Tahoe 16/17

[ski_hat]

Alas I'm stuck on a pair of Rossi Experience 80s... I've maxed out my ski spending money, so I can't even demo

 

[santacruz skier]

Alas I'm stuck on a pair of Rossi Experience 80s... I've maxed out my ski spending money, so I can't even demo

Demos are $80 ... My skis are 98 and 96 waist but I did want to try the Nordica Santa Ana

 

[ski_hat]

I really want to try the Santa Ana as well, but it'll have to wait until after the holidays... Ah well!

 

[santacruz skier]

Northstar was really fun today. Lapped it on Burnout - they left it ungrooned! Foot of new snow overnight and snowed in the afternoon today... Also met @SnowHot today!

 

[ski_hat]

Heavenly was COLD today. A decent number of runs were open, though it wasn't possible to go between CA and NV (they claimed a wind hold on the Sky chair, though we think they sit it down for reasons like an insufficient number of guests and prime opportunity fit snow making).

Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty amazing though still quite cold... I'm hoping there aren't too many people tomorrow ;-)

 

[SnowHot]

Northstar was really fun today. Lapped it on Burnout - they left it ungrooned! Foot of new snow overnight and snowed in the afternoon today... Also met @SnowHot today!

Ha, I just posted in another thread. (should have looked here first) It was great meeting you face to face. Lets make sure to ski together this winter!

 

[DeweySki]

Heavenly was COLD today. A decent number of runs were open, though it wasn't possible to go between CA and NV (they claimed a wind hold on the Sky chair, though we think they sit it down for reasons like an insufficient number of guests and prime opportunity fit snow making).

Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty amazing though still quite cold... I'm hoping there aren't too many people tomorrow ;-)

We went to Heavenly yesterday and today too! Lots of fresh back in Milky Way Bowl yesterday. Despite getting in later today, we still found lots of fresh stuff in Pinnacles and Ski Ways Glades. I would have never been able to find the goods without my SO who knew where to find all the traverses. Finished the day with a lap down Maggie's Canyon that was absolutely amazing. Debating whether to go back to Heavenly tomorrow or head to Kirkwood so we are 1 hour closer to home at the end of the day.

 

[santacruz skier]

Northstar was , well pretty darn icy today . Everywhere ... Not much ungroomed which is too bad. I prefer ungroomed to scraped off groomed. Much better yesterday with all the freshies... Of course didn't go out until noon today .. 14 degrees.. I'm surprised ski way glades had enough coverage...that's great .. I was on the Saffron 7's which were clearly the wrong ski for hard pack icy groomed runs. Tell us what else is open at heavenly.

 

[santacruz skier]

What a difference a day makes.. Took out the sambas and had a blast.. Skied trees off east ridge and soft bumps and the fun never stopped.. Only 2 groomed runs and then we found great stashes all over. Plus Northstar opened quite a bit more terrain.. Day 5 tomorrow !

 

[va_deb]

Glad you CA divas are having a blast! Question: How crazy does it get in North Lake Tahoe during President's Day weekend? Nephews have winter break Feb. 16-20, and we're tempted to go out there from the East Coast to get some ski and visiting time with bro and his family who would drive up from the Bay Area. My better half, with more vaca time than I have, has the MCP which will save at Squaw/Alpine.

In the Mid A we normally steer clear of all holiday weekends because crowds are insane, but y'all have so much more terrain than we do -- and faster lifts.

Any thoughts? (The only other time we've been out there was in April and it was blissfully uncrowded with hero snow to us, but not good timing for my brother and his family.)

 

[santacruz skier]

President's week is very crowded in Tahoe with lots of Bay Area skiers coming up for the long weekend.. Paging @Pequenita ...she skis Squaw!

 

[DeweySki]

Northstar was , well pretty darn icy today . Everywhere ... Not much ungroomed which is too bad. I prefer ungroomed to scraped off groomed. Much better yesterday with all the freshies... Of course didn't go out until noon today .. 14 degrees.. I'm surprised ski way glades had enough coverage...that's great .. I was on the Saffron 7's which were clearly the wrong ski for hard pack icy groomed runs. Tell us what else is open at heavenly.

Somehow missed this. Heavenly is weird this year...Canyon has yet to run and Ridge Run is not open yet, so no Ellie's swing or anything around there. Can get to Ellie's by traversing through Pinnacles, but gate on Pinnacles is technically closed. There was one opening between Ski ways and Pinnacles that everyone was using. No Olympic chair, Galaxy Chair, Killibrew or Mott. Mott looks close to being ready. Excited to ski it for the first time this year! Gunbarrel is all grass, so nothing down around there either. Not sure how this compares to what they had open this time last year but it seems decent.

