Today’s Overview: February 3, 2017
Today we experienced very high winds at both mountains. Wind gusts were over 100mph at some points on the ridgeline at Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, which impacted our operations. High gusts continued in the afternoon – the Funitel was seeing 80mph winds! Some lifts went on hold at Squaw Valley, but we were able to open a few back up once winds subsided. Alpine Meadows had a very limited operation, but was able to open Hot Wheels around 1:35pm.
“Weather reports have been all over the place. Snow levels have been up and down, but they’re still saying we could see a foot up high tonight” – Jimmy King, Mountain Manager at Squaw Valley
STORMY WEATHER CONTINUES
Update from National Weather Service @ 3:15pm
“Bands of showers and gusty winds will continue through tonight, with locally heavy snow producing travel disruptions in the Sierra. Lighter snow showers remain possible Saturday. Then after a brief break on Sunday, more storm systems are likely from Sunday night through much of next week, bringing periods of possibly heavy mountain snow, valley rain and gusty winds.”
Tomorrow’s Operations Outlook, February 4, 2017
“We will be wind affected, no question.” – Jimmy King, Mountain Manager at Squaw Valley. We expect to have limited operations on our upper mountain (if any at all) and will be aiming for a 9am opening of lower mountain at Squaw Valley. However, if our teams have to “trudge” this could greatly impact a timely opening. When we use the term “trudge” it’s essentially exactly how it sounds – navigating through heavy/wet snow. Normally, our patrollers can traverse and stay high on their routes, but with deep and heavy snow this can cause some teams to have to “trudge” through certain sections of the mountain, which could slow down our teams transportation. Nonetheless, we will be bringing full crews to get as much as terrain open as weather & conditions allow.
Alpine Meadows is expecting a similar scenario as far as winds and “trudging” go, but full teams will show up and be ready to open terrain so long as weather and conditions permit.
Projected Scheduled Lifts
Every evening at 4pm, our Dispatch Teams publish their “schedule” for the following days operations on our website and app. This is our operations team best guess of what we will be able to operate based on weather forecasts, avalanche forecasts, terrain accessibility and so much more. We encourage you to review this projection and keep in mind on dynamic storm days, these projections from the night before, could change in the morning and throughout the day based on terrain and lift assessments from patrollers, groomers and lift mechanics out on the field. It is always best to check the app or website for real-time information as this is updated by our Dispatch Teams who are in direct communication with the operation folks on the mountain.
