What A Run!

Many were saying today that this was the best storm cycle of the season, in particular because it’s already April. The marketing information from Palisades Tahoe says that 44 inches of snow has fallen during this cycle. There’s not any detail about that measurement. One way to begin to verify that measurement is to keep tabs on the remote sensor at the base of Roundhouse. Before the storm cycle it was running about 76 inches. It peaked out this morning at 110 inches before the sun started cooking things down. That adds up to 34 inches at the base area, so 44″ at mid mountain is certainly likely. Honestly, I haven’t even been on Summit the last three days to get a peek at how things look.

Three days ago, I put out a range of 26 to 37 inches for the storm, making this one an overperformer. Although the snow never skied like it was four feet deep, there were some things that made the last two days exceptional. The first being that Highway 80 remained closed much of that time, limiting the largest masses of people from getting here. We also had strong winds that did close upper mountain lifts, but added some very nice wind redistribution on the lower mountain. Yesterday we saw snow levels as low as 3000 feet. For Monday and Tuesday, the last lap was just as good as the first lap and that just doesn’t happen much anymore during the Ikon Era.

Today was one of those days that was destined to be more like the very busy powder frenzy we have come to expect with thousands of Ikon passes sold in the NorCal region and those shiny boxes making it easier to put more and more people on the slopes.

Highway 80 was open all night, allowing for a reasonable easy day trip to Tahoe this morning. As we turned the corner onto Highway 89, we found ourselves wishing we had left just a bit earlier, like it were a weekend.

Fortunately, the vibe at Alpine Meadows was still pretty chill when we arrived, other than the Summit corral already being full. Who knows when people started lining up, that’s not my cup o’tea. The important thing on these sort of days is to prioritize what you want to do and know that you won’t get as much time as you want before things get schralped or cooked. At 10:10, looking around the mountain, every square foot of new snow easily visible from a chairlift had been disturbed by skis or a snowboard.

Still, knowing the mountain pretty well, we milked out almost another hour of untracked turns in the lesser know zones that we don’t talk about. I will also note that we did not leave inbounds nor break any rules. By 11am, even that was getting tougher. The exception was the Lakeview zone. Although the Lakeview chair was not on schedule today, patrollers did remove some stop signs, allowing people to hike up Leisure Lane to the top of Lakeview or traverse across past Mountain View to untouched powder. That’s not an easy lap, requiring a trip to Sherwood, TLC and then Scott before doing it again.

Having now skied 142 days in a row, I did not feel compelled to just keep skiing to gain vertical feet or just spend more time on snow. Once I had a good half dozen perfect powder runs under my belt, that is the memory I want to retain. i don’t want to spoil that bashing through moguls and chunder looking for one more powder turn. We called it a day around noon, and noticed that others did the same. The upper lots were full and about half of Deer Park was used, on a Wednesday in April. The trip back into Truckee took 50 minutes this afternoon, more than double the normal ride. People love powder skiing and riding.

We Are A Part Of The Problem

Yes, we are a small part of the problem when it comes to bringing thousands of people to Alpine Meadows for a powder day. People do expect a reasonably accurate report of how conditions are at Alpine Meadows. I am glad that people trust us for that. Still I cringe when we have a headline that looks like this or the sort of pictures Andy used yesterday or I used today:

We do what we can to minimize the hype, but sometimes it’s there. But here’s a real number, because it’s the slower part of a lackluster season, our readership numbers are much lower than normal. Only 2100 read Andy’s report from yesterday by this morning. The reach of the marketing department via the app, Xitter and other social media outlets is likely at least 20-40x our reach.

Trekking Back Toward Spring

We still have relatively cool temperatures tomorrow. That said any new snow exposed to sun today is already cooked. Then we get a constant buildup of heat over the weekend, with highs in the mid-50’s next week at mid mountain. If you plan to be here, expect a spring slog more than hidden powder stashes. It’s the reality of normal spring skiing. One thing I would welcome is more grooming of normally groomed terrain and more traffic off piste to get this new snow consolidated. That will accelerate the corn ripening process.

See you out there tomorrow…