Herky Jerky Man

That was the song that played in my head on our first few runs today. For those of you that are not up on your 60’s music, it’s based on Donovan’s classic Hurdy Gurdy Man. The overnight cloud cover kept temperatures not just above freezing, but way above freezing. That led some parts of the mountain to be very sticky this morning, giving many that herky jerky feeling.

Just walking out onto the snow this morning, you had to be alarmed that there was almost no evidence of corduroy left from the swing shift grooming crew. After the mountain was groomed, warm temperatures overnight melted everything down to a smooth but sticky surface. Here’s a sample of what that looked like at the top of Bobby’s when Scott opened around 10am this morning:

Sure it looks smooth, but it skied something like marshmallow creme, fluffy and sticky.

Not everything skied poorly, and this is weird. Sherwood actually skied better than much of the mountain today. I don’t mean all of Sherwood, I just mean the steeper parts: Sherwood Face, Chute Zero and South Face. Once you got to the flatter runouts, Herky Jerky Man started playing in my head again.

Still I had a half dozen delightful laps in Chute Zero before it was announced that Sherwood would close early. Typically, I try not to positively identify the locations of my favorite spots on the mountain. But yesterday was a test, and readers responded. Traffic to Chute Zero probably tripled today. At one point, I counted a dozen skiers and riders at some stage of a Chute Zero lap. When there’s warm spring snow and sun cups to be eradicated, more traffic is better. It made me smile. The power of the blog worked, for everyone. Here’s the quick snap of the developing wiggle heading down toward Sherwood Face:

Unfortunately all of the great work we have done over the last few days smashing sun cups will need to start anew on Wednesday when Alpine Meadows opens again. Who’s in?

Over at Scott, we spun a couple of laps through Gentian Gully and through the Ice Cliffs zone again. The pain versus reward ratio is not so great right now. The suncups have gotten really large in Gentian, and the tree wells are expanding, leaving just knife ridges between many trees. The sun cups out on Promised Land were also significantly bigger today. Above and below the ice cliffs was absolutely the best snow today, with minimal sun exposure. The problem is getting there and getting back out to TLC.

So not an ideal day, but it was not all Herky Jerky Man. There was just a whole lot of Herky Jerky Man required before and after enjoying the good stuff. That same theme held true on Palisades and High Yellow…steep good, runouts not so good.

Conditions should improve when Alpine Meadows opens on Wednesday for the last week of the “regular” season. Both daytime temperatures and overnight temperatures are expected to be about 10 degrees cooler than this week. Those are both great things. The tradeoff is that there is a chance of showers or thundershowers, right now Wednesday through Saturday. A cutoff low off the coast will spin up moisture from the south in a sort of pseudo-monsoonal flow.

I did get confirmation today that the plan for next week does include: Summit, Roundhouse, Hotter Wheels, Meadow,  Sherwood and Scott from 8am until 2pm from Wednesday through Monday the 29th. Bare in mind that is conditions permitting. Taking a look at the rate of melt at the top of Scott, it will take a significant amount of work to make that happen. I also note that Meadow looks thin at the top. Also confirmed, no Alpine Meadows on Wednesday, May 31st for one day. That makes sense to me.

As we head into “novelty season” during the month of June, it will be only Summit, Roundhouse, and TLC…conditions permitting. Bare in mind that typically, operations in May have often included just Summit. Be grateful. Also a reminder that starting in June, there is no more skiing at the other side…we shall see how Alpine Meadows does in handling the load for both mountains.

Saw an interesting article on the B2B the other day, sharing it here for those that may be interested. I agree with most of it, not all of it.

See you Wednesday Alpine Meadows.