Alyeska 12/25/11, the Right Place at the Right Time

[jojo_obrien]

Woke up to 8 inches fresh.....350" YTD. Yes......you heard me right.

Who needs to get barreled in Hawaii when you have face shots in 1-2 feet of powder stashes all day long w/ minimal crowds????

Every day we gain sunlight..........but yesterday was arguably the most beautiful winter day I've seen in AK...no winds, great visibility, light snow, very few folks......as Charlie Sheen would say........WINNING..........

Charged hard from 1045 to 345. Quads were .......done. Gonna lay off today and hit the hot tub.......

https://plus.google.com/photos/10821492 ... 9915584145

jojo

 

[Tony Crocker]

One would think the light would be difficult up there at this time of year. Any problems on the North Face? Of course with powder it doesn't matter so much.

face shots in 1-2 feet of powder stashes all day long w/ minimal crowds????

I'm not that surprised to hear this is true at Christmas since that was my experience during the state spring break week in 2007.

.....350" YTD

That's top of the mountain since October 1. Season (don't know the start date for that) is 261 and mid-mountain long term average is 81% of the top. But an adjusted estimate of 215 inches would still be #1 in North America over Wolf Creek's 200.

Jojo-brien is certainly in the right place at the right time. Zoo week is officially here and Santa has left a lump of coal for most North American skiers.

California is in the worst shape, but with well known volatility not unprecedented. However the precedents are 1976 and 1986.

I have percents of terrain open for Front Range Colorado Christmas week going back to 1988. These are the lowest percents for A-Basin, Copper, Keystone, Steamboat and Vail and second lowest for Breckenridge, Loveland and Winter Park.

Alta's season snowfall of 92 inches, if it stays under 100 by New Year's, exceeds only the 30 in 1976 and the 68 in 1980. Wasatch areas outside the Cottonwoods are ~1/3 open, similar to most of the Colorado areas above.

In the Northern Rockies Brundage is not open, Bridger is 21% open and Whitefish 31%. These are all areas that average ~300 inches and are usually decent early season bets. Schweitzer and Targhee are the only areas in the region in full operation.

The Northeast is crappy too, but Christmases in 2001 and 2006 were just as bad.

So far it looks like the evil twin of last year's record season. Only Alaska and New Mexico missed out on last year's abundance, and those are the places having good early seasons now. The Pacific Northwest and western Canada are average or better (good November but bad December) but look to be in line for a series of storms this week.

 

[flyover]

Out of curiosity (and a creeping sense of quite desparation) I just checked Red Lodge's website. They claim to be 100% open with base depths ranging from 50-60 inches. Meanwhile, Bridger is 21% open with a 16" base depth. I don't know much about Red Lodge. Do they make that much snow, or have they somehow managed to get realatively lucky this year?

Sorry about the thread drift, but, um, I didn't start it. :wink:

 

[Tony Crocker]

Red Lodge is well leeward of the major mountain ranges in Montana, and thus on typical west-to-east winter storm patterns does not get nearly as much snow as Bridger. But as we know this December has been anything but typical. The 50-60 inch base should be natural and indicative, unless Red Lodge has a reputation for creative reporting, which I have no reason to believe.

Here in SoCal Baldy/Waterman usually get twice as much natural snow as Big Bear, which is both farther from the ocean and in the shadow of 11,500 foot San Gorgonio. But on Dec. 1 Big Bear got 14 inches and Baldy/Waterman zero. There have been another 2-3 small weather events in December that dropped 3-6 inches of snow, and in all of them Big Bear got as much or more than Baldy/Waterman. So rules of thumb have exceptions. There are probably occasional storms where Park City gets more snow than LCC!

the thread drift

I decided to edit the topic title accordingly

 

[jojo_obrien]

The whole light issue is really interesting up here at 61 deg N.......I've never dealt with it before. Right now, the BEST light is at around..130 PM. Anything south exposed looks beautiful. When it comes to skiing the north face.....it's great from ...11 am to 3 pm this time of the year. After 3......its........BAD. Not too bad if there is plenty of untracked......but.....the difference between my run at 230 and 3 pm was significant.

