It’s A Go With The Flow Kind Of Week

Yesterday was not the day that many people were dreaming of. It was definitely wet and soggy until late in the day when it turned to all snow about 3pm. Today was also not that day that many people had hoped for. The powder was not as deep as some people expected, it was way more crowded than many expected, and some early lift problems really limited options before 11am. Fortunately, my mindset was just to go with the flow, no matter what happened.

Somewhere around three inches of rain fell on the snow pack before it turned to snow yesterday. Most of that water was soaked up like a sponge, which then was tossed in the freezer. You could feel that stiffness setting in on the last lap yesterday around 4pm. It would have been really bad if the overnight snow didn’t cover that up. Fortunately sometime near dawn, I looked at the remote data site and saw that 7 inches of new snow accumulated at the base area and that brought hope for the day.

Traffic was light and parking was easy early in the morning. Roundhouse, Summit and TLC all loaded on time. In most places, the new snow covered the firm base, and the only ruts I hit were the ones I left yesterday around 4pm. Then Summit went on mechanical hold and threw everything into a tizzy. We headed to the Roo and enjoyed some mini-pow laps, which was better than standing in the long lines at TLC or Roundhouse. Eventually Summit came back on line and people spread around the mountain.

That said, this was the busiest blackout day I have ever witnessed at Alpine Meadows. All parking lots, all of the way to Hidden Valley, were full by 11am. Many of the lifts ran in to the dreaded “10-20 min” wait times on the PT app. I did not go to any of those lifts. Still, I was able to link some pow turns at 2pm this afternoon, but that’s because I know where to look…and I don’t share those secrets on this blog. Much of the powder in the steeper terrain was not open due to the extremely hazardous ice conditions. While some of us probably could have navigated that terrain, patrol cannot take any chances with leaving it open. That’s totally acceptable.

I guess we have an answer now about how many passes were sold. They sold MANY full passes, probably a record number. Some of that had to do with the magical appeal of those shiny new boxes. But I would also note that Epic Pass sales were down 12% this season, likely due to their horrific management of some ski areas last season. That’s a huge number of people that didn’t buy Epic passes. Most likely, most of them did not just quit skiing. It’s likely that many of them switched to buying an Ikon pass. So the holiday “blackout” periods are no longer that tiny little slice of serenity in busy times. I guess I’ll just go with the flow and know that it’s going to be busy at times through the holiday. That will not stop me from skiing.

Speaking of the shiny new boxes, they did run today after a delayed start. They really had minimal impact on things today with very low ridership. If the powers that be were paying attention today, they might have even said “Wow, this thing was a waste of money.” But, as noted above, it probably sold a lot of passes.

Also…TLC and Roundhouse ran until 4:30 today. I would have loved that yesterday…today I was avoiding traffic at that hour.

More Snow, More Rain, More Snow

The weather pattern still looks very active as we head into the new year and beyond. Having a bluebird day today was somewhat of a treat. Another storm moves in tomorrow afternoon and it continues into Sunday. The snow levels are the big question, and how long they are high and how long they are low will have everything to do with how much snowfall we see. Here’s how things look today, which is different than they looked yesterday:

Thursday: The morning should be partly sunny before the next wave moves in around lunch. Thursday should be all snow with around 6 inches being a reasonable expectation during the day. Another 10 inches or so could fall Thursday night.

Friday: Friday looks wet…with snow levels running around 8000 feet and a lot of wind. Snow levels are not expected to drop during the day. They may actually rise. This might be a day you want to take off from skiing and riding.

Saturday: Snow levels should drop back below base level by mid-morning, so conditions should improve through the day. Note the “should” in that sentence. Somewhere around 6 inches is expected.

Sunday: The storm moves out Sunday, leading to sunnier skies and a high near 30.

This forecast is constantly evolving. Just yesterday, it was Saturday that looked super rainy and wet. Now it’s Friday looking the most soggy. Just go with the flow.