My expectations for today were far exceeded. That’s been happening a lot lately. The morning status tweet from Mountain Ops was not super inspiring, indicating that only two inches of new snow fell over night at Alpine. I never got a look this morning at the Remote Data sensor for the base that said 5 inches had fallen overnight…then another 6 inches fell today during the ski day…at the base. So again the powder was deep again today, especially in areas that only saw light traffic yesterday.
Fortunately Roundhouse was removed from “mechanical hold” shortly before opening today and the lift opened for skiers and riders about 10 minutes late. Being closed yesterday, much of the Roundhouse terrain was in very good shape this morning. That said, when the line grew a bit long we headed to Sherwood, where there was basically AYCE powder with pretty much no lift lines. We stayed there until lunch, although hunger stopped me from going directly to Lakeview when it opened. Heard it was fantastic from several people.
For the afternoon shift, we saw a line forming at Summit and chairs being put back on the line. After the long wait at Scott yesterday for a delayed opening, I opted not to make that mistake again today. Roundhouse was having multiple long stops, so we wandered over to Kangaroo for some left overs. Instead we found zero tracks in the over knee deep powder on the face of Kangaroo. Here I scored more face shots than I have all season over the next 8 laps. We thoroughly used up that zone!
I only talked to one person that went to Summit when it did open and the report was that Tower 19 had 19 wind lips. I am certain there were better areas. As we were lapping the Roo, there were many hoots and hollers from the Three Sisters area. No cries of “Yewww” were heard.
Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly sunny and cold, and a non-holiday day. That sounds like a great day to explore everything I missed today. High Traverse and the upper bowls have not been open for quite some time. Maybe tomorrow is the day.
One more storm is on tap for the week. Snow showers return Wednesday into Thursday. The point forecast is calling for less than a foot of snow overall. The last two runs of the GFS show possibly 18 inches. Snow levels should stay in the 3000-4000 range…yeah baby.
After that, the trend for the next two weeks is cold and dry. I love skiing powder, but we all need a chance to catch up here. There is a lot of extra snow that needs removal. Check out the photos below of the Ice Bar and the new burrito truck for just two examples. It might be nice to enjoy a few corduroy turns and not have to dress like Randy Parker for skiing each day. Hopefully we don’t get a three month break like last season!
One last thought for today…this popped up in my Facebook memories today. Here’s the view down Weasel Run on January 16 five years ago. I didn’t even recognize it as Alpine Meadows at first. What a great season we are having…thanks to everybody at Alpine Meadows that turns all of this snow into safe fun each day.
If you want to keep your (and my) favorite locations “undisclosed”, I suggest that you don’t include the _______ in the background.
I am generally pretty careful about that. Kangaroo face is hardly a secret. Poor visibility yesterday preserved those turns longer than usual.
I think he’s talking about the things in the sky in the picture above the roo shot.
” Nothing to see here folks”
“Nothing to see here folks”