Sounds like you know the area, Tony. I assume many skiiers on here haven't skiied Alyeska.... Seemed like a lot of folks were heading to Max's (a long traverse..) I try to head the opposite direction of most folks and it seemed as if North Face was the call. I gotta say though.....if we're going to have more days like this, I'm thinking I might get some fatter skiis......my AC40's rip in most stuff but felt like i could use a little more through the new 1-2 feet. It wasn't quite champagne, so definitely took a LOT of effort....I spent yesterday in recovery mode.........

on a separate note ...wish i could get a refund on my baldy pass.......bought it and don't expect to use it now that i'm full time up here in AK.......i'm VERY curious to see how insanely crowded it will be this year. my GUESS is that come first big snowfall (if that happens).....it'll be an absolute zoo. between facebook promotion and virtually free season passes........

jojo

 

[berkshireskier]

One would think the light would be difficult up there at this time of year. Any problems on the North Face? Of course with powder it doesn't matter so much.

face shots in 1-2 feet of powder stashes all day long w/ minimal crowds????

I'm not that surprised to hear this is true at Christmas since that was my experience during the state spring break week in 2007.

.....350" YTD

That's top of the mountain since October 1. Season (don't know the start date for that) is 261 and mid-mountain long term average is 81% of the top. But an adjusted estimate of 215 inches would still be #1 in North America over Wolf Creek's 200.

Jojo-brien is certainly in the right place at the right time. Zoo week is officially here and Santa has left a lump of coal for most North American skiers.

California is in the worst shape, but with well known volatility not unprecedented. However the precedents are 1976 and 1986.


I have percents of terrain open for Front Range Colorado Christmas week going back to 1988. These are the lowest percents for A-Basin, Copper, Keystone, Steamboat and Vail and second lowest for Breckenridge, Loveland and Winter Park.

Alta's season snowfall of 92 inches, if it stays under 100 by New Year's, exceeds only the 30 in 1976 and the 68 in 1980. Wasatch areas outside the Cottonwoods are ~1/3 open, similar to most of the Colorado areas above.

In the Northern Rockies Brundage is not open, Bridger is 21% open and Whitefish 31%. These are all areas that average ~300 inches and are usually decent early season bets. Schweitzer and Targhee are the only areas in the region in full operation.

The Northeast is crappy too, but Christmases in 2001 and 2006 were just as bad.

So far it looks like the evil twin of last year's record season. Only Alaska and New Mexico missed out on last year's abundance, and those are the places having good early seasons now. The Pacific Northwest and western Canada are average or better (good November but bad December) but look to be in line for a series of storms this week.

Yea, skiing sucks in the Northeast. Very little to NO natural snow and not even much cold weather to make snow. We're in the midst of a warm rain storm right now and the longer term weather models do not indicate (at this point in time) any change in this relatively mild pattern through at least the middle of January. UGH !

 

[Tony Crocker]

Anchorage is offset ~1 hour vs. its "real" time zone by longitude, so no surprise it's lightest at 1:30. Both of my trips were in March and Alyeska was open 10:30 - 5:30. Last year the snow was firm and chalky (no new snow in 2 weeks) and the North Face skied best in terms of both snow and visibility from 3:30 - 5PM. In March the sun swings around more towards due west in late afternoon and improves the light on the North Face.

In 2007 I had the delightful conditions you have now. Powder on the North Face was not as dense as California but more than Utah. Yes you should get some fat skis.

champagne

That's an apt description of March 25, 2007 with Chugach Powder guides. Possibly the best ski day of my life.
viewtopic.php?t=3034

 

[Mike Bernstein]

Out of curiosity (and a creeping sense of quite desparation) I just checked Red Lodge's website. They claim to be 100% open with base depths ranging from 50-60 inches. Meanwhile, Bridger is 21% open with a 16" base depth. I don't know much about Red Lodge. Do they make that much snow, or have they somehow managed to get realatively lucky this year?

Sorry about the thread drift, but, um, I didn't start it. :wink:

That's interesting.

IIRC from the trip 10 years ago (has it been that long??!!) with Admin, they had extensive snowmaking coverage on the old half of the mountain, and none on the new half (something about water rights in that new basin). So if they're claiming to be 100% open, then that's real and it's magnificent.

Fantastic skiing available in Red Lodge if the conditions are good you're willing to make the trip. Everything is below treeline and the runs are pretty interesting, especially the new ones. Trees look very doable, though we didn't get a chance. If that's your thing, and you're jonesing, I'd definitely look into it.

 

[baldyskier]

https://plus.google.com/photos/10821492 ... 9915584145

jojo

Nice use of the light you had- beautiful photos!