Perfect…Then Not As Perfect

It was a rough day for mountain management at Alpine Meadows and over the ridge at Palisades Tahoe. After a few days of snow, sleet and rain, today dawned as a perfect morning. There were blue skies and crisp temperatures that would lead to smiles on the faces of skiers and riders just arriving in Tahoe for their vacation weekends. At Alpine Meadows, those first few runs off of TLC were likely the best of the season. There was that perfectly groomed corduroy on Weasel Run and at Tiegel for those that were into carving. There was also that more wild terrain along East Creek that has improved with coverage each and every day.

It was going so well until I finished my 4th lap and TLC stood empty and still with a “Closed” banner strung in front of the corral. A mad dash was underway, with skiers and riders racing to the Roundhouse lift. Alas, Roundhouse was not opened today, as instead mountain ops took advantage of the perfect snowmaking conditions to blast as much snow as possible down Dance Floor (aka Red Ridge). Given the lack of storms in the forecast, this is likely a smart decision because there will be a lot of traffic in that area over the next week or more.

Ultimately, the Hotter Wheels issue was identified as a hydraulic issue with the tensioning system. I applaud management’s decision to close the chair for a fix, even though it was inconvenient for visitors. Guest safety is a good thing to be concerned about. Typically, there’s some sort of redundancy between lifts. When one goes down for maintenance, you can simply move to another lift. But we are still in the early pre-season mode, and it’s not a matter of just flipping a switch and opening another lift for guests. In the case of Roundhouse, there were untold numbers of portable snow guns and associated hoses scattered all over the zone. And typically, the snow pumped out of snow guns is typically not the “OOOHHH powder day!!” fun. It’s more like a wet dense snow that wants to grab your skis and send your knees in unnatural directions. Let’s let the mountain grooming team tame that stuff tonight.

Over on Summit, prep work was late to start today. There was a strong east wind in the morning which prevented the lift from running. Then the deicing, installing lift pads, roping, signage etc work that needs to be done before terrain can be opened to the public was started. As my post indicated on Monday, it’s a really big deal to get Summit open in the month of November. It rarely happens. I look forward to having more terrain available tomorrow.

With Turbo Weasel down for nearly three hours, we enjoyed an early lunch from the gang at Treats. We also hung out and chatted with a lot of people we have not seen since last season. Eventually we wandered over and did a Subway lap. It’s interesting how management has approached this zone. The regular Subway run is still looking like snow covered creek bed that it is. It takes a lot of snow to fill that in, so instead, Subway skiers and riders are routed next to Big Carpet and the newly relocated Little Carpet, rejoining the Subway run just above the lift base. It’s actually very smart as there’s slightly more pitch than the usual Subway run.

We queued up back at TLC shortly before 12:30, scoring first chair when the lift finally reopened around 1 pm. We snagged a couple of more runs along East Creek, finding that the snow conditions held up very well, even though it was a very sunny day. The line got longer and we made our exit.

What To Expect Tomorrow At Alpine Meadows

Theoretically, we should see Subway, TLC, Roundhouse and Summit on the schedule. It looks like they were also prepping Yellow today, and I see now that it also scheduled. I did hear today that there was 40 inches of snow at the upper mountain stake, Sources in the know that have been on the mountain said that coverages ranges from 18 to 60 inches, with some areas getting wind loading and some getting a bit stripped.

What’s not clear is exactly which terrain will be opened. If I had to hazard a guess, they are going to start with access to Alpine Bowl and over to the Palisades, which all has some pretty good coverage. I would be surprised if they opened Wolverine Bowl right away. As of now, I would guess that they want to direct most traffic out of Alpine Bowl, through Rock Garden and onward to Upper Weasel One or Dance Floor. Off of Roundhouse, I am not certain what approach they will take to Werners or Charity. Boundary signs were being put in on Skadi Hill aka Chicken Leg, indicating that the Yellow terrain might open.

The snowpack is not the same as last year. When snow finally fell last year, it was not very dense and it was not great at covering obstacles. That lead Ski Patrol to be very conservative in opening terrain, as in general, people don’t always make smart choices. This season’s pack is much more bomber in the sense that it is dense and good at covering obstacles. So time will tell. Either way, it’s very early season. It’s not the time to do that cliff jump you did last April, or rally everything at top speed. Tone it down and enjoy a whole season.

Snowmaking will focus on Meadow for the next few days to get that in better shape for beginners. While there’s decent coverage, that dual fall line of the Meadow Run is a lot more apparent than usual. After that, snowmaking could move to Charity and Werner’s or over to Scott Ridge and Bobbys. That decision will depend on water availability, wind directions and temperatures.

What To Expect Over At Palisades

The Red Dog lift was added to the schedule over at Palisades today and the reports are that it skied “like early season Red Dog”. Some people really like that. It offers a lot of vertical and you can hot lap it pretty fast. So that is there. People were utilizing Dog Leg today, which is what I would do myself. A very small terrain park was also built at the base near Extra Bitchin’. The official blog says Friday the Resort Chair also opens, again offering some amazing views and possibly some interesting terrain. You also get a lot of time to visit with your friends on the chair. Snow Ventures and tubing is supposed to open Friday as well.

The elephant in the room continues to be the upper mountain at Palisades. The first official conditions blog of the season was released by Palisades yesterday. There’s a reason why locals refer to it as the “excuse blog”, because there were seven different explanations of why they cannot open the upper mountain yet. Yet there was absolutely no mention of there being any problem with the Funitel. Yet, everyone that has an opinion seems to know that the Funitel is broken. Earlier this week, we heard “fixed by Wednesday” but today I was hearing it could be much longer.

For those not in the know, a Funitel is different in that it is carried by two ropes (cables) rather than one. This makes it much more stable and resistant to winds. That’s good. But the only funitel in the United States is at Palisades Tahoe. Typically, when a lift requires a part, a mountain may have spares as many lifts across a mountain are similar. In the worst cases, mountains sometimes share parts to help each other out. In the case of the Funitel at Palisades, it’s a “one and only” and it’s probably unfair to expect that Palisades will keep every possible replacement part on hand. They instead need to source parts from Garaventa, the lift’s original manufacturer. It’s kind of like that weird relative you have that once imported a Lada from the USSR.

For the immediate future, the WaSheShu chair could fill in for getting folks up the mountain…but not down the mountain. I don’t pay attention to where snow is being made over there, but hopefully there’s an urgent rush to get Mountain Run in shape for getting folks down the mountain. God speed to the mountain ops team over there!

Then again, there is zero official confirmation that it is the Funitel that is the problem…if not then what is really the issue? Has anyone seen any movement on the Funi lately?

Whatever, I need to get back in my lane… silly me.

What To Expect For The Weather

My suggestion is that you do not look at the weather, at least in the sense of future storms. Look at the day’s temperatures so you know what to wear, then go skiing or riding…or bike riding. See you out there.