What Can You Do? Just Go Skiing…

We seem to be stuck in an endless time loop right now. Each morning, we get up and look at the longer term models, looking for a hint of change. Nope, denied. Then we look at the current weather and the day’s forecast. It’s still too warm overnight, with temperatures in the 40’s top to bottom overnight. We look at the winds for the day, only to see that the east winds across the ridges will continue for the seventh straight day. Then I decide that it does not matter, I’m just going skiing anyways.

Through the magic of modern snow grooming equipment, most days can be remarkably similar. The mountain ops team is pretty good at laying down consistent corduroy on the most important parts of the mountain. For some people, that is all they care about anyways. Others of us prefer to get out and be a bit more adventurous off piste.

There were a few curve balls today, as we were walking out to the snow, the new UA Mobile page sent me a notification that Summit would be delayed and that ABC would be opening. That changed the morning routine. The mountain host claimed a wind hold for Summit, as did the orange signs across the corral. But looking at the remote data page and looking for the requisite horsetails blowing off of the top of the D Chutes, the winds were not enough for a wind hold.

That lead to a small crowd at Roundhouse, and we gave it an extra lap, giving the mountain ops crew a bit of time to get ABC open. The ride up was not the kind of east wind that closes Summit. The chairs were still on the line above Sunspot and they were completely still. The delay at Summit was something else. A morning with just ABC is kind of nice in that a super slow double chair does not spill as much traffic onto Alpine Bowl, resulting in fewer unguided missiles. Terry’s Return offered great fun, but everyone in my crew noted the three little tree tops sticking up near Howards Hollow 1 that keep trying to trip you up.

After two laps on ABC, we noted movement on Summit and prepared to switch gears. That put us in easier striking distance of Sunspot. Although it did not get groomed overnight, the east wind did buff out the upper two thirds. Tower 19, still not too bad given the nearly 50° temperatures yesterday. We should have stayed there, but instead I had this urge to check out High Traverse. I have not done it yet this season due to the rib issue.

Five of us headed through the barn and made the sidestep up to upper saddle. While the bumps and arm movements have been much less of a problem with a rib injury, the deep breathing required for the climb was a stretch for healing ribs. I wish I could say the climb was worth it. I do love those days where there’s just a few people looking down Sun Bowl. There was some light frozen chunder and ruts. Moving to the west, there was rut free turns, but it was still much too soft due to the warm overnight temperatures. I’m sorry to the people that saw our group and followed us.

Truth be told, just about all of the south facing terrain that was previously on the way to a good corn cycle has taken a step backward with the warm overnights. I don’t ever remember “de-rating” corn, unless it was being replaced by new powder. But here’s the new ratings:

The south facing groomers still have good developing corn, but the window of “goodness” is short. The time from “too firm” to “so fun!” to “too mushy and sticky” is pretty short – happening within just a few runs. You have to move along quickly, especially if you are working on staying ahead of the masses.

The Return Of Lakeview

The rumors of the complete collapse of Lakeview turned out to be untrue. But it was closed all day yesterday while crews addressed the maintenance issue. Also noted today is that mountain ops did not waste the opportunity. As Lakeview reopened today, you could see that the snow cat that Andy captured a photo of yesterday on Leisure Lane had been busy. A big snow farming mission pulled snow from the east side of the ridge and bolstered the snowpack on Leisure Lane and at the tops of Outer Limits and Mountain View. A team from mountain ops was out manually rebuilding and fortifying the ramp at the top of Lakeview. They are crushing it. Thank you mountain ops team.

Weekend Crowds?

I’ve been watching parking reservations over the last couple of days and noted that finally at midday today, the availability of free parking reservations disappeared for the long weekend at Alpine Meadows. Typically it’s gone by Tuesday evening at 7:03 if it is going to be a busy weekend. Paid parking reservations are still available. Some of the more jaded readers have suggested that there could have just been an adjustment of inventory, moving some of the free inventory to paid. I dunno.

I did see that Vail Resorts reported some visitation numbers this week and they are not great. Most of the country is experiencing less snow than what the industry needs to see strong visitation. Then there’s the economy, which is also dragging by most measures. Here’s the tweet from Lift Blog

Alterra Mountain Co, the owners of Alpine Meadows and the northern annex, are not a publicly traded company. They are not obligated to release any data about their performance. That said, there really is no credible evidence to support that anything different is happening in the world of Ikon ski areas. Prove me wrong.

Hints Of A Storm?

There’s still chatter about the storm that is going to save everything. I’m not seeing it yet. Looking at model runs this morning and again this afternoon, I see nothing more than the potential for an inside slider about 11 days out. The models show the potential for 2 inches of snow. Woo hoo!

A Couple of Tidbits

• The robots did a quick update to the UA Mobile page this afternoon. There’s a new notifications preference that allows you to only get notifications during certain hours. As an example, if you typically ski only 10am until 1pm, you can say you only want to be alerted during those hours. There you go VCSki!

• A quick shoutout today for Upcycled Adventures in Donner Lake. I dropped off a pair of boots and skis for consignment sale there two weeks ago. It seems like an “off the beaten” path location, but the owner, William, is super knowledgable about products and does a great job matching up sellers and buyers. If you’re looking to offload quality extra gear or are shopping for good values, check out Upcycled Adventures.