A Winter Solstice Ski Report

It’s been a week since we filed any ski reports. We’re happy to report that conditions are holding up quite well at Alpine Meadows. If you give yourself a moment to just forget about the best days you have ever skied, you realize that things could be so much worse.

One year ago, a series of winter storms were just getting going, which led to some of the best ski days at Alpine Meadows ever. Yeah it was awesome for sure. But two years ago, we were singing the WROD blues. There was nothing open at the beginning of the holiday period except for Dance Floor and Rock Garden. Off piste skiing was just about non-existent.

This year we have had somewhere around 42 inches of snowfall, and cold temperatures have managed to keep most of that snow around. There’s quite a bit of off piste terrain available at Alpine Meadows for a year where there has been only about 50% of natural snowfall.

The lift schedule has not changed at Alpine yet – we’re still holding at Summit, Roundhouse, Kangaroo, Meadow and the Big Carpet. There’s some rumors about Hot Wheels being ready soon. We caught several employees talking about Weasel opening, hopefully by tomorrow. But it’s unclear if that included just Weasel run, or the Hot Wheels Chair.

The groomed terrain was also just about the same as last weekend. They’re awesome in the morning but suffering from too much traffic in one place. The steeper sections of Alpine Bowl and Dance Floor are prone to icy plates and rock exposure by lunch. Hopefully, new groomer terrain will take a lot of the pressure off these runs soon.

The off piste terrain continues to hold up well too. The more heavily travelled routes are beginning to show larger moguls and more exposed rocks. The thing is, there’s plenty of routes that are just fine. We spent a lot of time taking creative sneaker lines and traversing to places that seemed interesting and we were rewarded with some very nice mid-winter conditions. At many points today, I forgot that we apparently are now in drought mode.

The best tip we can give at Alpine this week is to venture away from the groomers. There continues to be too many people, going too many different speeds, and an assortment of people that probably need to be on easier terrain. There’s also a lot of kids teams out there. Once again, the teams from Squaw Valley seemed to outnumber the teams from Alpine Meadows. Isn’t their mountain like a zillion times bigger than Alpine?

One of the keys to happiness this holiday is to be skiing and riding on equipment that you don’t care about much. I picked up a small coreshot today near Terry’s Return, but the overall snow conditions are worth risking the damage.. It’s not a time to be skiing and riding on your newest best gear. We stopped by the Truckee Sports Exchange today, where store owner Rob Cavallo was happy to show us a huge selection of used gear available. This is the season that it’s a good idea to put two sets if skis under the tree – a nice new pair for later use, and the nice broken in pair that you won’t mind running into the ground while Mother Nature gets her high pressure and low pressure systems in balance. With no significant storm systems in the works before January, you may as well get out and enjoy what is there.

Things to be thankful for this holiday season:

• Virtually no traffic on the highways

• Don’t have to worry about tire chains or 4WD

• Going anywhere takes less time

• Parking is easy and close

• No lift lines to speak of

• Alpine Meadows has done a good job of opening as much terrain as possible

• There could be even less snow

So get on out to Alpine Meadows and put on your skis or board. It’s far better than staying home or going to the mall.  See ya out there.

Coverage is far better than December 2011.

Charity is getting bumpy.

Owner Rob Cavallo shows off just a small part of a large collection of used skis available at the Truckee Sports Exchange.

Patrollers were diligently performing their trail crew duties today. When it’s clear that snow will not cover the willows, it’s time to trim said willows.