Truth be told, I did not get out skiing today. It’s not a choice that I took lightly. It was a rough night last night, because living with Crohn’s Disease is not always fun. Honestly, I do pretty well with it and generally, going skiing everyday is a part of that treatment plan. Andy is still enjoying some beach time, so he’s not available for today’s report. But my friends that did go skiing today sent in some comments and a couple of photos.
It’s not easy to groom spring snow when it turns to slush each afternoon. Rather than producing that smooth corduroy we seek, we get a lot of artifacts. Typically these look like ridges or ruts between each cat track, with an occasional hole left from spinning treads. It’s the way it is.
For that reason, this time of year, it’s often smoother to look for the off piste snow that isn’t too sun cupped. For the last two days Tower 19 and Solar Flare have provided that smooth corn we seek. Also, High Traverse did open for a bit this morning after being closed yesterday. The reports were that the upper sections of HiT were pretty smooth, but as the pitch of the slopes decreased, the sun cups grew bigger. We saw the same over many parts of the mountain yesterday. Also of note, reports are that there is now some mandatory rocks and dirt crossing at Upper Saddle to access High Traverse. Another friend that went to High Yellow yesterday via Lower Saddle said that ridge was getting very spicy.
Patty reported that Chute Zero skied better today than yesterday, the result of doing several runs there yesterday smearing out the cups. I highly encourage you to join these efforts to eradicate sun cups. Sherwood Face (Left, Center and Right) are all skiing pretty good. I encourage you to get off the groomer and smash some cups. Reportedly, Powerline may be a lost cause by now due to its low pitch.
Overall, it’s good to hear that much of the off piste terrain is skiing pretty well again. We still have some warm days through Monday. There’s also a chance of thundershowers again Saturday and Sunday. Next week, we should see temperatures drop into the low sixties and possibly the 50’s as we head into Memorial Day weekend. That should improve conditions.
Questions…
• Will Alpine Meadows remain open on Monday, May 29th as it is Memorial Day? Or will they stick to the Monday closures?
• Will Alpine Meadows be open for Wednesday, May 31st, then close on Thursday as that will be in the month of June. It certainly makes more sense to trade Wednesday for Monday during that week.
I emailed these questions in but did not get a response. Apparently an announcement is scheduled for Monday regarding paid parking and parking reservations for next season. From what I have heard, it’s going to make skiing much more expensive next season for those of us that want to ski on weekends and holidays…or I have to cruise my neighborhood looking for people to go skiing to qualify for carpooling. I’ll reserve too much commentary until we see what is actually planned.
Word on the street is that the parking reservation system will be tested out for the 4th of July weekend. If you don’t already know that will be a junkshow…it will be. Yet they keep marketing…
Thanks to Patty and Andrew for sending in some “skis on the snow” reports for today. Hopefully I will make it out tomorrow.
If they will using closing weekend as a dry run then they need to restart the Mountaineer service in Alpine.