California/Nevada 2017-18 Tahoe Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups Thread....

[Andy Mink]

Rose is super nice today. Not too crowded, soft groomers. Lots of demo skis. Head V8 and V10 are going to be a force next year for the front side/edge skier. Bio break and back to demo some more.

 

[Tony]

Some updates and pictures from St. Patrick's at Kirkwood. According to post on Kirkwood Mountain Resort FB page, the Backside opened about 2:20 pm. I saw Caples Crest, the chair that gets you to Backside loading about 2 PM, but did not go check on Backside as after 4 days of mostly skiing powder around So. Tahoe, my addiction was mostly satisfied with three laps on the Wall plus one more run into the furthest Palisades to get back to my car. Plus the Backside runs seemed a little flat on Wednesday with 16" new plus whatever fell during the day, although I'm sure Thunder Saddle was steep enough for how deep snow would be there. As it was, I got home about 27 hrs. later than planned.

When searching to see when Carson Spur, W of Kirkwood re-opened (not only was the Spur closed, but 88 was closed to Peddler Hill abut 20 miles total due to snow for a while), I found they announced on Caltrans District 10 FB page at 3:30 PM that the Spur would re-open at 8 PM last night. So it may be worth checking there in the future.

This is the 3-4" of low-angle, silky snow on top of groomed run that felt so good that a guy I shared first chair on 7 with and I did it twice.
There were many places where the berm at the edge of (flat) groomed run was a couple of feet high.

Line on chair 6/Cornice at 11. It was the only good chair running until about noon when they added the Reut/chair 11.
I'm in singles line which was really long, but moved fast due to lift attendant often calling 4 singles.


It was so deep that a snowcat wandered off W of the Cornice and got stuck and partially buried.


Not my picture as it was taken from Kirkwood's FB page, but I had at least 10 runs like this; some were deeper, some a little less deep.

 

[textrovert]

well, little Diamond Peak delivered today!

Tahoe League comp on Lower-showoff = Lakeview chair packed with racers.

I lapped Crystal Express from 9am to 1pm. Straight to chair every single time!

Untracked low-angle powder for every single lap on Eagle Bowl. And great views of the lake. I'm a very happy camper today

ETA- pics!

The required view shot-

Eagle Bowl hidden pow-


Untracked at 9:30am-


Untracked at 12:30pm-


Straight to chair- 9-1, ~22k vertical

 

[Andy Mink]

Rose was super today. Soft, chalky groomers and a ton of leftovers in the trees and chutes. Unfortunately I managed to pop a calf muscle in my right leg. Long trip down the chutes to the lift. Did this last year on the other leg. Probably 4 weeks off. :-(

 

[SSSdave]

Back home in South Bay now after 4 days skiing. Wednesday and Thursday at Kirkwood skiing with miss j were some of my most enjoyable powder skiing days ever. Above image is 3/15/2018 from below Chair 3 Ironhorse. The two outside magenta highlighted tracks are mine while the two inner red highlighted tracks are hers. Notice how we bumps skier sinuous powder tracks are similar? Best runs of the day were after Chair 4 Sunrise opened as we dropped into totally unblemished just beyond the often groomed Cold Shoulder run down the sparse trees just skiers left all the way down to the flats. Then a couple runs later traverse out on Lookout Vista to Sunnyside slopes that had the most lusciously soft deep cold snow we bounced S turns down through the sparse conifers. Of note the powder those first two days was optimal for bouncing S turns without having much resistance against one's legs moving through the snow. And that fresh snow condition made skiing lower gradient powder slopes sweet too without getting bogged down.

Friday at Heavenly one was so deep and the snow quality was such that even with a 140-110-118 soft fat ski, was so far down in the 45 inches that had fallen within 48 hours, that there was too much resistance against one's legs to ski anything but steep terrain. Last year in January I had skied even deeper 5 foot snow after an even colder storm that put snow down at Placerville, Auburn, and Sonora and could easily ski S turns despite being way down deep because that snow flowed around my legs instead of pushing up in resistive forward growing piles.

Saturday with miss j up the HV gonodola a bit slow starting at 10am, early morning wished I had brought my fat S7 in order to ski some leftovers however once I got into the Little Dipper bumps, my narrow classic bump ski profile Twisters again proved to be the perfect tool, till 3:30 kept looping Little Dipper bumps, skiing non-stop buttery smooth fall lines down from the top to tower 11 or 10 almost every run. A whole lot of others like mr CC were also skiing those bumps that of course shaped them up nicely. Even the steepest largest bumps were a piece of cake for me this day. Miss j being a hard core local, hates the weekend lift lines so usually stays away. Despite that, there was not much a line as a doubles at Comet Express till the masses finally arrive a bit before noon whence she headed back to the Gondola. And then later skiing in the singles line, never had to wait more than about 5 minutes.

