Let’s Just Say “New Snow Day”…

The new snow started right on schedule, or slightly early or really early, depending on which forecast you looked at, and at what hour. For most of the day it did look like snow, and it did accumulate on top of the snow pack. It was not a powder day by my standards. It wasn’t quite Sierra Cement either. Still the new snow brought people, a lot of them. Lot 4 was nearing Chalet Road when we left and cars will still streaming up Alpine Meadows Road by the dozens. You can imaging how the next few days are going to look, with the pursuit of fresh snow shifting into overdrive.

There were no lift lines to speak of today. It was more of a limited terrain problem. Alpine Meadows offered just Roundhouse, TLC and Sherwood for terrain in the morning. Yes some other lifts ran, but they didn’t offer much terrain. Still this was more attractive to people than the place next door which ran only KT, Red Dog and Resort Chair, where it was completely raining at the base.

Initially the new snow skied pretty well, but it eventually got a bit deeper and a bit heavier. The places where people skied before you became way more bumpy and less fun. It was good, but not great, while it lasted. It got wetter and wetter and wetter.

So What Does That Mean For Tomorrow?

This whole weather modeling thing has been a headache this season, as mentioned by the beloved Bryan Allegreto the other day. In particular the storm cycle this week has been anything but predictable. We know the precipitation will be here, but there is so little reliable informations as to where the snow levels will be. There is complete model disagreement, which leads to misleading information spit out by the automated forecasts like the Alpine Meadows point forecast or the snow level projections from the Reno NOAA office. Even the area forecast discussions (AFDs) from Reno and Sacramento offices of NOAA have varied substantially.

Some days the skiing is wildly better than expected, like yesterday. Some days are expected to be much better but turn out to be less than stellar. After studying things over the last hour, the automated Reno snow levels look pretty good:

That 7 to 11 inches forecast for today likely did happen on the upper mountains today. Another 10 to 14 inches is on tap tonight and a bit more before noon tomorrow. If the snow levels above pan out, it will be “funner” snow.

Tomorrow is going to be busy. Just know that now. All parking, free and paid, is sold out for the weekend at Alpine Meadows. Weirdly, paid reservations are still available Sunday at Palisades. Thats odd because the conditions are so much better over there, always. Then there’s the celebrity factor and the free beer too.

Tomorrow is destined to be busy as the mountain will be filled with those wanting to avoid the weekend crush, have chosen not to be a part of the reservation system, or just could not get a reservation this weekend. Hopefully we will see the whole mountain open at both Palisades and Alpine Meadows to absorb those crowds and give people space to play.

“Uh Oh” Update

Phwew! Things were updated to a more normal post storm ops schedule at 630am.

Mountain Safety Is Always A Concern

With a crush of people on the mountain over the next few days, there’s always concern about mountain safety. I can identify at least three different times where I have been buzzed by a very high speed skier or rider at less than a foot on the mountain, just in the last week. Collisions on the mountain happen every day. I read about one last night involving two skiers at Alpine Meadows on the Reddit skiing sub. One skier was slowly skiing the eastern edge of Lower Sympathy and a very high speed skier hit them while rocketing up into Lower Sympathy off of Dance Floor. By this afternoon, there were nearly 600 comments, most of which pinned the blame on the skier going to faster than their ability to maintain control.

Heading into this weekend, there are bound to be people that get into situations beyond their capability. New powder sucks people into places they should not be. That can result in injuries of all sorts including striking trees, deep snow immersion or even avalanches, especially in the side country areas surrounding Alpine Meadows. Be careful out there.

On the subject of safety, there was a quietly reported death at Alpine Meadows this week. Several people have messaged me asking what I know about the incident. We are not ambulance chasers. Out of respect for the families of those involved, we don’t publish anything about these sort of incidents unless it gets more widely published, as in avalanche deaths. Let’s be kind to our mountain patrollers as they have plenty of work to do just resetting the mountain after a slew of new snow. Be safe out there.

The Longer Range

The weekend looks quiet but cold enough to keep things wintery and that trend continues into Tuesday. By Wednesday or Thursday another set of lows move in bringing back the possibility of snow. Again, these lows do not look to take a standard route into the Sierra, so the models will have a tough time figuring out how they will turn out. It’s worth keeping an eye on these for now. Here’s the 10 day GIF of pressure anomalies.

See you out there tomorrow.