Well today totally exceeded expectations when it came to ski conditions. I was a little bit salty to start the day, as my skis did take a beating yesterday. I went home with more base gouges and core shots than I accumulated during the entire 22-23 ski season. I knew the answer for today was to stay higher on the mountain. I did not have high hopes for that, given the forecast for an east wind. There was a potential for Summit to go on wind hold this morning.
Fortunately, the wind was more from the northeast for much of the day and Summit was running all day. Today I left the mountain with my newly renewed bases completely intact, and a smile on my face. That north wind did bring in some low level clouds, and that made those first runs in Alpine Bowl a little sketchy.
But by 9:30, the clouds were gone and sunshine and a chilly northeast wind was the weather of the day. As Andy noted yesterday, there are a lot of moguls on the mountain right now. With the current low tide conditions, most areas of the mountains cannot be groomed yet. Although today still fit into the category of “very busy”, most of that traffic was concentrated on the groomed runs. Weasel, Dance Floor and Charity took second place for business. Today, as it often is, Rock Garden took the honors as the busiest choke point on the mountain. It was the place to avoid, if possible.
In the morning we avoided it by skiing the Alpine Bowl Chair. It’s definitely adventure skiing, but you could pick a pretty fun line down what is normally the Terry’s Return groomer. It’s currently a mish mash of assorted moguls of varying shapes and sizes. Along the way, there is also the challenge of a lot of willows and other small trees to catch your skis. But you could do so with very little interference from other ski traffic, and it comes out below Rock Garden, which is a win.
In the afternoon, I finally followed my friend Reese, to what I would say was not just the run of the day, it was more likely the best of the year so far. Normally, I would not call out a great run like this so specifically, but we are about to enter what the official blog calls a “dynamic weather period”, which means everything will be changing with the weather system arriving tomorrow.
Reese’s Recommendation: Ski the bumps on the right side of D7; cut under the rock and continue down the right side of D8. With the northeast wind blowing today, the bumps are wintery soft with blown in snow. Exit from Wolverine Bowl and enjoy the well shaped moguls on Werner’s, or cut right into Boomerang. Repeat.
Looking Into That Dynamic Weather
We are still on track for a storm tomorrow. Relative to anything we have seen so far this ski season, it’s a big storm. But measured by typical Sierra storm standards, it’s not all that big of a system. It’s big enough that mountain operations will be affected, with the forecast winds of 80-100 mph over the ridges Saturday.
What’s almost certain is that the entire upper mountain at Palisades Tahoe will end up on wind hold. Looking at the forecast discussion, the timing of the prefrontal winds has moved earlier, so that could happen before the mountain even opens. It’s almost a certainty that the Windola will not be running tomorrow. What used to happen is that people would instead drive to Alpine Meadows and hope to ski Roundhouse and TLC. But, tomorrow is a parking reservation day, and reservations at Palisades do not automagically transfer to Alpine Meadows. This is one of the “what ifs” we pondered before this crazy reservation thing started. We shall see….
At Alpine Meadows, there is a decent chance that Summit will start the day or be put on wind hold tomorrow. Looking at the point forecast for Alpine Meadows, the winds are supposed to be in the 40-50mph range with gusts to 75mph. That’s at mid-mountain, the forecast calls for 80-100 at the ridges.. If that happens, Roundhouse, Yellow and TLC could also be put on wind hold. That could make Meadow or the Magic Carpet the top of the mountain. Hopefully not so…but I have seen this movie before.
Morning update: Winds currently gusting around 60 at Summit. Only the B2B showing anticipated weather impacts. This storm seems to be a little bit weaker this morning .
The snow is not really expected to get heavy until around 10am. Travel to Alpine Meadow should be relatively easy. Leaving the mountain may be a different story. Bring a shovel. 14 to 20 inches of snow is expected during the daytime hours, with another 4 to 8 inches overnight Saturday. So this is a good storm, but not the “storm of storms” or anything all that unusual by Sierra standards.
Sunday is going to be a junk show at Alpine Meadows and Palisades Tahoe. You have to know that everybody, and their grandma, and their cousins will be ready for a powder fiesta. On top of that, the Alpenglow Demo Day has been rescheduled for Sunday. Free parking reservations are already gone at both mountains. Once that available powder has been completely schralped, roughly 22 minutes after the lifts open, the mass exodus will begin. Yes, there will be a lot of people here Sunday, and roughly only 30% of the total terrain of the mountain is currently available for skiing. It will not take long for that new snow to be returned to a mogul state. No matter what you may be dreaming about, there is no way you will see additional terrain opening for Sunday. It’s not that I don’t have confidence in Mountain Ops, I just understand how much work is involved in resetting the mountain and opening new terrain.
Will I still be a part of that junk show? You bet.
Looking at the longer range, we still have two more systems in the pipeline after this weekend and some ridiculously cold temperatures over the next 10 days. It’s going to look and feel a whole lot more like winter around here. Word on the street is we should see Scott open by Tuesday or Wednesday. One source also mentioned the upper bowls opening sometime net week. I’m really looking forward to the day we can have Scott, Lakeview and Sherwood on the schedule so we have room to spread out.
At Least We Are Not At Heavenly
Ending today’s report, Heavenly Valley announced midday yesterday that they were putting their gondola on an indefinite hold, pending the emergency replacement of an important bearing somewhere in the drive system. Fortunately they were able to identify the issue before there was an accident, or an incident that stranded passengers.
Given the current low tide conditions, skiing and riding at Heavenly is currently only happening at the top of the mountain. Getting back down the mountain at the end of the day has only been via the gondola or the tram on the California side. With the gondola put on an indefinite maintenance hold yesterday afternoon, here is a shot of the lift line for downloading the tram at the end of the day yesterday. Yikes.
Late Update: I added a new resource to our Weather Links page. The Snowy Roads website is a nice little resource for people that regularly make the drive over the Sierra to Northern California ski areas.
So good if you knew where to look!
You did not mention that snowmaking was in full force on Ridge Run and Bobby’s off the Scott Chair. This should help along with the new snow that is going to fall tomorrow. I agree that it was an excellent day. Cool temps, sunshine, areas where the snow was squeaky, and plenty of moguls wear out thighs and knees. We skied Terry’s Return and missed the filled in path back to Dance Floor. We had to cross a small creek that was almost covered, but not completely solid. Our purple friend dropped a foot into the creek bed. She was fine and not wet, but it just proves caution at this time of year is mandatory, and that following me can be a mistake.
AW
Fun times! And yes, I learned my lesson AW 🙂
That download lift line at Heavenly looks beyond horrific 😱
Yep, with all free parking gone for Sunday (likely the best powder day) the dynamic has changed. I won’t pay $30 to score 30 min of powder if you arrive before lifts open.
I read elsewhere the bearings needed to fix the Heavenly Gondola were located and flown in overnight from Europe. So guessing the lift will be fixed by Mon or Tues.
The Heave says Stagecoach base & lift will open today ( Sat) this gives more parking options so lines to get down will drop from absurd to rediculous. Kingsbury grade can be dicy when snow covered. 3 days ago 16 cars went sliding into each other !
So appreciate the unofficialalpine postings. Keep up the good work!