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May,18 2005 Alpine Meadows Ski Report |
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Skiing Scene
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Written by Ryan Wexler
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Wednesday, 18 May 2005 |
When I woke up this morning the early morning recording on the snow
phone reported "inclement weather" and scheduled operation of
roundhouse, but it had been a couple days of this and I wanted to go
see what the conditions were like, so I drove up.
As I was driving up Alpine Meadows road it was raining harder and
harder. It was the kind of conditions where you expected tthe
rain to magically turn into snow after each bend. However, that
was not the case. Suprisingly, they actually had summit chair
running, the chairs actually had a full 1/3" of ice on them. When
I reached the top it was still raining. There were light winds
with the occassional gust. Visibility was horrendous. Upper
mountain was icy even by vermont standards. In fact, it shocks me
that summit was even open, when considering the poor visibility and icy
conditions it was certainly dangerous. When I reached Terry's
Return the snow changed from ice to a firm base with a thin layer of
glop. It was actually, quite skiable, you could really put an
edge in it and it wasn't to deep. I imagine that if it cleared up
the skiing would be pretty good. I nevertheless promptly left.
When I was up there I tried to survey the mountain as best I
could. It appeared as if the rain really helped settled the snow
down and smoothed the mountain out pretty good. I think after one
day of baking the mountain will be smooth as can be and the spring
skiing will be excellant once this weather clears up. Lets hope
for some warm days and cold nights to close out the lift access season
with the best corn skiing possible.
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