The Most Perfect Groomer…Exciting…Since There Is No New Snow

It was another day of no new snow in the Sierra. It’s been that way for a couple of weeks now. That said, the skiing is still good if you keep an open mind. Today I had a chance to make some first tracks in some of the finest groomed snow I have skied this season. Whomever it was that laid down the corduroy on Ladies Slalom last night, I raise my glass of Merlot to you. Perfectly smooth and beautifully grippy. It easily kept me entertained for the first hour today.

That’s not to say there weren’t some other areas of greatness. Terry’s Return and Wolverine Bowl also offered perfect high speed arcs this morning. As the day wore on, our attention turned to Sherwood, where the January corn is ripe for the taking. We enjoyed turns today from South Face all of the way over to the far left edge of Powerline. Somewhere around 2pm, another wave of clouds moved overhead and we called it a day.

If you’re thinking that this January seems extra dry you would be correct. This is the second driest January at Alpine Meadows in the last 50 years. So far, one little storm dropped 2 inches of snow, measured at the base. The only drier year was 2015, where only 1 inch of snow was recorded in January. The January snowfall average for Alpine Meadows is 71 inches. We don’t have to be in panic mode just yet. December had so much snowfall, that we would still be ahead of our season to date average even if no storms happened before February.

And that is the way it looks…up until the last two days, 2/3 of the models were attempting bring in storms by the end of the month. But all of the runs I have looked at in the last 48 hours have given up on that solution, keeping us dry for at least the next 16 days, into February.

The only remaining thing that provides some hope is looking at the PNA Index. Some of the ensemble models are still trying to trend the PNA to negative at the end of the month. Negative correlates with the Pacific trough that brings us storms. You can see that we were negative through December and positive for most of January.

That does not mean there won’t be some weather. As an example, we looking at a pretty probable strong wind event for Friday and Saturday. NOAA is calling for strong northeast winds that will almost certainly affect lift operations, particularly Summit. Ugh. Here’s the afternoon forecast discussion from RNO:

The second, stronger wave will pass over the region Friday into
Saturday. This second impulse should possess the upper forcing
needed to mix-out inversions and bring gusty conditions to lower
valley locations that could see local afternoon gusts in the 20-30
mph range. Eastern Sierra pressure gradients will stiffen post-
frontal Friday morning as cooler air spreads into western NV as
higher pressure builds over the Basin.  This set-up will strengthen
northeast winds along the Sierra crest that could potentially reach
80-100 mph through Friday.  This will increase the potential for
choppy conditions on Lake Tahoe, and bring increased concerns for
ski areas and back country recreation along with rough turbulent air
for aviation operations.

So factor that into your weekend plans…

#AlwaysAlpineMeadows

Chiming in on Andy’s comments from yesterday, I am in 1000% agreement. Watching the number of social shares on that post and talking to people on the hill this week, mountain regulars are insistent that they will always want it to be Alpine Meadows. The only person that is excited about that shiny new name is Chuck from Michigan, visiting Tahoe for the first time ever with his shiny new Ikon pass.

One thing I find revolting is that the marketing department completely forgot any mention that this is the 60th anniversary of the opening of Alpine Meadows. I just finished reviewing the social media channels and it has not been mentioned one time. We did not forget, having published a 60 year history of Alpine Meadows lifts last fall.

I encourage the real Alpine Meadows ski community to just say no to that other name. Alterra already tried to force a different name and logo on this mountain once and it failed to stick, and the Alpine Meadows logo returned. Stay green Alpine Meadows!