Conditions Report
“This has been the best week of the season so far.” – Pistol Pete, local Alyeskan
We woke up today experiencing malaise, long breakfasts, and some annoyance with our cars having been towed last night at the Bear’s Tooth Grill. ย We got the cars back by 10am and I hit on the road towards Girdwood, leaving very mild dry weather in Anchorage. ย On the way to Girdwood [Alyeska’s home], all it did was rain. ย Pouring rain. ย The kind of rain that makes you wanna turn around and look for a bowling alley.
I got the resort at noon and still wasn’t sure about skiing. ย It was raining part way up the mountain and the upper mountain was closed for strong wind. ย By the time I got my boots on the tram had opened. ย By the time I finished skiing 16″ of fresh snow down to Chair 6 (the highest chair), it was open.ย
Pure joy ensued as a handful of locals enjoyed Alyeska to themselves in knee deep, creamy powder. ย The lower elevation rain was forgotten and the higher elevation powder was thoroughly bathed in. ย I was lucky enough to ski a couple laps with local Pistol Pete and he claimed Alyeska was having its best week of the season thus far.
As with most of North America, it’s been a dry, bizarre winter at Alyeska. ย But, this past week has been the start of a normal Alaska pattern: ย snow everyday. ย Snow is piling up and filling things in and it’s supposed to keep coming. ย There’s no break in the snow forecasted this week.
There were some strong winds today. ย Strong enough to close chair 6 for 15 minutes around 1:30pm. ย But, this is Alyeska and Alyeska has soul. ย There are no money holds here and they’re always doing their damnedest to get things open and keep them open.
Powder could be found off chair 6 until I left at 4pm. ย The resort stayed open until 5:30pm today.
Alyeska has gotten 18″ of snow at the top of the mountain in the past 24 hours. ย There’s a 100″ of snowpack at the top of the hill. ย They’ve gotten 414″ of snow this winter.
Not bad for a lower snow year at Alyeska. ย Most anywhere else, Alyeska’s current numbers would constitute a terrific winter.
