Ups And Downs

It’s been a season of ups and downs at Alpine Meadows. We keep yo-yoing back and forth between pretty good days and not so good days. I would put today into the latter category, as I only skied during the morning hours…which were not ideal. Looking at the snow totals and the webcams, the skiing and riding did get better. Unfortunately with only TLC as the highest point on the mountain for much of the day, it’s tough to make good use of that new snow.

In the hour leading up to opening, it looked like TLC would be the tallest of the lifts today, with Summit, Scott, Lakeview, Roundhouse and Sherwood on wind hold. Ridge winds ran 70+ mph most of the night, with some early morning gusts at 100+mph.

So we queued up at Hotter Wheels, wondering if the top would even open. We weren’t even to the top of Tiegel before we decided that the safety bar was probably a good idea. But we cruised on through the mid-station and headed to the top, knowing with certainty it was sunny and warm at Sherwood yesterday with a solid freeze overnight. The upper parts of Sherwood were bulletproof and we welcomed a bit of late tilled snow on Weasel back toward the base, finding that Roundhouse was loading.

After a rocking ride on Roundhouse and knowing there were firm conditions, we chose Blue/Werners for a second run, being the least sun affected run off of Roundhouse. It also had some tilling done, breaking up the ice that had formed overnight. But it wasn’t enough, the surface being akin to skiing on golf balls with occasional patches of gray ice. Still a smile was on our faces, seeing that Summit was now loading. There we found the best skiing of the morning in Alpine Bowl, with snow now furiously falling. It was all good until I hit a “death pumpkin” that was firmly attached to the slope, spinning me around and causing an awkward “splits until your ski pops off” maneuver. Just a bruised ego is all.

By the time we got back to the base, Roundhouse and Summit were back on wind hold and the line on TLC was visible beyond the B2B building. Onward to the Mighty Roo, where race training was being held on the main run, leaving an extra narrow strip of Nicks Run for the public. I wonder if they also used the Zamboni on the race course? Yeah, these days where a really warm day is followed by a hard freeze are not so awesome, at least until the new snow falls. We caught one more run on Meadow to make it five. It was the longest line I have ever waited in at Meadow. Andy took an extra lap down Subway, finding a line so long that he walked back up. FYI, you still get tracking credit on the Palisades app as walking is about the same speed as the Subway chair.

Yes, I knew it would get better later as more snow fell. But the line at TLC was intolerable when I know I can just ski more next week. Yes, Roundhouse did open again for a short time before being placed on wind hold again. Yes, Sherwood also opened for a short time before going on a maintenance hold. Yes, I should have waited and gone skiing in the afternoon. But “Operation Baby Watch 2025” is still underway, so skiing just in the morning hours was a part of the plan.

According to the Remote Data Sensor at the bottom of the mountain, 7 inches of new snow has fallen so far at the bottom of Roundhouse. That number is suspect because the number hasn’t changed in an hour and it was still snowing. So the 8-14 inches I mentioned from the point forecast yesterday is probably spot on for mid-mountain and higher. Skiing should be on the up side again tomorrow. The problem is that it’s a Saturday, it’s the last real day of vacation for many, it’s probably going to be bluebird in the morning and all parking is sold out on both sides. You might want to leave for the mountain now.

Big ups to the mountain ops team at Alpine Meadows, they tried to get more stuff going today. Today the winds and weather won.

Unintended Consequences

This whole parking reservation thing is questionable. While the powers that be declared “mission accomplished” last season that traffic problems having been solved by reservations, the jury is still out. There were not any big powder days that coincided with holidays last season. We had one big pow day traffic snafu already this season and I bet tomorrow will bring more of the same.

One weird thing of note is that the reservation hours of 6am to 1pm has brought out a new breed of afternoon skiers. So far it’s been relatively easy to get reservations, but there’s people that just refuse to do it. Instead they come to the afternoon session to avoid the whole reservation scene. Because those people have done some time shifting and arrived late, they are also staying late. That has led to some crazy evening traffic. A reader sent in this photo yesterday of Alpine Meadows Road around 5:45 last night, still backed up beyond Jupiter Mountain and almost to Deer Park, almost two hours after the lifts stopped turning. Yikes.

It’s one thing if you are one of those skiers and riders that chose to stay until the last minute and became a part of the traffic. But what if you just live in the Alpine Meadows neighborhood and wanted to get to the grocery store? Worse yet, what if there were a fire or a medical emergency within the valley? That could be very bad. Yes, I know, these traffic jams sometimes happened before the reservation system was in place. It’s just that reservations are now a factor that make these jams more likely.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

See you out there tomorrow…I think. And, for the record, I have gone up and down the mountain about 550 times this season.