The latest in a series of winter storms arrived just ahead of schedule today. The Winter Storm Warning was announced for 10am today until 4am Monday. The snow started in earnest around 8:30am and by 10am, every lift at Alpine Meadows was closed with the exception of Subway and Big Carpet. Then there was that matter of a little derailment of the B2B on the Palisades side this morning. Fortunately there were no injuries from “the incident.”
The day started off pretty normally. There was the requisite traffic on Highway 89 from Truckee. The rush from the parking lot through the breezeway toward the lifts to get that early powder run. The bewildered looks of the masses wondering why Summit, Scott and Lakeview were not open this morning. We saw it all.
Those of us that were better informed were happy to get a start on Roundhouse, or Hotter Wheels as a route to get to Sherwood. Roundhouse spun early and that prevented much of any line forming. This is good, as the Roundhouse queue has gotten a bit steeper lately, bordering on being a blue square run. One friend suggested we name this new run “Chuck Norris”, as he enjoyed both skiing and roundhouse kicks.
Visibility was poor right out of the gate with the intense snowfall starting and winds rapidly ramping up. But the groomers were smooth and rapidly softening with an inch or two of new snow fall. We also noted that both Sympathy Face and Rolls and Knolls looked and sounded pretty good, having avoided the sun the last two days. That said, both were also rather busy. Instead I saw that the rarely groomed Fall Line had indeed been groomed. That was a treat, and a great way to avoid people that were headed down the primary groomers.
On the way up for our fifth ride, I was getting all sorts of blips on my watch, indicating new tweets. I knew that was not good. Sure enough, everything went on hold except TLC, Meadow and Subway. The line was gigantic at TLC and I called it a day. TLC and Meadow went on windhold moments later. That last lap on Yellow was sweet velvet.
Yeah I know, there were some lifts open over at Palisades. If I were really core, I would have gone over there to finish my day…but this was day 102 of my season and theoretically I have about another 80 or more to go.
The Incident
It’s very fortunate that there were no injuries today when there was “an incident” on the Base To Base gondola. The B2B was on windhold on the Alpine Meadows half of the lift. Over at Palisades, that side was running to allow for additional access to KT-22. Not surprisingly, it was a little busy over there this morning, and with the upper mountain affected by winds, the gondola has some potential to provide some relief. That side of the system is much more protected from wind than the Alpine Meadows side. Here’s a description of the incident in a tweet from LiftBlog:
Here’s the statement from Palisades Tahoe about it:
“At approximately 9:34 a.m., the Palisades Tahoe Base to Base Gondola went on hold due to a mechanical issue. A cabin originating from the Palisades side entered the KT mid-station terminal and a gust of wind caused one cabin to become stuck in the terminal, forcing a stop of the lift. There were no injuries and we utilized the gondola intercom system to communicate to all guests on the gondola. The mechanical issue was fixed and all guests were offloaded at the KT mid-station by 11:13 a.m. The Alpine side of the Base to Base Gondola was not operating at this time and the lift is now closed for today due to wind.”
I’m not going to try to second guess anything about whether or not it should have run today. I will say that I appreciate that they do what they can to operate what they can when they feel it is safe. There were some dark days not too far in the past where the former CEO insisted that lifts could not run when winds exceeded 35 mph.
Tomorrow?
Right now, tomorrow also looks like it will be a challenge for mountain operations. The point forecast for Alpine Meadows calls for;
- Today 14-20 inches
- Tonight 15-21 inches
- Sunday 8-12 inches
- Sunday night 2-4 inches
- Monday 2-4 inches
The winds are not expected to subside until later tomorrow afternoon. So if something opens tomorrow, it will likely open later, and it likely won’t be much of the mountain. This is not terrible news for those of us that live here and can ski whenever we like. It’s not great news for those that committed to an overpriced non-refundable AirBnB for the weekend. By Monday, we should see more terrain open. Its also likely that a lot of people will be stuck here until Monday, or have already called for an appointment with Dr. White for the day.
For now, it’s almost my turn to run the snowblower again…
Thanks for this update today – now I don’t feel too bad about missing playing in the ‘new powder’. Raining, windy & very chill in the valley today, and apparently I80 closed yet again. More snow to follow. Since we haven’t been able to brave the on/off highway conditions and continued snow, really enjoy reading the daily updates from our favorite, Alpine Meadows. Descriptions & photos are good – how about next week?
Winter goes on & on…..in such a good way, as long as we can get to Truckee to enjoy it.
I took my first ride on the Shiny New Boxes yesterday and it had about a 3 minute stoppage–not an auspicious start. I also played my new favorite on-chair game with some folks: “What would you have done differently with $100M split 50/50 between Alpine and Squaw?” Try it, it’s fun.
To Andy’s point a couple of posts ago about speed racers on the hill–patrol presence yesterday was minimal and most of those I did see were pulling sleds. At a minimum we need one at the Slow sign on the run-out waving his/her poles. Heck they don’t even need to be patrol–just give a Mountain Host a patrol jacket and a radio.
And with wind speeds gusting to 100 mph on NWS remote data site at AM and Sqw there is serious windloading happening and high snowfall amounts that are going to create serious avalanche conditions.
So please stay home, hopefully the mountains will close and not put employees and others at risk like the fatal avalanche in ’82 or any post control avalanches like what happened a couple years ago at Alpine, let alone the avalanche at Shirley Lake trail last Tuesday night.
C’mon people it ain’t worth putting lives on the line nor having to have 1st responder pros and TNSAR volunteers at risk either.
The Mountain was closed during the 82 avalanche
I don’t think I’ll be riding the B2B on any windy days in the future!
Yep. 11:13 minus 9:34 is……………a looong time. And that’s just 1/3 of the route!