Alpine Meadows

We left North Bend at 8pm after a hefty dinner at Teriyaki Town (one of the best teriyaki joints around in my humble opinion). After driving all night, we made it to my friend's place near the base of Alpine Meadows. Basile quickly cooked up some breakfast burritos and then Julie drove us over to Alpine.

The sun was out and the snow was starting to soften up. We took a couple of screaming runs down the groomers. Going up the lift, I realized that this was my first time lift-skiing this season. May I remind you, this is near the end of January – a sad reflection on the winter in the Northwest so far.

After a couple of warm up runs, we decided to take the high traverse over to Sherwood Bowls. I was amazed how much rock and bare earth was showing along the ridge. Tahoe received over 16 feet of snow a couple of weeks prior and the traverse we took barely had a enough snow to safely get across without ruining our skis. In stark contrast to Washington, Tahoe gets a lot of sun. That combined with high winds along the exposed ridges means the snow disappears quickly. However, the bowls had plenty of snow and there was even a nice cornice to launch off. The snow turned out to be almost perfect, softening up just right as soon as we hit it.

After Basile threw a backflip tip-grab on telis followed by a teli-heli off the cornice, we decided to head to the Ice Bar for a couple of beers. After soaking up the suds and the sun, we took a couple of groomer runs on Sherwood Chair. I had forgotten how much fun it can be racing down soft groomers

Finally, we took a couple of runs on the frontside. Trevor and I got separated from the group and made our way down Scott Chute. The sun hadn't hit the chute enough and it was bumped out and icy. Not the greatest ski, but I am sure it would be one hell of a run on a powder day. Once back at Basile's place, we drank some beer, ate some food, watch the Pats smack down the Steelers and fell asleep by 7pm.

All in all, a great day of skiing at Alpine. I like the hill, it has some very nice terrain and the lift lines were really good for a beautiful Sunday in January. I imagine the open bowls must be very nice on a powder day and when the sun is out, the Ice Bar on the backside is the perfect place to chill.