Heading Into The Last Big Holiday Weekend

I don’t know about you, but President’s Weekend just snuck up on me. It’s the last major holiday of ski season, and also the beginning of ski and skate week for many schools, including local schools. With this Saturday and Sunday being blackout days for Base pass holders, the chairlift pundits were predicting a busy day today at Alpine Meadows. As it turned out that really was not the case at all, with this Friday feeling less crowded than recent Fridays. So maybe that might say something about the next few days. We shall see.

The skiing was great again today, with even some off piste terrain softening again. As we reported earlier this week, an inside slider brought 2-5 inches of new snow and much colder temperatures for a few days. How has that impacted skiing? Here’s some thoughts:

• The northeast winds carried away much of that snow that was not packed down by groomers. It’s currently out in the Granite Chief Wilderness and points west. There’s a few places that caught some of that new snow and kept it, such as Kangaroo Gully and Hot Wheels gully. The upshot is, you are unlikely to find powder stashes this weekend.

• The quality of snow on the groomed runs has improved incrementally. Previously we had a lot of sugar on ice. Now that the new snow has been mixed in, the corduroy seems to be holding up a little better to traffic. I have not felt a slick spot all week on the groomed trails.

• On south facing terrain, that new snow has just about disappeared or converted to corn already. In fact, after spinning a few laps in the Chute Zero area over at Sherwood this morning, there is a net loss of snow in the last week, with more rocks and dirt showing than before the storm. I avoided the Sherwood area for a couple of days when the rocks were lightly covered, and the new snow was manky. It’s game on again for tomorrow and maybe Sunday.

Groomers have pretty much achieved “Ty-D-Bol” status, with the grooming of Alpine Bowl extending all of the way from the ABC barn back to the Summit lift. I think the last time I saw it that wide was in 2013. I think the groomers prefer the “Tidy Bowl” spelling, but they likely never saw the Ty-D-Bol man floating in a toilet bowl on TV.

The official PT blog highlighted a lot of skier safety issues this week, and I think that’s a great thing. My ski group has spent a lot of time discussing whether or not it’s the Olympics that causes skiers and boarders to fly down the mountain with reckless speed thinking they are training for 2026. Slow down, enjoy your turns and keep your head on a swivel. Most importantly, give people 15 feet of space, no matter how good you think you are.

I saw the mountain hosts handing out some buttons for the Philadelphia Eagles this week. I think they’re giving them away for free because the Eagles did not make it to the Super Bowl, and the printer accidentally printed them in the Denver Broncos colors. So if you’re into that sort of thing, they are there. Personally, I’ll keep wearing various Alpine Meadows buttons.

There’s no miracles to report in the weather. We get a couple of more days of spring weather before another inside slider moves in Sunday night. Monday, things turn to crap again. There’s a 20% chance of snow and a 100% chance of a cold northeast wind Monday through Wednesday. Temperatures may struggle to get into the low 20’s on Tuesday and Wednesday. That’s good news when it comes to preserving the snow pack, but not so great for those that are planning on spending their ski week in Tahoe. Temperatures rebound later in the week.

In the longer range…nothing but inside sliders as far as the eye can see. The last ensemble run shows a potential for a foot total before the end of the month, falling 2-3 inches at a time. I’ll believe it when I ski it.