New Terrain & Parking Reservations For The Coming Weekend

Slowly but surely the available terrain is improving and expanding, no thanks to Mother Nature. It’s the hard work of the mountain ops teams at Alpine Meadows and Palisades that are making that happen. Let’s talk about current conditions first.

I spent my fourth morning lapping the Hotter Wheels chair at Alpine Meadows. It gets noticeably better each day. That’s not just because the midweek crowds are smaller than the weekend crowds. It’s because the mountain ops teams keep making it slightly better each night. The big new automated fan guns along Weasel Run are blowing more snow each night, then the groomers are using that snow to widen out the Weasel Run. There’s been quite a bit of expansion over toward Loop Road, a doubling of the width at the creek crossing near the Chalet, and a secondary track added near Tiegel. Those changes seem minor, but when you have already done 50 laps this season on Weasel Run, one can appreciate these new little additions.

The one place that remains narrow, and a bit dicey, is just past the breakover at mid-run. That would be that one steep section just below the “SLOW” banner. Andy Hayes, a popular guy from Palisades, dubbed that section “the Headwall of Weasel” this week. It’s been striking fear into the hearts of beginners for 60 years. That name has stuck with me, because it’s true, according to 12 year old me. Today, conditions on Headwall were slick. Why? There were a lot of instructor clinics on the hill today, so that meant it was a bit busier than expected. Before it got slick, the skiing was really fun today, even though the corduroy gets sugary pretty quickly.

Reserving Parking Was Easy…In A Sense

I made my first “free” parking reservations for the upcoming weekend today, shortly after noon. The easy part was that there was no rush for reservations this week. I think anybody could have guessed that the reservation thing is going to be pretty silly when we have like 4% of the mountain open on man-made snow. Using the “app” I created on my phone (via the This Is The Way method I have been highlighting), the first reservation for Saturday went very smoothly. But things started falling apart when I went to make the second reservation for Sunday. Although there was a link to make another reservation, it did not work as expected. I kept getting all sorts of redirects from one site to another.

In the world of web design and user interfaces, redirects are just unprofessional. They look bad, they confuse users and they slow the process down. This reservation process is basically a kludge that has been added on top of a platform that already is clunky in itself. “Honk” began life as a way to pay for an immediate parking spot, not something you reserve in advance. Therein lies the problem. It’s kind of like if I wanted to build my own skis. In order to save time, I started with a 1×4 from the hardware store, then nailed on some curved metal for the tips and added some zip ties for bindings. Yes, it might actually work, but it is certainly not all that functional or pretty.

But this is the system we are stuck with for the next 18+ weekends and some holiday periods. Will it actually have an impact? Very few people actually believe it will make that much of a difference. The less than stellar ski conditions we are seeing right now will do far more to keep traffic and parking in check. Maybe the lack of natural snowfall this season is Mother Nature’s way of punishing mountain owners that oversell passes, then try to limit mountain access through reservations systems.

Terrain Expansions Announced

The official Operations Blog announced where terrain expansions are planned for the upcoming weekend:

• At Alpine Meadows, the Meadow, Subway and Big Carpet will be added to the schedule. Word on the street is that this could happen as early as Thursday. That may not seem like a big deal, but it is if you have some beginners in your family, or if you’re a part of the Subway “dog club”, you are loving it. Removing beginner traffic off of Hotter Wheels will also be a good thing.

• At Palisades, Red Dog, Resort Chair, the Funitel and Gold Coast will be added to the schedule. Word on the street is that Red Dog and Resort Chair could go Friday. Those openings are a much bigger deal, as that will draw most people to the other side. Perhaps you like to go there too. I won’t judge you.

• The shiny boxes will be in operation Friday through Sunday, making it easier to head over the hill for a change of pace.

About That Storm You May Have Been Dreaming About

The hopes of a big storm for the weekend continue to deteriorate. We just can’t get out of that “slightly positive PNA index” pattern. I’ve seen the phrase “split jet” bandied about over the last couple of days. That means that rather than having one strong jet stream driving storms into our area, it is split into two weaker ones, one far to the north and one farther south. So that low pressure off the coast will once again become a cutoff low, with little forcing to bring snow to the Sierra. Although the automated point forecasts are still showing a chance of small amounts of snow over the next few days, today’s model runs really backed off of that idea. The only significant accumulation of snow is now expected Friday night into Saturday morning. All of the models I viewed today offer a range of 2-5 inches of snow by Saturday night. The models do keep snow levels below the base areas, including over at Palisades.

In the longer range, there are currently no models that suggest any significant storm after this weekend. This is not a great thing for people that rely on good snowfall for their business. While Palisades and Alpine Meadows can survive a weak winter, employees that were counting on a paycheck could have a rough time. Occupancy rates were down in Tahoe during the Thanksgiving holiday, and a slow Christmas season will be tough on local ski shops, restaurants and others that rely on good snow years. There is still time to turn it around. The other day I mentioned how Alpine Meadows did not even open until December 16th in 2021. Then it started snowing and did not stop until January.

As of today, it looks like temperatures may warm up a bit next week, making snowmaking conditions not quite as productive. If I had to guess, Roundhouse will be the next snowmaking target at Alpine Meadows.

Then again, I found this photo on my computer from December 25th, 2011. We were still skiing a WROD from Roundhouse. I still had a lot of fun that season. You have to love the skiing you have, or be willing to travel to where the snow is. Like I said the other day, all skiing is good.