Alpine Meadows
Saturday 20 January 2001

Weather

Conditions

The Story of the Day

Why Alpine? The last experience at Northstar was not what I expected. Close-in parking is now very expensive and ski rental was a nightmare. The last experience at Alpine was much better. Close-in parking was free and ski rental very easy.

I got to Alpine early and my first shock was the introduction of a $10 fee for close-in parking. The next was a wait for the ski rental shop to open (late) at about 8:05. Breakfast was good though.

I started to ski at about twenty to nine and as has become a habit at Alpine, took a couple of cruises off Roundhouse to warm up. The first run down Red-Green trail gave me an idea of what to expect for the day. The temperature overnight was pretty cold and the run, groomed the previous night, was frozen hard. The second run was a little better. The upper section (Rock Garden) was beginning to soften and Red Trail had at least been groomed in the morning, leaving some serious lumps of ice getting kicked up.

The run down from the Summit down the centre of Alpine Bowl was getting a bit better and the run from Alpine Bowl lift round Terry's Return was also good. Yellow Trail was still very hard and mogulled, not much fun at all.

I decide to go over to Sherwood Lift where the sun, beating directly down on the slope, should have softened the snow nicely. This meant a ride up Scott and a traverse across towards the Sherwood area. Winter Road is marked blue on the map, but there was nothing blue about it today. There was no road, simply a very bumpy traverse, frozen solid. The run down Scott Meadow was equally as bad, with frozen moguls with grass showing through.

To conserve speed, I sailed past the warning sign at the beginning of Ray's Rut, the path across to the base of Sherwood Lift. The sign actually warned that the path was not groomed and that there were no groomed trails off Sherwood at all. Ray's Rut was horrible, with narrow tracks, bumps, bare patches and sitting snow-boarders destroying any chance of making it without stopping and poling.

The first run of Sherwood was also horrible. Sherwood Run was rutted, frozen solid and had lots of rocks showing through. By the time I got to the bottom my knees were starting to ache. I almost gave up and went back to Summit Six, but the thoughts of the queues convinced me to try a couple more runs. The first across the top of Expert Short-Cut and down Sherwood Run was no better, but the second, taking in a short mogul field at the top before cutting across to Sherwood Run was more promising. To my surprise, the moguls were quite soft.

Next time up, I looked carefully at the snow under the lift. There was no-one actually skiing it, but it looked as if it might have softened up, so, from the top, I headed down Sherwood Face. I started with the same moguls as before then cut off to a short narrowing run into the trees and a short uphill track which came out at the top of Sherwood Face. One or two turns were enough to tell me that I was right .. the snow had softened and the face was now the best snow on the mountain.

Next run, I took the same route, with even better conditions and noticed that a few other people were now trying the same run.

Next time down, I took the narrow run under the lift to get to the top of the face. This proved to me a mistake. The snow was not in great condition and I ended up edge slipping most of the way, so for the next run, I reverted to the previous trail through the tress.

The skiing was good, but hard on the legs. With hints of cramp, I headed back towards the base area. I intended to do one more run from Yellow, but long queues put paid to that idea. On the way, I was tempted to try Expert Short-Cut, probably the most difficult single-black run on the mountain. In fact, I missed it and ended up in deep Sierra cement in the trees. No real problem, but not fun.

Back at the base, I stopped just in time to collect my half day credits on lift ticket and ski rental.

Runs

Last updated: 22/01/2001