Wind, and more wind, a little snow, and a tree falling over made up today’s tale.
According to the Palisades/Alpine App, wind gusts were recorded as high as 145 mph last night over the ridge top of Alpine Meadows. Huge gusts slammed into my windows during the night. Often these gusts were accompanied by driving rain. At some point during the night, the temperatures dropped, and rain turned snow. However, this did not last long, as there were just a couple of inches of snow on the ground when daylight arrived.
When the wind blows, trees fall. Last night was no different. A tree fell across the Liberty Utility lines at about 11:30 last night. The accident occurred near the bottom of the Alpine Meadows Road at the Snow Crest Road intersection. The utility company has been working all night and is still working at 3:30 pm to restore power. A massive crew could be seen working on the repair. Of course, this power outage wreaked havoc for the ski area. Most lifts were subject to delayed openings on the Alpine Meadows side of the mountain. Roundhouse opened at nine, followed by Summit much later. Scott opened in the afternoon. TLC operated late in the morning; however, Sherwood was able to run earlier. There was just no way to get to Sherwood unless you lived in Ward Valley. Two hours of alone time were available to those lucky enough to live in Ward Valley, according to a friend of mine who took advantage of the situation.
Low clouds with poor lighting took up most of the morning on the upper portion of the mountain accessed by Summit Chair. A little more snow fell on the upper mountain, making for some pretty nice skiing.
We spent a good amount of time on the lower portion of the mountain skiing Roundhouse. Deer Camp, Fall Line, Gunner’s Knob, parts of God’s Knob, Banana Chute, and others were just right (a thin, soft layer of snow with minimal ice to contend with). We made a number of runs on Sherwood once it opened, including a couple in Expert Short Cut where the snow was a little deeper. I heard Our Father was excellent. South Face offered soft turns between shaved or lumps of ice. I did get one lovely from the top of Scott Chair. I enjoyed soft winter snow among tightly spaced trees on my way down the uncrowded slope.
All in all, most people seemed to think it was a very good day even though they had to put up with delays due to the power outage.
I have another safety tip for all of you. In addition to the suggestion that you do not lift the safety bar too early when exiting a lift, please look over your shoulder as a chair is approaching you. For the second or third time this season, I have watched as people attempt to load a chair with the safety bar down. The lift attendants, whom we all love, were not watching the chair as it rounded the bull wheel. At the last minute, with a scream from me, the bar was raised to allow the skiers to sit. You cannot load a chair with the bar down. Most likely you would be pushed off the end of the ramp, landing in a lump as the chair passed over your head.
Sometimes the seat bottom is up when the chairs are around the bull wheel. This occurs when winds blow the seat up during its travel down the mountain. You can load the chair with the seat up, but it would be very uncomfortable and might cause a person to fall off the chair.
This situation happened today. A seat was up when someone loaded at the base of Scott Chair. The chair was stopped, but not before the people were too high off the ground to allow them to safely jump from the chair. Ski patrol was called to evacuate them from the chair using ropes and harnesses. This may have been interesting to watch for those not sitting on the chair, but I am sure the people being evacuated were not pleased.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
I see lift ops looking at their phones far too often, especially employees who work in a safety-sensitive position. Between seat bottoms flipped up and safety bars down as carriers come around the bullwheel, this is simply unacceptable. Why is it always something around here? On another note, PT needs to reel in their Open Snow hype man BA. More like BS. Did we get anything close to 9 feet over the last week?
Very good safety tip, Andy! That’s why we love all you and Mark do for us. Excellent advice.
I was not at Alpine today, as I was skiing with my son at Tahoe Donner. You bring up some important safety notes, Andy. Yes, for your own safety, look at each chair your about to load before it gets to you. Seats up, and safety bars down happen at a lot of ski areas, with sometimes very bad results. As I was involved with lift ops for years, I know even the most attentive lift operator can miss one of those coming around the bullwheel for a variety of distractions, not to mention the all day assembly line of loading chair after chair. I personally think that Alpine should remove the added plastic map thingy from the bars, as they catch the SW wind after turning around the upper bullwheel and coming back downhill. These bars did not blow down before the maps were added.
So it sounds like the power was out all day…is that correct? That would mean every lift was running on it’s auxiliary. Were the diesels fired up? Hmmm… tough day.
According to sources, they pulled power from the Sherwood side to run some lifts.
I agree regarding the plastic maps. I cannot recall anyone ever looking at one. Interesting conditions with some crust that was only heard but not seen. I counted 11 Liberty trucks still working the repair at about 1:30 and the big bucket trucks just pulled out of the access road at about 5:15-30. It was a major rally.
There was an opportunity for an all-time-classic headline today, Andy, had you referenced Spinal Tap’s second album released in 1992: “Break Like the Wind” (!!!) lol
I heard a few seasons ago at Vail the hot lifty prank on the street was ‘toilet bowling’ people by flipping the seat up just before they took a seat. Very funny until a man fell ~45’ to his unfortunate demise.
I have a said that riding the chair is it’s own sport that takes skills. My kids are now 19 and 17 and they are solid skiers, but excellent chair riders. Folks need to pay attention and the lift crew need all the help they can get. Cell phones should be banned when you are working, but I am old and yell at clouds. I appreciate Andy and Mark and their writing styles. Yes, Make Alpine Great Again (it always was).
Quit bagging on BA. All the forecasts were wrong because everyone uses the same crummy models that were way off. Did you do better?
Top comment. BA is not writing the gospel. He is reporting what he sees on what the models are showing. He expressed his frustration throughout the entirety of the storm. If you don’t like what he writes, don’t read it.
Every lift closed at 3:00 today, except for Roundhouse on auxiliary power. This was necessary to switch the power back from Sherwood to the frontside. Can’t really have people on chairlifts with such a major reset.
I saw Pete ride all the way up Scott a few years ago sitting on the bar; and the lift op at the top did not even stop the lift for him to get off. I loaded with Pete and jumped off in time – Pete didn’t. I told the bottom liftie what was going on, but the guy at the top didn’t seem to get the message.