In today’s report, some numbers are up, and some numbers are down. The number of people at Alpine Meadows was way up today. The amount of snow expected for this week is way down, and trending downer.
There was a lot of discussion yesterday about the basis for the smaller than expected crowd at Alpine Meadows yesterday. Was it because of blackout passes, people frustrated with traffic issues in Tahoe, a limited amount of new snowfall, or just a little of everything. Today was substantially more busy at Alpine Meadows, and there’s more points to ponder.
The traffic felt just a bit more of a thing today, even though I left at the same time as yesterday. As I waited for Melanie to open at Treats today, there was a lot of hustle in the breezeway. Quite a bit of this was due to a race event being held at Alpine Meadows today…but that was not all of it. There was a lot of that “deer in the headlights” look of guests arriving and wondering what they were supposed to do between 7:30am and the time the lifts began spinning. As I headed out to Summit at 8:45am, I turned around and took a quick photo just to capture that beehive feeling.
As the morning picked up steam, it wasn’t too long before we noticed there were long lines at Summit, Roundhouse and TLC, which led us to an extra early brunch so we could ski while others took the recommended early lunch. For much of the morning, the corduroy was fun and fast. It was actually too fast for some. I’ll mention here again, it’s time that the speed feature be removed from the Palisades Tahoe app. It’s one thing to suggest via tweets that people slow down, then encourage them to set speed records with the app.
The sun was slightly more consistent today, and that opened up a lot more off piste terrain. God’s Knob offered some nice slush turns, as did Upper Standard. I also saw a lot of people headed over to CB Chute and Sun Bowl, but heard no actual reports.
Run of the day for me? Sherwood Face got groomed last night. I would not have been interested in the corduroy version of Sherwood Face, especially with the reported 10-20 minute lift wait in the morning. In the afternoon, there was an hour where the Sherwood line abated for a bit and the slush turns on Sherwood Face were phenomenal. I could have stayed there much longer, had I not been worried about the traffic potential this afternoon. The upper lots at Alpine were full today, and the Deer Park lot was mostly full.
Also of note, the DJ at the Chalet and the band on the Sun Deck did a great job of pulling people off the slopes and out of the lift lines for the last two afternoons. Sorely missed this weekend…the Ice Bar.
So tomorrow is NOT a blackout day, and it is still a holiday for many people. It’s also the last fair weather day of the week, likely until next Saturday. Everybody I talked to today believes that tomorrow will be a madhouse at Alpine Meadows and the place next door. Moving my alarm clock up a tick…
I mentioned the numbers are down for expected snowfall this week. What looked like it was going to be a huge storm now looks fairly typical. The only atypical thing will be the really low snow levels, and that by Thursday, the powder will be Colorado light fluff. One thing to note is that there hasn’t been much flip flop of models over the last 36 hours as I noted earlier this week. Now they just keep trending downward. As of today, it’s looking like we could see 1-2 feet of snow by Friday morning…and it could be less. Snow levels are expected to drop to about 1000 feet by Thursday. Expect very windy conditions on Tuesday, with snow moving in by the afternoon hours.
Monday Morning Update: The Sacramento NOAA office did go big on this storm. Here’s what they released overnight:
…WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING THROUGH LATE
FRIDAY NIGHT…
* WHAT…Heavy snow possible. Total snow accumulations of 1 to 2
feet between 1000 and 3000 feet, 2 to 3 feet between 3000 to
5000 feet, and 3 to 5 feet above 5000 feet elevations. Winds
could gust as high as 45 mph at times below 3000 feet, and up to
70 mph at higher elevations.
* WHERE…Northeast Foothills/Sacramento Valley, Motherlode,
Western Plumas County/Lassen Park and West Slope Northern
Sierra Nevada Counties.
* WHEN…From Tuesday morning through late Friday night.
The weekend still looks good with sunny skies and cold temperatures. I would also expect that it’s going to be nutso around Palisades and Alpine Meadows due to powder fever and the World Cup thing next door. I actually have an escape plan for next weekend, so I likely will not be there to report on that.
Being in locker # 2 for many years I have developed a reliable indicator of what to expect as far as crowds are concerned and adjust itinerary plans accordingly. It,’s called the Treatsometer. The day experience wether powder or sun is predicted by the line at Melanie Viva Treats.
That completely tracks!
Did they at least open the Meadows Cafe for breakfast? Last year, one could get a decent breakfast burrito for $15 (oof) starting at around 8 am. But I haven’t seen it open in the morning all season. I love Treats but when the line is extending the whole length of the breezeway it would be nice to have some options for people.
Meadows has been serving a limited menu at 7am recently. It makes sense with the need to arrive so early…captive audience.
As usual, big differences in the snowfall forecasted between NWS Sacramento vs. Reno. Should be interesting to see how things play out?
One other note from the NWS in Reno this morning is that they stated, ” Cold has been the story this winter. For KRNO, the average temperature (takes into account highs and lows) for the start of November through yesterday, 2/19, is the coldest since the winter of 2004-05. For Tahoe City, using the same climate stats, it`s the coldest period since the early 1950s!”