It was the little storm that kept on giving. Roughly 5 inches of snow fell overnight at Alpine Meadows. Throughout the day, flakes continued to fall sporadically without providing much more accumulation. The new snow was probably lighter and drier up high. Lower on the mountain it was a bit denser and wind affected.
I did not venture to Summit today, as the visibility looked something like an ocean of white. I got vertigo just taking the photo above from Rock Garden. There were moments where it looked better for a minute or two, but then the low clouds moved in again minutes later. There were far fewer people on the mountain today than yesterday, and that meant that lift lines were very short. That gave us a chance to cruise around and see how things were skiing.
Off piste, conditions were still pretty variable. The new snow did not quite erase the ruts of yesterday, so many paths were pretty bumpy. We found those conditions on Yellow, Chicken Leg, Sherwood, Standard  and Ladies Slalom. The most consistent area today was Weasel, where the slopes were groomed perfectly, and the low elevation kept you out of the clouds. Charity was also a contender for consistency.
Roundhouse was back in business today, fortunate with visibility so poor at Summit. We also saw lift maintenance crews at Yellow first thing this morning. Whatever the issue was, they resolved it very quickly and Yellow was open for business within a half hour of opening. That meant all lifts were open today with the exception of ABC, and that makes all of the difference.
I learned a new name today for the shiny box things. The “Windola” was on again, off again due to maintenance and wind issues. I was not planning on heading to Palisaded today so I was not worried.
Storms Still Lined Up
The storms are still lined up for at least the next 10 days. The first one arrives momentarily. Contrary to the last one that dumped everything at once, this will be more spread over 48 hours. Huge dumps of snow should not be as much of an issue for Mountain Ops. Here’s the point forecast for Alpine Meadows over the next two days:
What may be a problem is wind. Very high winds will likely impact Summit and the Windola over the next two days, and possibly more. One other thing is the snow levels…they start low but trend higher as the day goes on tomorrow. Things will be soggy by the afternoon. Thursday should bring lowering snow levels again.
The mega storm for the Sunday to Tuesday storm is still looking like a monster, just slightly less monster-like than yesterday. The total QPF (quantitative precipitation forecast) through Wednesday is showing the potential for 15 inches of liquid in the Northern Sierra. Snow levels are not yet clear, but my best guess is we will be riding that fine line with some rain and some snow. It’s very worth keeping your eyes on this system. We spent the afternoon making sure we have everything fueled up, with extra on hand. We also warmed up the generator and did a bit of extra snow removal. We did the Costco run yesterday…we are feeling reasonably prepared.
Well said about summit, although once you got out of the alpine bowl area it wasn’t terrible. Had a lot of fun cutting over to what was groomed of wolverine bowl, and taking waterfall down to lap it.