Cookies, Creamed Corn and Mashed Potatoes & It’s Tuesday Again

It was quite the smorgasbord of snow conditions today at Alpine Meadows, very much reminiscent of a spring day. There was good skiing, challenging skiing, bad skiing and everything in between. It was all about knowing the terrain and understanding where to be at what time. Very few parts of the mountain skied well all day. For the most part, for any part of the mountain that skied well, it was also required that you be punished by some other part that was not so pleasant. Here’s some examples:

• Sunspot was fantastic in the morning, but getting back to Summit required either very firm corduroy or deep cookies along Dance Floor or Charity.
• Bobby’s & Ridge both had superb 95% true corn mid-morning, but once you made the U turn to the Fast Lane (East Creek) it was a rodeo ride of mashed potato moguls.
• Sherwood Face (left, middle and right) were all great about 3/4 of the way down, but once you got to the lower angles the snow was akin to skiing in a knee deep Slushie.

There was one place where it was possible to have a great run, top of the lift to the bottom, that everyone seemed to agree on and that was the Mighty Roo. Turns there were perfect just about all day…it’s just a long ride for a short run. Still, love the Roo and we are grateful that it is running midweek.

Word is that things are not all great conditions wise on the other side of the shiny boxes. There’s a lot of north facing terrain there that is awesome in the winter, but not so awesome in this faux spring weather. Inbound traffic on the shiny boxes was fairly steady this morning.

Fortunately there is only one more day of this current spring-like weather.

It’s $%#@ Tuesday Again

Yeah it’s Tuesday, that time of the week where it’s time to make a parking reservation again. I am sorry to report that for the first time since we started this BS back in late November, I did not get a parking reservation during the 12pm free for all. Yes, I have a reminder set for a few minutes early each Tuesday. I had forgotten that it was Tuesday, until my reminder alert buzzed my watch halfway up the Sherwood lift. Yeah, the cell service totally sucks there until just before the top station.

Fortunately, we made it to the top in time and I threw down a glove and my poles to jump into the frenzy. That’s when I discovered that Honk had logged me out of the reservation system. Apparently that happened to many people today. The last time I entered that password was in October when I set up my account. I have no idea what the password was, I only remember that it was something that my mother would not like. I have since updated my password, including at least one of my favorite four letter words. I’ll be joining the 7pm stampede today. I am sure nobody else will be trying. THIS IS NOT WHAT SKIING IS SUPPOSED TO BE.

Update: There were some hiccups and burps from 6:59 until 7:01, but then I completed both reservations by 7:01:30

Storm Anti-Hype

We’ve have at least two storm systems moving in starting tomorrow afternoon, and the hype train is running at full steam. We are really at a point where we need some snow, especially on south facing terrain. This warm spell is not doing the meager pack any good. So new snow is absolutely welcome, as long as you set realistic expectations. There’s one television weather forecaster I really respect. Here’s what he had to say this morning:

So I am not really sure what’s going on but there is a lot of HYPE with this storm and the one next week as well. Let me just clear the air quickly. This is a SOLID storm but it’s not historic or anything like that.

Rob Carlmark, ABC10 Sacramento

Looking at social media, influencers and Tahoe marketing channels, you might think that we’re going to be literally buried this week in new snow. Several people asked me today if I believed that we are getting 6 feet of snow. It could happen. Some runs of the GFS and the Canadian models have indeed shown that possibility. But the operational runs of individual models are not really something to hang your hat on, more so than ever this season. So here’s the potential snowfall for the next two storms, as depicted by the much more rational GEFS Ensemble.

Yes, this is more of an average Tahoe winter storm, not the “mother of all AR events” or the ARKstorm. Snow levels start fairly high and trend colder over time. This is the way we want it to happen to create a better bond between old snow and new snow. Here’s the snow levels through Friday:

For Thursday, winds are going to be an issue, with gusts that will likely close most upper mountain lifts. That is the nature of Sierra storms. The second storm is still pretty far out there in the models. A lot will depend on the position of the jet stream. As of now, it looks to focus on the transverse ranges along the coast near Ventura. Flooding concerns in Southern California will be very real. Weather guru Daniel Swain noted in his recent post that the second storm may pull in not just kind of “sub tropical” moisture, but even warmer tropical moisture. In that case we are better off being much farther north in colder air. We do not need a big rain on snow event. As of today, it looks like we could be okay…but it bears keeping a watch. Sunday travel does look challenging.

My fingers are crossed for a good base refresh…and I must rest up my fingers for the 7pm mad dash for parking reservations.