There was so much black and blue around, I thought I had accidentally wandered to the other side of the ridge. Nope, I was wrong. It was super crowded today. The conditions were good for about 2.5 laps. We left at 11:00. That’s all! 🙂
There was so much black and blue around, I thought I had accidentally wandered to the other side of the ridge. Nope, I was wrong. It was super crowded today. The conditions were good for about 2.5 laps. We left at 11:00. That’s all! 🙂
I feel sad for all the tourists with nothing to do.
KSL seems completely content on ruining the Alpine Meadows experience for skiers.
There were way to many Squaw teams on the hill the past few days including today. Some of the Squaw team coaches have created dangerous conditions with large groups of junior skiers skiing in in packs, covering the entire slope. On Saturday, I saw one Squaw team group cut-off or knock per 3 skiers on Rock Garden in a single run. The coach was so far ahead of the group, he had no idea what was going on behind him. Today, I was far left on Dance Floor about to head to the Summit Chair and a couple Squaw team skiers who had been on the far right of the run took a 90 degree left turn across the slope to try to get to the terrain park causing me to make an extraordinary effort to avoid them. After avoiding the collision, I noticed the Squaw team coach waiting for his group. While the coach probably looked uphill to see that he had a clear line, he led his team in front of other skiers and created the conditions for a collision.
Using Kangaroo for the race teams is understandable. Kangaroo offers a contained space where those athletes and coaches can use a dedicated space that allows for efficiency, safety, and convenience of the teams and the other mountain patrons. That Squaw and Alpine teams share that run and lift is understandable when there is limited terrain available at both mountains. Sending so many of the Squaw non-race teams to Alpine overloads the mountain with groups who create unneeded and unwanted congestion on the slopes.
Squaw is a great ski mountain. I would buy a daily pass and ski there a couple times each year . However, I purchased my season pass at Alpine Meadows. Alpine had its own culture and environment. Since the merger (acquisition), there has been no meaningful, visible investment in Alpine Meadows. This year there is some new signage for different runs and safety bars were installed on the lifts that formerly did not have them. Other than that, the changes since KSL came to town include higher ticket prices, sharp increase in ski team rates, departure of long-time employees, shorter seasons, a mile long terrain park (that thankfully was retired), and the bussing of many of the Squaw teams to the Alpine side of the mountain.
I was hopeful that Squaw and Alpine would both become even better with KSL. Unfortunately, that has not happened and I am losing hope that it ever will. I am interested if others have different perspectives.
Agree with these observations. Sadly I could see these problems several weeks ago and suggested here that Ski Patrol needed to be out on the slopes doing skier safety and control the anarchy on the slopes. I would argue that Alpine’s mountain manager has failed his duty and is not providing a safe environment for the general public. Ski patrol should be set loose on any coach (Alpine or Squaw) to remind any offending coach not providing guidance to their charges about how to interact in the crowded conditions. If it was me, if said coach was a repeat offender of having out of control teams, HR should be notified that this coach is too irresponsible and should be terminated. Do we need the general public to be placed in harm’s way by some inept coaching? Ski patrol needs to be allowed to be on the slopes, and not in their plywood shacks, controlling some of the out of control snow activities. Alas, we have management at Alpine that places snow safety low in their priority list. The terrain park fiasco of last year is a classic example for instance. Be safe out there as no one really is looking out for our safety these days. Pray for snow!
There’s a couple of points I am going to take issue with.
• Yes, the local mountain management should be taking control of the slope safety situation. The local mountain manager should let KSL know that Alpine Meadows does not have the capacity to absorb extra teams and traffic from Squaw Valley. It would be easy to limit the teams coming from Squaw. It would also be easy to limit the number os shuttles arriving from Squaw to 3 per hour. When we left today, there was one shuttle just arriving and two more coming up the road from Squaw. A friend that left just before us said they also saw three. Setting a limit on the number of shuttles would naturally control traffic.
• There are definitely a few bad apples when it comes to coaches. There are also many good coaches. Many of those coaches are trying very hard during a difficult time to keep kids safely busy. Other coaches are not. Some of us have seen the same behaviors over and over. Overall, many of us seem to agree that Alpine does a better job training coaches because they have far fewer coaches to train.
• Pinning blame on Ski Patrol is definitely unwarranted. Nobody is in a shack. They are busy hauling sleds and dealing with hazards. It was a poor management decision to make them also function as a trail crew. It is noteworthy that there have been no speed control at tight spots this season. Clearly speed control is needed this week at Sandy’s Corner, Lower Rock Garden and at the steep break over on Weasel. Given the high traffic on Dance floor, speed control is needed at the break over there as well.
Video them on your camera phone or go-pro and let it go viral on youtube.
Collect enough vids for a mini series and then sell the tv rights to America’s Funniest Home Vidoes or the local tv news.
The resorts do not want to scare moms or anger politicians like Monning – who want injury stats on the resort website – by seeing videos.
Dear Skiers and Riders,
Mea Culpa! For the kids we hired circus acts ….. but the clowns escaped in managers’ uniforms!
If you see any suspicious managers acting like Klowns, we have the Keystone Kops’ swat team on standb .
We are terribly sorry. Normally we lock our managers away in the dark to keep you safe on the slopes.
Yours,
Larry Curly & Mo
Appreciate the feedback. Must admit I have a hard time seeing Alpine’s Mountain Manager picking up the phone and calling his KSL Overlords and actually telling them to stop sending over the ski teams to Alpine. Or slowing down the shuttles. He hasn’t shown that type of back bone yet. We both agree the bad apples that are coaches need to be reigned in. Frankly the situation is out of control. And finally, I might have been harsh on the ski patrol folks. Talked to them numerous times over the years and their hands are tied by the inept management presently running Alpine. I agree with your assessment that speed control features need to be installed. But they also need to be out there doing skier safety. Station a couple at the bottom of Sandy’s Corner for speed control. Remember the old plywood life size figures from a few years ago? Bottom line, ski patrol needs to be proactive and prevent accidents instead of the present reactive process they are stuck in. And as I said, I agree they are not being used properly by Management at Alpine. All these problems will quickly vanish once we get snow and more of the mountain can get opened…
I knew you could tone it down Brian. I appreciate the tone of your initial post though. I was there when I left the mountain yesterday…my wife said I was somewhat of a monster.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the updates. Yeah, its pretty bad. We were planning to be up for 2 weeks and came back to the Bay Area after a week.
Keep up the good work,
Bill
Signs and safety bars, yes. But you forgot to mention the 1.4 million? they spent repaving 1/6th (generous estimate) of the alpine meadows parking lot. I know pavement is expensive but I’m still trying to understand where that money actually went. What great improvements they have invested in for Alpine Meadows!
Patrols work to promote ski safety, enforce area policies (where applicable), and help injured skiers when necessary. Ski patrollers also work to set up the mountain before it opens by conducting trail checks, providing avalanche control work, and setting up necessary equipment in preparation for the day. At the end of the day they also conduct a sweep clearing the mountain for off-hours…..Wikipedia.
KSL listen up! Trail crew is not ski patrol and vise versa. We love our Alpine patrol and their dogs! Let them do what they are good at………….patrol our mountain!
Free Alpine!
Most mountains use the National Ski Patrol to be the speed police. They are volunteers who are not on the payroll, so they don’t affect the budget of the Pro Patrol, and are very eager to stand in that bright red jacket near the SLOW zone, wave their poles, and occasionally yell out “Slow Down!” Just their presence on the trail puts one on a speed check!
Let’s give all Patrol a big Shout Out! and someone buy them lunch, they don’t make what they’re worth!