The weather forecast indicated it might rain today, but as of closing time it has not seem to have materialized. There were clouds in the sky all morning along with patches of blue, but no rain fell on my helmet. It felt muggy on the slopes this morning. I was not overly dressed, but felt hot and sticky. I guess I needed one less layer or one that was just a shell.
A reasonable number of skiers showed up today filling the main Alpine Meadows lot to something that looked like 75%. However, we really never stood in a lift line of any consequence.
In my opinion the better snow and skiing was on slopes that had been previously skied. When enough skiers have made turns on slopes dotted with suncups, a smoother surface is created. Along with a smoother surface comes a white looking track verses a field of brown. Well traveled surfaces are also less sticky than a slope of brown suncups covered with pine needles and other objects that have fallen from trees. I do not mean to say that either condition was not enjoyable, because that would be untrue.
It is difficult to see in this photo of Scott Chute, but where it is whiter in the mogul troughs the skiing is better.
I did not show up for the early laps this morning as my Boston friend demanded we watch the Celtics game to the bitter end. It was a nail-biter for the Celtic fans. As if that was not enough time watching the tube, we followed the game with a movie lasting beyond midnight. We watched, “A Man Called Otto”. This is not the place to talk about movies, but I would highly recommend it.
This photo of High Yellow and Our Father shows the difference between the white and brown areas a little better.
How was the skiing you might ask? Well, I had a good time off-piste. My feet took me to Sympathy, Pygmy Forest/Palisades, High Yellow, Scott Chute, and Gentian Gully/Promised Land. I did not make it to Sherwood this morning, but Mark indicated Chute Zero remains pleasant enough.
Chute Zero at Sherwood this morning (Editors note: Andy must have been confused on this one as this entrance to Chute Zero burnt out two days ago. I saw two different pairs of people learn the hard way today. Traverse higher to enter from above the big dirt patch on the right)
The top of Promised Land
Patty and Mark standing on a suncuped slope in Gentian Gully. It actually skied better than it looks.
We skied three or four runs down into Gentian Gully and then out to Promised Land. The snow was soft and wet, but not sticky in most places. This was true of all the slopes I skied today, especially on the steeper ones. Flat areas were slow and sticky, but that is to be expected at this time of year. One thing to keep in mind if you are going to head to Gentian Gully or Promised Land is that the entry from the top of Scott Chair to these trails is now devoid of snow for a few feet. We took our skis off and walked over six feet over dirt before traversing to the entry of Gentian Gully. We did this mud traverse each time until the last tour when we just walked over the short section with our skis still attached to our feet. I guess this is the definition of a lazy skier. I did not really ski any groomed runs today, but when I slide over groomed areas they seemed to allow my skis to slide well (unless it was really flat).
For those that like groomed there was Dance Floor, Werner’s Schuss, and Charity.
Patty snapped this photo of a hole under the cornice at the top of Wolverine Bowl.
As the snow is melting away from the mountain side a deep crevasse type opening appears. Be careful not to fall into one of these.
Tomorrow is the last day of daily lift service offered by Palisades Tahoe until Alpine begins three day weekend service in June (next Friday).
Enjoy your day,
Andy
I have hundreds of photos of the lake from the top of Alpine Bowl, but the view this morning with the lighting and the clouds over the lake was surreal.