False Spring Number Three

It’s the first of April and we entered into False Spring Number Three today. The skies looked blue driving into the parking lot this morning and I am sure many visitors anticipated spring temperatures. Instead there was a good east wind blowing, which kept temperatures down and the snow crispy much later in the day than expected. Some people may have also been surprised by how crowded some slopes felt today. There was even a consistent line at Roundhouse for most of the morning, thanks to Summit and Lakeview being on a windhold. Yellow and Kangaroo were “off schedule” today, being a midweek day.

That said the skiing on most groomers was excellent today, once they thawed out. The ungroomed slopes were extremely variable, causing most casual visitors to stick to the corduroy. Yes, it’s also spring break for a number of schools. There was some solace in that the ABC chair was put into motion today, filling in the best it could for people seeking the Summit terrain. ABC chairline and Palisades were both skiing pretty well this morning if you could tolerate the cold. I did see a number of people making the hike to Keyhole, and in the other direction to a very quiet Wolverine Bowl. Due to the east wind, there’s a lot of sastrugi on the upper mountain in ungroomed terrain.

Fun Fact: The Summit lift is susceptible to east wind events and will generally be placed on windhold when the winds at the top exceed 50 mph from the east. It’s the way it is and always has been. It’s confusing on days like today where there is almost no wind at the base area. ( I answered this question on nearly every lift ride today.)

Once things warmed up, I did check out the sunnier aspects of the mountain at Sherwood and Scott. I was surprised to see that the groomed slopes already had some decent corn development. Off piste the conditions are not there yet. Sherwood Face, South Face and Standard Run all suffered from a lack of consolidation. Those runs were still feeling manky and sticky. My best guess is that those off piste areas will not really be great corn before we see really cold temperatures later in the week. Sherwood Run, Bobby’s and Ridge were pretty good today and should get better the next two days.

East winds could still be a problem tomorrow, but I am hoping for the best. Tuesday and Wednesday will be the last days of False Spring Number Three. By Wednesday night a closed low moves in bringing colder temperatures and likely smaller amounts of snow. The models have had a difficult time deciding whether this low would be an inside slider or an outside slider. The last 5 model runs of the GFS have it taking a dry path over land right from the north. As of today, the temperatures look 10 to 20° below normal, resulting in snow levels down to possibly 2500 feet. But that dry path reduces the amount of moisture in the storm. As of today, there’s only a potential of 3-6 inches of snow by Friday night. Things start to warm for the weekend. Right now, it looks like we may start Real Spring next week.

Skunked Again

Andy did the report yesterday, so I did not get a chance to recap the Golden Egg Hunt from Easter Sunday. Clue #1 came out on time at 9:00am, and it was not quite enough, especially with some quick powder runs needed. Clue #2 did not get released on Twitter until 11:10, right along with Clue #3. I spent most of the the 10 o’clock hour swearing at Verizon’s service and blaming them for the lack of a second clue. When the clues were finally released at 11:10 am, we were in for a quick lunch, and in no position to race to God’s Golf Ball, which was the location of the golden egg this year.

Clue #1 -“Near a hybrid”: There were many thoughts on this one. How many Priuses were in the parking lot that day? There are a number of hybrid Honda snowblowers around the mountain too. Are any of the snowcats hybrid? Is a Yeti considered a hybrid? Ultimately the correct answer was the Scott Chair. It started life as a YAN double chair but was converted to a CTEC triple chair. The original YAN towers were retained, with CTEC tower heads spliced on top. It’s a hybrid of two different lift companies. You would know this by reading my piece on the history of Alpine Meadows lifts.

Clue #2 – “Andesitic Lahar”: Much of landscape of Alpine Meadows is defined by granodiorite intrusions or andesitic lahars. A lahar is an ancient volcanic mudflow produce during an eruption. It’s those very abrasive dark brown rock formations that have been causing many of your core shots all of these years. It would include just about all of Scott Crag and much of Munchkins. There’s also quite a bit in the area of Outer Outer. Why yes, I was a geology major for two years.

Clue #3 – “All teed up”: If you are going to claim your badge as an aficionado of Alpine Meadows, you have to know about God’s Golf Ball. As you crest Scott Chute on the Scott Chair, look to your left and you will see a roundish orb of rock seemingly perched on a tee. You can’t miss it if you know it’s there. Golf Ball Chute is one classic Alpine Meadows line to take in a good snow year, assuming you are either ADHD or just really nervy.

While it was an interesting hiding place, it certainly isn’t accessible to many people. That location probably aced out a whole bunch of people from finding it. Also Clue #3 was way too easy. That should have been the 2pm clue, as it made it entirely obvious. Remember how we said that the hunt is always easier over at Palisades? Once again, their golden egg was hidden steps from the Funitel, in one of the Toyota trucks nearby. They did the same thing just a year or two ago. Lame.

So skunked again, and I will be buying a pass again. It’s not like I don’t get my money’s worth out of my pass. Still, it would be fun to be the winner some year.

Summing Up Mega March

I am not sure that March will qualify as providing any miracles, especially when that term is wildly overplayed. But it was a good month for snowfall at Alpine Meadows. This is confusing because the marketing department has been touting “Thirteen Feet of Snow in March” pretty loudly lately. On top of that, the Berkeley Snow lab on Donner Summit has been proclaiming that we are now “above average for snowfall” in the Sierra, which may be true at higher elevations along the west slope. But what I am about to present is the Alpine Meadows statistics, which are not quite as sensational.

The reason for this is that the statistics for Alpine Meadows are based on the measuring station at the base area near the Roundhouse lift. That is the way it has always been done. So in order to get a true sense of where things stand compared to any other season at Alpine Meadows, we need to look at the same location, even though the marketing department claims give you more hope. Here’s the facts as we know them:

• March 2024: 114 inches of snow fall compared to 73 inches average = 156% of average
• Season To Date: 285 inches of snowfall compared to 325.5 inches average = 88% of avergae

So what does that mean for the end of ski season? That’s a good question. There still has been no official announcement about a closing date for Alpine Meadows. Multiple people “in the know” have been told April 28th. Even with a bigger than average March, there is not a lot of impetus for staying open longer.

Back in the day, ski areas were owned by individuals or families that had a passion for skiing. Skiing and riding just continued until the snow was gone. Some years were big and you made money, some years were thin and you would lose money. In the end, you would hope it all balanced out. But now, ski areas are owned by investment partners, and the expectation is that they make money every year. They can’t just make money, they have to make more and more money each year to meet investment goals. No, I was never a finance major.

We have three things going against us this season:

• Alpine Meadows and our neighbor to the north had to do a ton of snowmaking early in the season just to get some terrain open early. Contrary to what you might have heard, they do not do this solely to make nut jobs like me happy when we can ski in November. They do it to be absolutely certain that the Christmas holiday period is not a complete bust. Snowmaking is really really expensive.
• We really did not see a good snowstorm until early January this season. So the Christmas season was not a complete bust, but it was certainly not something that drew a lot of people to Alpine Meadows. Profit goals were likely not met, and this is a huge part of income for the entire season.
• Extending the season into May does not bring in a positive cash flow. Even with streamlined operations, people are not booking lessons or spending a lot on food at that time of year. May skiers are typically passholders without family sports commitments…retired people that don’t spend much. I can argue some ways to maybe lose less money, but it is not my mountain.

With more snow on the mountain, all of us are wanting to keep our home mountain open. But I am also not expecting any miracles. I’ll continue to enjoy each day on the mountain as long as we can.

See you out there tomorrow.

P.S. Summit did open at 2pm today right after I left. Doh!