Challenging Day

If you love groomed slopes, then you most likely loved the skiing at Alpine Meadows on this day. The morning corduroy was delicious. If you like to venture off the beaten path, or at least outside the groomed areas, then you had some challenging conditions on this day.

There were plenty of soft moguls to ride and even some fresh powder to be found. Powder tracks were available near Grouse Rock where the sun had not hit the slopes yesterday.

Good looking tracks coming down from areas near Grouse Rock

The High Traverse was not open yesterday so untracked snow was available in the upper bowls. We hiked over to Upper Saddle and peeked over the top. We were really not sure what we would find. I thought we would encounter wind sculpted slopes that are not all that easy to ski. We found relatively smooth wind swept slopes and immediately skied down the best part. Lower down we sank into the wind pack, but it was soft. Turning in these conditions takes energy. Lower down the slope skier tracks from yesterday crossed our path horizontally. Skiers had been traversing over from South Face the day before. These tracks were a little crunchy taking some of the joy out of the run, but not all of it. We were happy to have done it.

Under Alpine Bowl Chair, in the area we call Pygmy Forest, soft wind drifts looked uninviting, but they were actually fun to maneuver around. Lower Palisade was filled with nice winter snow making us smile.

Need a challenge? You should have joined me on Sun Spot this morning. It was not groomed overnight so the soft wind sculpted slope offered an easy challenge. Avoid the bumps created by the wind drifts, and turn in the smooth wind deposited snow between the drifts, and you have a really good time. Miss a turn of two and cross the hill riding the drifts up and down, and you do not have such a good time. It is good practice even if your friends look at you sideways for doing it.

Lower Beaver Bowl was a mixture of stiff wind buff and lighter powder filled with firm snow balls. Turning between them works, but hitting one the wrong way and you are eating snow.
Below Beaver saddle the snow was setting up and not all that fun in the afternoon. The warm temperatures that we had today will be turning south facing slopes to ice in the morning and spring snow in the afternoon. There were plenty of places to take advantage of good winter snow. Gentian Gully, D7, D8, Our Father, Palisades and more. North facing was where it was best today.

North side of Beaver Bowl

South Beaver Bowl

Don’t Look Down! Rhonda, our good friend, was walking out of the breezeway after enjoying a nice lunch on the deck in the warm sun when a large chunk of ice/snow fell hitting the ground just a few feet away from her. It scared her, but worse it might have landed on her. She is certain it fell from one of the cabins in the sky. Snow that sticks to the gondola cars will fall eventually unless it is removed by someone. Look up when you leave the breezeway.

The old photo below is of the original KT22 ski lift that was operated in the summer for sightseeing. I remember riding one August day in 1961 when I took this photo with my Kodak Box Camera. We must have had a relative in town that needed a scared child to ride along with her.

Riding down KT22 in the summer of 1961.

                     Enjoy your day,

Andy