Another foot of snow on top of Friday’s 20″ and conditions at Alpine are coming along nicely. The base is filling in, the skiing was excellent, and the lift lines non-existent.
This blog post was written by Claire Weiss.
Yesterday was rainy around Tahoe as the storm system that moved through the Sierra on Saturday appeared to be warm, with almost 40ºF at the Alpine base. The temperature dropped below 30ºF after midnight, and the wintry mix changed to snow. It snowed through the night, and the snow is expected to continue into early next week!
As usual, we checked the Mountain Operations blog – they planned to spin 11 lifts at Palisades, including Siberia and Shirley, and five at Alpine. But at 8 am, the upper mountain lifts at Palisades were put on hold with a delayed opening. This usually results in a considerable crowd descending on Alpine.
Knowing mornings are always busy on powder days, especially on weekends, and with limited terrain at Palisades, we decided to skip the first few hours to escape the crowds and to come later in the day.
Surprisingly the parking lot was not full, and we easily found a spot.
The great news is that Subway is now open for the season, so you no longer have to walk in your ski boots across the parking lot.
It was snowing and windy when we came. Skiing can be tricky during zero visibility days – flat light on the slope and blizzards make it harder to ski on uneven terrain and even on perfectly groomed runs. But skiing next to the tree line on the side of the slope helps a lot.
There were no lines on either lift, so we hopped on Roundhouse and ventured to the Yellow trail first. The snow was excellent, with a few bumps in the middle of the run. We only heard the scratchy sound a couple of times – probably refrozen snow from yesterday’s rain.
The Charity was in perfect shape; shielded from the wind it skied very smoothly. Where it merges with Werner’s schuss was quite bumpy as there is a lot of traffic.
After a few laps on the Charity and the Dance floor, we passed by the Alpine Bowl chair to check the Weasel run. The wind was blowing upwards from ABC chair, immediately covering ski tracks. It was nice and soft.
The last snowfall did a great job building a solid base of dense snow covering the rocks. Despite Saturday’s rain, the runs felt more like packed powder than “dust on crust,” and every corner of the resort was skiing smoothly.
Continued snow showers are in the forecast for tomorrow, with an additional 5-10 inches. Wear warm and have fun on the slopes tomorrow. The roads are very slippery – check the road info before venturing into the resort!
