It was the best of times, it was (not) the worst of times.
We had our choice between winter and spring turns throughout most of the day at Alpine under blue skies and mild temperatures.
The first chair ride up Summit loaded almost 10 minutes before 9 AM and we finished by skiing Scott chute after 4 PM.
The groomers were good all day today, especially off of the Summit chair. The Alpine Bowl, D8, and Wolverine Bowl groomers were just about as good as it gets for groomer skiing; cold, smooth, and grippy perfection, even by mid-day.
By 11:30, we’d made our way over to Sherwood, and just as expected, there were slush bumps of all variations. The bumps right under the Sherwood chair line were by far the deepest bumps, but we found some nice smooth, corny turns further over on the South Face.
By 2pm, we still managed to find some very cold wintery snow in the Deer Camp area and lapped that a couple of times.
To wrap up the day, we finished with Lakeview and Scott laps, which had been marinating in the afternoon sun. I love the opposing aspects that these slopes have compared to the rest of the mountain which makes them perfect runs to finish out a sunny day. The Lakeview groomers were all soft hero snow and Scott chute finally opened around 3pm for some good steep corny bumps to finish out the day.
The best part of the day may have been the crowds. There were none in sight. I don’t think we ever saw a full lift maze all day. It seems like the blackout weekend really helped us out and we’re stoked for more of the same tomorrow! What a great start to a busy week to come with ski and skate week.
