Thankful

I am thankful that we are skiing and riding before Thanksgiving this season. Yes it’s limited right now, but here’s a gentle reminder: Alpine Meadows was not able to open until December 16th last season. In November of 2021, it was just too warm and dry. Then December turned wet and wild, with a number of power outages that delayed operations.

So here we are, skiing for the Thanksgiving holiday, thankful after what most will consider a fairly minimal fire and smoke season in the Sierra. While that snowstorm we had a couple of weeks ago did bring a good amount of snow for November, that is not necessarily the snow we are skiing this week.

I would definitely like to give a hat tip to Jeff Goldstone and the rest of the mountain operations team that made it happen. We’ve spent plenty of Thanksgiving holidays limited to just the Kangaroo lift, and more recently TLC. With a combination of a long string of cold weather and the hard work of snowmakers, snow movers and ski patrol in getting the mountain ready for skiing and riding, this season we have both TLC and Roundhouse for early season turns, along with the Yellow lift in operation to add some uphill capacity. All of that prep happened around and amidst several major construction projects around the mountain. Thank you to all that make it happen for those of us that are addicted to sliding on snow.

So how is the skiing? It’s good…for November. It’s not perfect. There has been a lot of skier traffic over the last couple of days, and with limited groomed terrain, there’s already some slick spots forming by mid-morning. Temperatures also rose over the last couple of days, with highs in the upper forties. That off piste terrain that was still pretty fluffy yesterday morning – well it was really funky and crispy this morning. The bumps on Werners have already grown larger than most people like, and there’s not enough snow to run groomers there just yet. Charity is slightly less bumpy. While the Yellow chair is open for uphill transportation, the terrain on Yellow remains closed. I counted about 25 tracks there today from people that had ducked the ropes and skied closed terrain. Not cool. Patrol already has enough to do.

This is what we have and it looks like it might stay that way for a while longer. Up until 2 days ago, a decent snowstorm looked probable for Sunday and again Tuesday. But sadly, those hopes are dissolving faster than a snowball dropped in a hot tub. I spent some time this afternoon wandering through the weather models and there’s only one consistent pattern, the models are trending drier. An easy way to visualize that is by looking at the total amount of precipitation expected over a 16 day model run of the GFS. Here’s what it looked like two days ago, showing a possibility of 8-10 inches of rain and many feet of snow over 16 days:

Here’s what it looks like today:

Yeah, it now looks more like 1-2 inches of precipitation or maybe a foot of snow over the next 16 days. The GFS has somewhat been the cheerleader for stormy weather this fall, now it’s turned into Debbie Downer. The Canadian model is holding out more hope for early December storms. So terrain expansion is really going to rely on what snow makers can make happen. Typically at this stage of operations, Alpine Meadows snowmaking has focused on covering Werners and Charity before thinking about Alpine Bowl.

We can’t change the weather so be thankful for what we have now and hope that either more natural snow or more manmade snow will be forthcoming sooner rather than later. Thanks again to those that make the snow when Mother Nature is slacking.

Thankful For Many Improvements

Taking a look around the mountain and facilities over the last two days, I’m thankful for the many improvements that have been happening around Alpine Meadows. Without even considering the huge gondola project, there was a huge investment in our favorite mountain facilities over the summer. Here’s what I have noticed so far:

• While I am still trying to find a way to be thankful for the B2B Gondola, it’s no secret that there are a lot of people that are really excited about it. I’m working on a whole separate article about the gondola, appearing sometime in the next few weeks.

• There’s about a dozen new Super Puma fan snowmakers on Weasel, spread between the TLC mid-station and the Chalet. That allows for much better snowmaking capability to get this area covered in the early season. The result is a wider and deeper ski trail in the early season. In particular, a lot of that capacity went into filling the creek section near the Chalet. It’s nice not having a dangerous bottleneck there so early in the season.

• Last season, although the Sun Deck did look larger, much of that space over the temporary steel grating was not usable for tables. The new deck is no longer temporary. There’s more room for tables and just moving around.

• The steps from the breezeway to the Sundeck remain unchanged themselves. Bummer. But there were improvements to the structure covering those steps. It was completely rebuilt. It’s larger, and there are automatic doors at the top that will prevent snow from filling in on those steps most of the time. There’s also better lighting in the area, making it easier to avoid falls. If you make a u-turn at the top of the steps, it is now possible to enter the lodge without going outside. The steps and railings were also painted a historically correct color.

• There’s a new food truck parked out on the Sun Deck. It is not the MTN Roots truck. It currently is painted silver and does not have a name. A menu has also not been announced. Previous conversations with food service people indicate that this is a necessary step toward a return of some sort of BBQ option, somewhat like what the Stoked Oak used to provide. More food options are definitely a great thing for Alpine Meadows.

Update: Sources say a south of the border theme is the current thinking, including margaritas.

• We have mentioned several times this summer that the grove of trees near the Chalet was removed to allow for an expansion of the deck. Today I noted that a new portable kitchen/trailer is now in place on the new deck. It is appropriately named the “Alpine Kitchen”. The last I heard is that the previous menu of brats and pretzels would move to the new outdoor kitchen. The inside of the Chalet has reportedly been remodeled again to provide for more seating. The menu might be heading back to the Chalet menu of previous years, with more of a homestyle cooking. We await details.

Update: Sources confirmed this and also mentioned funnel cakes. Fun!

• Down in the main lodge, the upstairs men’s restroom has finally been expanded and updated. The new one is at least twice as large and looks like it was built in this century. (The women’s restroom was redone a couple of years ago).

• In the Meadows cafe, there are now 4 self check out stations for buying your lunch. I have not tried them out yet, but the way it looks is that set your tray under a camera and it calculates what you have through some magical technology. I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about “self checkout” as it does eliminate some jobs. But when you can’t get enough employees, because of the lack of affordable housing – then self checkout is a reasonable solution. I might starve to death if they didn’t have self check at local grocers. I hate lines.

Update: Sources say the number of jobs remains the same, but those people better utilized for expanded food services.

• In a similar vein there are now two automated kiosks for picking up tickets that have been purchased online. They are located right in the area where JMA put in ATM style ticket machines in 2010. If I can pick up tickets that way rather than stand in line, that’s what I would do!

• We mentioned last week that the Palisades Tahoe app has been improved. I’m not thankful for that. I already noted that the new maps are not good. I noted today that there are no longer separate Leaderboards for Alpine and Palisades. Boooooo. Private Leaderboards? Who cares?

There’s probably more improvements that I have not noticed yet. It’s nice to see that someone is willing to make some investments in the mountain we call home. Thanks to all that were a part of making those happen.