 

[santacruz skier]

Interesting.. So a couple good areas at heavenly that you may have not skied:

Under Sky chair that you can access off Ellie's Swing. Usually great snow.
Hogsback at top of groove chair and ski straight . Same aspect as Gunbarrel but no VW sized bumps usually. Also can jump on west bowl.
East bowl tres next to Gunbarrel . Last year was awesome.
Milky Way traverse and drop in on Milky Way side of killebrew..
I haven't skied Mott in several years.. It's pretty steep with tight trees.. I've only dropped in on gates 5 and 6.

I will be at heavenly last week of Jan - beg February ..
Spent the day mostly in trees today at Northstar .

 

[Pequenita]

Glad you CA divas are having a blast! Question: How crazy does it get in North Lake Tahoe during President's Day weekend? Nephews have winter break Feb. 16-20, and we're tempted to go out there from the East Coast to get some ski and visiting time with bro and his family who would drive up from the Bay Area. My better half, with more vaca time than I have, has the MCP which will save at Squaw/Alpine.

In the Mid A we normally steer clear of all holiday weekends because crowds are insane, but y'all have so much more terrain than we do -- and faster lifts.

Any thoughts? (The only other time we've been out there was in April and it was blissfully uncrowded with hero snow to us, but not good timing for my brother and his family.)

Yeah, I think general rule of thumb is that traffic to/from the resort (even in town) is going to be heavy, return to the Bay area will be heavier, and the resort will be crowded. I don't think there are going to be many last minute skiers because many people who would chase the snow have passes that are blacked out that weekend, so the crowd will likely be other vacationers, probably more casual skiers. Getting there before the lifts open will be advantageous, as will having your own equipment or renting it elsewhere for the duration of your stay. It's tough to gauge how it compares to skiing in the mid-Atlantic because I hated crowds there, too, and have only skied President's Weekend out here once. As you noted, it is dependent on how much terrain is open, but the intermediate terrain funnels people into pretty much only two places that do get busy. The weather can also affect how much terrain is open. I think when you're coming in from way out of town, you can't always count on the ski vacation of the lifetime, so renting a decent place where you'd be happy to spend time with family is key!

 

[Pequenita]

PM me if anyone is headed up to North Lake Thursday pm through X-mas eve and wants to make some turns (or, more likely, watch me flounder in powder).

 

[DeweySki]

PM me if anyone is headed up to North Lake Thursday pm through X-mas eve and wants to make some turns (or, more likely, watch me flounder in powder).

Ugh so bummed I'm going to miss this cycle. We are flying out of Reno tomorrow and won't be back till the 28th :(

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[santacruz skier]

PM me if anyone is headed up to North Lake Thursday pm through X-mas eve and wants to make some turns (or, more likely, watch me flounder in powder).

Love to meet up with you one of these days!

 

[kasuncion6]

Hi all,

Will be at squaw or alpine on x-mas day. Let me know if you're around to do some runs. Bf and I are adventurous intermediates.

Kara

 

[Pequenita]

Squaw is filling in nicely and skiing well! Snow temps started out cold then rose a little before dropping. Siberia open for a short bit before closing again due to wind; some aspects off Shirley closed by early afternoon due to slide potential. Nothing else on upper mountain open (e.g., if you took Squaw 1 up, you were screwed). I left at 1:30 soggy from the precip.

 

[DRG]

Arrived in Tahoe City Friday afternoon (Dec 23) and watched it snow through evening hours. Got up early Saturday (Dec 24) and headed to Alpine Meadows before the lifts were turning. Skies opened up and it dumped ALL day long. Surprisingly few people and no wind. Storm was cold - and the snow was unbelievably light and easily more than a foot deep! Fresh tracks everywhere for the first half of the day! I'm still figuring out how to correctly "float" powder, but it was so much fun! Called it quits around 2 pm. Deep snow = tired legs!

Christmas Day we headed to Northstar - again arriving before the lifts started. Storm obviously came through Northstar but snow levels were still really low off piste. Groomers were in good shape, although got pretty scraped off on the Backside after about 11 am. Tree skiing was way too much work with all the obstacles still right at the surface (at least for me!) so I will save that for another trip. We then headed over to the other side of the resort as we rarely ski that side. From the Vista Express lift, to skier's right of the terrain park are a couple of runs that were still "closed" but which had obviously been groomed prior to the storm. People were starting to notice and ski that foot of untracked powder on those groomed runs (The Straits and Drop Off), so we turned through the trees and picked them up all the way back to the lift - best lines of the day! Crowds were very low in the morning but definitely started to pick up after lunch - we wrapped up around 3. NOTE - as of 12/25, Home Run was not open - so if parking on that side (which we always do on early arrival), you will need to go back to Ritz and take Gondola back down.

SO did a backcountry tour on 12/26 on Relay Peak - said conditions were very good. I chose to sleep in! We are headed to Sun Valley for 5 days on Friday (ticking another Mountain Collective spot off the list!) and can report on conditions there soon!

Here are a few shots from 12/24 at Alpine Meadows. Happy New Year Divas - and keep thinking snow!