California/Nevada 2018-19 Tahoe Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups Thread....

[Tricia]

I might be at Rose on Sunday. Depends on chores.

Any tips for a successful day at Mt Rose?

Yes.
Tell Andy to get his chores done so he can show you around.

Sorry Phil and I will miss you. We'll be at Alta.

 

[Mendieta]

Any tips for a successful day at Mt Rose?

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? We can customuze the menu for you

 

[bushpilot]

Skied a few years on the east coast with sugarbush being my home mountain. Loved the narrow winding trails of NE. It’s what I kiss most about being out here. But out here I love the deep powder and open trees and glades. Anything like that would be great. Also any tips on the lodges and where to park. Thanks!

 

[Andy Mink]

Skied a few years on the east coast with sugarbush being my home mountain. Loved the narrow winding trails of NE. It’s what I kiss most about being out here. But out here I love the deep powder and open trees and glades. Anything like that would be great. Also any tips on the lodges and where to park. Thanks!

There are skiable trees all over, especially between Big Bonanza and Bruce's and Bruce's and Washoe Zephyr. Not glades but full on big trees. It will probably look like a mash-up of bobsled runs in there by Sunday. Longest easy cruise run is Around the World.

For first time I'd say park on the main side (second entrance coming from Reno, first if you're coming from Incline Village). I usually boot up inside but if you get there a but early the walk isn't horrible in ski boots.

 

[Mendieta]

Skied a few years on the east coast with sugarbush being my home mountain. Loved the narrow winding trails of NE. It’s what I kiss most about being out here. But out here I love the deep powder and open trees and glades. Anything like that would be great. Also any tips on the lodges and where to park. Thanks!

@Andy Mink covered most. Overall, I think you'll be mostly skiing the Slide side, offpiste. Look at the trail map:

https://skirose.com/trail-maps/
https://skimap.org/data/358/1923/1534429351.jpg // I like this one better for the Slide side

This is my plan for you:

• Get to the main lodge parking lot no later than 8:30
• Get the ticket, boot up, etc
• Take the Northwest Chair up, and warm up on the lodge side (most of what you see in the map to the right in the map). Best warm up runs: Around the world (mild) if you have not skied for some time. Kit Carson Bowl (intermediate difficulty, maybe as a second run). These are always groomed.
• After that, of course you can explore that side. But the Slide side is closer to what you are looking for. To get there: go up on Northwest, exit to the left like most people, and as you come down stick to skier's right, join Silver Dollar, and follow a groomer back to the slide chair (Blazing Zephyr). Now as you come up, I would suggest like Andy said, try some of the offpiste there, trees between the, the macho bowl ... there is a run there that really is natural snow with no trees - not as wide a bowl: Central Pacific. But really, you can traverse all that stuff until you find a glade or open area you like and come down. It's really fun
• The Chutes are mostly expert terrain. I would only get there if the rest seems easy. (it doesn't to me)

Of course I'll drop a line if I go up on Sunday but it seems unlikely. Lodging: best value in Reno. Coziest (and most expensive) in Incline Village.

 

[Andy Mink]

@Andy Mink covered most. Overall, I think you'll be mostly skiing the Slide side, offpiste. Look at the trail map:

https://skirose.com/trail-maps/
https://skimap.org/data/358/1923/1534429351.jpg // I like this one better for the Slide side

This is my plan for you:

• Get to the main lodge parking lot no later than 8:30
• Get the ticket, boot up, etc
• Take the Northwest Chair up, and warm up on the lodge side (most of what you see in the map to the right in the map). Best warm up runs: Around the world (mild) if you have not skied for some time. Kit Carson Bowl (intermediate difficulty, maybe as a second run). These are always groomed.
• After that, of course you can explore that side. But the Slide side is closer to what you are looking for. To get there: go up on Northwest, exit to the left like most people, and as you come down stick to skier's right, join Silver Dollar, and follow a groomer back to the slide chair (Blazing Zephyr). Now as you come up, I would suggest like Andy said, try some of the offpiste there, trees between the, the macho bowl ... there is a run there that really is natural snow with no trees - not as wide a bowl: Central Pacific. But really, you can traverse all that stuff until you find a glade or open area you like and come down. It's really fun
• The Chutes are mostly expert terrain. I would only get there if the rest seems easy. (it doesn't to me)

I went up this morning for a few runs. Snow is great, kind of chalky with blow all over. My guess is they'll bust out the groomers overnight to get ready for the weekend. Most groomers had some snow on them, either blown on or from the squalls that are coming through. I didn't go over to the Slide side as visibility wasn't great and the wind was coming up. I didn't want to get stuck if they closed the Slide lift, which they apparently didn't. Anyway, snow is good with more on the way Saturday night and Sunday.

 

[bushpilot]

Great stuff! That will help a lot!

