We’re currently in the midst of what has become our worst drought period in California during our lifetimes. Depending on which data you look at, snowfall currently stands at only between 5 and 15% of normal for mid-January. It’s just about as bad as it can get, yet through just three snow fall events this season and a whole lot of snow making, we’re still skiing top to bottom at Alpine Meadows, with terrain continuing to expand. It’s amazing work by the Alpine Meadows crew!
Skiing continued to be quite acceptable today. Here’s a quick terrain summary:
• Alpine Bowl, Rock Garden & Charity continue to have surprisingly good coverage but the snow is tired. Conditions are great early in the morning, with icy patches and slough piles being the norm by lunch.
• Werner’s and Charity were groomed this week, but it seems as if they were groomed by a Zamboni. Conditions on both runs were quite firm as if they had let snow guns run a bit too long when it got warm. It does keep the rocks from popping up!
• Weasel has become much wider this week, with the skier’s right side now being groomed.
• The mini-park at Sandy’s Corner has been removed to handle increased traffic from Charity and Werner’s. In trade, the mini-park at Tiegel has more than doubled in size. It includes a lot of jib features but no jumps yet.
• Off piste conditions are deteriorating rapidly again. We spent a lot of time playing on lower Sunspot and Yellow today. It got us away from crowds – but the skis took a beating. We also did a few runs to Palisades and Deer Camp. Both of those zones have some excellent winter snow – as long as you’re up for challenging traverses to get there.
There’s no change expected for this weekend. BA continued today to provide hope for a long term pattern change, He had some very encouraging images of an actual trough forming off the coast the first week of February. This is far better than the undercutting jet that looked more likely the last couple of days. We spent a lot of time reflecting on BA’s theme from yesterday: Most of the driest seasonal starts in California have been followed by wet February & March months. Hopefully it happens soon…or it will be time for me to start finding another set of rock skis.
If skiing is this reasonable with only 10% of normal snowfall – it’s a big reminder of how awesome Alpine Meadows is with 100% normal snowfall. Maybe some year soon…..
I skied Wed/Thur/Fri last week and it was surprisingly good! Yes, they had Charity and Werner’s groomed and Alpine Bowl was at full width. The conditions are best in the morning and slowly deteriorate by afternoon. I also took some chances on D8, Peril Ridge and Deer Camp and the snow was chalky, light and refreshing but getting to these runs are brutal. Despite the low snow toll, making turns is still pretty damn fun!