Some changes are easy, and some are not so easy. Last year, I was committed to skiing every day of the season at Alpine Meadows, this year I am not. In fact, I have three different ski passes. So when it was beginning to feel a lot like Groundhog Day this season, I decided it was a good day to ski at a different place.
A Small Change For The Day
I actually know Mount Rose very well, having had passes there, as well as Alpine Meadows, for many years. Alpine Meadows and Mount Rose have something in common: a wide variety of terrain with a lot of different exposures. You can always find something good. Mount Rose also has the added benefit of being independently owned and has a deep appreciation of their passholders. You’re not just Pass #118386 of who knows how many sold.
Due to some life changes, I skipped the Rose pass for a few years. But last year, a ski buddy threw out the idea of getting the Mount Rose “My Pass” for this season, which lets you select the one midweek day you want to ski all season. For $275, it only takes three days to make it pay. Several people within my ski posse have the My Pass for this season.
I have an extra set of gear at home. Being midweek and without any snow on the road, reaching Mount Rose only takes about 10 minutes longer than reaching Alpine Meadows. The only challenge was that part about having to boot up in the parking lot. Granted I was parked about 75 feet from the Zephyr Six, which opens 30 minutes early for passholders.
I wish I could say that the 8260′ elevation made a huge difference in snow conditions. Today it did not, with conditions very similar to Alpine Meadows. The groomed runs were the place to be here too, at least for most people. Mountain temperatures barely exceeded freezing today, so terrain on the Slide side that you can nearly always count on softening stayed firm. Even the highly reliable Sunrise Bowl was still solid at 1pm.
Over on the Rose side of things, where the sun is much more scarce, the conditions were slightly more winter like. My ski buddy for the day, Vets, described it as “popcorn shrimp on a corrugated platter”. The cookies were not quite as icy, and held together better than expected. Just like Alpine Meadows, avoid the popular runs line Kit Carson Bowl and Silver Dollar. Head to the less travelled runs such as Aida’s, Bullwhip or Bruce’s for less slip and slide.
It is Mount Rose, which is known for The Chutes. They did open today. Not many people were using them today. They were edge-able for sure, but they were extremely firm. It was the kind of conditions that were fine as long as you stayed on your edges. A fall in the wrong place could have sent you into a very long slide. We entered into Miller Time and then crossed over to Nightmare once we knew that it was possible to hold an edge. I’ve skied all of the Chutes at one time or another, one time skiing every one of them in a day. Today was not the day for that…wait for spring corn season.
It was a nice bit of change.
Some Change Is Not Easy
The times are changing at what we like to call Alpine Meadows. The old logo continues to disappear and the new name gets plastered onto more and more surfaces. Today, the Alpine Meadows name was removed from the front of the lodge, replaced by the more generic “Alpine Lodge”. Reportedly, the new logo will appear there too – you know the logo that looks like it belongs to the Philadelphia Eagles, but has the colors of the Denver Broncos. Hello marketing department, we are not a football team and we are not from Denver. Why not try a logo based on the shape of mountains?
Yes, it is just a name. But it is a point of historical significance, and unlike the other side, it is not surrounded by negative meanings. More importantly, each and every COO of the place formerly known as SVAM, has said that history is important and that the separate identities of each mountain is important. We’ve seen how that goes. What’s maddening is we know where this is headed. People keeps saying “The mountain hasn’t changed”, but it has. You did not used to have to arrive at the mountain by 7AM to get a parking space on a weekend. It used to be possible to ride Summit on a weekend without much of a line. Lessons did not cost $230 and three chicken tenders did not cost $14.
This year it’s just the name. Wait for the change the gondola will bring…
Missed you at Alpine today.
Awwww thank you!
We missed you at Rose today.
I looked for you. Saw Glenn and a couple of other Alpine people…maybe next Wednesday.
Seeing the “sign company” truck blocking the breezeway, I knew that something like this was up. Great place to spend $$… Meanwhile, my wife reports 3 of 6 stalls in the Chalet lady’s bathroom are out of order. Today 50% of the RFID scanners were not working on multiple lifts – instead of swinging the whole assembly out of the way so we could access the lift, they just blocked 1/2 the gates. REDACTED Valley is definitely world class! It is hard to ignore all the bad karma and enjoy the mountain. I have been getting lots of laughs observing all the REDACTED jackets and pants that the employees are wearing. Some iron-on patch company got a big order! Pretty funny to see an embroidered “S” bulging out from beneath an patch.
I like whispering to my fellow employees, “Your Squaw is showing.”
The name of the ski resort formerly known as Squaw was not a pejorative moniker. Squaw’s an Algonquin tribe name and means exactly what we thought it did, a Native American femme, nothing more or less. Any word can be uttered or intoned to make it sound bad. I thought this was post Lenny Bruce (saw him once at a North Beach club). Didn’t find his act all that funny but his thesis was important, actions can be the real obscenities not words.
As far as the new reality re. crowds and operations, as California’s population
speeds to fifty million it’s going to get even worse. The demand exceeds the supply. That’s a key reason, even before the ongoing pandemic, that alpine touring (skinning and hiking up slopes) and Nordic skiing have become so much more popular. I just learned that Tahoe Nordic which had sold 600 passes three or four years ago sold 1200 this season. The writing’s on the snow… while there’s still snow.
They could’ve named it Five Peaks.