It’s A Snownami!

It was a snownami adventure at Alpine Meadows today. Yesterday, we lucked out, as the strong winds never materialized. All scheduled lifts were able to run all day, which was a delightful surprise. Today was a different story. It was just as windy as expected. There were also the usual anomalies regarding which lifts might run at Alpine Meadows and the northern annex.

As I peeled my eyes open and took a first look at the lift statuses for the day, it appeared that Alpine Meadows would essentially run everything but Sherwood and ABC, while the northern annex was only planning for First Venture and a carpet. We’ve seen that movie before and it never works out well. Still, we pushed the “I BELIEVE!” button and headed for the mountain.

As I enjoyed a Treats breakfast, the notifications started rolling in for wind holds and closures on our mobile app. A friendly employee or two gave the heads up that the reality would be just Hot Weasel today, with a very slim possibility of Roundhouse. I have played this game enough to know that is the reality of big storm days at Alpine Meadows. It beats a Meadow and Big Carpet day for sure!

The snow was dumping and the winds were cranking as we made a fashionably late arrival at the lift. I had no interest in waiting around out in the storm for some low angle pow on a single run with 100 other pow hounds. The winds were howling and visibility was near zero at times. We were happy to have four people on the chair, because more weight means less swinging. Each run we commented that this chair was going to close any minute due to the winds. After the third lap, we took a break to warm up, and got the notification before we made it to the locker room that TLC went on wind hold.

Those three runs were good, with 12-18 inches of new light snow. It was not powder bliss, as it was wind packed and skier packed. But escaping the loudness of the icy surfaces we have dealt with the last few days was blissful. Seeing the mountain rapidly getting plastered with snow again is a thing of beauty. For the first time this season, it looks like Hot Wheels Gully is finally filling in to the point where it could be opened sometime soon. One can only imagine how much better it is looking higher on the mountain.

The drive home to Truckee took 75 minutes today with a few whiteouts and slow traffic. We lost a driver’s side wiper blade as we pulled onto 89 from Alpine Meadows Road, requiring a quick stop to switch the passenger blade over. A big detour was required to avoid the icy hill near Cottonwood, where cars and trucks without chains caused chaos. Measuring the snowfall in my backyard, we are at 24 inches so far.

The Snownami Shall Continue

We are not done with this storm yet. The Winter Storm Warning for the Sierra was extended until Thursday night. A quick look at the models says there’s another 2-4 feet of snowfall before this storm is over. It’s certainly the mountain reset we needed. We just have to be patient about when we will get to ski more of this new snow. I am super appreciative of every mountain ops person that worked through the night and this morning, all so we could get just a few runs in today. That process will be continuing for several more days.

Looking at it graphically, the GIF below is the current GEFS run for pressure anomalies over the next 16 days.

You can see that the deep low pressure system hangs around possibly until Friday morning. We get a bit of a break on late Friday and Saturday. A new system starts to move in on Sunday, but doesn’t really get to the Sierra until later Monday or Tuesday. Yesterday there was some chatter of the possibility of a warm AR setting up in Tahoe before the cold part moves in. I do not see that sort of chatter today amongst weather dweebs. After the system moves through earlier next week, it looks like things quiet down after that.

Here’s the latest GEFS run for total snowfall through Friday:

And here’s the GEFS for total snowfall over the next 10 days:

So that’s a pretty significant storm next week, according to the models as of now. That would be a pretty amazing recovery.

YOU Are The Hazard!

Mr. Austin, my high school Driver’s Education teacher, would be rolling over in his grave. That would be quite a feat, as he would be like 115 years old by now! He was so clear to us new drivers – “Hazard lights are NEVER used while in motion. Hazard lights are there to let people know that you are stopped on the road or on the side of the road.” This always made perfect sense to me, even driving in Humboldt County fog during my college years.

Somehow, people driving with their hazard lights flashing while driving in the rain or snow has become more and more prevalent. I would estimate that today it was somewhere around 25% of drivers had them flashing – maybe due to peer pressure? So you want to be seen, I get it. Why are you driving with your hazard lights flashing, but without turning on your headlights? You know that in most vehicles, the daytime running lights do not turn on your tail lights, right?

Obviously this rant has been building for a while, but today it became more clear than ever. Remember that wiper blade that fell off as we turned on 89? We limped along, leaning over to look out the passenger side until we got to the turnout half way to Olympic Valley. As I pulled over, I flipped on my hazard lights so I could safely switch the passenger blade to the driver’s side. It’s a two minute operation. But it did not take long for me to realize that hazard lights were no help in keeping me safe and several cars seemed to want to pull in behind me, as if I were driving and providing a beacon for their safety. Fortunately I survived…today. Learn the rules people. End rant.

See you out there tomorrow, assuming the visibility is better 😁

UPDATE: At the moment, Palisades or Alpine Meadows has NOT updated any lift status messages for operations tomorrow, all lifts say CLOSED except for First Venture….that seems to be an omen….not a surprising omen.

FYI “Free” parking reservations for next weekend sold out in just a few minutes at noon…it’s going to be a zoo next weekend!