It’s hard to accept that we won’t have new snow for days. The winter season should at least offer us enough snow to refresh the slope surfaces, but that does not appear possible for the next 10 days.
If it’s not going to snow, then we might as well enjoy more spectacular warm, sunny, spring-like days. The weekend looks like it will be beautiful, offering us spring skiing. The temperature this morning was 42 degrees at the base of Roundhouse Chair and 41 degrees at the top of the Summit Chair. Temperatures remained in the 40s all day, topping off at 45 degrees on Summit Chair at 3 pm. You do not need many layers of clothing on days like today. There was some wind blowing at the ridgeline, but it was not strong enough to close any of the lifts down. It was strong enough at the top of Wolverine Bowl to slow one down to a crawl when pointing skis straight downhill into the bowl.
Standard Run
Groomed runs were generally very enjoyable this morning. Alpine Bowl, Wolverine, Terry’s Return, Werner’s Schuss, Charity, and Dance Floor held an edge at speed. I enjoyed some off-piste this morning after flying down a number of the groomed trails. Sunspot softened nicely after about an hour of opening.
D8 was smooth and chalky. The area of Palisades was also chalky but included moguls that were firm. The same was true of other slopes that do not receive much sun during the day. Chalky moguls were fun to ski in the Expert Shortcut or Art’s Knob.
We did make a few turns on the groomed areas of Sherwood, as well as Sherwood Face, but the snow turned out to be sticky. It was not slushy nor turned to corn, but more like skiing in sour cream, soft but a little thick.
The same was true of Standard Trail, accessible from the Scott Chair. The good news today was that most of the mountain slopes were not really firm or icy.
Lakeview Chair was put on mechanical hold yesterday afternoon and opened the morning with the same hold. I do not know if it opened later in the afternoon. Yesterday, when Lakeview closed, Scott and Sherwood also closed, but they were operating this morning.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
I finally got my first ski day in. You’ve been teasing me with these ski reports lately.
It was a stellar ski day today with good snow, excellent grooming, no crowds or lift lines and warmer temps. I was assaulted by the winds of Wolverine from the top, almost to the bottom, my least favorite run of the day. So good to be back to Alpine Meadows and enjoy a great ski day before the crowds descend this holiday weekend.
Friend and I got stuck on Lakeview for about an hour 15 Tuesday. Seems they were having trouble getting the auxiliary power going, but finally it caught and got us up the hill. At one point we could hear staff yelling about having to close Scott & TLC to move personnel. Uh oh, I thought, does that mean evac? We were relieved that the mechanics got ‘er going. We were given a ticket voucher upon dismount.
Skied Alpine yesterday your reports are spot on! I had one complaint, the lifty loading the Summit chair had his boom box blaring so loud that it hurt my ears even with helmet on. I realize that the machinery is very loud but if someone were to shout to him to stop the lift I don’t think he could hear above the boom box.
Mark an Andy. Besides Juneuary the thing I enjoyed and noticed the most Tuesday-Thursday was that Alpine midweek continues drawing the traditional mature predominant good skier. I think it is a reflection of the recognition of Alpine as not only a mostly skiers mountain but that there is a unique deeply ingrained sought after traditional feel particular to Alpine , regardless and in-spite of current management to the contrary. Or maybe I am just an old wishful reminiscent.