Reporting From Alpine Meadows North

Editors Note: I am no expert on where to ski at Alpine Meadows North, or what some people now call Olympic Valley. I’m usually only there when Alpine Meadows is closed, which means late spring. But this weekend offered fantastic conditions, so it’s time to offer up a report.

Some of my friends wondered if I had actually quit skiing when Alpine Meadows closed just over a month ago. There’s been a lot going on during that time, including a big wedding for my son. While I had zero interest in the busy spring chowder days at OV when we got those late spring storms, I do love spring corn. I have actually skied 5 days over at Olympic Valley, including the last two days. This may be a new record for me.

There’s been a few moments over the last month where I had to stare at the Alpine Meadows webcams and say “they should still be open”. There were even some times where I thought about writing something about that, and then chose not to do so, as it would not make a difference. There’s a huge investment in getting that silly gondola project done, as well as completing the Sun Deck expansion. To the project managers credit, they did get right down to work on the deck project shortly after closing – even though the snow kept falling.

I still don’t like the village, nor having to take the Funitel up and down the mountain at this time of year. But for the last two days, the attraction of spring corn was too strong. Last weekend, conditions were not really ideal, with a bunch of new snow followed by warm temperatures, turning that new snow into glop. But with a full week of freeze and thaw cycles, I knew things might be great this weekend. Well, not Friday, as high winds kept things über firm for much of the day.

I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowds this weekend. The early openings message didn’t seem to sink in. Once the first few full Funitel cabins left the station, most cabins were going up the hill with only 6-8 riders. I was more surprised about the level of snow melt that has happened in the three weeks since I last skied at OV. Even with a substantial amount of new snow falling during that time, there was still a big net loss of snowpack. Fewer lifts are spinning, fewer runs are groomed, and many of those runs have rocks and brush sprouting through the snow.

Early morning hot laps were possible off of Gold Coast with absolutely no lift lines. Gold Coast Face is the Sunspot of Olympic Valley, offering some of the first soft turns on a crispy spring morning. While others seemed to be racing to get back to the next chair ride, I find my self slowing down and enjoying every turn. Mystery and the main Gold Coast run offer similar fun, just a bit later. I usually just choose the one that has the fewest people.

We also spun a couple of laps on Sibo this morning before heading over to Shirley, the mainstay of OV spring operations. To me there are only two runs I like at Shirley – the left edge of Shirley Bowl and way to the right on Marillacs. Both of these offer up fewer people and more consistent pitches. I do enjoy the terrain below the Funnel and the Attic when the conditions are right. With the mountain only open three days a week, the sun cup development makes the off piste conditions just a bit less attractive. Still plenty were enjoying a wiggle in that zone or traversing over to Shirley Gully.

Sadly, the Granite Chief chair is now closed for the season. It’s my favorite zone at Olympic Valley. Earlier in the month, it was where I spent just about all of my ski time. The snow at the base of the lift is now burnt out. Also of note, Reverse Traverse is now closed and all of the terrain that is normally served by Headwall. With Mountain Run also closed and mostly burnt out, you can see why they don’t want people headed out that way and ending up below the Sibo lift.

Today was probably the least crowded I have ever seen it at Olympic Valley. Shirley Lake was just beginning to get a bit of a line at 11am both days this weekend and by then, it was getting a bit sticky anyways. Next weekend, being Memorial Day weekend and closing weekend, it is absolutely going to be more crowded. The jury is still out on whether or not I want to be a part of that.

How will things hold up for next weekend? That’s going to be interesting, as a mid-week heat wave is on tap for the week. There’s also a lot of brown ground showing and that really accelerates the melting of snow. For next weekend, with a lot of work moving snow around, they should be able to maintain a couple of groomed runs off of Gold Coast…and maybe Sibo if they can keep snow on the ridge. The Shirley groomers should be just fine, due to their north facing aspect.

Over Average Snowfall, Way Under Average Snowpack

The Alpine Meadows season ended on April 17th with somewhere around 85% of average snowfall. Once the mountain closed, it continued to snow a lot…no really, a whole lot. By the end of April, Alpine Meadows was at 89% of average snowfall. Unfortunately the official snow tally at Alpine doesn’t extend beyond April. Last week though, the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab announced that seasonal snow fall was now at 110% of average.

So yes, we did have an “Awesome April” and “Miracle May” that brought more snow to the Sierra. Earlier this season, I mentioned that has only happened a few other times, where we came from way behind to catchup. It takes something big to create such a phenomenal change in a state of drought. This time it was Typhoon Malakas that finally kicked that persistent ridge to the east.

You would think that with all of that snowfall happening, our snowpack would be in great shape, and we might be skiing even longer. You would be wrong. Even though there was a lot of snowfall, the current snowpack is somewhere around 25% of average. It matters when that snow falls. All of that late season snow doesn’t really add much to the pack. The overall warmer temperatures of spring storms, combined with the higher angle of the sun and warmer days between storms means that new snow is short lived. To really add to the snowpack, we need that snow to fall in January, February and March – those months were very dry. We lost a lot of the 17.5 feet of snow that fell in December during those dry months.

Kudos to the mountain ops team over at Olympic Valley. They’ve done a good job keeping conditions pleasant and very skiable with very little snowpack. Also of note, there’s a huge construction project going on steps away from the Funitel, with the removal of the old Red Dog lift and the construction of the new B2B thingy happening at the same time. Keeping operations going during that time period…well, many of us are thankful for that.