Anything on sugar bowl for Monday?

 

[Eleeski]

OK day at Squaw. The lower mountain was challenging. The melt/refreeze beneath the couple inches of light snow was difficult. Add the poor visibility and it only took a couple bumps to stress my sore knee.

So we headed up the gondola. Baby it's cold outside! Windy, blowing snow, crappy visibility - but at least the snow was soft. Shirley had a sweet bump pitch. Solitude had some nice windblown refills. Up top was excellent!

Eric

 

[Mendieta]

Great stuff! That will help a lot!

Anything on sugar bowl for Monday?

Yes! Check their trails and resort map here
https://www.sugarbowl.com/trailmaps

I really prefer parking on the Judah parking lot. If you get there early (before 8:30) in a weekday, you'll park really close to the lifts. I boot up and walk to the lodge. You'll see the ticket window to the left, and likely a mountain host will indicate where exactly it is. Hard to miss. They also can sell tickets inside the same building.

Lifts: let's focus on the map - lifts go from beginner to advance very gradually, left to right. Genius. I would warm up on Jerome HIll lift, using Trailblazer which is always groomed, mild and long. Just one run there will get your legs going. That's exiting the lift to your left. Btw, if you exit to your left and just keep going left into the glades, that area is fun and mild. If you exit to the right, you can take the groomer and exit pretty much anywhere into that bowl. That one is milder closer to the chair and gets steeper closer to the lodge. I love this bowl and it certainly gives an escape when there is no vis higher up.

Ok, if you take that same trail (Pioneer) off Jerome Hill you can access the main lodge side of the area. On that side, again, mild to hard, left to right as you face the hill (or the map). Christmas Tree is useful to come back to Judah, and mostly used by Racers on Van Ruiten's, closed to the public. But to the right of the chair, that bowl is fairly mild and short and it can be a lot of fun.

Lincoln Chair, I don't care much because it is mostly steep groomers where people take a lot of speed, not necessarily in control. But it has a great view from the top. Gotta go at least once. It provides access to the Palisades. That's serious expert terrain beyond my capabilities. My favorite run there is Vanderbilt's if the snow is soft enough (natural frozen snow is not my thing). To get there you exit right from the lift, and stay always on the left on the groomers. It is kinda hidden. Beautiful steepish bowl of natural snow. Not too long.

Disney takes a long catwalk from that area. Everything there is fun, but the groomers, same thing, people go out of control more often than not. The milder area is exiting right from the chaiir, a few groomers. The rest is advanced: coming back under the chair and taking the bowl down. That's perhaps the most trafficked advanced area and it gets really tracked out and scratchy, if you like that. Exiting left you have one my favorite runs there: East Face, It is steep and I don't take it if groomed, but most of the time it's not, and if the bumps are soft it is a ton of fun.

Best for last: Crow's peak. This is between advanced and expert terrain. I normally lap Rob's run there. The run itself is steep and bumpy. Once you exit it's a big mild bowl, I recommend the glades, skiers left, back to the chair. You might find untracked between the glades and the groomed run back to the chair.

To get there: come off Disney exiting right, stick to Disney traverse. It's a little hard to find, You'll probably see Rob's run to the left. But the chair doesn't always run. Try to ask the lifties in Disney before heading there.

Assuming you followed the tour, how do you come back? I normally go back to Disney, then up and come down on East Face. From there to Christmas tree, exit left, and you'll see signs back to the Judah lodge.

It's a bit of a tour so you don't want to start the way back too late in the day.

Boy, I just wrote a little guide to Sugar Bowl! I have a season pass there

 

[Andy Mink]

@Philpug and I followed this guy up the hill for a bit the other day. Pretty impressive. The thing with Mt. Rose Highway is that even when it doesn't snow there's a lot of snow blowing onto the road. Also, the plows can push the snow from the middle but then there's a berm along the big berm so the rotary plow clears that too. Too bad they can't put all that snow on the mountain for us to ski on!

 

[textrovert]

From snowbrains-

 

[textrovert]

The last time I spotted bears at Northstar was around the same time of the year a few seasons ago.

This was from Mid-March 2016, while riding up Promised Land Express.

 

[bushpilot]

Yes! Check their trails and resort map here
https://www.sugarbowl.com/trailmaps

I really prefer parking on the Judah parking lot. If you get there early (before 8:30) in a weekday, you'll park really close to the lifts. I boot up and walk to the lodge. You'll see the ticket window to the left, and likely a mountain host will indicate where exactly it is. Hard to miss. They also can sell tickets inside the same building.

Lifts: let's focus on the map - lifts go from beginner to advance very gradually, left to right. Genius. I would warm up on Jerome HIll lift, using Trailblazer which is always groomed, mild and long. Just one run there will get your legs going. That's exiting the lift to your left. Btw, if you exit to your left and just keep going left into the glades, that area is fun and mild. If you exit to the right, you can take the groomer and exit pretty much anywhere into that bowl. That one is milder closer to the chair and gets steeper closer to the lodge. I love this bowl and it certainly gives an escape when there is no vis higher up.

