It was an another day of weather changes at Alpine Meadows and our neighbor to the north. During the course of my ski day, I felt as if I experienced a little bit of each season. That would be the reason for the nod to David Bowie in today’s title. Today’s changes were a little more subtle, but a Winter Storm Warning has been posted for tomorrow. We’ll be changing back to full on winter beginning tomorrow and stretching right on through the weekend.
For the second day in a row, there was a little dusting of snow this morning over most areas of the mountain, estimated at approximately 5.8 millimeters at the mid station of Hotter Wheels. Due to a snowcat stuck on Werner’s, there was a short delay in opening Roundhouse and Summit this morning, hence the choice to join a hundred race kids on Hotter Wheels.
The slight dusting on the groomed slopes wasn’t much to get excited about. The secret to the morning was to find where the wind had concentrated those rare flakes of snow into deeper pockets. We found that just about anywhere where there were small moguls in north facing terrain. Sympathy Shoulder and Rolls and Knolls both skied excellent this morning. The D chutes also were filled in with a little new snow, and were also excellent, provided you could catch them in a moment of brighter lighting. The best conditions were found in High Yellow Gully and Medium Yellow.
We also went to check out Gentian Gully, being one of my favorite areas on the mountain. Andy had mentioned it was good yesterday. Today, that was not the case. Above Broccoli Tree, it was large firm moguls surrounded by 5mm of new snow. Below Broccoli Tree, it was deep chunder, filled with 5mm of new snow. Twice during the run I managed to find a pillow of new snow that was 5cm deep, resulting in two soft turns during the entire run.
With a plan in place to visit Sherwood and Granite Chief in the same day, we headed to Sherwood about 11am. I know, we completely ignored the advice of this weeks “Surf Report” from Palisades Tahoe, which suggested starting our day at Alpine Meadows and heading right to Sherwood. I feel sorry for the people that follow that advice! Robin Hood and Maid Marian both showed some signs of cornification, even though there was some new snow over night. Even the Sherwood groomer was already feeling pasty. Off piste, the conditions were still firm chunder.
We picked up some beverages appropriate for a ride on the gondola, and I switched back to spring skis. We took a ride to the other side, noting a large number of small wet slides as we passed over the White Wolf property. Sometime during the ride, I missed my weekly alarm reminding me to make a parking reservation. At 12:02, I realized the error of my ways. Weirdly, the Saturday reservations weren’t released until late, and I managed to snag one at 12:05. But I’ll be racing y’all at 7pm for a Sunday reservation. Theoretically this is the last time of the season that we have to deal with this. With another big storm in the forecast, the reserved parking may actually be helpful this weekend.
Great Success! Secured Sunday reservation at 7:00pm session.
Granite Chief is probably one of my favorite areas on the other side, being the most removed from the busier parts of the mountain. We did a quick run down the small soft moguls of Backside, starting in winter conditions and ending in spring corn. Being a corn-aholic, that gave me the idea of taking the Sunnyside route back to the B2B. That was already in nice corn condition. In retrospect, we should have taken one of the Broken Arrow routes back toward the base area. Next time…
Keep Your Powder Skis Ready
Tomorrow, the first of two waves of winter will be upon us. Here’s the GEFS Ensemble for total snowfall through Monday morning.
As of today, it looks remarkably like it did last week, showing the potential for up to 30 inches of snow between the two systems. Snow levels look to be around 6000 feet with the first system, and around 4000 feet for the second system, Friday into Saturday night. Again, this is seemingly very much a repeat of what we saw last weekend. That brought us some excellent skiing. It also brought some big crowds that ravenously chewed up that new snow pretty quickly. Because the weekend sits between the two most popular “spring break” weeks, this weekend may be very busy.
So far the only storm warning to be issued if for the first wave:
…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM WEDNESDAY TO 11 AM PDT THURSDAY… * WHAT…Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 6 to 16 inches, up to 2 feet at the highest peaks. Winds gusting as high as 45 mph. * WHEN…From 11 AM Wednesday to 11 AM PDT Thursday.
Celebrating 100 Days And More
Not counting the recent three day storm closure, this is Day 120 of the Alpine Meadows season. A number of my ski buddies have already crossed the 100 day mark for their season. Because I am one of only a few to do so that use the Palisades Tahoe app, Liz Worgan did a profile piece on me that appeared in the official blog this week. The funny thing is, we had been taking bets on whether or not that would ever happen. I lost that bet.
I would like to highlight my friend Randy Salzman here today. Randy and I have been friends for about 20 years now. You may recognize Randy as a popular instructor at Alpine Meadows, a dedicated volunteer for Achieve Tahoe, and as someone that truly loves skiing. He’s got a great sense of humor, showing up one day in Grateful Dead tie dye ski pants, then as Puff the Magic Dragon, and most recently with fluffy Monster Feet.
Randy is well beyond 100 days for the season, but just recently just got there at Alpine Meadows due to other ski travel. But Randy has also completed an even bigger challenge, completing all of the seasonal “badges” on the Palisades Tahoe app. There’s not all that many people than can say they have done that. Just catching the Broken Arrow and Olympic Lady lifts on a day when they are both rolling to ride every lift at Palisades and Alpine Meadows is quite a feat. There’s no actual reward, or even a physical badge, for these achievements. It’s just that sense of accomplishment. I get it. Congrats to you Randy.
We love Randy, he is a huge asset to Achieve Tahoe and the Alpine community, and just a plain nice guy
Coffee flew out of my nose when the Surf Report suggested heading to Sherwood first thing in the morning
Hey Andy , been following you and Mark for a long while. My neighbor and I have not skiied for 3 years for various reasons. We both have a free one day ski pass at Alpine (actually the other side too). We are both advanced intermediate skiers. Can you suggest a good fun ski day as far as what runs to take and when? I know you keep up on when the sun hits the slopes! We will wait until we have a sunny day to ski. Personally I learned to ski at Tahoe Ski Bowl with Bob Everson way back in my younger days. I followed up by being a ski bum at Sun Valley. Idaho where the spring moguls were more like mountains. Thanks for your posts as I have skied vicariously through them. Carol Kinman
I’m not Andy but the general formula is fairly easy to follow. If it has snowed within the past couple of days and you are looking for soft snow, look into the trees and sheltered northern aspects. Especially in the spring, everything gets cooked extremely fast if it has seen the sun or it has been warm out the past few days. If you are searching for spring corn then you want to ensure there has been several melt/freeze cycles to give the snowpack a chance to consolidate. Once that happens it is simply a game of playing chase the sun. Start the morning with east/south aspects and slowly move to west/north aspects depending on cloud cover, winds, and temperature.
I’d prefer to think in that terms instead of runs at specific times as each day is different and the preceding days will greatly impact where the good snow is.
Well, as Tyler said, it is complicated. There’s a dozen different microclimates around Alpine Meadows and each changes as the weather changes. There is no formula that always works. Reading UA consistently will guide you to making better choices yourself 🙂
The terrain on Granite is great, but why can’t Alterra figure out how to make this a high speed lift?. Two lifts to get there, one to get back, and often a full corral on a slow fixed grip lift. The demand is there. The money appears to be there. I seem to remember Wirthless proposing this circa 2011 – maybe it is time for Alterra to reexamine the permitting issues that led to Squaw pulling the proposal in the first place.
I agree that granite chief is a prime place to put a new lift. I’d also like them to figure out a way to keep Silverado open. Apparently it’s too low at the base loading.