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

It was a “low tide” season for snow at Alpine Meadows this year. Overall, we received less than half of our average snowfall, It might make you think that the snow safety crew, better known as the Alpine Meadows Professional Ski Patrol and volunteer National Ski Patrol, would have had an easy year. But we know that is not the case. We wanted to appreciate the extraordinary efforts of Patrol in this post.

• Alpine Meadows patrollers spent more time than ever playing speed cop this season. A long dry spell during the holiday period kept most everyone confined to a few WROD groomers, leading to fast speeds, congestion and more baskets headed to First Aid. It’s a thankless part of the job, especially for the patroller that ended up with a broken bone due to a speeding skier this season.

• Patrollers spent more time pushing the boundaries out as far as possible. In an effort to control congestion, patrollers did every thing they could to get terrain open, even with minimal coverage. That meant long days of trimming alders, tying rope lines, and marking obstacles. It also meant that more injuries were possible as skiers and riders navigated between trees, rocks and logs.

• We had several long bouts of dry weather last season that resulted in icy conditions and faceted snow surfaces. They were often followed by dumps of wet and heavy snow that did not bond with the older surface well. So although there was not as much snow, the avalanche danger was very significant during each storm event this year. This frequently caused delays in opening lifts that were unpopular, at least to the uneducated. We appreciate that patrollers took the time to make sure things were really good to go before opening terrain.

• Patrollers also had to double up on some openings and closings. Both Scott and Sherwood opened and closed twice this season. Signs, markers and rope lines were all removed, only to return again a couple of weeks later when the snow returned.

• As the season wound down, terrain was left open as long as possible. It would have been far easier to close Sherwood, Scott and Lakeview much earlier. Just about any other mountain would have closed them as soon as obstacles appeared. This season, patrollers just brought out more and more bamboo stakes, and kept terrain open until it became downhill hiking instead of skiing. Finding that last sneaker line back to the lift was a game we learned to love this season, right down to closing day.

Thanks again to all patrollers at Alpine Meadows. We really appreciate everything you did to keep the mountain safe and keep terrain open last season. We hope you have an easier season next year.

Yellow…not quite ready for a groomer, but open for business.

Patrollers trimming alder on Werners last season.

Tiegel Chutes adventure lines…open for business.

We could almost get back to Sherwood…open for business.

Valleygirl’s favorite beach book.