afternoon. Waiting until the afternoon to head to the mountain is not in most people’s wheelhouse. Like many, I figured that more lifts might close as winds increased today.

There was a huge information gap this morning that led people astray that don’t follow the weather like I do. Here’s the early morning tweet that woke me up at 6:12 am:

It’s great that it laid out possibilities but also clearly highlighted the possibility of wind holds. All good. Then things got confusing. Here’s the lift status that one of our readers screenshotted this morning from the Palisades Tahoe website (I added the clear labels):

Yeah, it clearly shows which lifts may have an “anticipated weather impacts” at Palisades Tahoe, which is need to know information. In contrast, no lifts at Alpine Meadows showed an anticipated weather impact. If you are Joe & Barbara, driving the kids up from Manteca for their first day of skiing of the year, which mountain would you choose? Remember these are the people that allow their GPS to lead them onto Foresthill Road or Dog Valley Road when Highway 80 is closed. They chose Alpine Meadows.

The Twitterverse was no help in clearing things up. The tweet that listed which lifts would open at Palisades Tahoe arrived at 7:23 am:

The tweet that announced what lifts would actually open at Alpine Meadows was not sent until 8:44:

Even at that, there was a long line of people buying day tickets for the day. I talked to a couple of them, and another in the parking lot, none of which had any idea that there were not actually 9 lifts running at Alpine today. Which brings up the parking status. Here’s what it showed at 10:56, when the upper lot was just about full:

There were communications issues galore. Maybe it was somebody’s day off. The PT app, website and tweets are useless if they are not accurate and timely every day. 

So there was a big crowd today and a lot of lifts on hold. Could they have opened Yellow or Kangaroo today? I honestly can’t say for sure. There may have been too much wind, maybe not. If several lifts were put on hold, theoretically lift operators should have been available.

One thing I am pretty sure about, there is not a General Manager that is at Alpine Meadows every day to oversee the operation of everything. Nobody can look at the big picture and see how things might play out. Word is that several departments are now completely under the authority of someone another valley over that has no idea how things are playing out at Alpine Meadows. It’s not working so well. Hopefully it works better tomorrow, and the rest of the season.

Thanks to every employee that shows up at Alpine Meadows every day and attempts to make it all work. You rock.