Why yes, that is an excellent bluesy band that has graced the Sun Deck at Alpine Meadows a number of times over the years, not to mention the Commons Beach summer concerts. But it also makes for an appropriate title for today’s post. Today was full of joy, but the madness is about to descend upon us. Word on the street is that there’s some big race event next door this weekend, and that may bring a lot of people into the area over the next few days. If not the races, some delightfully sunny weather may also draw crowds to the slopes this weekend.
After two days of nearly constant snow showers, it was a joy to see almost perfectly blue skies over Alpine Meadows today. Still, there was a chilly breeze that kept temperatures low, preserving the snow quality pretty well, with the exception of south facing slopes. Without a trail of visiting family behind me, perfect weather and limited crowds, it was nice to be able to once again ride the Summit chair. I believe that it may have been a week since I have done so!
The groomed terrain was ripping early today, which is exactly what I expected. Much of the off piste was variable. High Traverse and the upper bowls did open this morning and that is where most of the powder seekers received gratification. The rest of the mountain was pretty well shredded yesterday. Many of the usual routes still offered cut up pow: D7, Palisades, Pygmy and Tower 19 all come to mind. Some of the more well travelled routes offered good skier packed mini moguls that were joyful: Rolls & Knolls, Yellow Chairline and Fall Line being examples. Then there were the places that weren’t fluffy and weren’t skied in well, instead offering a lumpy bumpy misshapen mogul experience. I’m thinking about Sunspot, as well as Sherwood Face. Too much sun probably had an impact there.
I would note that the groomed terrain did get scraped down on the more heavily travelled runs, leaving a firm hardpack surface with scattered lumps of new snow being pushed around on top. It was a good reminder that most of the recent storms consisted of wetter snow with higher snow levels. It was not icy, just an edgeable hardpack that wasn’t always pleasant. We found these sorts of conditions on Wolverine, Robin Hood, Bobbys, Werners and Outer Limits.
The upper lots just about filled up today, including Chalet Road, which is a sizable crowd for a non-powder weekday in a kind of holiday week. There was also a good number of people headed to Alpine Meadows via the shiny boxes today. There were essentially no lines at Alpine Meadows today. Things were busier on the other end of the shiny boxes. You can guess which way the traffic flow went! Hopefully that big race thing next door will keep visitors completely enthralled over there.
Thinking About Mountain Safety
As always hat’s off to Ski Patrol for the incredible work they do each and every day to make our ski terrain as safe as they possibly can. Jim B alerted me early this morning to say that he heard a lot of bombing going on out on High Traverse after some serious wind loading over the last week. Later he sent this photo of some of the crown lines from control work, as well as some possible naturals.
Also, I had to steal this image from Snowbrains, as I could not find the original source photo. Sorry Miles, but it’s worth sharing far and wide. The photo below is an avalanche under the Palisades area next door. This was the result of morning control activities on Wednesday, before there was anyone else on the hill. It’s important to note that there are still some weak layers down there, and when Ski Patrol keeps some terrain closed longer than you like, they know way more about the mountain than we do.
On another note, rope lines are there for a purpose. One that has been abused a lot lately is that line along the side of the Tiegel terrain park. It serve’s two purposes. It keeps people from cutting into the terrain park late, interrupting your flow in the jump line. It also is supposed to keep skiers and riders in the park, exiting only at the gate at the bottom. Lately we have noticed a trend for park users to hit that last jump and then duck under the rope line to make their journey back to TLC slightly easier. It’s not just snowboarders, it’s also skiers. It’s not just young kids, it’s also adults.
The thing is, skiers and boarders making their way back to Roundhouse often hug the left side of the run along that rope line, avoiding the beginners making wider snake turns back to TLC or the base area. Usually those people are carrying speed to make it around the park exit and back up the hill to Roundhouse. It’s already super congested in that area, and having to watch for people ducking under the rope, generally not looking uphill, is a bad thing. Myself, I have been cut off several times this week alone. I am a frequent skier that is aware of these hazards and know to trust nobody. That does not describe everyone. Shortening the park by one jump, allowing for a higher exit point might help. The more simple solution would probably be to put a full fence line after the last jump instead of just a rope line. I have no hope that miscreants are going to change behaviors on their own.
