Finally, A Freeze

It seems like it’s been a minute since we had a good freeze at Alpine Meadows. While last night’s freeze wasn’t perfect, it significantly improved conditions, if you like spring skiing conditions. Finding success on the mountain today required a reasonable understanding about which aspects thaw first, perfecting your timing to be in the right place at the right time, and understanding that you could not just stay in one particular part of the mountain.

Honestly, those first few runs off of Summit were a challenge today. None of the off piste terrain was thawed at 9am. The groomed slopes were incredibly variable. Where the late shift had groomed the snow last, the result was mostly too soft. The snow on those main groomers almost falls into the “rotten snow” category. It’s easily pushed around, quickly forming moguls. In addition to the moguls, there were large death cookies due to the freeze after yesterdays rain.

If you skirted the “late groomed” zones, you instead had a very firm surface, which scraped down to an icy surface in higher traffic areas like Wolverine Bowl and Charity.

What skied best this morning, was Sunspot. It had been groomed yesterday, but few people skied it. That meant it was smooth but did not have cookies. Most people I asked said it was run of the day. I actually preferred Solar Flare just to skiers left. It took slightly longer to thaw, but it offered smooth corn turns with far less traffic than Sunspot. Later in the morning, Tower 19 also became very skiable. These off piste zones were awful the last week without a good freeze.

One often stated remark today was that the whole Sunspot complex was great, but then you had to suffer through moguls, large cookies or ice to get back to the Summit lift. It was one of those days where you dreamt about a poma lift near Sunspot or a little double chair from the top of Rock Garden to the top of the D Chutes.

Later in the day, it was Lakeview that offered the most consistent top to bottom runs of spring corn. I sampled all of the main runs off of Lakeview, except for Shooting Star. All offered very consistent corn turns with just a little bit of residual clumpiness. Actually my favorite run there was Scotty’s Beam, which was one hundred times better after a good freeze. Yes, the entry is very spicy. But then you had nice smooth corn turn all of the way down to Twilight Zone.

You Need To Think Realistically About How Long This Will Last

The snow is going fast in areas with a sunny exposure. We heard a lot of chainsaws in action over at Sherwood this afternoon, as tree cutting operations began. The mountain ops teams needs to do this snag removal while there is still snow on the ground to drag trees out with a snowcat. I would say that sound of the chainsaw is the death knell for Sherwood operations this season.

Lakeview and Scott are in trouble. All of the major groomed runs have a lot of brush, dirt spots, and rocks appearing. Coverage is quite thin and there’s not really any good options for snow farming. Also there’s a lot of places around where running water under the snow has now opened up holes in the snow. The hole below was at the bottom of Twilight Zone, near the intersection with Mountain View. This was one of many. There’s also a lot of this happening near the Scott Chair. Once these spots open up, they spread fast.

If I had to take a guess, without a major snowfall event, Scott and Lakeview will likely be done in the next week or two. With three lifts down, the ops staff will get trimmed back and reopening those areas gets more unlikely. It would be great to see Yellow open more often just to carry some of the load if we lose those other lifts.

I don’t like it, but this is the season we have. While it has not been an optimal season, it’s far better than what many other ski areas in the west have seen. My plan is to just keep skiing as long as the lifts are turning at Alpine Meadows, hopefully we get to at least Easter.

Storms? I Got Nothing

I’m not even posting any weather models today. There is a chance of a dust on crust event for Wednesday. There’s about a 60% chance of snow, with accumulations of 1-2 inches. That will melt by Thursday afternoon. Looking farther down the road, none of the models have anything more in the next 10 days. Only one model I looked at called for an additional 4-6 inches within the 16 day run.

The models can and do change at times. We look at “teleconnections” that can help us see a reason for a change in our weather. One I commonly mention is the PNA index. We are currently neutral, and all models show a negative trend over the coming 16 days. So far the storms have not seen this “green light”.

The other major teleconnection to look at is the Madden Julian Oscillation. That oscillation has been almost nonexistent this season, offering no real help in forecasting.

In the better news department, there is none of the R word in the forecast. This should allow for a more consistent freeze and thaw cycle, which will allow for more consistent grooming and better skiing off piste.

Skiing is fun. Do it while you can…