That heat we have been talking about is really starting to kick in. It’s going to take a toll on our already meager snow pack. That said, there was still good and very good spring skiing conditions out there this morning. It did mean that I ended my day about 45 minutes earlier than yesterday as the icky stickies arrived. Since it was a bit less crowded than yesterday, I did get in a few more Summit laps today, so I actually exceeded my vert skied yesterday.
As I have been saying, it helps to know the mountain and understand where the sun starts the day, and where it will progress. In the morning hours we found great runs on Sunspot, Tower 19 and Wolverine Bowl. Honestly, I only stopped skiing at Summit as the line got to be about 90 seconds, versus “ski on” at Roundhouse. Then there was the runout to Summit, where everything from Sandy’s Corner to the Summit lift was like skiing in beach sand.
Off of Roundhouse, everything in the Yellow zone continues to deliver. That said, the rocks are beginning to appear at an exponential rate. You need to have clear focus and maybe rock skis to make the best of the off piste zones. We also did a complete explorations of lines off of Gunners, allowing for short hikes and traverses to break up the morning. The east facing slopes like Tiegel Chutes were best in the morning, and the West Face does nicely in the afternoon. I like how the West Face drops you nearly at the Roundhouse lift, avoiding all of the messy runouts and the Flats De Tiegel.
With the heat, we have lost about 10% of the snowpack at the bottom of the mountain in the last week. That rate of melt is likely to increase over the next 10 days. We did note that they farmed some snow to fill in the base area and bring the snow back to the level of the Sun Deck. The Summit loading platform is now smaller.
Andy mentioned yesterday that it was the last day for Kangaroo and Subway. It looks like Meadow will probably be the next casualty, with things looking quite brown at the top of the lift. I was surprised to see Yellow operating today, but I did see people taking advantage of the lift, skipping the slow and sticky flats to the base area.
Here’s a look at the temperatures for Alpine Meadows…at the 8000 foot elevation…for the upcoming week:
Daniel Swain Phd of WeatherWest.com points out that this is no ordinary ridging we are dealing with this week. He notes it’s the strongest ridge ever recorded within the months of November to March. No wonder it feels like May!
The models are back to really not showing any reasonable amount of snowfall over the next 16 days. The GIF below shows that the ridge hangs in for a good 10 days, and then gradually breaks down. There is no sign of a strong low developing yet. It’s extremely unlikely that many ski areas, other than those at the highest elevations in the West are going to be able to bounce back after this heat wave.
My advice to you is to get out there and get it while you can. The skiing and riding is still fun, as long as you set reasonable expectations for what it is. We are still in better shape than we were 6 years ago, when a pandemic brought our season to a halt on March 14th.
Ski you out there tomorrow. I’ll be in green.
And now that song is stuck in my head the rest of the day!
I remember the shutdown for the Pandemic well.
The next day a new friend I met a week earlier and I were going to ski Sugar Bowl.
I lost track of him. I forfeited 3 free Sugar bowl tickets. They changed passes after that.
The Cleveland branch of the Fagowees ski club (the drinking club with a skiing problem)
Was about to fly to Tahoe for a week ski trip. I had been in the DC branch. I texted the trip leader
And several others at 10 pm PST to say don’t get on the airplane. Must have a flight leaving at 5 am as none of them got my message. They landed in Reno and frantically spent that day seeing what ski areas were open (none) They stated one night and the flew home. A bust.
Mark loved your T shirt honoring RAISIN
❤️
nice Skis Mark 😎
Good eye!