Clouds hang low and dark,
cold wind whispers, almost white—
rain waits to be snow.
Yes there was snow falling at Alpine Meadows this morning. According to the automated sensors, somewhere between 4 inches and 204 inches of snow fell over night. The socials said six inches and the ski bums noted it was boot top deep. To the two unlucky people that put cars in a ditch on Alpine Meadows Road this morning, it probably felt like they were digging in 10 feet of snow.
The skiing was actually quite fun while it lasted. Unfortunately, limited terrain availability and rapidly rising temperatures meant that the bulk of what seems like powder skiing was over by about 10:15 this morning. Some very gusty winds kept everything on hold or closed except for Turbo Weasel, Sherwood and the beginner lifts. As the lifts rolled this morning, nobody exited Turbo Weasel at the mid station on the first 10 chairs, as just about everyone understands the lack of easy powder opportunities off of the Weasel Run.
In most areas, there was not enough new snow to completely erase the ice from yesterday’s freeze, meaning that most people enjoyed the low angle terrain more than the higher angle terrain. The occasional wind gust whiteouts also made skiing near trees a better option. By our third lap on the Sherwood chair, things were pretty well schralped from Ray’s Rut all of the way to the farthest west parts of South Face. As the temperatures rose a few degrees, things felt wetter and heavier on each successive lap.
Creative traversing from the mid station of Turbo Weasel led us to our last few scraps of freshies as the snow turned to rain. The chunder left behind by each wet powder turn became comical. On my last “powder run” of the day, the snow was so wet and heavy you couldn’t risk making a turn for fear of stopping. Out on the main Weasel groomer, small moguls had already formed and skiing that in the rain was not a part of my dreams for the day.
The models are saying the cold air will get here within the next hour or so, promising lower snow levels. That has been the forecast since Sunday evening, snow levels dropping “tomorrow”. It’s been a long wait.
Assuming that cold front finally passes this evening, we could squeeze another foot of snow out by tomorrow morning. There’s a break in the action for Wednesday and the last wave moves through Thursday into Friday. This has the potential to bring another one to two feet of snow with snow levels as low as 3000 feet. Should all of this transpire, it would qualify as the largest storm of the season so far. It will not match up to the bloggers or weather personalities that hyped up to 9 feet of snow this week. That said, some of the highest peaks around here that stayed above the rain may get there.
We ended up seeing 15 inches of snow during the month of January, compared to the average of 71 inches. We now stand at 66% of average snowfall at Alpine Meadows for the season. Ouch. This storm series will help. We could make up the January deficit by Friday. Then we would need another 76 inches of snow during February to get back to average. There are currently no indicators (PNA, MJO, AO or anything else) that point to a full flip in current trends…
The Weekend Storm
Once the snow pictures are broadcast on the nightly news forecast, the interest in skiing and riding is instantly rekindled. We saw that today, where even wet snow brought out a very solid midweek crowd. More telling is that it is “Tuesday Tarmac Tango: The Race for Parking Reservations”, and today those free reservations were sold out on both sides of the mountain in less than two minutes. I would expect to see the same for the 7pm parking reservation release. Gentlemen, start your engines!
It’s going to be a madhouse around Tahoe this weekend being a bluebird weekend after a big snowfall. There’s a lot of pent up demand for better ski conditions. There’s even some people out there that have not used their Ikon pass yet. It’s not just the ski areas that will be busy. People have been waiting for better conditions for backcountry skiing, sledding, making a snow man or just sitting in a hot tub and then rolling in the snow.
Yes there is some big football game thing on this Sunday. Personally I wish it would air at 10am rather than 3:30pm. Honestly, I can’t even name one of the two teams playing this year.
It’s going to be cold this weekend and into early next week. The low continues to make a very slow journey to the east, which will keep us in a cold northerly flow. Looking at the models today, we could see an inside slider type storm by next Thursday, but being out there 9 days into the forecast, it is hardly a sure thing. I am looking forward to having some good winter snow to ski on soon and some cold temperatures that should preserve the quality of that snow for some time.
The chairs were slick today. I even saw someone fall off of the Sherwood lift – luckily he seemed to be unhurt.
I heard he did not have the bar down!
I happen to know the guy that slipped off the chair and made a fool of himself this morning at Sherwood. My memory is not what it used to be, but if it is working, then that might have been the first timeThis well known person has fallen off a chair in over70 years. There’s a first time for everything.
I shouldn’t be laughing, but I would like to tell that guy, “Welcome to the club” as I happen to know a guy who in nearly 70 years has slipped off a chair twice…and HE should really, I mean really, know better…
South Face laps good for three then wet!
As a reckless young person, today was a great day to put the bar down; why not live to ski another day? I’m not entirely clear on why hot stuff is mid-station only on days like today, it would made a lot more sense to me if it was a true 2-stage lift. Went over to the dark side around noon and had some of the most delightful KT laps.