My expectations were really low this morning. We’ve had so many days recently with a few inches of new heavy snow and flat light that I almost slept in. Looking up Alpine Bowl this morning as we exited Roundhouse this morning did nothing to add to the inspiration. (see above) Then we started skiing. My outlook was completely changed. Snow levels today were running about 4000′ and that meant that the new snow was way more fun, and it was deeper than expected. As a bonus, we got some bursts of sun interspersed with heavy snow showers.
The remote sensor showed 3 inches of new snow at base in the morning, and with mostly continuous snowfall through the day, we were skiing boot top deep powder by the early afternoon. Not all of it was great. South and west facing areas that saw sun yesterday afternoon had ruts and chunder that were not all that pleasant below the new powder. But terrain that stayed hidden from the sun yesterday that saw minimal traffic yesterday were excellent today. Gentian Gully offered great fun today, as long as you carefully selected your exit to avoid Lower 40 Gully. You also pretty much could not go wrong anywhere from Deer Camp through High Yellow and all of the way out to Art’s Not Linkletter Knob. It wasn’t the lightest nor deepest powder of the year, but it was good enough to restore my interest in powder skiing.
It’s been a very quiet midweek at Alpine Meadows. It was easy to find first tracks at 1:30 this afternoon. The Friday afternoon early arrivals, which are now the Thursday afternoon early arrivals, were right on schedule, coming up Alpine Meadows road after lunch and filtering through the breezeway. But those numbers seemed less than previous weeks. I think we’re getting to that time where people start thinking about doing other activities besides skiing, especially with the first storm free weekend in what seems like months. I’m curious to see how crowds pan out through the weekend.
As of now, Friday, Saturday and Sunday should bring mostly sunny skies to Alpine Meadows. That said, it’s not going to be particularly warm. High temperatures are supposed to be below 30° all weekend. So it will not be spring skiing. The sun angle is getting higher now that we are beyond the vernal equinox, so solar radiation on the snow will affect the snow quality. Don’t expect today’s powder to last.
There’s one more potentially big storm in the forecast in the Tuesday through Thursday timeframe for next week. As of now, it looks like it could bring 2-3 feet of snow midweek. If you asked me two days ago, I would have said that it would pass more to the north and we would get the warmer tail end, But the last 12 model runs of the ensembles have dropped the low right into Tahoe and doubled the expected snowfall. It’s still 5 days out so things could change. I’ll report again on this in Saturday’s report. I will point out that high winds will be a part of this storm, likely causing operational impacts galore.
Let’s Talk Spring Skiing!
The powers that be be finally have made some clearcut announcements regarding the spring skiing plan for Palisades and Alpine Meadows. We’ve hinted a couple of times that we have heard tips that Alpine Meadows would be returning to its place as the true Spring Skiing Capital of Tahoe. We heard the Funitel needed some major maintenance this season, and that turned out to be true. The haul ropes on the Funitel need to be replaced and that is a huge project affecting large portions of Palisades.
What makes Alpine Meadows the true spring skiing capital? It’s the terrain and vertical offered by the Summit and Roundhouse lifts. Together they offer not just more vertical, but also a greater variety of solar aspects and far more room to spread people out. The other mountain next door appropriated the “spring skiing capital” title sometime after the hostile takeover in 2011. The only thing going for it at that time was the High Camp swimming pool and that is now gone.
I do need to call out one important statement in today’s blog post at Palisades Tahoe, as it is completely fake news. From the frequently asked questions section, it states “We are excited to be able to offer skiing and snowboarding at both mountains in the month of May. Normally, Alpine would be closed by this time.” False! It’s only since Alterra took over that Alpine Meadows started closing during May. Alpine Meadows has a very long history of making every effort to stay open as long as skiers were still coming. They even went as far as putting down hay on the west runout to help skiers get back to the Summit lift. I’m not ungrateful that spring operations are being offered, I just don’t accept it when corporations (or political parties) try to rewrite history.
In a nut shell here’s a summary of what you need to know:
April: Operations at both Palisades and Alpine Meadows 7 days a week. Starting April 8th, Summit or Roundhouse will stay open until 5 pm on Saturdays.
May: Alpine Meadows will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays; Palisades will be closed Wednesdays and Thursdays. It will give tired employees a bit of a respite. Will afternoon hours be trimmed?…not announced.
June: Alpine Meadows will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only. It’s unannounced, but probably only Summit and maybe Roundhouse. There’s work to be done on the gondola building and that affects much of the mountain.
July: Alpine Meadows open July 1st through July 4th. Again, expect Summit and maybe Roundhouse.
The running joke on the TGR forum this week is whether or not Alpine Meadows road will still be passable after this month. Sooo many potholes! For those wondering about the gondola…the last day of operations for the gondola is April 30th. That is the terms of the use permit granted for the gondola by Placer County. See comment below.
Great news today! If that is not enough skiing for you, Mammoth has announced operations through the end of July or longer.
One correction above. The last day of the gondola is April 30th because of the Friends Of Granite Chief Wilderness lawsuit agreement, not the use permit from the county. I believe the county permit allowed for operation as long as there was skiing. Thanks Yellow Legged Frog. /s.
https://sierrarecmagazine.com/sierra-nevada-yellow-legged-frog-and-granite-chief-wilderness-protected-in-new-base-to-base-gondola-agreement/
Alterra……“We are excited to be able to offer skiing and snowboarding at both mountains in the month of May. Normally, Alpine would be closed by this time.” PANTS ON FIRE, ALTERRA. As Mark mentioned above, pre-Alterra Alpine stayed open as late as possible every year and 7 days a week, Just like Mammoth Mountain. And, it is worth mentioning again, that the spring skiing at Alpine is far superior to Palisades, and in my personal opinion, Alpine is also superior Mammoth Mountain in the late spring, that is until our snow melts and Mammoth usually keeps on going due to elevation and northern exposures, then, I admit, they got it going on!
Palisades tribe losing its mind over Alpine only in spring. Now they know how we feel here at Alpine.
It would be great if they figured out how to do both mountains.
The first time at skied at Alpine Meadows was Memorial Day weekend 1980