Apparently it was pretty warm around here while I was gone to Mexico over the last week. Still the skiing seemed like it was pretty good. Huge thanks to both Rhonda and Randy for submitting guest reports last week! I returned to Alpine Meadows today and making the transition from 80° temperatures on the beach back to 25° morning temperatures atop Summit was just a bit jarring, hence the title. It’s going to be more jarring to go back into full winter mode for the next few days, maybe even the whole last week of the season!
I was sad to miss the annual Snow Golf Tournament this year. It’s usually a lot of fun and frivolity. I even saw that Instagram ski star Donny Pelletier made a guest appearance at the event. This was the 36th year for the event, which has always been specific to Alpine Meadows. I don’t know the history of how this even got started, maybe one of our readers knows. Like all things Alpine Meadows, it was saddening to see this year’s visors using the silly football team logo in the Denver Broncos colors. I probably would have thrown mine away.
NOAA noted that the rate of snow melt over the last week was one for the record books. After a week of being gone, some areas of the mountain do look worse for the wear. Others were pleasantly looking just like when I left, thanks to the mountain ops team moving snow around the mountain and pushing it back uphill. Sunspot had a new lease on life! Yippee!
So what about the rest of this week? It’s about to get much colder and snowier, possibly offering the most snow we have seen since December. The model trend over the last few runs has been to push amounts upwards. Here’s the NAM forecast through Tuesday:
Even more encouraging is the point forecast for Alpine Meadows, which is at mid-mountain. Late Monday and Tuesday look like bonafide powder days. Snow levels look to begin around 5000 feet and drop to 2500 feet by the end of the storm. That is a cold storm for April.
The caveat is that many off piste areas have a lot of rock showing. I toured some areas today just to have a better idea of what things might lurk under the snow after the storm. All off piste areas below the top of Roundhouse will require great caution, as will some on piste areas. In particular I would be wary on Red Ridge, Lower Red Ridge and Lady’s Slalom. Yellow Chairline and even Yellow Run will require caution. We even did a run through Chicken Leg this afternoon through the bowling ball (and bigger) sun cups. There are numerous rock hazards there too. Ten to 14 inches of new snow will just barely cover many hazards on the mountain.
For Monday, the wind issues are potentially very significant. Ridge winds are expected in the 100+ mph range. Even the valley winds are notable, at up to 60 mph. Power outages, downed trees and high winds could impact multiple lift operations. Tuesday should be much calmer.
Cold temperatures continue throughout the week, with another system possible for Thursday and another on the weekend. Looking at the current forecast, we’re pretty much done with spring skiing and corn snow at Alpine Meadows this week, unless someone flips the switch again. One thing to note is that even with this significant amount of new snow, it is extremely unlikely that closed terrain will reopen, nor is it likely to extend the season at Alpine Meadows…enjoy what we have…