We Almost Made It Skiing Today

Over the years, we have learned that there are different strategies for how to deal with these warm storms that turn cold. Here’s the two major options:

• Option A: Bust out there first thing in the morning and wait for lifts to open, possibly late or never. Usually this means that you’re skiing in the wetter part of the day. By the time the rain changes to snow, you’re already soaked and don’t care anymore.

• Option B: Deal with everything at home and roll out to Alpine after lunch, once some parking again becomes available. If it’s a good storm, places will refill with snow and you can still find decent leftover tracks. You run the risk that either the snow gets hammered and doesn’t refill fast enough or that the mountain closes because it is hammering out there.

We chose Option B today and rolled into the Alpine Meadows parking lot at 1pm, shortly after Roundhouse and TLC were put on a maintenance hold. With Meadow and Yellow still in the game we booted up and headed out to Meadow. After three minutes in line, the “Closed” sign came out, and word was passed that everything was closed due to a power outage.

So the only skiing I did today was the cross country type to and from the Meadow lift. I also managed a pass scan. I just did not ride a lift. Instead we bought some adult beverages and played some games in the lodge while the mass exodus settled down.

Early on reports indicated that the snow was a bit heavy. Shocker. Later in the day, the snow was dreamy and light – but the lift lines went to the moon and back. The important thing is, the mountain was open today and it was not an easy effort. A ridiculous amount of water fell overnight from the sky. That base of Subway was flooded. The volunteer patrol locker room was flooded. There were issues with the backup generator…the list goes on an on. This is a big storm.

Some have suggested this is happening far too often. I think it’s a good example of “frequency illusion.” Ski areas have always faced these sorts of challenges, we just hear about it more often due to cell phones and the internet. Back in the day…these resources were not there. We would leave for skiing at 3am and head to the mountain, relying on a ski report we heard on the radio or read in a newspaper a week earlier. Once in a while, we might have even called a SnoPhone – except that it was a long distance call, so probably not.

If you have read the official operations blog, I would not have high hopes for tomorrow. Avalanche danger is exceptional with today’s heavy snowfall and more on the way this evening. Openings tomorrow will be limited and possibly slower than you may like. There are still many many many people in the area anxious to ski powder – even though they really can’t ski powder. I anticipate I will be there too, weather and roads permitting. My street had more than two feet of snow in it before the town plow came, just about on the edge of what a Subaru can manage (going downhill). It could be a problem tomorrow (uphill 🙂 )

There’s more snow on the way tonight before things clear tomorrow. Another storm is in the pipeline midweek. Know that it’s going to be crowded…it’s clear that Alterra has way oversold their mountain capacity in the Northern California region. We are seeing that very clearly this season.