Welcoming The Fall Season

Yay, another summer season is in the books as we enter meteorological fall. There will be those that still argue that fall does not start for a few more weeks. I’ve been on a campaign to teach about the meteorological definitions of the seasons, and “fall” or autumn would be the months of September, October and November. We are there.

For those still not convinced, we have passed a number of important milestones lately. The kids are back in school. Most of the weekly summer events like Music on the Beach and Truckee Thursdays have concluded. Burning Man is over. Ski swaps and ski movie premieres are on folks calendars. The leaves on our aspens and maple trees are starting to turn. Then there is the first mention of snow flurries in the Sierra:

These lower than normal temperatures also
mean that portions of the Sierra may reach morning lows below
freezing. Plus there are some low chances of precipitation with
those systems that could lead to some flurries if the pattern
observe occurs by mid-week.   - NOAA Reno Forecast Discussion 9/4/25

I am well aware that we will still see more hot days ahead. In Tahoe we call it “Locals Summer”, when we can get to beaches and bike trails with less traffic and parking headaches. It happens every year. Unfortunately this also brings us to the peak of wildfire season in the Sierra as conditions are often dry. Over the last two weeks, we have been fortunate to have a lot of rainfall, keeping lightning caused fires to a minimum. On Wednesday a cold front brought more lightning to the drier west slope of the Sierra, igniting dozens of smaller fires. The helicopter traffic out of the Truckee airport has been exceptionally busy lately. Those low flying Chinooks are a loud reminder of a continuing fire season.

For now I am just going to enjoy this forecast for Alpine Meadows:

Looking even farther out, it shows a high of 49° at Alpine Meadows for next Wednesday. It won’t be ideal for anyone that is planning on a camping trip, rafting the Truckee or tanning on the beach net week.

What’s Been Happening At Alpine Meadows This Summer?

If you’re looking for major improvements and shiny new things at Alpine Meadows or the northern annex for next season, you may be disappointed. That’s actually a good thing in my book. By now the B2B gondola is old news so the magnetism of shiny new hardware will be less of a draw to Ikon pass tourists. Honestly, not much of anything new has been built anywhere in Tahoe this season. There is a lot of new stuff happening in Utah for the upcoming season, so maybe they will absorb more of the Ikon traffic. Here’s what we know about:

• The major upgrades to the snowmaking systems at Alpine Meadows have continued this summer and this is great news. Over the last few seasons we saw complete upgrading of the lines running up Weasel and Ladies Slalom. That really improved the ability of the mountain to make snow quickly in November. With weather inversions common in the fall season, it’s usually easier to make snow lower on the mountain where the colder air subsides.

This summer, the focus has been on replacing the main snow making lines that go up Dance Floor (Red Trail). That new line terminates at the shack at the top of the Yellow lift, know as “YVH” or the Yellow Valve House to the mountain ops crew. It’s also known as the “Sugar Shack”, where coaches entice kids to meet their teams with gummy bears. In addition to the new waterline, 3 or 4 new fan guns will be added to this zone. Theoretically this should speed up how quickly this terrain can be opened in the early season or low snow years.

• Update: The official blog now reports the actual number of new fan guns on Dance floor to 8, rather than the 3 to 4 mentioned in an earlier meeting. Also of note is that these are the fancy new ones that can be remotely controlled and automated.

• Powering that new snowmaking will be three new upgraded compressors, again another important upgrade to the system. One potential sticky point is that the new compressors do require upgrades to the power source at the base area. There’s been a global supply constraint on electrical transofrmers with the increased demand for electricity, mostly due to data centers that drive artificial intelligence. Word is that Liberty Energy hopes to have the transformers by early November after a two year wait. That’s not ideal as there’s installation, system testing, tune ups and training that needs to happen before people start making snow in earnest.

