T.G.I.M.

Thank god it’s Monday! What a difference a day makes for those of us that can ski any day of the week. The mountain was empty, there was no traffic on the road, parking was easy and lift lines were less than a minute. Out on the mountain, you could ski down the busiest of runs and not have your head on a swivel. Was it windy, yup. Was it super cold? Yup. Did I get immediate frostbite, as predicted by the evening news? Nup.

Winds overnight in the Sierra reached near 200mph at Kirkwood. Due to the fluctuating power issue at Summit, the remote sensor was not operational overnight. The first reading when it came back online this morning was a gust of 113mph. Needless to say, Summit did not open today. Combine that with morning temperatures in the teens and the wind-chill was certainly noticeable.

Even without the Summit lift, there was some fantastic groomer skiing today. Mountain manager Jeff Goldstone and the rest of the mountain ops teams have done a great job rolling out as much groomed terrain as possible over the last couple of days. That’s super important as we transitioned from powder conditions to a warm spring day and then back to a northeast wind cold blast. Just about every normally groomed run on the mountain was groomed overnight, with the only notable exception being Kangaroo Ridge. Being that Summit was almost certain to be closed today, Kangaroo Ridge should not have been a priority as there was no traffic headed to Summit.

Over at Sherwood, Robin Hood was added in to the groomed trails over the weekend, as well as the groomer that runs from Robin Hood under Sherwood Face. I asked Jeff Goldstone the name of that run last season and I am not sure he knew. We started calling it Maid Robin Tucks last season, an amalgamation of several of the Sherwood runs. Notable for this week, there is actually an upper and lower Maid Robin Tucks. I’m not sure I have seen that upper line groomed before.

What was the groomer of the day? I’m choosing Jorg’s Legacy (Twilight Zone). It was groomed to perfection today and the morning east wind deposited a nice little layer of loose snow there to make turns super edgeable. The worst run of the day was the nearby Scotty’s Beam, which looked entirely nice from the chair and was good for about two turns before it turned into icy misshapen moguls a bit farther down.

The absolute best run of the day was in the mid afternoon near Yellow. It goes by a lot of names…Alternate Yellow, Hot Yellow and Billy’s Little Willy. On a windy day, follow that snow. It lead to some very nice silky afternoon off piste turns. I heard there was also some good soft snow in Gentian Gully, but did not get there today. For the most part, the off piste skiing was trash today due to the ultra cold temperatures. Temperatures should increase around 10 degrees tomorrow and hopefully that will allow some softening.

Ugh…the weather forecast is looking very debatable right now. We are down to just a slight chance of snow early next week. In the long range, the GFS keeps flip flopping run to run about big snow potential or almost no snow potential over the next 16 days. The GIF below shows the last 10 models runs of total snowfall over 16 days.

Looking at the teleconnections, the MJO brings the moisture. But the jet stream support is just not there to bring storms in at this time. So for now, if I had to simplify, it looks like the drier scenario is the most likely one over the next two weeks.

Hats Off To Alpine Meadows

Yesterday’s post regarding Alterra’s need for a third mountain in Northern California came off as pretty heavy handed. I want to make sure that you all know that we understand that all of that has not much to do with all of you, the ones that make skiing happen for us all season. It’s not Alpine Meadows people that are choosing to sell a bazillion passes, nor is it Alpine Meadows people constantly seeking media hype that brings crowds. You guys and gals have crushed it through these busy periods, day after day, week after week. I know that not all of you enjoy everything involved with just being a cog in the machinery of a mega-ski corporation. Thanks for all you do. All of us regular Alpine Meadows loyalists appreciate what you do for us.