It is snowing at Alpine Meadows this morning. Yes, it is just the man-made variety and yes, it is only in the Weasel Zone, but it is a start. Even though the longer range forecast looked a bit warm next week, there is a good looking window for snowmaking this weekend. An inside slider type system to our east is bring a cold north wind to our area. The lack of cloud cover allows for great radiational cooling overnight.
With a low of 18° at my house this morning, my curiosity was piqued, so I headed to the webcam at the Palisades Tahoe website to take a peek. Casual viewers of the webcam may have been disappointed by not seeing snowmaking happening on the default view. Using the browser on your computer, you can select the “B2B Gondola” view, which allows for a little look at the Tiegel area, which is as close as you can get to a Weasel view.
All of the efforts at improving the snowmaking capability in the Weasel zone, as well as the installation of the Hotter Wheels chair (aka TLC) are a vast improvement to the early season ski experience at Alpine Meadows. It used to be that Kangaroo was the primary early season focus. I can’t say that I miss those season where I did more than 100 laps on the Roo before ever getting a chance to ride Summit or Roundhouse. Still there is a special place in my heart for the Roo.
The model trend for the GFS forecast is trending drier over the last 6 runs. This brings it in line with the CFS long range I posted yesterday. We are cheering on members of the snowmaking team today!
Turbo Weasel is a really nice improvement. I remember when it went all the way to backside.. How long was that ride? Over 15 minutes?
I will say I’m excited for this year. I actually trained this Summer for skiing. Rock On!