Hello skiers,
Mark already posted a report for today, but since I prepared this I am posting a second note for today.
Thank all of those wonderful people who wished me a Happy Birthday yesterday. I had a very nice morning of skiing Sunday in the six inches of dense snow that fell Saturday night. Crowds were very light yesterday so we had no lines. The best part of the ski day was that we were able to find untracked snow all morning, even though lift operations were minimal. The weather let up just enough Sunday afternoon so that I was able to make my birthday dinner reservation at Soule Domain (my favorite Tahoe Restaurant). Driving around Alpine Meadows and along Hwy. 28 to Stateline, where Soule Domain is located, is like skiing a slalom course. There are so many pot holes in our roads that it is almost impossible to avoid them.
A number of people noted how long they have skied at Alpine along with their comments yesterday. I thought I would include a picture of one of the first lift tickets sold at Alpine Meadows in Dec. 1961.
Enough about yesterday:
I did not ski today. Birthday hangover? Maybe. However, the fact that it was raining lightly, or snowing very wet flakes, and winds were blowing strongly once again had a lot to do with my decision to skip the slopes today. In addition, repairs required to my snowblower, errands needing to be run, and the fact that lifts at Alpine opening in the morning were Subway, Big Carpet, and Meadow cemented my choice to stay off the slopes. According to the PT App TLC opened to the mid-station later in the day.
Avalanche conditions with this wet heavy snow are high. Please take care when skiing out of the resort boundary. I did hear, not confirmed, that there was a natural slide in the area of Munchkins.
I must apologize to Mark, who did show up in the locker room this morning, for not joining him. Mark indicated he rode Meadow five times this morning. I do not know if he went back out for more, but he gets the gold star for the day for trying to get in a few runs. By the way, KT22, Red Dog, Resort Chair, and Far East were operating today on the other side of the mountain.
Since I am not speaking about slope conditions today, I thought I would mention an issue that, in my opinion, needs airing. Actually there are two issues that apply to the same problem.
The first item pertains to skiers and boarders who are standing at the “Wait Here” sign waiting for a chair to arrive for their ride up the hill. You should always look behind you so you can see the chair as it arrives. I think we are a little complacent when standing waiting for a chair, especially a chair on a detachable lift. A chair that is detached as it swings around the bullwheel does not need to be bumped as we prepare to sit down. This means there is not a lift operator standing waiting for each chair as it swings around the bullwheel. We also do not look behind when ourselves when there are four to six other people loading with us. Here is one reason you should look before you sit.
Thus the second issue: This is in reference to the maps that are attached to the safety bars on Roundhouse Chair. I have noticed that on occasion the map portion of the bar catches wind and the bar is blown to the down position. This is not a problem if the lift operator sees the bar is down and lifts it before you attempt to sit down. It is a big problem if he or she does not see the bar is down and you attempt to, or actually sit on it. Within the last couple of weeks I have personally seen the bar blown down by the wind and a group of skiers in front of me barely get out of the way of the chair before they attempted to sit on it. Luckily, when I was present the lift operator was able to stop the lift and the patrons were able to get back into position to sit on the next chair. However, two friends of mine were also next to load when the skiers in front of them were not looking for the chair as it arrived with the bar blown down and the operator looking at something else when the chair arrived. I am not sure how these people accomplished this, but they actually sat on the chair with the bar down. Their legs were on top of the map, and I assume their rear ends were not touching the seat. The lift was not stopped. These lucky people rode to top in this awkward position. At the top they required assistance to exist the chair. This was not a funny story. People can get hurt if the bar is down. Look before you sit.
I suggest the maps be taken off the bars so that they do not blow down randomly and an accident can be avoided.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Turn back and make sure the seat is down also,sometimes still flipped in up position after a storm. Few years back at a major resort a guy fell through the seat partially,hanging and asphyxiated himself.
Great post Andy. That lift ticket was sold 12 days after I was born. It took a few more days before my dad got me skiing. Your Roundie safety bar comments are on point! I saw them blown down recently too, but the liftie was paying attention and re-setting them as they came around the wheel. I agree that the maps should be removed so the safety bars can be safe again… It is staggering that those poor folks rode all the way up in that position. My friend observed a big slide in avalanche gulley (Munchkins zone) which ran all the way to the summer trail. This encompasses the area that 99% of the resort skiers travel through when they go to Munchkins or Field of Dreams.
I think the maps are an okay feature for a couple of reasons. We have seen that Alpine Meadows is no longer “the locals’ mountain”. We get a lot of first time visitors doing the Ikon pass tour. The gondola has only increased those numbers. The few times that the gondola has run, it seems like 90 percent of those offloading make a beeline to Roundhouse, as it is the closest obvious lift.
I’ve seen a lot of people getting on the chair and immediately studying the map to figure out how to get to the magical “backside”, where apparently the powder turns last for weeks and there is never a line because it’s the “backside.”
I think it’s more of an issue of making sure the liftee is outside and fully attentive to the loading process. There’s all sorts of issues that can happen during loading. Obviously some of the liftees do this very well and a few do not. My 2¢…
I’m with Andy on this one. Take the maps off of Roundhouse safety bar. Easy fix to mitigate, what could be a situation that Steve Olsen mentioned. It’s easy to say that the lift ops should pay more attention and see the all the safety bars that have blown down, but if you have ever been a lift op watch the never ending assembly line of chairs passing through, you may think differently, especially when it is the first one of the day on a weather event of increasing winds and/or bad visibility, or just a scattered few getting blown down. Seats flipping up due to wind are another issue, but much easier to see, but still a problem. I heard (but not sure) that the major resort that had the death has now fixed all the chair seats down so they can’t blow up.