Proper Perspective

The skiing was not amazing today. But let’s put that into proper perspective. Alpine Meadows closed for the season last season on this date. Yikes! Around the Tahoe basin, most resorts are closed, or are heading into their final week and maybe a bonus weekend. So far this season, I’ve been able to ski 136 days at Alpine Meadows. As the schedule stands now, we have 50 ski days ahead at Alpine Meadows, without even going to Palisades. I certainly can tolerate a day that is a bit subpar. Still, I logged 17 runs, which is not bad for a day that many of my friends skipped. There will be many opportunities for great days ahead.

After a great streak of spring days, today started with colder temperatures, a thin layer of high clouds and winds gusting to 65 at Summit. These are not the things that lead to great spring skiing. Starting the day on Roundhouse, we noted that Ladies Slalom and Kangaroo Ridge did not get groomed, and they are typically best bets for early softening. That said, Dance Floor, Charity and Werners all offered good groomed conditions. Yellow and Weasel were frighteningly firm.

Seeing that Summit did remain open, we did head up to see if Sunspot had softened. There we discovered something amazing. D7 got groomed last night. That was unexpected. So before we tested Sunspot, we were obligated to check out the new groomer. Today was not a prime day for that, unless you’re channeling Mikaela Shiffrin. It was world cup conditions today. If it snows overnight, that could be interesting tomorrow. In talking to many old-timers today, only one claimed having seen D7 groomed before.

The snow is exceptionally deep at this part of the mountain. Reports are that the snow pack is as deep as 60-80 feet due to wind loading at the top of the D-Chutes. One visual to make that clear is the photo below. The groomer that runs down the ridge to Sunspot and D8 normally runs equally around the tree (lookers right), now there is so much snow, that groomed road has been pushed way out past the tree. (That tree is known to some as “Emma’s Tree” and also happens to be the site of my first broken arm skiing)

Eventually, we did check out Sunspot and found it was also relatively firm, as was Alpine Bowl. High Traverse was open today, and the fact that it was open well into the afternoon tells you everything you need to know.

It took some cajoling to convince our ski group today that Sherwood might be good today. When I asked, nobody responded with the usual “Sure would!” But the TLC lift does make it pretty painless to go check it out. This is not the day I would have wanted to take Scott to Mountain View to Rays Rut path to Sherwood. As it turned out the two Sherwood groomed runs were both quite nice and corny, even with the filtered sun. Robin Hood was probably the run of the day. On an interesting sidenote, Robin Hood usually ties into the main Sherwood run. Lately, it instead takes a right turn on to what we had been calling “Maid Robin Tucks” , running across the bottom of Sherwood Face, I actually like that way better as it splits up traffic. It also makes sense to call that whole run “Robin Hood” as it is now.

A Bit Of Snow Overnight

There is still a forecast for snow, mostly falling overnight. By the time lifts spin tomorrow, the snowfall should be done. Looking at the automated point forecast, it’s still calling for the 6-10 inches of snowfall. It’s the GFS and shorter range NAM models that are pumping up numbers there still. The Euro and Canadian models are nowhere near as confident. The GEFS Ensemble forecast calls for 6-7 inches over the next 18 hours and that more conservative estimate is what I think we will see. Here’s the crazy thing, the snow levels start at about 5000 feet tonight and drop to 3000 feet by the morning hours. It’s mid-April. Go figure. Highway 80 should be delightful tomorrow morning.

After this little blast of winter, temperatures remain chilly Wednesday before climbing back to spring-like for the weekend. We probably have a couple of days of stickies ahead as the snow readjusts seasons.

Fifty more days of skiing ahead, fifty one if they oddly open Alpine Meadows for one day on Wednesday, May 31. That is amazing…and I feel thankful for the opportunity to be there. There are a couple of side notes for casual skiers and visitors to consider:

• Operations will be trimmed down as time goes on. It felt like a private ski area today with just a couple of hundred skiers on the mountain. More and more lifts will be trimmed from the schedule in the coming days. Be grateful.

• Last weekend was the final day for ski school. Only pre-booked private lessons will be available for the remainder of the season.

• Viva Treats final day of service for the season will be April 30. Melanie and the entire gang at Treats deserve the time off after what has likely been a record season. So either sack it up, or plan on spending more $ upstairs. Maybe the taco truck will have melted out by April 30th.

Thanks to every other mountain ops and support person that will continue to keep things rolling through the rest of this very long season. We love it!