 

[John Webb]

Sorry you injured your calf muscle in the Chutes. @Andy Mink . Get well soon.

 

[Andy Mink]

Sorry you injured your calf muscle in the Chutes. @Andy Mink . Get well soon.

Thanks John. At least I didn't crash.

 

[Pequenita]

Wierdness at Squaw. KT22 is closed- may or may not have opened ?

Lift was closed so that emergency personnel/patrol could respond to an immersion accident. 2 individuals - I don't know if they were "buddies" with terrible luck or skiing solo. Neither were breathing when pulled out.

It reopened, but by then, Funi was loading.

 

[SSSdave]

Beyond 10 days long range outlook for what it's worth, is predicting the end of our Miracle March. So snow sliders, this coming bout of storms may be the last decent powder event this season. Monday and Tuesday look to be the best days for bumps, however this guy needs more recovery time before returning. Forecast shows piddly warm snow additions Tuesday night end in wee hours leaving a breezy Wednesday with just light snow showers, sort of like I, well clothed endured pleasantly this week. Thursday is forecast to be windy and awful with freezing to above freezing wet snow storm skiing. Thursday night is a bit unkanown. Friday could be a day of fresh snow skiing though very low confidence forecast is pessimistic. Lets hope Tuesday wetness stays to our south as our current snow pack is just fine as is.

Eventually this week, aching bump withdrawal symptoms will overwhelm my current pleasant be a wimp relaxing veg mode to motivate an unpleasant long boring drive drive up to SLT say dawn Wednesday. Otherwise driving up slushy wet Thursday to start skiing from Friday into the weekend may be wiser. Another idea is to ski wind protecting trees at Northstar, (haven't skied in 2 decades) Thursday IF on a short firm forecast only areas to the south get wetness.

 

[Wannabeskibum]

Beyond 10 days long range outlook for what it's worth, is predicting the end of our Miracle March. So snow sliders, this coming bout of storms may be the last decent powder event this season. Monday and Tuesday look to be the best days for bumps, however this guy needs more recovery time before returning. Forecast shows piddly warm snow additions Tuesday night end in wee hours leaving a breezy Wednesday with just light snow showers, sort of like I, well clothed endured pleasantly this week. Thursday is forecast to be windy and awful with freezing to above freezing wet snow storm skiing. Thursday night is a bit unkanown. Friday could be a day of fresh snow skiing though very low confidence forecast is pessimistic. Lets hope Tuesday wetness stays to our south as our current snow pack is just fine as is.

Eventually this week, aching bump withdrawal symptoms will overwhelm my current pleasant be a wimp relaxing veg mode to motivate an unpleasant long boring drive drive up to SLT say dawn Wednesday. Otherwise driving up slushy wet Thursday to start skiing from Friday into the weekend may be wiser. Another idea is to ski wind protecting trees at Northstar, (haven't skied in 2 decades) Thursday IF on a short firm forecast only areas to the south get wetness.

SSS - sorry we didn't get a chance to ski together during my visit - I think we would have hit it off.


Based on my experiences at NorthStar compared to Heavenly and to a lesser extent Kirkwood, you will be very underwhelmed at NorthStar. Although there are wind protected trees there, they are not the league of Heavenly. You would be better with the Olympic lift trees and Stagecoach woods if the upper lifts at Heavenly are on wind hold. Just my 2 cents worth -

 

[SSSdave]

Wbsb, yeah difficult enough just skiing on storm days much less trying to link up with others. You'll just need to come back again haha.

True indeed, Heavenly more advanced tree slopes and reasonably sheltered at those 2 Nevada lifts. That unlikely NS option would be considered if short term overnight forecast was for wet snow to south Tahoe areas that would marginally miss north Tahoe resorts. Sort of a call I might make at dawn by looking at the NWS radar loop and seeing a band of moisture moving so.

 

[Eric267]

Beyond 10 days long range outlook for what it's worth, is predicting the end of our Miracle March. So snow sliders, this coming bout of storms may be the last decent powder event this season. Monday and Tuesday look to be the best days for bumps, however this guy needs more recovery time before returning. Forecast shows piddly warm snow additions Tuesday night end in wee hours leaving a breezy Wednesday with just light snow showers, sort of like I, well clothed endured pleasantly this week. Thursday is forecast to be windy and awful with freezing to above freezing wet snow storm skiing. Thursday night is a bit unkanown. Friday could be a day of fresh snow skiing though very low confidence forecast is pessimistic. Lets hope Tuesday wetness stays to our south as our current snow pack is just fine as is.

Eventually this week, aching bump withdrawal symptoms will overwhelm my current pleasant be a wimp relaxing veg mode to motivate an unpleasant long boring drive drive up to SLT say dawn Wednesday. Otherwise driving up slushy wet Thursday to start skiing from Friday into the weekend may be wiser. Another idea is to ski wind protecting trees at Northstar, (haven't skied in 2 decades) Thursday IF on a short firm forecast only areas to the south get wetness.

