Yes, the powder alert arrived this morning, claiming 7 to 9 inches of new snow overnight. But the reality is, the new snowfall amounts exceeded those numbers. Yesterday, I added in to Andy’s report the Winter Storm Warning for the west side of the Sierra, which called for 10-19 inches of new snow overnight. Skiing the mountain today, I think we got there. Ski Patrol seemed to agree that there was a potential for a decent snowfall, resulting in a lot of prepping yesterday.
So the operations blog yesterday called for Alpine Bowl to spin, which actually wouldn’t add much terrain in itself. It also noted that Charity would open. What happened was that essentially everything off of Roundhouse and Yellow chairs opened, including non-groomed and off piste areas that have been closed so far this season. From Summit, access was open to D8 and North Peril. I can’t say for sure if all of Wolverine was open or not today, as I didn’t even ride Summit today, due to it being a longer line than I tolerate.
Don’t get me wrong, it is still very low tide in some areas, in particular on the lower parts of the mountain. Ski Patrol has been playing it very conservatively this season in opening new terrain. Taking a look around this morning, people were having a ton of fun and whooping it up. I can’t say that everyone was skiing and riding smart though. We saw many people speeding through shark infested snow and jumping off any rock they could find like it was still January 2023. I found myself wanting to shout from the chair “Do you know what that looked like yesterday?” But I kept my mouth closed. Okay, there was one time that I very politely asked someone to pause the music emanating from their backpack speaker in the lift line.
It’s hard to quantify exactly how much terrain is now open, because we suddenly have all of this unmapped off piste terrain available. The other day, someone sent this GIS created map, which is something that is beyond my skill set. But I crudely shaded in purple highlights of what terrain I saw open today so you can get an idea that pretty much we have at least doubled what has been available. Big ups to Ski Patrol and all of mountain ops for making that happen.
I had a quick talk with Mountain Manager Jeff Goldstone on the way out today. He noted that he was hoping to get Scott open within the next 6 days. Now when he says Scott, that basically would be Ridge Run, Bobby’s and Summer Road. Scott Chute, the Promised Land and Seldom Slides would still have a ways to go pending more natural snow. This idea of opening Scott was already on my mind, as I noticed there were two big fan guns blowing at the base of Scott to build a loading platform. That area is not really level, so it takes a lot of snow to build a loading area. I would assume that most of the snowmaking operations will be moving to Scott in the coming days.
Welcome Back Winter….Welcome Back Traffic
So I had to schedule a doctor’s appointment at 8:45 this morning, and that allowed me to forecast that January 3rd would be the first big powder day of the season three weeks ago. I managed to be at the mouse hole at 9:10am, and you just can’t do that on a powder day, even outside of holiday breaks. It took just under an hour to get to Alpine Meadows this morning from the mousehole. As we pulled in just after 10, the lot was just filling up in Lot 4 and Chalet Road was already parked out. Word is that Deer Park was full by around 11am.
I don’t know that parking reservations are going to fix this. People all want to get there early for powder days and they will cram onto Highway 89 to get to Palisades or Alpine Meadows. No powder junkie is going to wait to go after traffic, nor will they drive to Truckee High School to take a Park N Ride bus.
I never schedule those early morning appointments in the winter, but I had been trying to make this appointment since October. Healthcare is broken. You are welcome for my sacrifice today.
It’s Going To Be Busy This Weekend
We have a very well advertised storm still on tap for Saturday. There’s been a few calls for a bust on Saturday, but the models are still hanging in there. Right now, the Winter Storm Warning has been hoisted by the Sacramento office of NOAA. As I mentioned yesterday, Alpine Meadows is technically in the Reno forecast zone, but because of its location right at the crest, it gets snowfall much like the west slope of the Sierra. This is one reason many of us choose to ski at Alpine Meadows. Here’s the current thinking…still 4 days out so still sketchy:
If it pans out, that is a great addition that will lessen the danger from sharks.
Update: Standard wind issues now expected with ridge gusts that will likely close upper mountain lifts!
On Saturday, January 6th, the very popular Alpenglow Backcountry Demo Day is scheduled. This is a free event, allowing you to demo a wide variety of gear, sponsored by Alpenglow out of Tahoe City. Last year this very popular event was cancelled due to a raging storm that brought heavy snows and high winds. This year, they do have a back up plan. If the storm is raging Saturday, it will be rescheduled for Sunday, January 7th.
Update: Demo Day delayed until Sunday 1/7
These free demo days always end up costing me money, as I nearly always find something I want to buy. In 2021 it was the Salomon QST series. I never had even seriously considered a Salomon ski, but after that demo day, I now have the QST 98 as an every day driver and the QST 106 for days when the powder is light and deep. Here’s a link to more information, where you also can pre-register for the event.
Closing out today’s report. Reader Jim B. sent some photos this week…from January 3, 2012. If you think this year is dry, take a look at these and thank your lucky stars…or the mountain ops team at Alpine Meadows.
The traffic on 89 was flowing normally for a snow day at about 30+ mph until some bozo heading north spun out and blocked the southbound lane just north of the OV exit. This was roughly around 9am. We watched from a dead stop for about 15-20 minutes while good samaritans helped remove the blockage. That certainly did not help the backup on 89 that you were likely stuck in. Other than that, it was a wonderful day!
Which happens just about every day that it snows on 89!
“Charity” looks great. Thanks for the photo. I love going down the right hand side to the runout.
Cgeers,
Andrew
The magical question: which model of Tesla caused the stoppage on the 89!?
It was the new model Z. Everybody was looking at it.
Rivian is the new Tesla…get with the program.
Those photos from 2012 made we appreciate every flake of snow on the mountain. Also, nice purple coloring on the older map. It looks good enough for me.
Wolverine was open if you came in from D6. I also traversed Wolverine and then down to the left of Waterfall before finding the small road that leads to Kangaroo.. That was a fun last run of the day. Add in 9 wonderful laps down East Palisades plus a little poking around in Deer Camp Cliffs (meh, still really low tide in there). Oh, and Yellow trail was fun.
Does the Palisades app no longer have a spot that shows us a somewhat realtime update on what parking lots are full? All I see is the reservations section, but for weekday powder days, it would still be handy to know I think?!
It does not look like it. I guess they figure it is not a problem on weekdays and reservations means you don’t need it on weekends. I know the meters started off being meaningful, then they became less reliable.