178

One hundred and seventy eight. That is the number of runs I have completed on TLC since Alpine Meadows opened two weeks ago. Fortunately, I’ve been able to intersperse some other fun, with about a dozen other laps on various lifts here and over the hill. Before this streak started at Alpine Meadows, I did 112 consecutive laps on Kit Carson Bowl at Mount Rose. There has not been a whole lot of variety available yet this ski season. The question is, will I make it to two hundred laps on the Turbo Weasel before the Roundhouse chairlift opens. I am betting that answer is yes.

Fun Fact: Last season, over 188 days of skiing at Alpine Meadows, I only rode the TLC lift 246 times. Most of that would have been going to Sherwood. I am likely to break that record soon.

My mantra this year continues to be “All skiing is good.” I’m going to just keep showing up at my favorite mountain and enjoy the efforts of the mountain ops team in putting together as much terrain as possible, even when the long term forecast offers questionable hope. The unfortunate thing is that there were some pretty long lift lines this weekend. I probably spent more time standing in line and riding chairs than I actually did skiing today. Doing some rough calculations, it was 20 minutes per lap today. It was a day to reconnect with friends and to make new friends while standing in line. The skiing part was a nice bonus, and although the slopes were crowded with teams and lessons, it was just a matter of picking your line and picking your moment.

The temperatures were quite a bit warmer overnight and even more so during the ski morning. I noticed just one lone snowmaking cannon blowing a very wet mix up in Rock Garden. I’ve mentioned before that there is a massive rock outcrop on the skier left side of Rock Garden. I have left a lot of P-Tex in that area over the years. I’m glad the mountain ops team is carefully applying a thick load of spackle to that outcropping to make for a better ski experience soon.

One thing that I have heard a lot of lately is the idea that “back in the day” the mountain would have opened the upper lifts for “Experts Only” and let those people skier pack the snow while also enjoying the early season terrain. I know I would. Alas, it’s a different world out there today. The often used trope is “These are the kids that grew up eating Tide pods.” It’s true. You see examples of it every day. I lost count of how many people I saw ignore the closed signs today to run the maintenance road (the old Plateau T-Bar line) or to hit little cliffs along Hot Wheels Gully. Then there was that set of tracks near the Scott Chair, where it looked like someone was traversing to Meadow, but instead came downhill and had to cross the stream to get to Trail of Tears. Everybody thinks they are an expert. Opening terrain for early season access is just not a possibility these days.

Two Weekends Down, Sixteen To Go

It was another weekend where parking reservations seemed silly. It was easy to get reservations, as they never ran out. There were more cars in the lot today. Yesterday there were a dozen cars in Lot 3 and today there were maybe two dozen. That is far from full. Still some violations were issued and that is definitely not a good look. This photo was shared with me on a lift ride today (taken on Saturday):

I would assume there are some other possible explanations for the photo. One guess is the violation was originally placed on another vehicle and an angry guest just moved it to the NTFD truck. But it does point out how silly this exercise has been so far. Parking for next weekend could be more of an issue. Next weekend is the beginning of the holiday period for several school districts, and there is the Tahoe Live thingy over at NAW Valley. If you have been lackadaisical about making reservations the last two weeks, you may want to be a bit more on your game this week. That said, with more people showing up in Tahoe each weekend, and very limited terrain open, parking will be the least of our worries.

A Weather Hype Check

The other day I mentioned the possibility of a strengthening of the jet stream in the Pacific Ocean bringing the possibility of storms later in the month. Then Daniel Swain did a post on Weather West and that “jet extension” soon became a viral sensation overnight. There’s been a lot of people flagrantly hyping that weather feature, along with the ever popular “El Niño” hype. Here’s one example:

Weather is not all that simple. While the strengthening of the jet stream could be a good thing, it takes a lot more than that to make a good series of snow events for the Sierra. You would need to add in some strong low pressure systems, cold air and a good source of moisture to get those big dumps. We have to be careful what we wish for, as some of those same model runs that showed the jet stream extending into California by the 18th took it to far northern California. That would have kept us on the much warmer side of the jet, faced with deluges of rain with snow levels running above all local peaks. That would have the potential to erase all of the snow that mountain ops teams have been creating over the last month.

Fortunately, the models have backed off on that super strong jet scenario, as have trusted weather forecasters such as Swain. Where does that leave us? Essentially in the same place for the next 10 days or more. The models are very flip floppy as they try to introduce some storm activity way out in Fantasyland, which now extends to Christmas Day. One run will show feet of snow while another will show zip nada.

Yesterday, my grand nieces were here in town, and they invited me to watch Frozen. I have never seen the full movie and it actually was delightful, especially having a six year old narrate every scene. What we really need in Tahoe is a visit from the Queen herself…