Since you haven't been in 2 decades you haven't been since lookout mountain opened. 425 acres of mostly trees and a few nice bump runs (gooseneck, stampede, Boca) Would recommend since you have an epic pass. N* gets a bad rap since the frontside is a flat mess but lookout (and backside to some extent) has the goods. Now that it's 100% open (as of Saturday) its a good time to check it out.

I'm pretty much always there on storm days since squalpine dosent really spin lifts anymore. If you make it up and want a guide hit me up and I will show you the goods. I'm always down to show people that there is some really good terrain at N* you just have to know where it is!

 

[Tony]

While Northstar used to be the place to go in a storm, it seems like they have become more wary running Backside and sometimes other lifts in windy storms after having a couple of huge trees fall last season. The other issue with Northstar during warmer storms is that base of Backside lift is below 6800' and base of Martis Camp is about 6300' (was higher before they extended to connect to high-end Real Estate) so they can get a lot of r--n. If snow level is high as it will be this Wed. very little of their mountain is above 8500' which is below the base of five of Heavenly's lifts (not counting beginner).

While I've had some great powder days at Northstar including a few in late Jan 2017, I have not been this year due to so many warm storms melting the little snow that fell or that they could make until the March Miracle.

 

[raytseng]

Agree thst nstar has good terrain and im skiing there in 2weeks.
However for a warm storm most importantly, you need elevation. So for thursday I would still roll my dice at hv or kw, even though theres a good chance they won't open the top.

 

[Eric267]

While Northstar used to be the place to go in a storm, it seems like they have become more wary running Backside and sometimes other lifts in windy storms after having a couple of huge trees fall last season. The other issue with Northstar during warmer storms is that base of Backside lift is below 6800' and base of Martis Camp is about 6300' (was higher before they extended to connect to high-end Real Estate) so they can get a lot of r--n. If snow level is high as it will be this Wed. very little of their mountain is above 8500' which is below the base of five of Heavenly's lifts (not counting beginner).

While I've had some great powder days at Northstar including a few in late Jan 2017, I have not been this year due to so many warm storms melting the little snow they could until the March Miracle.

Very true. Before this storm I would not have recommended! Was out @ N* the past 4 days and it is just finally filled in to the bottom. From my understanding this storm is supposed to drop to lake level late wednesday

 

[Mendieta]

Rose is unbelievable today

 

[raytseng]

Very true. Before this storm I would not have recommended! Was out @ N* the past 4 days and it is just finally filled in to the bottom. From my understanding this storm is supposed to drop to lake level late wednesday

ah, ok. Yea if it were to drop wednesday that would be good. From BA's forecast, right now it is still showing 7500' snow level on day Thurs; with the drop coming Thurs night and the Friday wave.
http://opensnow.com/location/northstar

 

[SSSdave]

Eric, have Northstar groomers the last few years when there has been an adequate base been leaving alone The Rapids, letting it bump up? Because of the modest slope gradient, was years ago, one of the least difficult long bump runs for someone with good technique and fitness to run top to bottom. I did ski the Lookout slopes a single run one year with a work group trip but conditions were firm. Nice slope after lower elevation cold storms much like Red Dog. On low elevation cold snow powder days loved the long long treed slopes on the backside but noticed on that last trip they had since pruned away denser trees.

in the woods,
Dave

 

[luliski]

Eric, have Northstar groomers the last few years when there has been an adequate base been leaving alone The Rapids, letting it bump up? Because of the modest slope gradient, was years ago, one of the least difficult long bump runs for someone with good technique and fitness to run top to bottom. I did ski the Lookout slopes a single run one year with a work group trip but conditions were firm. Nice slope after lower elevation cold storms much like Red Dog. On low elevation cold snow powder days loved the long long treed slopes on the backside but noticed on that last trip they had since pruned away denser trees.

in the woods,
Dave

The Rapids are all bumped-up every time I see them, lol. FWIW, my nephew is a snowboarder who loves riding in the trees and powder, and he loves riding at N*. His favorite is Kirkwood, but that's a little more travel time from Sac.

 

[Mendieta]

Update from the lunch break. Hero snow is omnipresent today at Rose. Only boilerplate I found. Was on the lower cat track on the slide side and some in upper Ramseys which is aways frozen. Well. This was mostly edgeable today. But some areas are i ey. I huess the new snow didn't stick much, understandable on steep boilerplate.

Sunny but not warm, busy but not crowded. If I wasn't skiing solo it could easily be



Top ten for sure. I am skiing with @Mark Downing , I pretty much drove the extra hour from SB to take a lesson with him it' worth it!

Oh. And the views. Mr Pug is really happy today!