Now you can’t just blame us here at Unofficial Alpine for today’s crowds! Plenty of people saw our post, a similar post over at Snowbrains.com, or posts on Facebook yesterday that made your brain shout “Let’s go skiing!” In fact, Valleygirl’s photo’s were enough to cut our time in the Bay Area short, and make us head for home late last night. Was it worth the trip? Yes, it was.
It was tough to tell exactly how much new snow fell since the lifts closed yesterday. It didn’t really matter though as it was pretty easy to find lines that were never even skied yesterday. What did matter was picking out the line that was going to be most memorable, knowing that the window of great skiing and riding would be short. The Death Star overhead was quickly cooking the snow. It’s bound to happen when you have a bluebird powder day in late April.
We found great lines at Dead Tree for the first two laps, after which time you needed to seek out north facing slopes with some trees for shade. North Peril was an obvious choice, as was Pygmy Forest, Palisades, Keyhole, High Yellow and Deer Camp. As the noon hour arrived, these areas also got pretty heavy. If you were willing to ski fast with few turns, that heavier snow was still quite fun.
The line at Summit today was pretty ridiculous. We heard plenty of people talking about the true meaning of KSL, as in Keep Standing in Line, today. For the first two hours, the line extended well beyond the RFID gates and fanned out into a huge pile of people aiming for the 6 gates. We managed to navigate the lines reasonably quickly and did not let it wreck our day. There’s definitely some proactive strategies that will get you through those lines more quickly, without cheating or cutting. We shall not be sharing those tips here, but I will point out that the the same strategies work in nearly every lift line at every ski hill I have visited. By 11 am the line was “normal” and by noon, it was completely gone.
Should Roundhouse have run today? Absolutely yes. It’s totally understandable that other new terrain was not opened. But Roundhouse was reportedly prepped and ready to run yesterday, in case Summit did not open. This big storm cycle appeared in the forecasts about 10 days ago, and with all of the new snow that arrived over the week, today’s crowds were very predictable. It would not have taken much more effort to prep and run it today. There were plenty of people that would have gladly taken that instead of standing in line at Summit. We talked to a number of people today that were just looking for the easiest way down from Summit. We can all sleep better tonight knowing that KSL investors earned an extra penny each today.
The lengthened day was a nice bonus for the weekend. Cooler temperatures this afternoon meant that skiing until 3:30 was a good option for the few that chose to stick around. After that late night rally back to Tahoe last night, I found an afternoon nap session was in my future.
Tomorrow looks interesting. There’s an inch or two of new snow in the forecast and most of the day may be cloudy. If the mountain gets more than a cursory grooming tonight, it could be a ripping day.
Not opening Roundhouse? Not nuff employees, eh?
Golly, look at the line.
Awesome day despite the lines. At least we were still open. You could be holding a NS or SB pass in your hands.
…or be at the beach like UA’s weather reporter 🙂
He’s got so little faith I think I’ll appoint Valley Girl as High Priestess. Besides, Mark’s knobbly knees aren’t becoming of a priestess
These ski boots are made for walking!