Despite the fact that some of us whine and cry when Alpine Meadows does not open early, it sure makes for a nice opening weekend when there is so much available terrain on opening weekend. If you remember last year, Alpine Meadows opened with only Dance Floor and Werner’s Schuss open. It took another couple of weeks before we had Charity, Loop Road and Hot Wheels. It wasn’t until mid-January that you could even begin to ski off piste.
As Andy reported yesterday, there is quite a bit of terrain open at Alpine. There’s not many years where you can say you skied Upper Beaver or Estelle from day one. There were also a number of groomers available that gave you plenty of chances to get some variety today. The quality & amount of grooming today was outstanding.
Sure, the rain cycle we just went through has led to some pretty icy conditions off piste. Skiing off piste just required that you follow the sun and avoid north facing slopes. We found fun spring snow today in Wolverine Bowl, Secret Spot, Beaver Bowl and the upper reaches of Yellow. Conditions can be quite firm in north facing areas. A friend took a slide for life on Lower Saddle yesterday and traffic was non-existent in Palisades today. Early morning traverses toward Lower Beaver tended toward terrifying in shady spots. The rain event has definitely set up a bomber base that has pretty much eliminated worries of hitting rocks on the upper mountain.
Things did get somewhat crowded at peak periods today, causing things to get scraped off at busy intersections and choke points. The steep lower segments of both Charity and Dance Floor got slick. The narrow section of Werners near Charity also became a blend of grey ice and sugary snow that saw a lot of spills.
Overall – Alpine has a lot to offer solid intermediate through expert skiers this week. The terrain available for beginners and low intermediates is limited without Hot Wheels operational. Due to the limited pathways back to Roundhouse and Summit, traffic on the flat runouts back to the lift is generally chaotic and high speed. Families with young kids may find Squaw Valley to be a better option, with its diverse selection of beginner and intermediate terrain on the upper mountain.
Tomorrow’s forecast is calling for colder and windier…likely to limit the off piste experience tomorrow. Hope that is wrong…
BA’s weather forecast at TahoeWeatherDiscussion.com suddenly became very positive for the first time in awhile today. A cutoff low should arrive as early as next Wednesday, with another small storm next weekend. There’s currently maybe 6 inches of snow Wednesday and possibly double that for next weekend. Beginning around the 18th, things begin to look very good, with both cold and moisture coming at the same time for an extended period. There’s a lot of details there to check out. We sure hope that is right…