Now That’s Spring Weather & I Love A Good Hunt

Here’s two things that sum up today. I skied in a tee shirt and no gloves this afternoon, and I had to turn on the air conditioning in the car on the way home from skiing. If those are the only two things I remember from today, then I am happy. The skiing itself…it was a mixed bag that required a reversal of normal operations. Typically in the spring, you want to follow the sun and not get ahead of yourself, for fear of finding icy runs.

Today, those sunny spots were too soft and too sticky right off the bat. Instead I found myself looking for the zones that see enough sun to corn up, but not too far south facing. As an example, we are at Sherwood fairly early this morning. At 9:30, it was too soft on Robin Hood, which usually softens first. It was absolutely stellar on Maid Robin Tucks (across the bottom of Sherwood Face following Ashcroft Gully). MRT has more of southwest exposure and normally is one of the last places to soften. Pretty much all cares about “good skiing” went out the window with the search for the golden egg.

The Hunt Recap

That said, this was the day for the Golden Egg Hunt. Myself and my friends, we’re pretty good at being the runner up in finding the golden egg with it’s next year season pass. I have yet to be in first place. Maybe it’s a matter of having too much knowledge and overthinking things. But, because people want to know here’s the summary of this year’s hunt:

Clue 1: “It’s not where you think”: Wow, that could mean so many things, but first we thought of Idiots and took off in that direction. Since the hike to Idiots was closed, we focused on the rocks above the traverse, near Dog Leg. No obvious bunny tracks were found anywhere in that area, but the instability of the spring snow and wet slide potential in that zone did not escape us. For the record there was another couple that had exactly the same idea. We spent much of the next 40 minutes thinking only of other “body parts” names for runs, coming up only with Butt-ress. While that made sense, getting to the Buttress was out of the question.

Clue 2: “On the line”: The thought here is we’re looking on a boundary line or chair line. Yesterday, the teaser photo posted by marketing was the golden egg in a gondola. Putting that together with the two clues, my wife went on a hunt along the gondola line through the parking lot. The thought was hiding the egg in the parking lot would be a case of “not where you think”. No dice.

Clue 3: “Not 8165“: This required a stop for lunch and reviewing what we knew about elevations. That is lower than the elevation of Summit, higher than the elevation of Roundhouse. It’s almost the elevation at the top of Scott Chair. We were frankly baffled by this clue.

Clue 4: “2250 bottom to top will get you close”: According to LiftBlog.com, there are two chairlifts at Alpine Meadows with this exact length, Scott and Lakeview. It really did not make sense that the golden egg would be hidden along the Scott chair line, as you would not want to send a whole lot of casual average skiers into Scott Chute to hunt for the egg. Thinking about the first clue, we decided that the “Twilight Zone” is a place where you might not think. We did a complete search of the Lakeview chair line, with extra focus near the part where it crosses the Twilight Zone run. We were definitely not the only people in that search zone.

Clue 5: “Take a peak”: Unfortunately, we were standing at the bottom of the Lakeview chair when that tweet arrived. That ride up Lakeview seemed like the longest ever. There were a lot of people standing around at the top of Lakeview by that point, so we casually headed toward the nearby Scott Peak. Someone let us know it had just been found there. The golden egg was hidden in pretty much the same area two years ago, which is why you may not think of it being there again. At least that is the way I read it in hindsight. I had completely thrown out that idea shortly before lunch as we were checking elevations along Leisure Lane.

Clue 6: “John P. Or John B.?”: I believe this clue may have been released after the egg was found, but before it was turned in. The two Johns were brothers in the Scott family, that were some of the original landowners in the Olympic Valley and Bear Creek Valley. Word is they named the peak.

I always love the challenge of the hunt. Maybe someday I will find myself holding the golden egg rather than being a day late and a dollar short. Thanks for those that made it happen.

Also of note today was the Beacon and Eggs beacon hunt held on the face of Promised Land and sponsored by Alpine Meadows ski patrol. It seemed like that even was very well attended and people were very enthused. There certainly was a great assortment of prizes to win. Two great events in one day…three counting the FIS slalom race off of Werners’.

Shifting gears to weather, we have several more glorious days of spring ahead. As that continues, we should see better corn development across the mountain, leading to improved off piste skiing and a little less stickiness as the corn matures and the surface holds less liquid.  Temperatures will cool midweek, further reducing stickiness. A slight chance of showers is in some model runs for late Wednesday into Thursday before things warm again next weekend. I love it.

That said, we are likely in “Fools Spring” right now and going back into a wintery pattern is possible. Remember that it snowed like four feet the week that Alpine Meadows closed last April. Right now the models keep identifying a trough appearing again around the 17th or 18th of the month. That’s too far into Fantasyland to say that it’s anything sure.  The models are notoriously volatile as the seasons change. It’s worth keeping an eye out.

Paging Placer County…

One thing is certain, together Palisades and Alpine Meadows generate a lot of tax revenue for Placer County. It’s Placer County that is responsible for maintaining Alpine Meadows Road. We noticed some signs appear this week declaring “Rough Road” in the section between Deer Park and Snow Crest Road.

The signs are not enough. Over the last few days, we have noted at least a half dozen cars with flat tires in this zone due to the numerous potholes. In fact, looking closely at this photo, you can see one stopped up ahead on the left. As someone that drives to Alpine Meadows everyday, I’ve gotten fairly adept at Mario Kart pothole avoidance. Casual weekend visitors are getting caught frequently. I know, the potholes have already been filled at least twice, and it doesn’t last.

But we have almost three more months of driving Alpine Meadows Road ahead, and something has to change. With less time spent plowing the road, it’s time to put a daily squad out just filling holes here and over at Olympic Valley, where the road is reportedly also quite bad. Step up your game Placer County, there’s a cost to your approving every development project in the Tahoe basin. Thanks for listening to my TED talk.