A Great B2B Day

No this day has nothing to do with the shiny boxes that lead over the mountain to the other side. It was a great day for 🛎️ to 🛎️ skiing at Alpine Meadows. I ski just about every day at Alpine Meadows, with today being the 55th day of the season. Few of those days would have been good candidates for bell to bell skiing from 9am until 4 pm. But this week, we finally have some conditions that made it very attractive.

During the early part of the season when the whole mountain is not yet open, even I don’t want to do 30 or 40 laps on just TLC or Roundhouse. Then there’s the low angle of the sun, causing long shadows. Early in the season just about everything on the frontside of the mountain is in the shadows by 2 pm. That means you probably want to wait until the entire mountain is open.

Today we had good winter like snow off of Summit and Roundhouse, which got progressively worse through the morning as the corduroy was scraped away and icy plates resurfaced. As we headed into the afternoon, the spring like corn at Sherwood, Scott and Lakeview just kept getting better and better.

It was a treat to start the day right at the Summit lift. Over the last week it’s either been closed for the entire day, or open only for a few hours in the afternoon due to a long spate of east winds. Guess what? Those winds were still there today, just on the verge of where mountain ops would consider closing the lift. Poor Vincente the liftee, who spent the entire morning at the pre-load board at Summit, flipping down chairs that had been flipped up by the strong winds. Up top, it was a free dermabrasion morning at the top of Alpine Bowl, Sunspot and Wolverine Bowls. Little ice pellets felt like razor blades as they hit your face. At times we wondered if there was a traveling “Safelite Goggle Lens Guy” that could show up on the spot to replace broken lenses. Fortunately modern goggles seemed to be up to the task of fending off sharp ice crystals without any damage.

All of the groomed slopes have been fantastic in quality and amounts. We can’t state that enough. Hats off to mountain ops for “turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse” each day. Off of Summit, much of the off piste terrain is just trash with all of the east winds, so great grooming is really a huge thing.

My plan was to spend about 90 minutes at each of Summit, Roundhouse, Sherwood, Scott and Lakeview today. Roundhouse was equally well tailored and felt like 50° warmer without the brisk winds above. We noted that some amazing groomer finally connected Ladies Slalom and the lower section of Red Ridge (the extended right side of Dance Floor). Much appreciated. In addition to the groomed slopes, I also ran through Rolls and Knolls and Chicken Leg today. Both are still skiable as long as you are a strong skier willing to show your skis who is in control.

After a quick food break from Treats, it was off to Sherwood, where the corn harvest is underway. Everything that has been groomed or skied in was feeling great around noon. My favorite line of the day was Robin Hood, which offered nice rounded corn bumps. There’s rocks and trees scattered here so it will not be groomed anytime soon. Sherwood Face offered variable conditions. There was a well skied strip on the main face that was a lot of fun. Sherwood Left Face and Right Face needs more traffic. South Face also generally needs more traffic to consolidate the snow.

Scott offered fantastic corn on Ridge, Bobby’s and Standard. Upper Standard has a lot of obstacles so that does require care. Summer Road…bring ice skates. Winter Road…bring your mogul skis.

All of Lakeview also offered fantastic corny spring snow this afternoon. I’m always drawn to “Beam Me Down Scotty”. Sure it looks bad with brush and trees popping up, but if you overlook that it is so fun. Once we started skiing it, there were many followers today. I will be there again tomorrow for more fun.

Just as a matter of timing our last run, we finished the day with a run on Scott, loading the lift at 3:54 and exiting the lift at 4:01 for one last zoom zoom down Bobby’s and Weasel back to the lodge. My buddy Jason logged 35 runs and 37k feet for the day over 33 miles of skiing. Sadly my Apple watch ate all of the data before the last 2 hours of the day. What a fantastic day. This is why I like corn better than powder.

The Ups and Downs Of Weather

We need more Crocs! The response to the “Crocs Til It Snows” campaign has been weak so far, noting about 7 participants in the fun over the last two days. Some of those people sported flip flops and other winter inappropriate footwear and that is perfectly acceptable.

Consequently we only have mixed news regarding the potential for the return to winter weather. Things remain in the “weakly warm” category the next two days. Highs will be in the upper 30’s, which should continue to soften south facing terrain and betterize the quality of the corn snow. Then we get cooler as we head into the three day weekend, culminating in a high of only 26° by Monday. Ugh. There is some consolation that parking for the weekend is not sold out like last weekend.

In the longer range, some of the models again introduced the idea of snowfall out around day 13 of the forecast, which is well into Fantasyland. If more people participated in the “Crocs Til It Snows” protest we might see more positive results in the models. Just sayin’. See you out there tomorrow.