16″ of April Powder @ Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows Today | Photo Tour:

Miles Clark | | Post Tag for Conditions ReportConditions Report
Issac slashing the top of Granite at Squaw today.
Issac slashing the top of Granite at Squaw today.

At 7:30am today, Squaw Valley was reporting 7″ of new snow (they’re reporting 16″ at 4pm) and a temperature of 24F.  Around the same time they announced that they weren’t going to open the Funitel until 10:30am, Gold Coast and Shirley would open at 11am, and Granite and Siberia at 12:00pm.

At 7:30am today, Alpine Meadows was reporting 8″ of new snow (they’re reporting 17″ at 4pm) and a temperature of 25F.  Around the same time they announced that they weren’t going to open the Summit chair until 9:45am.

Sara Slash on Granite today.
Sara Slash on Granite today.

Both resorts also announced that they’d stay open until 4pm instead of closing at 2pm as they’ve been doing this spring.  Squaw and Alpine just announced that they’ll be open from 9am – 3:30pm Saturday and Sunday.  They also announced that Alpine will be open Fri, Sat, Sun until May 11th.  Squaw will still close this sunday for the season.

We decided to start the day at Alpine, then head to Squaw.

Alpine was perfect in the morning
Alpine was perfect in the morning

Alpine opened at 10am and the first run was dreamy.  About a foot of fresh snow in most spots with no bottom.  There was a line when they opened at 10am then no line at all.  Maybe 150 people at Alpine today.  Most people we talked to thought Alpine was closed today.

After 4 runs at Alpine we headed to Squaw for the Granite opening at noon.  By the time we got to Granite at 11:30am it had already opened at 11am.  It was good.  It was deep (about a foot, same as Alpine).  It was fun.  There was no one out.

The way it should be.  Granite Chief chair today.
The way it should be. Granite Chief chair today.

People were flipping and spinning like crazy off “Fat Lip” (lookers right if you’re on the chair not too far below Glory Rock).  Glory Rock is enormous right now and unhuckable.  Triple Goat was absolute undoable with boulders in the landings, but the zone was great to ski.  Corkscrew was closed.  Just skiers right of Corkscrew was great.  Oh, and boys were doing lots of McConkey style rock sliding (see below).

Legit rock sliding in Granite today
Legit rock sliding in Granite today

Unfortunately, someone hucked a 20-footer in the ledgy area skiers right of the chair and broke his femoral head off.  When that happened (there were some other injuries in Granite to add to it) patrol closed the chair for the day.  We hope he’s doing ok.

Siberia at 3:30pm.  Nuking.
Siberia at 3:30pm. Nuking.

After Granite closed we did laps off Shirley into Rock Pile in the Granite zone and it was great and was filling in each run.  Siberia had unreal snow, but you couldn’t see anything.  Still was great tho and my friend Sara told me before we dropped in:

“Vision is overrated”

That helped.

Chimney today
Chimney today looking bony.

We also skied under the Chimney and Palisades to check ’em out for tomorrow (if they open).  The Tube and Extra Chute were looking F-I-N-E fine.  The chimney looked bony and scary, but maybe the sweep is doable…  maybe Center Line?

The Tube looking A+ today
The Tube looking A+ today

It snowed moderately all day at both Alpine and Squaw today and there’s a Winter Weather Advisory in effect until 11pm tonight.  

The roads are slick.  Be careful.  Highway 80 was closed in both directions for about an hour this morning.

Tomorrow is going to be great.

Granite pow.
Granite pow.
Alpine blurry pow
Alpine blurry pow
Alpine morning line.
Alpine morning line.

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11 thoughts on “16″ of April Powder @ Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows Today | Photo Tour:

  1. they gave up on the season about 2 months ago. if you are on the mountain skiing then your aren’t spending money thats the new MO

  2. So both mountains dropped the ball getting open open on time, with less than half the terrain at each being open. Never used to happen, but seems like the new normal. What’s the common denominator here?

    1. WTF…
      Its April 25th. Its the 2nd WORST winter in 100 years for the Sierras. That is the common denominator…
      If you don’t like it, go to the other resorts in Tahoe right now that are open. Looks like they are giving a much better offering.

      1. Lol! Great logic, we suck the least because there is no one else around that can suck more! I’ll buy that! Always an excuse…

    2. At Alpine this morning, at least, it looked like it was understaffed – instead of several teams of patrollers doing control, it looked like the same few patrollers doing laps for their routes.

    3. Quit your sniveling and be stoked on some late season pow. It was a great day.

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