| May,20 2005 Alpine Meadows Ski Report |
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| Written by Ryan Wexler | |
| Friday, 20 May 2005 | |
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Something of note happened today - great ski conditions in the RAIN! The rain seemed to come to a dead halt last night and seeing the sun shining this morning in truckee was refreshing. However, when I got to the hill it was still bogged in and lightly raining. The storm was hanging out on the crest and wouldn't leave. Heavy winds persisted, and only Roundhouse was running. The winds appeared to be blowing south east and they had the chairs off the top summit to guard from the wind. The gusts are blowing above 60mph on the summit, which was a mild relief compared to the 90mph winds earlier in the week. This was the 5th straight day of rain on the hill, very out of the ordinary for tahoe. The skiing however was excellent. It was a consistent surface on and off the groomers, you almost couldn't tell groomer snow from off-piste. It was a spongey like spring corn surface. The surface was pretty smooth with th exception of 1" deep sun cups from the rain. Luckily the rain has subsided because those baby sun cups were on the verge of growing up. Because of the gusting winds all manner of pine needles, pitch, dirt and other random debris is strewn out on the snow giving it a dirty appearance. However, once skied that top layer instantly scrapes away to reveal a bright white surface that is about the best quality corn surface you could imagine. This afternoon I expect the sun to come out and bake down the surface a tad and when we combine that with the expected hard freeze tonight it should yield some incredible spring conditions for the weekend. By the way for all you park rats, the park is looking prime. Although it was closed today, the groomers were working on it all morning and it should go off this weekend. Although visibility was still poor I was able to survey the effects of the rain a lot better. It certainly took a toll on our snow base. There are now a couple dirt spots showing and I would expect after one day of skiing a whole slew of new rocks to be revealed. The top proper entrance of Scott Chute appears to be burnt out. However the chute looked good and the side door was open. There is still an absurd amount of snow over there. For instance, Easter chute is still skiable, Promised Land looks great and even M2 is still skiable without any serious billy goating. Of course, we would need Alpine to open Scott Chair to access that stuff without hiking. The skiing below buttress is starting to look particularly thin, but then suprisingly Bernie's Chute is still skiable. Even after all this rain(reportely we have had more precipitation this May then any may on the records), it still seems like Alpine could stay open right through june maybe even until mid july without problem. |
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