It’s A Festivus Miracle

Yes, it was a Festivus miracle again today at Alpine Meadows. How so? For the second time this week, an inch of snow transformed some unpleasant off piste snow into some fun ski conditions. Warmer conditions on Wednesday caused some heavy snow. Cooler conditions on Thursday transformed some areas of the mountain into frozen chicken heads and coral reef – at least some of the areas I frequent. Today it was back to the off piste and away from the groomers with smiles on our faces.

The second miracle was that we made it through the first week of the extended holiday season without any major traffic jams or ginormous lift lines. The only exception was the 17th, which was busier due to the opening of the shiny  box thing. That is a worthwhile miracle!

Things started out really foggy up top today. So I skipped Summit for the early part of the day. Lower on the mountain the light was also pretty flat, but certainly better than the pea soup at the top of the mountain. The new snow made the groomed runs nice and grippy until the corduroy got scrubbed away by skiers and riders.

Early on in the day, things were also not that busy. Over the last week, it seems like arrivals have been a little bit slower than usual, probably due to there being no rush for powder. (Although if you read the yesterday’s official conditions blog for Alpine at the PT website, you may have been lead to believe that there were still numerous powder stashes all over the mountain.)

I never left the front side of the mountain today. We found some fun, not great, but fun skiing between Tower 19 and 21 off of Summit, in Rolls and Knolls off of Roundhouse and off of Fall Line and other areas around Yellow. In addition to having fun skiing, one of my goals for today was to avoid Rock Garden. I’ve had several close calls with people nearly hitting me there in the last week. Today it was the fellow who launched off a mogul next to me and nearly landed on my ski tips. It is kook season.

An Airing Of Grievances

One traditional part of Festivus is the Airing of Grievances. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a great start to the season thanks to some solid storms in early December and cold weather until this week. The mountain ops team has done a good job with terrain expansion and getting 100% of the terrain open. Throughout last season, we were completely spoiled at Alpine Meadows by top notch grooming. That was important, because after getting 17.5 feet of snow in December, the taps shut off and we didn’t get much snow again for 3 months.

Things have not been the same this year. While the grooming that has been done is mostly good, it’s still limited. In most seasons, as we get into the peak holiday season, here’s the runs that are typically groomed at Alpine Meadows:

Looking at the list above, the one’s in red have not been groomed yet this season. The most important high traffic runs are being groomed, and looking at the list, 79% of normally groomed terrain is getting done. Those ones that are not getting done may not seem important, but they are. Every one of them offers a way to bypass the most crowded areas of the mountain: Rock Garden, Dance Floor, Sandy’s Corner and the runouts to Summit and Roundhouse. As we see more peak traffic in the coming two weeks, those runs become more and more important to people trying to avoid the heavily trafficked areas.

Last week, we heard that some of the groomers were still on snow making duty. This week, we heard that COVID is again an issue. We got a new shiny box that adds no new ski terrain, but that does not matter if there’s not employees to maintain the terrain we have. It has to be frustrating for local mountain managers. How can you hire employees if they can’t afford to live locally? Right now, that is a question that Alterra is going to have to face soon.

I am grateful for all that has been done to date. It’s just sad to see so much focus on the new shiny boxes, and not on making the mountain the best it can be for everybody. Speaking of the shiny boxes…earlier this week they said they would be back for the weekend…now they say some time next week. The storm will likely cause further delays. I’m okay with that.

Feats of Strength?

It’s Ma Nature that will be winning the awards for “feats of strength” in the week ahead. Over the next two days, she will be bringing us much warmer than normal temperatures and pleasant ski weather. Then all attention turns to the AR event for next week.

Things get going late Monday night. By Tuesday, the Tahoe area is expected to be seeing heavy rain up to about 9000 feet, along with damaging high mountain winds. Based on the current forecast, it’s reasonable to expect that Alpine Meadows may not open for much of anything on Tuesday. Snow levels are not expected to drop to the base of the mountain until Wednesday morning. From that point on, the current thinking is all snow after that.

As of this afternoon, 6-8 inches of total precipitation falling over the next 7 days, resulting in 3-5 feet of possible snow at the top of the mountain. Travels delays, lift delays, power outages, and all that goes along with big storms are to be expected. Flop potential? Yeah that is there too.