First off, I do love Christmas, a lot. My wife may say I love it too much when we are seeing Elf for the seventh time in a month. But there’s one eve that is more important to me, and that is the night before Alpine Meadows opens for the season. I’ve spent much of the last two days just looking at web cams, going shopping for ski gear that I don’t need and planning for what I might wear for opening day. I’ve even been thinking about Melanie’s chocolate chip cookies.
Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting for and it looks like it should be pretty fun. The last word from the official blog is that they are planning to run TLC, and its been running for race teams for awhile. But it looks pretty certain that Roundhouse will also be spinning tomorrow. The loading zone has been shaped up and the chair is indeed spinning today.
Breaking late addition: Yellow Chair has also been added to the schedule for opening day. Great job Alpine Meadows team!
There’s still a lot of bare pavement out in from of the new Sun Deck expansion and that is disconcerting. I hate walking in pavement in my ski boots. I hope that is not the new normal. Hopefully that gets filled back in with the next storm.
One rumor I keep hearing is that maybe Summit will happen sooner rather than later. People spreading those rumors have not looked closely at the upper mountain Roundshot cam. There was some devilish east winds since the last storm that stripped away a lot of snow on the upper mountain. We’re going to have to be patient for the upper mountain to open. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet.
Warm This Week, Then Snow Looking More Likely
If you were hoping for powder days during the Thanksgiving holidays, you’ll be disappointed. We will see mostly sunny skies with highs in the low 40’s until Sunday, when the first chance of snow creeps in. The models are coming into agreement on a decent little storm coming in late Monday into Tuesday. We’re still 7 days out on that so that brings us out of Fantasyland and into the Realm of Possibility. If it’s still there 5 days out, I’ll have better confidence.
As of now, the GFS is way more confident than the Canadian model. The Euro doesn’t go out quite that far for comparison.
Looking farther out into Fantasyland, the GFS wants to keep the storms coming into the first week of December. If that happens, many will rejoice. Hopefully we are not looking at a one and done situation.
I’ll likely be tossing and turning tonight, dreaming about some swishy turns on our favorite mountain, and lift rides with ski friends I have not seen since May. See you out there!
Work obligations keeping me away from Alpine today(11/22) but planning on getting over there tomorrow! Hopefully I’ll see you on the mountain!
Yes!
Skied opening day at Alpine with minimal lines or crowds at least till 10:30 when I called it a day. Subway lot still filled with construction material and subway remained closed except as an exit route. The most dramatic change is access to the mountain. It looks like an accident waiting to happen. Either a steep narrow stairs coming out of the rental shop to roundhouse or a wider but still steep set of stairs through the breezeway. Either option looks bad if you have a gaggle of kids with equipment and gear. No other way to the lifts for now with subway closed and when it gets busy I foresee a mess if not an accident. Snow was quite good on the few groomed runs available but terrain still very limited.