Let The Countdowns Begin

As we head deeper into the fall season, there’s increasing signs that winter is coming. That’s not to say that I am not fully enjoying the fall shoulder season in Tahoe. The crowds are gone for the most part. Intermittent rain showers have kept the mountain bike trails tacky. I plan to keep enjoying the current season right up to the point where we start putting our skis and ski boots in the car to head to some mountain. That said, just about every night is now including ski dreams, which is a very significant turning point in my thought process.

How Long Will We Wait?

Alpine Meadows & Palisades Tahoe

Let’s talk about our favorite mountain first, which has never been in the race for “earliest to open” in Tahoe. The first official announcement from Palisades Tahoe was that opening day would be Wednesday, November 26th. Since that time, Northstar announced an opening date of Friday, November 21st. It’s a bad look to open after Northstar and more recently, other sources are now reporting an opening date of the 21st for Palisades Tahoe/Alpine Meadows.

Update: The latest tweet from Alterra Mountain Co doubles down on the 26th as an opening date. The countdown has been revised ☹️

Alpine Meadows Opening Day?

As always, we never know for sure what that means. Sometimes it means the Weasel zone at Alpine Meadows, as cold air sinking into that zone allows for better early season snowmaking. Over at Palisades, the early openings generally includes the First Venture beginner lift or Red Dog with very limited terrain. Hopefully, all of those zones would open, or more, pending natural snowfall. Fingers are crossed that the new transformers powering the Alpine Meadows snowmaking system arrive early!

Mammoth Mountain

Mammoth Mountain is typically the first mountain to open in California. The elevation is an important factor there. With the main base area at 9000′, they have fewer issues with late fall inversions. Typically Mammoth Mountain can get Chair 1 opened for opening day, followed quickly by Chair 3. Weirdly, the announced opening day for Mammoth Mountain is currently November 14, which is a week later than what we have seen in the past. My last post did indicate that there’s likely to be some belt tightening within the ski industry this season. We shall see what happens.

Mammoth Mountain Opening Day?

Mount Rose

Mount Rose has become the champion of early season skiing in Lake Tahoe. The planned opening date for Mount Rose is currently November 8th, conditions permitting. Over the past couple of seasons, Mount Rose opens when you can ski nearly top to bottom. That would be the Lakeview Express lift, offering 1000 vertical feet of skiing and riding. This is a huge improvement over the days when Rose opened with just the Wizard or magic carpet lifts! Word on the street is they would like to open even earlier if weather and conditions permit.

Mount Rose Opening Day?

It’s an almost certain bet that I will be buying a limited Mount Rose season pass again this year to take advantage of those early turns. Skiing is that important to me, plus I have a lot of friends that ski there too. There were actually a number of Alpine Meadows snow junkies there last November.

Back in the day, you could count on Boreal to open as early as possible. The earliest date I can remember is October 11th. But when Mount Rose beat them to the punch at “first to open” a few years running, it seems like they have given up. Currently their projected opening date is November 20. Nope, I am not even going to give them a timer.

My First Day Of The Season

My plans for the first ski day of my season are firming up. As many of you have surmised, I am either going to do some major hiking or traveling to make that happen. I am planning on writing a report, but it may be delayed a bit so be patient.

Mark’s First Ski Day

Then There’s The Movies

Ski movie season is upon us as well. It’s probably impossible to list all of them, but here’s your top contenders, with their Northern California/Nevada show dates:

Matchstick Productions’ After The Snowfall

Matchstick Productions has produced just about every one of my favorite ski movies. After The Snowfall looks like it will be another great one. Show dates: October 25-27 at The Tahoe Art Haus Cinema.

Teton Gravity Research’s Pressure Drop

TGR is another favorite producer of ski movies. Odds are pretty good that you have seen all sorts of TGR schwag around the mountain without even knowing what that was about! Pressure Drop show dates: October 8th in San Francisco, October 10th at Palisades Tahoe, October 15th in Reno.

Warren Miller Entertainment’s Sno-ciety

I grew up and learned to love skiing watching Warren Miller movies. While they have not been quite the same since Miller passed, the quality is returning. It’s also nice that the WME films do see a wider audience. Sno-ciety show dates: October 29-30 at Palisades Tahoe, November 1 in Reno, November 2 in South Lake Tahoe and many show dates around Northern California during the first two weeks of November. What? There’s even a showing in Florida!

Our First Real Weather Update

There’s been a lot of noise on some other blogs about the return of La Niña again and I am not sure it even matters anymore. I’ll take a deeper dive into seasonal outlooks some day. But for now, the first real storm of the fall season appeared in the models this week.

Yeah that is a very solid looking low pressure system for late September. Check the date for that…Septemer 26, which is 13 days away. That’s pretty deep into Fantasyland for forecasting. That said, this feature has survived about 10 runs of the GFS model. It could disappear before it happens. That said, I am supposed to be at a three day music festival that weekend, which makes it seem more likely that rain will happen. Hopefully this is a sign of what’s to come as we get closer to ski season.

Thanks For The Coffees!

We have had a stunning response to our “Buy Me A Coffee” campaign we launched a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to every one that has donated or is still considering donating to keep the electrons flowing here at UnofficialAlpine. It looks like we should be able to underwrite some other little things to keep the Alpine Meadows spirit alive.