• The other significant development is that it looks like ticket sales could be moving back indoors again. Sources say that all of the windows in the area formerly known as “Special Tickets” have now been reopened, allowing for 5 to 6 ticketing staff to be there instead of just one or two. It’s probably more comfortable for people that need to purchase tickets to wait indoors. It also reduces the need for staff to be constantly be resetting the ticket queue rope lines every time there is new snow and plowing needs to happen. There’s no word on whether or not any of the outdoor windows will remain open or if there will just be ATM style redemption devices as they have at the annex.

• Around the lodge and at the Chalet everything has been painted and relentlessly cleaned and shined. New day use lockers will be in the day use room. Tables and benches in locker rooms 1 and 2 have been painted in the color “Tea and Biscuits”. If the paint was from Ace, that’s a sort of “cabin style” brown. If it was from somewhere else, it’s more of a beige BandAid color. I hope it’s the former.

• While there had been talk of upgrading the bathrooms in “the dungeon” between locker room 3 and the day use lockers, it looks like that did not happen. Minor fixes were completed and functional is good.

• Lodge maintenance workers JJ and Justin built a new giant snowboard chair to match the giant ski chair that has been out on the Sun Deck. They make a nice set. It’s a nice little touch we can appreciate that likely won’t draw too many Ikon tourists. Queue the influencers!

• I have heard no further updates about anything regarding food services for the upcoming season. There was talk of upgrading the seating in the main lodge, but it appears that may not have happened yet. There was some talk of improvements at the Ice Bar, but it looks like that hasn’t happened.

• Update: Palisades Tahoe announced an opening date of Wednesday, November 26th, with no commitment to what might be opened. Typically the day before Thanksgiving is the starting target. It generally gets moved to the previous weekend if there’s adequate snow and the marketing depart realizes that they may be beat to the punch by Northstar. Both Mammoth and Mount Rose are anticipating start dates of November 8th.

Spending some time looking at ski industry news this summer, nobody is expecting a banner year for tourism as we approach the new season. Foreign tourism to the United States is down significantly. Tourism at major destinations like Las Vegas, theme parks, and summer resorts are also down. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about why that is happening. I am expecting that we are going to see some cost cutting measures happening in the upcoming season. I don’t like it but it is where we are at.

Buy Me A Coffee?

Back when I started this site in 2008, web hosting was dirt cheap. It cost somewhere around $60 a year to keep the electrons flowing. Over the last 17 years, the cost of web hosting has risen somewhat. That’s not the real problem. Our readership has grown by about 3000%. During that time we have written and posted thousands of articles and photos. In any given month during the ski season, we send out more than 100,000 subscriber emails. Consequently, we no longer can get by with those cheap shared hosting plans. Things are quite a bit more expensive these days.

I’ve resisted selling ads on the site as neither Andy or myself want to write as much in the off season to keep our numbers up. I’ve also refused to turn Unofficial Alpine into a subscription based site, as there is just far too much of that in this world. Everybody and everything wants a subscription fee these days!

So that brings us to “Buy Me A Coffee”, which became a thing in 2017. It provides a feel good way for people to support writers, authors and artists by making a one time donation in terms of cups of coffee. What that really means is donations are measured in virtual cups of coffee priced at $5 each. Clicking the link givers readers an easy route toward making a donation via credit card. It can be completely anonymous if you want. For users of Apple Pay, it’s super quick and easy! For other users it’s still very simple.

Many of you have been “donating” over the years by purchasing ridiculous amounts of Unofficial Alpine stickers, and we thank you for that. We will continue to offer stickers, but this is another way to support our cause. Doing some simple math, if only 5% of our readers bought us one coffee, we would be golden…at least my accountant would be happier. Thanks for your help. You can use the link below, or the one we added to the right sidebar that will always be there.

Late Update: I still have a plan to go skiing in 30 days. Plans are firming up…now if I can just get my ski buddies to buy in!

Have you ever dreamed of owning your own personal concert venue and bar in a ski town? Read my friend Jamie’s blog to learn about this opportunity.