Well its only early March and it appears that spring decided to show up early at Alyeska resort in Girdwood, Ak. After last week’s snow storms, the temperatures have really warmed up during the day. Between the solar radiation and the warm temperatures, the entire mountain seems to be skiing like it normally does in April. Yesterday morning, the snow surface was very icy top to bottom, but quickly throughout the day, the temperatures and the sun softened up the snowpack just enough to resemble some quality corn skiing.
South Face softened up first, and was skiing fairly well by 1pm yesterday. By the end of the day my favorite area was the bumps on Wicks Knoll and White/Black Friday Gullies Adjacent to silver tip. The jumps through the gullies were hitting fairly well. Also, the Groomers have been all time lately. Ive almost had more fun ripping groomers, going back to the racer roots, rather than skiing off trail.
Moguls are also begging to form on almost every aspect of the south Bowl. Moguls, believe it or not, don’t often get a chance to fully form at Alyeska, usually because we get so much consistent snowfall they are constantly buried. But with these clear sunny skies, pristine moguls have formed, especially below Teds Express on trapline. So for those of you who love bump humpin, come on down, its as good as the moguls get around here.
As of now, most the outer areas are closed with the exception of High Traverse. North face is currently closed due to massive glide cracks that can release at any moment. Also, the lack of snow down low, on the autobahn, is also keeping the patrollers from opening North Face. With the North Face Challenge scheduled for March 25th, were going to need some big storms to drop a bunch of snow down low. Sounds like a long shot, but this is Alaska, Ive seen it dump feet of snow in April and May, so anything is possible. Also bring your beacons on Thursday, March 10th because rumor has it Headwall will be opening again!! Kick ASS!
Over all things are looking good here at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, AK. With some of the most snow I have seen up high in the last few years, we are on track to have an amazing spring with no shortage of snow. For most of the week it looks like the weather is supposed to be fairly sunny with warm temperatures, although slightly cooler than this week. There also appears to be a bit more snow moving into the region, lets just hope it comes in cold and drops us snow at sea level so that the North Face can have a fight chance of opening up again for The North Face Challenge!
