Hammered

Yesterday was the best day of the season yet, and like others, I assumed that today might be even better. The temperatures were colder, theoretically the kids were back in school and the holiday season was over. That’s not exactly the way it happened.

While not all that much new snow fell since closing yesterday, the winds really ramped up overnight. That led to a vast amount of snow transport happening overnight. Much of the snow available for skiing today was either wind sculpted, wind packed or both, or “hammered”. This also meant that making the mountain safe for skiers and riders was a real challenge today. Things were definitely moving and in some cases moving a lot. Reports from unofficial sources said that they threw far more charges than normal today to make sure things were safe. Some of those controlled slides ran far more than usual.

So things were slow to open, with Summit not opening until about 11am and Scott not opening until 1:30. That’s far better than the northern annex. It was just First Venture and the magic carpet over there until 11am. So with Alpine Meadows carrying the weight for both mountains, it was really busy this morning. These are my least favorite days at Alpine Meadows.

I had planned to mention in today’s post that even though it may have seemed busy at Alpine Meadows last week, it could have been far worse. The upper lots never filled last week, meaning nobody was forced to shuttle from Deer Park or Hidden Valley. That’s pretty significant. But the upper lots did fill today, and running the shuttle from Deer Park probably would have been a necessity had the mountain ops people next door not got some stuff open starting around 11. This being the busiest day of the season was not on my bingo card. My sense is that some people are still on vacation or were forced to extend for a day since every road out of Tahoe was closed last night. So the mountains got hammered today.

“I couldn’t buy a good turn today” – Overheard in the Roundhouse line

In most areas of the mountain, getting this heavy wind packed snow skied in is probably a blessing. So more traffic today may have been helpful. There’s a few areas of the mountain that were sheltered from the southwest winds that might ski just a bit better if they open soon.

Sherwood??

Cats were hard at work at Sherwood today building out the lower ramp and load platforms. Sources today said that teams did track packing of all of the main Sherwood Run yesterday. The hope is that Sherwood could open tomorrow…at least that’s what some reliable sources said. Realistic expectations should be set. That southwest wind was really hammering that side of the mountain this morning. Sherwood Face and South Face are going to be dense. That avalanche danger that patrol was dealing with all day long? It’s going to take some time for them to work through the setup and safety work for High Traverse. Give them time to make that happen.

As of the 4pm reset of lift statuses, Sherwood is scheduled. 👍 Two minutes later that changed to “Anticipated Weather Impact” 👎

Your Wallet…Also Hammered

Last season, kudos was given to the people that run food services at Alpine Meadows. Double discounts, adding up to 30% off of food items was implemented for Ikon Pass holders before 11:30 am. It was a smart move to get people in for food early, avoiding the normal lunch rush. I was happy to see that “double discount” still existed last week when I got to Treats a bit too late and the line stretched to Roundhouse. It took a little bit of the sting out of $12.50 french fries in the Meadows Cafe.

But apparently it’s no longer a “double discount.” New for this season, there is no longer an Ikon Pass discount for food after 11:30am. Nope full prices, a.k.a. insanity pricing for everything. Yikes!! I will continue making 98% of my food purchases at Treats this season. Thank you to Melanie and the team at Treats for treating us so well.

Checking the Palisades Tahoe website just now, it appears that Estelle Sports is no longer offering an Ikon Pass discount. Boo.

This Is It For Snow For Now

There was one little impulse of snow left for this week but it looks weaker with every model run. Right now there is about a 50% chance of snow Wednesday, with no accumulation expected. That last little impulse will bring some very cold temps Wednesday into Thursday. That will help preserve the current snow state. After that we have a pretty solid ridge building in through mid-month. The models look for something in the last 4 days of the model runs around MLK weekend, but that is Fantasyland.

So…Sherwood looks like a go tomorrow, leaving Lakeview for the last bit of expansion. The winds today were exactly the kinds of wind that love to strip snow from Leisure Lane, and the top portions of Mountain View and Outer Limits. Hopefully the mountain ops crews can pull enough snow off of the backside of Scott Peak and the ridgeline to get Lakeview open soon. I am ready to have more room to spread out.

See you out there tomorrow.