The Madness
The madness is about to begin due to that thing next door, coupled with easy travel conditions. It is survivable, provided you locked in parking reservations early. I’ll be setting my alarm clock for at least 30 minutes earlier and adjusting my departure times to help survive a busy weekend. Hopefully we get all lifts running for the next three days to absorb the numbers.
Otherwise, keep your head on a swivel the next few days and seek out that less popular off piste terrain that lets you avoid crowds.
Weather…What’s Next?
We have one more cooler day on tap tomorrow with some medium east winds on tap. Hopefully they will not get to the point of affecting Summit operations. Then the weekend gets a bit balmy with mountain temperatures climbing into the 40’s.
The next potential storm arrives Sunday night. The hype was running strong 24 hours ago with the shill sites screaming about the potential for 100 inches of snow in the Sierra. The GFS model runs were the source of this hypefest. The Euro model never saw more than 6 inches of snow. The GEFS ensemble showed a more reasonable 40-60 inches a couple of days ago, but that is now consistently backing off. The GIF below shows the last 14 runs of the GEFS for total snowfall. The latest model runs are now down to more like 12 inches of total snowfall by Wednesday. Snow levels run anywhere from 1500 feet to 6000 feet…gotta love that inconsistency!
There is talk of a bigger storm later in the week with a possible AR connection. But we are talking 10 days out and nothing is certain this season. I am posting the PNA index forecast below, which shows us heading back to a less stormy trend as we get into March. There seems to be decent model agreement on that. So enjoy the skiing that we have, or don’t. I will.
Thanks for bringing up the terrain park issue with the rope line. It’s been bad with the current setup. I agree with just removing that last jump and moving the exit a bit higher. It’s frightening at that juncture between the park exit, the Roundhouse line, B2B traffic and people trying to get to base area or TLC.
Another agreement here on the Tiegel terrain park. I think that park be shortened and the exit moved uphill a good 100′ or so. It’s just way too tight between the Roundhouse maze (especially when overfilled) and the terrain park. If the exit was moved uphill, it would help encourage the terrain riders to exit where they are supposed to because they’ll have some more elevation and angle to ski back to the TLC maze. And, it certainly would help the skiers and riders coming down Tiegel run to angle over to the Roundhouse maze, and have more room in general, and not have to ski uphill so much to get to that maze which is one reason so many people zip around that bottom corner of the terrain park, and then are heading directly into the downhill traffic coming down the east runout, which is also going high speed to make it all the way over to the TLC maze. Simple solution for better safety.
Mark, I think you’re overreacting about the WC races next door. Sabine and I went to both, and neither race filled the puny grandstands they had set up. Hardly anyone was interested. Maybe 1,000 people for the 2 days. I’ve seen just as many spectators on Roo, Blue, or Yellow when I worked the race department at Alpine (18 yrs.) Parents would show up in droves to watch their kids race, No parking or traffic problems then, even with up to 400 racers. And, both WC races will be live-streamed internationally via Peacock. Hell, we’ll be watching the races at home with the $2 German beers we bought at the store, not the $12 pints like at the “village”. GO RIVER and LUKE!!!
I think the races are a great draw for some people. They talked about it non-stop on KCRA News tonight. I think some of the peripheral entertainment is just as much of a draw as the race itself. The funny thing is, I would be super excited to see a skier superpipe event or mogul event in Tahoe. I am probably more inclined to say that the new snow, nice weather and easy driving are just as much of a factor as the race. 🙂
42 traverse lines. Do I win?
Several years ago, they used to build a park on the ridge to the skiers right of dance floor under the top of the yellow lift. It seemed like a better spot, as it allowed park users to lap yellow without increasing congestion at the roundhouse/hotwheels/lodge intersection. I wish they would shorten the Tiegle park and move features back to that other location.
There was a ton of pushback on the Red Ridge Park as it cut off access to Ladies Slalom, Yellow chairline and Fall Line. They have also done parks in Howard’s Hollow and Kangaroo Ridge, which seemed to work.