Hello Skiers,
Today was a special day in many ways. The sun arrived after hiding for many days. I could see what was in front of me for the first time in days as the light was not flat. All lifts were operating, and a good amount of the mountain was open. High Traverse was still limited as patrol was doing avalanche work in the back bowls. However, Beaver Bowl, Estelle Bowl, and beyond was open for skiing and boarding. There was powder to be tracked from snow that fell last night. Once the powder was used up the skier pack was outstanding. The entire mountain was covered with the best winter snow I have seen recently. I could not find one spot on the mountain that was not pure joy.
One additional note for today. Long time snow safety employee of Alpine Meadows, Larry Heywood, is celebrating his 75th birthday today. Larry is no longer on patrol, but is a well known snow safety consultant who lives on the Westshore of Lake Tahoe and skis at Alpine Meadows regularly. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARRY! Larry is a great guy and a friend of many who ski Alpine Meadows. From me to you Larry: If you will wear it, I will buy you a helmet!
I do not know what to say about the skiing today other than to recap some of the trails I enjoyed. In the morning we skied Tower 19 before it was tracked up and then headed to the far side of Wolverine Bowl where we found more powder. It was already tracked a little, but it skied like a dream. Under Alpine Bowl Chair we found a nice stash of undisturbed white gold and continued through Deer Camp finding even more gold.
Photo of myself taking by Bob Indig this morning
Skiers heading to Keyhole Slopes in the afternoon
Sherwood was the next stop. I love scooting through tight trees at the top of Sherwood and following it up in powder in the Powerline slopes. South face delivered soft winter snow that just could not be beat. Don’t forget Lakeview. Scott’s Beam was a delight to ski as was my favorite, Scott Meadow (low angle, but always has a fresh field to etch).
Pretty good size slide triggered by patrol in SP Bowl
Joyful snow in the Promised Land
More winter now in Gentian Gully
At the end of the day we filled in the time with D7, North Peril, The Face, Quin’s Chute, and Waterfall. You know it is a good day when you load the lift at 9 and head to your locker at 2:30 without a stop for lunch in between. Now I feel guilty that I did not stay out until 4, but what a day it was for me and hopefully for all of you that made it to the slopes.
More sun and fun tomorrow.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Editor’s Note: Another hero of Alpine Meadows made it back to the slopes today. Dot has been a fixture forever at Alpine Meadows. Dot broke 4 ribs back around Thanksgiving and has not skied since. Today was the day that she was back at it for a short time working on building her ski legs. Dot is pictured below with instructor Randy Salzman:
As I said yesterday, today was the day to get out and explore everything you could not see yesterday. I hope we get a bit more sun tomorrow morning before we go back to one more little storm.
IT’s great to ski when you can see. Hopefully more sun coming for awhile
My best wishes to Larry H. for his birthday. I am still waiting for his promised visit to Oregon to fish in my backyard on the Mackenzie River.
For reference, I was a National Ski Patroller since 1972, transitioned to be member of the “105” squad and retired from patrolling in 2006.
Dot was behind us in line several times today and smiling wide the whole time! Great to hear she’s on the mend.
I skied yesterday too, agreed! I was hoping High T would open today and my wish came true! Hit skiers left of the big slide on SP bowl and got lots of untracked this morning! Later this am, my “friends made me” take the b2b over the hill…