The Wait Just Got Shorter

The rumors were flying around Tahoe this afternoon. Several sources dropped some hints that Alpine Meadows would spin TLC to the mid-station this Saturday, November 25th. Then the official blog just made the announcement. That is some fantastic news and the moment we have been waiting for.

I wish we had a better picture of how it’s looking in the Weasel zone now. Over the last few days, I’ve been meaning to mention that a new webcam based at The Chalet would be a great addition to the current lineup. It could allow views of Weasel, Yellow, Ladies Slalom and Scott. We’re lacking coverage compared to the place next door. The Race Cam at Kangaroo doesn’t offer much these days and it’s been a long while since the 360 cam at Summit worked, due to all of the power issues last season.

Update: Like magic, this picture appeared in my inbox minutes after posting this info...

We are pretty certain that the pressure was ramped up once Northstar announced that they would start spinning the Vista lift on Thanksgiving Day. There also the part about Mount Rose spinning the Lakeview Lift for the last 12 days, offering nearly top to bottom coverage. The demand is definitely out there. The main lot at Mount Rose was full today. Even with the addition of The Wizard and the magic carpet to the schedule, it was uncomfortably busy. People are anxious to ski for the Thanksgiving holiday, especially after the banner season we enjoyed last season.

There’s still a chance to ski over at Palisades even earlier. The First Venture chair will spin tomorrow with a few terrain park features thrown in to make sure that you can get that awesome shot for the ‘Gram. There’s also the Ahsoka magic carpet running. There’s a magic carpet named for a Star Wars TV mini-series? Who knew! They do things differently over the hill. Based on TLC opening Saturday, I can skip the First Venture opener.

Also scheduled to run this weekend are the stupid shiny boxes that connect Alpine Meadows & Palisades. That will ensure that the line for TLC will extend to the moon. I believe it was just last season that the line actually extended to the top of the breezeway. So that’s a disappointment. I have no news on the status of potential opening of the Gold Coast terrain over at Palisades. Just know that it’s likely to be crazy busy at Alpine Meadows this weekend, exactly the way we left it at the end of last season on July 4th. TLC will continue to operate midweek. The B2B will not operate midweek until December 8th. May the weekend be windy…just windy enough to close the Windola!

Palisades App Updated

I noticed today that the Palisades app was updated today. For the most part it functions the same. A lot of the content was biggerized, which makes it easy to see. It also requires more scrolling to get where you want to go. Here’s the highlights I noticed on a quick glance:

• There’s a “Today” block that highlights all of the different things happening across the two mountains and at the fake village next door.

• There’s a huge and easy to use block to start tracking for a ski day. It looks kind of cool the way they have implemented it. That said, I never start tracking via the phone app. I always start tracking using the Apple watch app. It just seems to have less drain on my phone battery that way.

• There is a link to “Reserve Parking”. Doing a quick test, it is not really a time saver. Clicking the link will take you on the complete tour of all of the various sub-sites that eventually let you make or alter a reservation. Rather than relying on the link in the app, I highly recommend you save yourself some trouble and create an “app” on your phone. I wrote a tutorial last month titled This Is The Way. Do it.

• The current Palisades app is still missing an Apple watch “complication”. That’s a very non-descriptive word for the ability to add a little icon to your watch face that allows you instant access to the app. That feature was last seen when the app was the Squaw/Alpine app. I’ve been using the Slopes app over at Mount Rose the last 10 days and I have forgotten how convenient it is to have a “complication” available.

• It would be fantastic if the app allowed users to reorder the blocks. There’s some stuff that many of us never need. How cool would it be to move those to the bottom, or just hide them.

No storms in the forecast inside of 10 days. The last ten model runs keep a storm out there at day 15 and 16, but never closer. That said, we should see a good shot of cold air allowing snowmaking to ramp up again around Thanksgiving day. I am thankful for that! See y’all at Alpine Meadows soon. Thanks to the mountain ops crew for making it happen.