Jan 26th: Chalky Wintery Groomers and Slushy Springtime Off-Piste

snowboarder in powder
snowboarder in powder

The sun was out, and the winds were mellow, making for some fun variable conditions all around the mountain today at Alpine. From the slushy off-piste riding on Scott to the fast groomers and windbuff on Summit to the features in the Tiegle Park, the conditions were superb today. 

This report was written by Ryan Williams.

Scott  

For today’s afternoon shred, we headed to Scott Chair. The snow looked like it had been getting baked for the past few hours, making the conditions a bit spring-like. It was time to change it and rip some soft off-piste snow. Promised Land and Scott Chute were holding some of this style of snow, and it was game on. 

Scott.

It was wild to ride spring-like conditions in this zone for this time of the year, especially for how well the terrain is filled in. The chutes and cliffs in this zone were excellent today. The take-offs and landings were soft and buttery, with smooth runouts. In the lower tree sections, the snow in the shade was more wintery, chalky, and a bit harder. The laps here in the afternoon were fantastic with the warm temps and excellent snow. 

Scott Chute.

Summit 

The lift opened around 1:30pm today when the winds mellowed down up top. It was cool to rip fresh groomers and new windpack in the afternoon in this zone. The groomer in Alpine bowl was pretty fun and fast, while the windpack in between had some funky texture, but still fun to blast some hacks in the soft wintery snow. 

Summit from Scott Chair – Alpine Bowl to Estelle Bowl.

After a few laps in Alpine bowl, we ventured to Wolverine bowl to hunt for windbuff and enjoy the golden hour lighting. We found some fun-loaded spots with some great snow off-piste, and the groomer top to bottom was wild to ride after all the weeks of pow days in this zone. The groomer was super fun – fast, smooth, and chalky. 

The recent east wind created some wind ridges in the terrain around this zone. Some of the loaded spots are rippable and windbuff, and some of the spots are hard-packed out. Finding some tremendous loaded pockets to get wintery turns and slashes was fun.

Upper Summit.
Lower Summit.
Summit.
Yellow.

Tiegle Park

The Park Crew built out some excellent features in the Tiegle Terrain Park. From beginner to intermediate. For beginners: a few small tabletop jumps, ride-on tubes, and boxes. For intermediate: rail and box line, wallride, cannon rail, and mini step-down jump. It’s nice to have all these features in this small zone with its mellow pitch – great for learning and progressing. 

Tiegle Terrain Park.
Tiegle Terrain Park.
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