The east wind, it blows, often after we have seen a great storm cycle. It was here in force today. Right at the base, it was cold but the wind was relatively calm. Higher on the mountain, the east wind was blowing in the 60-70mph range this morning at the top of Summit. If you’re a seasoned Alpine Meadows veteran, then you already know that Summit will close when the east wind hits about 50 mph. Near the top of Roundhouse, a temperature near 15° combined with the 25mph winds made the windchill somewhere around – 12°. Combine that with some “lake effect” clouds and, yeah, it was very cold today.
We headed pretty much straight to Sherwood where it looked like the sun was shining. There was also much less wind. After a few groomer laps, I decided this was not the day for making fast arcs down the groomer. It was a better day for skiing something that made you work a bit harder. We abandoned most of a large ski posse and headed back to Roundhouse to see what shreds of powder we could find. It turned out that the day old powder stashes on Gunners and Gods Knob did not matter. That east wind was buffing out and depositing powder all around the Yellow zone this morning. We found fantastic skiing on Red Ridge, Ladies Slalom, Fall Line and around Chicken Leg.
It wasn’t easy skiing. It required navigation that brought you to the next powder wind pillow, and avoiding the sastrugi where powder had been stripped. It also required a bit faster speeds and a hop turn here or there, as well as some little jumps here and there when you hit the next wind lip. It was definitely a free refill situation with the wind transporting large amounts of snow. It kept us plenty busy and warm all of the way through lunch. There’s the “give”.
Someone turned the wind machine off sometime during lunch, making it much harder to find those nice powder pillows. It looked like it might have dropped off enough to where they could have run Summit in the afternoon. But even if they did, the wind did a number on the upper mountain. A lot of new snow was stripped along the ridges making the upper part of Alpine Bowl look not so fun for skiing. Idiots and the upper bowls showed that same scouring. There’s the “take”.
How Do We Get That East Wind?
When we are experiencing storm weather, that generally means that a trough is sitting along the coast of California. Winds around those low pressure systems flow counter clockwise. During most storms, the prevailing winds will be from the west, southwest or south. When we are in a dry spell, a ridge builds over California. In these high pressure systems, the flow is clockwise. If the high is far enough inland, we generally see little or no wind. That is not the case right now. There is a high pressure system sitting a bit too far off the coast. That allows the low pressure systems to become “inside sliders”, flowing over the ridge and into Nevada. Sometimes that brings us very cold snow, but this time we’re only getting that strong east wind from the low, coupled with cold air from the north.
As the low moved further east this afternoon, the winds died down and temperatures warmed a bit. We should see significantly higher temperatures at Alpine Meadows for Saturday, with a high expected near 38°. For Sunday into Monday, another inside slider system will bring cold temperatures and potentially stronger east winds. It’s reasonable to expect that Summit will be on wind hold for both Sunday and Monday. Unfortunately, ABC is still down for the count to fill in.
The Grooming Team Got Busy
We noticed that the grooming team got a lot of work done last night. Not all of it was apparent to the casual visitor today. That was a huge storm cycle we just went through, and the reality was, the Mountain Ops team was doing the best they could just to keep things moving. That said, they needed this break to catch up. The problem was too much snow in too short of a time. Exit ramps became almost nonexistent at some lifts. At one point it seemed like the midway ramp for TLC was uphill. The RFID gates were getting ridiculously low. The turnstiles were hitting the snow and it was difficult to get passes to scan unless you put them in a very low pocket. There was too much snow on the “beach” in front of the Sun Deck requiring mountain hosts to dig steps into the snow for safety. It looks like they got time to address a lot of those issues overnight.
There’s still some big things to tackle. The roads on the upper mountain likely took a beating in the east wind today, and the entry into Wolverine is still a huge cornice. I noticed today that the exit road out of Wolverine is basically gone as well. With all of the scouring and variable temperatures over the next few days, the off piste skiing is going to be far less attractive. More grooming got done last night than the PT app indicated this morning. Yellow, Boomerang and Terry’s Return got groomed. Hopefully Sunspot, Wolverine, Twilight Zone and Robin Hood will make it onto the grooming schedule soon.
AARF!
There’s a couple of notes about the Alpine Avalanche Rescue Foundation program. On Saturday the 21st the Alpine Meadows rescue dogs will be doing a demonstration at the mid-station of TLC at 11am. If you have not seen the demo before, it’s worth your time, whether you are a kid or an adult. Also the new AARF t-shirts are now available. This year’s design is very cool. I love that it has the dog names on it. (RIP Watson 🙁 ) I also love the maroon color. The shirts are generally available at the top of the Sherwood chair (although they may have some at the demo). The cost is $25 and you can pay in cash or with Venmo. I’ve lost track of the number of AARF tee shirts and hats I own, but it’s a great cause to support.
More Snow?
Everything I said two days ago is still holding. In the latest model runs, the MJO still becomes active, the PNA still goes negative, and the GFS still shows the first wave of snow around Groundhog Day. I am happy to enjoy some sunny days for a bit…less crowded than powder days. Speaking of crowds…the upper lots were just about full today…on a Friday. People are apparently still expecting powder.