Day One at Alpine Meadows

Bob, Ann, and Mark (hiding in his locker) ready for day one

There is a special feeling when your favorite mountain opens for the first time as a new season begins. Today was Day One for those of us who love Alpine Meadows. I did not know what to expect. My thought was that the runs that were groomed, and where snow had been made for the past few of days, would be just fine. I figured off piste would be off limits. The thought of hitting a rock lying just under some lovely white snow stuck in my mind before I even loaded the lift. We stood in line at Roundhouse a few minutes before they opened. We greeted friends and other locals who have been hiding much of the summer. It is always good see friends anxiously waiting for their first ride of season on opening day, and today was not an exception.

Dance Floor was nicely groomed

Red Trail and Dance Floor were well groomed, and well covered. I did not run into any rocks, nor did I see many as we made our first turns of the season. The surface was a little firm, but far from rock hard. It did not take me long to wander off the groomed trail which my brain said not to do. However, I found some relatively soft untracked snow to the right of Dance Floor and took full advantage of it. Powder turns on the first day? Yes! The snow was soft enough and untracked. It put a wide smile on my face. Later in the morning we found closed signs up which kept us out of that particular area. Loop Run from Roundhouse to the Weasel Run was groomed, but not much more than a road. Werner’s Schuss, or Blue Trail as we once called it, was also well covered. It was not groomed, but skier tracked. The snow was soft which was another surprise. I thought it would have been more firm. I expected breakable crust. We made a few turns on Blue Green and watched a number of skiers come down the Face (a place where rocks are easily found in the early season). I did not ride Yellow Chair, but it was running.

Not all the tracks on the Face and everywhere else off the groomed slope

We did take a run up Treeline Cirque. Weasel Trail had the best winter snow conditions of any of the groomed trails. I assume this was do to the new snowmaking system that was put in place over the summer.

Minimal line at the base of  Treeline Cirque today.  Work continues on the gondola maintenance building

I want to thank Jeff Goldstone, mountain manager, for the excellent job he and his employees did getting the slopes ready. It was a bonus have three lifts running on opening day.
Hopefully it will remain cold enough at night to allow the snow guns to brighten the surface overnight, until we get another good dumping of new snow.

There was not even a long line at the base of Roundhouse this morning