Hello Skiers and Snowboarders,
It has been a difficult couple of days in Tahoe. The storm that blew through our area, with winds as high as 155 miles per hour over the ridge tops at Alpine Meadows, left us with a nice new layer of snow to help cover the bushes and rocks that have been annoying us. Unfortunately, the beautiful new white layer of wind driven snow that fell over the past couple of days did not adhere to the existing layer. This created a very unstable condition that was evident yesterday at Palisades Tahoe and today at Alpine Meadows. Yesterday’s slide on KT22 brought back memories of slides within Alpine Meadows that I have been trying to erase from my mind for a very long time. The memories cannot be erased, nor should they be forgotten.
I stood in line, near the front, at Roundhouse this morning looking up at the surrounding mountains bathed in bright sunshine. My eyes wandered from the long line of people standing at the Summit Chair to the ridge line atop Beaver Bowl. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that the entire ridge line of Beaver Bowl showed a crown where snow had broken loose and slid, not just into the bowl, but over the it’s lip. The slide continued moving downhill passing the top of Kangaroo, and settling in the creek below. This brought back memories of the slide in the 1970’s, and that of 1982, along with a very few others.
At the top of Roundhouse I viewed a large slide that left a pretty big scree deposit in in Alpine Bowl. Later, I noted a similar scree deposit in Wolverine Bowl. A crown was visible at the top of Idiot’s Delight where a slab avalanche had most likely been triggered. Later this afternoon a skier evidently triggered another slide in the Wolverine Bowl. Luckily no one was hurt, but they did put both Scott and Summit on patrol hold while a search ( probe line) was instigated. Most lifts on the Squaw side of the mountain were on hold for most of the day. This increased the number of people skiing at Alpine, and of course, created some rather long lines.
So, how was the skiing today? In my opinion it was not an epic day, but it was one of the better days of the year. Fewer obstacles were visible (not including the large scree fields that I would consider obstacles). I found some soft powder on certain slopes and wind driven snow, with a thin crust, on others. The wind packed snow, with a thin crust, was the type of snow that waits to catch a ski and flip them over. I found one of those aliens causing me to do a good face plant on the side of Red Ridge.
The early morning rush to catch untracked snow left the mountain scratched up in no time. My best turns in the early morning were down God’s Knob and Yellow Trail. We found short sections in Alpine Bowl that were untracked below Tower 19, and in Howard’s Hollow. As the morning progressed, the cut up slopes became skier packed powder. This was wonderful. We have not had cold winter snow with small moguls to ski on many days this year. Peril Ridge, D8, The Face, Charity, Sunspot, Chicken Leg, Sympathy, and many others were delightful. I did not have the patience to stand in line waiting for Scott Chair to open. I guess I will have to wait for another day to ride Scott for the first time this season. Although the lines at Summit and Roundhouse looked very long and congested we did not really stand in line an excessive amount of time.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
You would hope that every guest riding either Summit or Scott today took a good look at the control avalanches in Beaver and Alpine Bowl, and reminded themselves about the power of an avalanche. I was in no hurry to get anywhere today that could be a trouble zone and I appreciate all of Patrol’s efforts at doing what it takes to mitigate risk. All of these zones that have not been compacted by skier traffic this year will continue to be risky due to several sorts of weak layers in the snow pack.
I enjoyed some quiet laps in the poultry zone this morning, chased away only by the increasing length of lines at all lifts. A full parking lot on a Thursday plus record traffic on the southbound B2B…this is not the way skiing is meant to be. Still I felt lucky to be on my little slice of the mountain, when many of my friends could not or would not be there today. I can’t wait until both mountains are fully open.
Wa she shy loaded at 10:45 as did the Funi. Siberia was running as well. Where did you get news that PT lifts were closed most of the daya? North Bowl, HW Face, Sun Bowl, Horse Trails had great quality powder. The afternoon wind blown conditions on the HW Face were perfect every run. 12 plus runs on HW today. I recommend that you leave the Dance Floor and raise the bar.
Never said they were closed most of the day Paul. I’m sure the skiing was fantastic over there too. Also for the record, all powder turns for me on the lower mountain, not one Dance Floor run. I would rather ski than stand in line.
Good report. I skied Alpine in bluebird conditions today arriving about 11 am.. The drive up was slow due to chains all the way from Nevada City where I live to Truckee. I noticed on the PT ap that the other side had the Tram. Funitel and the entire top closed “on Delay”. I had planned to do Alpine anyway. On arrival (I lucked out and found a spot right near base lodge) I had never seen as many cars midweek in Alpine lots.
I headed up and after noticing rediculous lines on Roundhouse & Summit I almost turned and left. TLC had shorter line (open to mid-station only) so I rode TLC. On way up I noticed Scott was getting ready to open. I think everyone that was heading to Squaw that got the closed message headed to Alpine . By the time I got to Scott chair a big line was forming. Singles line moved OK. I did 2 more Scott rides. 2nd ride had lower line and 3rd had a very short line. On 2 of the rides I traversed way into Lakeview and found nice untracked powder. Main trails in Lakeview were full of rocks and grass. At least another foot or 2 of snow is needed to open Lakeview.
Then I did a very long traverse back past lower Chute That Seldom Slides into lower Scott Chute for more untracked powder !
Then the day became super weird. I traversed past Tiegel terrain Park to Summit chair and found it had just closed about 1pm. I looked at the ap and saw Squaw had the top mostly open and Scott, I had just left 5 minutes ago was now closed. WTH
I jumped the p-p Gondola to Squaw figuring lift lines at Alpine would now go thru the roof. At both ends of this
Gondola they were saying stay on if your car was at Alpine as the lift was about to go on wind shutdown.
I was not going to do that. Skiing was also good most everywhere on the other side, especially Gold & Shirley with no lines but wind was picking up. Surprisingly Siberia stayed open till 4. Alpine appeared to have less snow than the other side but to be fair I never got to the top of Alpine. How long did Summit lift stay closed ? Now I’m in the penalty box as I had to ride the resort shuttle back to Alpine at 4:15 to get my truck. I had never ridden this shuttle but it left promptly.
I am most surprised at all the Avy slide photo’s you just posted. I only saw one small one at top of Scott Chute.