Skiing Was 2.5 Times Better Today

It’s been a little tough to be positive about skiing the last few days. The over night temperatures were too high. The day time temperatures were too high. That resulted in shorter days of skiing on mostly mank and mush. I went to Alpine Meadows today, looking forward to skiing a day of dust on crust, just to ski something different. But the storm has not yet materialized, and there was no new snow overnight or during the day today. Overnight the freezing levels were significantly improved. It was probably less busy on the mountain today than it was yesterday. All of this adds up to skiing being 2.5 time better today. Yes, I do have data to back up that claim.

Here’s the view of the sky just before e lifts rolled this morning:

Yes, that is a bluebird sky. The groomers off of Summit were appropriately firm, but rapidly softened with the solar radiation. That slight edge of firmness meant things were not completely shredded by Lap 2. Sadly D8 did not get any PistenBully love last night. Seeing how quickly things were softening, we headed to Sherwood after three laps, knowing that there won’t be many more days there.

Sherwood Run was perfect at that time, and less busy than it was yesterday. Go figure. Still, I do love to get off piste, and Sherwood Right Face looked relatively smooth after cooking in the sun a few days with minimal use. It started off great and there was a big smile on my face, but as the pitch increased it got softer and softer and then super manky. By my eighth or ninth turn, my mind was saying “Bail! Bail! Bail!”, and then I was making the traverse of shame back to the groomed run. We saw other skiers playing out that same run several times over the next few laps on the Sherwood lift. Chute Zero? No better.

Lakeview has been the champion of the last few days, offering top to bottom runs of consistent corn groomers. I heard some solid rumors today that tomorrow is the last day of the season for Lakeview. It’s generally the first lift to leave the schedule, usually due to snow melt at the top. I mentioned a few days ago that there is a lot of tree cutting needed in that area and that is a more likely part of the story. Trees that are cut need to be dragged out while there is still snow on the ground. Also noted is that the Lakeview chair has been running even slower than its normal slow for much of the season, so hopefully that issue can get some resolution, whatever it is.

Sherwood…I haven’t heard any specifics on that yet. But get it while you can is probably a good mantra. There were some moments today on Sherwood where I thought “I should be on my rock skis”. The warm weather lately has really increased the melt rate on south facing terrain. I noted the same today at Scott. Two days ago, it was easy to make a loop around the patrol shack to access Juniper, the Chute or Ridge. It was just about burnt out there today.

Here’s the view from the top of Mountain View just before noon today…still quite clear.

Ridge and Bobby’s were excellent this afternoon. Standard was not. It was punchy and manky. Scott Chute opened about 12:30ish today and it looked good. I took my last lap on Seldom Slides and that also felt good today.

That closed low is finally starting to move in and there is still a chance of snow showers tonight and tomorrow. The bulk of that low is headed to our north, rather than to the south, which was the thinking as late as yesterday. Areas around Lassen could see up to 8 inches of snow. In Tahoe, a couple of inches of snow is more likely. If this brings in a solid freeze for all aspects of the mountain, that is a good thing.

Two days ago, my report noted a possibility of some inside sliders next week. Yesterday it looked like we would get at least a few cooler days before the warmer weather returns. Today it looks like only Sunday and Monday will be cooler. We get back into the 50’s as early as Tuesday. That will not lead to ideal ski conditions, but we are down to just 15 more days in the Alpine Meadows season, so we have to just take what we can get.

The Racers Are Coming

You may have noticed loads of red fencing around Roundhouse the last few days. The Western Region FIS Elite Spring Series is coming to Alpine Meadows and Palisades next week. The slalom event will be held at Alpine Meadows off of Roundhouse. The Giant Slalom event will be held on KT over at Palisades. The event is open to racers 18 years and older. The women will be racing at Alpine Meadows on Monday and Tuesday. The men will race on Wednesday and Thursday.

I chatted briefly today with Mike Ginsberg, who is at the heart of race programs on the Alpine Meadows side. While there is a ton of preparation for the series, it’s one of the favorites for both competitors and viewers. The course at Alpine Meadows starts on Werners, turns down Boomerang, then down the last pitch of Charity before rejoining Werners just above Sandy’s Corner. Rather than just being a fall line straight slalom course, there’s interesting changes in pitches and aspects that make it a memorable course. There’s great viewing of the racers while riding the Roundhouse lift. There’s still plenty of other places to ski next week elsewhere on the mountain.