Wow, that was a warm one today. When I got in the car at 2pm, the temperature said it was 102° outside. While that was hardly accurate, it certainly felt the warmest it has been in a long time. Mid-slope temperatures actually reached into the lower 50’s today, and the wind was negligible. That put a lot of new terrain back into play. Several people, including myself, reported actually having fun off piste in the Tower 19 and 20 zones below Summit. We found the entrance into Gods Knob sketchy, after that it was fantastic slush bumps. Chicken Leg was even kind of fun today.
Over on the Sherwood side, things were pretty soft right at the opening bell, even getting pretty mushy by the noon hour. Heading to Lakeview and Scott offered some excellent spring corn and slush conditions.
Got Wind?
Don’t get too used to this just yet. We have a couple of little inside sliders moving in this week on Tuesday and again Wednesday. While temperatures won’t be as cold as last week, there will be a chill at Summit, with the ridge winds running from 40-60 mph out of the east. That could impact Summit operations over the next two days. Temperatures are still expected to reach the mid-40’s, so we still will see some afternoon softening.
The weekend ahead looks much more like today…bring sunscreen.
On my last report, I offered some encouragement, as the models were showing a hope of a pattern change mid-month. Lucy did pull that football away from Charlie Brown. The models are back to dry and drier. If you do the math, at 16 days out, that takes us into the last week of February.
It is what it is.
Your Snowmaking Questions Answered
One topic I keep getting asked about is why the mountain is not making snow when we have had these cold overnights? I can offer a few ideas here:
• Snowmaking is incredibly expensive. While I am not hip to the actual numbers at Alpine Meadows, industry sources often bandy about numbers around $25k per night when you include utilities, equipment and labor. These costs may make sense when you are racing to open terrain to be competitive with other mountains and to meet holiday demands. They don’t make as much sense mid-season.
• When you have cold nights and warm afternoons, it’s a losing proposition. Snowmaking is most effective when you get 24 hours a day of cold temperatures. In conditions like we have now, you might be able to make a few inches of snow per night, only to have it melt the next day.
• New snow gets really sticky in warm conditions. That would not make for pleasant ski conditions.
• By this time of year, the snowmaking team has been laid off or moved to other departments.
• Farming snow is much more efficient than snowmaking. Over the past month, the mountain operations team has been doing a lot of snow farming. That means you’re moving snow from places where not many people ski to places where people want to ski. Snow gets farmed from below the eastern ridge at Lakeview and brought over to fill in the top of the Lakeview Runs. Recently snow was farmed from areas around Art’s Knob and Power Line to fill in the popular Sherwood Run.
We’ve Got A Terrain Park
The mountain ops team was successfully able to get started on the Tiegel terrain park Saturday night. On Sunday, some gentle rollers appeared to make the foundation for new features. Today 5 0r 6 hardware features appeared, painted in those Broncos colors that the people in Denver really like. While most people in my demographic would rather not have parks, there are people that like that sort of thing. Many of those people are the next generation of skiers…although not necessarily the younger set. Most of the features I saw today were more suitable for advanced park afficiandaos. No jumps are present yet, but my guess is they will sprout soon.
The Olympics…Loving It
Every four years, the Winter Olympics rolls around and I just can’t get enough of it. Whether it’s freestyle skiing, speed skating, alpine skiing or curling, it’s on TV as soon as we’re done skiing for the day. Yesterday, I watched the complete Mens’ Downhill event. Wow, what a course that was, especially being entirely new to all competitors. Watching the event, I was amazed at the number of skiers that even completed the course. Local favorites Bryce Bennett and Travis Ganong did not have the day that they had hoped for, each having just a slight bobble that added a second to their runs. In the downhill event, one second is an eternity. It’s just stunning that in a course spanning almost two miles, one little error can throw you out of the running. Tonight is the Men’s Super Giant Slalom, and I am hoping the best for both Bennett and Ganong.