Top Five Things We Loved About Alpine Meadows This Year: Number Three

Let’s face it, the last three seasons have been nothing that ski areas like to brag about when it comes to snow totals. Either the snow gods are unhappy about something, or it’s just the law of averages catching up. So for the last couple of years, it’s been the snowmaking and grooming crews that have kept things bearable.

Looking at the past season in particular, only 18 inches of natural snowfall was on the ground by opening day. It then took another 8 weeks to get another significant snowfall, with several small storms leaving only an inch or two. Surely you can remember those early days in the season where you said you would rather clean out the garage than ski Dance Floor one more time. But the snowmaking team worked diligently, fighting temperatures that were too warm or too cold, a limited water supply and a snowmaking system that is no match for the capacity of some other resorts.

Yet, they made it happen. Slowly but surely, more terrain became available: Charity, Werners, Weasel and Ladies Slalom. It wasn’t until President’s Day weekend that we finally had a chance to seriously consider skiing and riding runs that were not covered by snowmaking. Hopefully you guys will not have to work so hard next year just to keep the mountain open!

The groomer team also played a big part in that success. It’s not just that they kept the groomed runs looking as good as they could with minimal coverage and high traffic levels. The Alpine Meadows grooming team became expert snow farmers this year. With so little natural snowfall this season, it was critical that every ounce of snow get put to it’s best use. That meant dragging snow out of meadows,ravines or even the parking lot to fill in groomed runs, build access roads and lift corrals and ramps. We saw incredible farming efforts made to build Rays Rut to provide access to Sherwood and the Return Road back to the front side. Similar efforts were made in the early season just to create an extensive network of cat tracks just to get skiers anywhere other than Alpine Bowl off of Summit.

That effort continued all season, with the grooming team scrambling to find snow wherever they could to keep as much of the mountain open as possible, for as long as possible. If not for their intensive efforts, our season would have ended much sooner, and we may have never seen the Sherwood side open this season. Hopefully, they can also catch a break next year, by spending their days just keeping the groomers smooth and building some quality park features.

In a year where many of us spent more time than ever on groomed terrain and manmade snow, we really appreciated the efforts of the snowmaking and grooming teams. Thanks!