A Bit O’ Relief

Phwew! We made it through what is likely the busiest weekend of the season so far at Alpine Meadows. There’s lots of rumors flying around about records set for a number of people on the hill, number of cars in the parking lots and number of ambulance runs this weekend between the two resorts. As it turns out Monday was also relatively busy.

We have said it before that Monday is the new Sunday. A lot of people that didn’t have parking reservations or wanted to avoid the big crowds showed up today. Then there was a also a high school snowboard race. Of course we all became a part of “the crowd” too. Lot Four and Subway were nearly filled up at midday. Yikes!

I was extremely line intolerant today. During the weekend I spent more time in lines than I’ve stood in during the entire season. So when there is a half full corral at Summit this morning, I wasn’t super excited about that. Still I did quite a few laps on Summit before I just said “enough is enough”, moving to Roundhouse.

Typically, a busy weekend after a Sierra storm leaves the mountain has full of moguls. While there were many moguls today, they were not as big as one might expect. Instead what was left after a large number of visitors this weekend was a lot of scraped off icy patches. Because of that, today is the day I have decided that I needed to release the beta version of our Ice-O-Meter.. It’s the first time we’ve ever used it. Our corn meter has become a staple here, so why not?

I’m going to remind you. The tolerance for ice is widely varied. What some of us might call “ice” is just chalky snow to other people. Most of my friends really enjoyed the conditions today, but we are the people that go skiing every day. People that are here for their one week ski vacation would find today’s conditions quite frightening in some places. So here is the first post of the Unofficial Alpine ice meter:

in general you’re likely to find icy conditions in places where there has been high traffic, or exposed areas where snow has been blown off, and in places that also don’t get much sun. Here’s a short list of places to consider avoiding: Gentian Gully, Scott Chute, The Palisades, The Face, Chute That Seldom Slides, Winter Road and Upper Standard Run.

Some of the best skiing today was to be found off piste in areas that get little traffic. Yellow Chairline and Fall Line would be a good example of this. Also, all of the groomed runs are fine for the first couple of hours.

I was surprised to find pretty good conditions at Sherwood this afternoon. My first run down Robin Hood was quite delightful with softening small moguls. Riding the lift back up. I noticed that there was traffic on Sherwood face, so naturally I had to go try that out myself. It was actually pretty good. This was around 12:30.. I plan to head back there tomorrow.

We should see similar conditions over the next two days. The question will be whether or not there will be fewer people there tomorrow or Wednesday. A slight chance of showers begins on Wednesday afternoon with a passing inside slider.

Will The Weather Be Your Valentine?

There is another refresh of snow looking likely for the Thursday and Friday time frame. In my post on Saturday, I noted that the models varied from 12 to 40 inches of snowfall possible. The short range NAM model is pretty aggressive this evening, resulting in impressive numbers for the automated point forecast:

Don’t fall in love with this forecast. The NAM model updates every six hours, meaning that the point forecast will also fluctuate, sometimes a lot. It can be disheartening. But the NAM is better at short range forecasting than many of the other models, and we are getting into the 3 day PDA or “pretty darn accurate” part of the forecast.

Just looking at the GEFS model trends run for total snowfall through Friday, there’s still variation. The good news is that the split is less, now varying from about 24 inches to 40 inches of snow.

The snow levels are hopefully not going to be a problem. Snow levels will rise as the system moves in, as there is a weak atmospheric river component. As of today, it looks like snow levels get to 6000 to 6500 feet before the come back down Thursday night. The Reno AFD is calling for snow levels at 4000-5000 feet on Friday. Winds will likely be a problem for the upper lifts on Thursday and Friday.

Another system could be on tap early next week, and it currently looks a bit warm. Hopefully it goes away. Ski you tomorrow.

Sorry for the “late post”. There was a flat tire on my car after skiing today that required some immediate action.

Action Needed!!

The suggested cuts being forced upon us by the DOGE team could have a huge implications for the Sierra Avalanche Center (and for our local weather offices). Read the details here and please consider following their suggested actions. Click the SAC logo below to go to the press release.