Ok, if you take that same trail (Pioneer) off Jerome Hill you can access the main lodge side of the area. On that side, again, mild to hard, left to right as you face the hill (or the map). Christmas Tree is useful to come back to Judah, and mostly used by Racers on Van Ruiten's, closed to the public. But to the right of the chair, that bowl is fairly mild and short and it can be a lot of fun.

Lincoln Chair, I don't care much because it is mostly steep groomers where people take a lot of speed, not necessarily in control. But it has a great view from the top. Gotta go at least once. It provides access to the Palisades. That's serious expert terrain beyond my capabilities. My favorite run there is Vanderbilt's if the snow is soft enough (natural frozen snow is not my thing). To get there you exit right from the lift, and stay always on the left on the groomers. It is kinda hidden. Beautiful steepish bowl of natural snow. Not too long.

Disney takes a long catwalk from that area. Everything there is fun, but the groomers, same thing, people go out of control more often than not. The milder area is exiting right from the chaiir, a few groomers. The rest is advanced: coming back under the chair and taking the bowl down. That's perhaps the most trafficked advanced area and it gets really tracked out and scratchy, if you like that. Exiting left you have one my favorite runs there: East Face, It is steep and I don't take it if groomed, but most of the time it's not, and if the bumps are soft it is a ton of fun.

Best for last: Crow's peak. This is between advanced and expert terrain. I normally lap Rob's run there. The run itself is steep and bumpy. Once you exit it's a big mild bowl, I recommend the glades, skiers left, back to the chair. You might find untracked between the glades and the groomed run back to the chair.

To get there: come off Disney exiting right, stick to Disney traverse. It's a little hard to find, You'll probably see Rob's run to the left. But the chair doesn't always run. Try to ask the lifties in Disney before heading there.

Assuming you followed the tour, how do you come back? I normally go back to Disney, then up and come down on East Face. From there to Christmas tree, exit left, and you'll see signs back to the Judah lodge.

It's a bit of a tour so you don't want to start the way back too late in the day.

Boy, I just wrote a little guide to Sugar Bowl! I have a season pass there

I am overbwhelmed by the amount of great information. Thank you all so much. Just checking in now and looking forward to two great days on snow!

Thanks again!

 

[skibob]

Yes! Check their trails and resort map here
https://www.sugarbowl.com/trailmaps

I really prefer parking on the Judah parking lot. If you get there early (before 8:30) in a weekday, you'll park really close to the lifts. I boot up and walk to the lodge. You'll see the ticket window to the left, and likely a mountain host will indicate where exactly it is. Hard to miss. They also can sell tickets inside the same building.

Lifts: let's focus on the map - lifts go from beginner to advance very gradually, left to right. Genius. I would warm up on Jerome HIll lift, using Trailblazer which is always groomed, mild and long. Just one run there will get your legs going. That's exiting the lift to your left. Btw, if you exit to your left and just keep going left into the glades, that area is fun and mild. If you exit to the right, you can take the groomer and exit pretty much anywhere into that bowl. That one is milder closer to the chair and gets steeper closer to the lodge. I love this bowl and it certainly gives an escape when there is no vis higher up.

Ok, if you take that same trail (Pioneer) off Jerome Hill you can access the main lodge side of the area. On that side, again, mild to hard, left to right as you face the hill (or the map). Christmas Tree is useful to come back to Judah, and mostly used by Racers on Van Ruiten's, closed to the public. But to the right of the chair, that bowl is fairly mild and short and it can be a lot of fun.

Lincoln Chair, I don't care much because it is mostly steep groomers where people take a lot of speed, not necessarily in control. But it has a great view from the top. Gotta go at least once. It provides access to the Palisades. That's serious expert terrain beyond my capabilities. My favorite run there is Vanderbilt's if the snow is soft enough (natural frozen snow is not my thing). To get there you exit right from the lift, and stay always on the left on the groomers. It is kinda hidden. Beautiful steepish bowl of natural snow. Not too long.

Disney takes a long catwalk from that area. Everything there is fun, but the groomers, same thing, people go out of control more often than not. The milder area is exiting right from the chaiir, a few groomers. The rest is advanced: coming back under the chair and taking the bowl down. That's perhaps the most trafficked advanced area and it gets really tracked out and scratchy, if you like that. Exiting left you have one my favorite runs there: East Face, It is steep and I don't take it if groomed, but most of the time it's not, and if the bumps are soft it is a ton of fun.

Best for last: Crow's peak. This is between advanced and expert terrain. I normally lap Rob's run there. The run itself is steep and bumpy. Once you exit it's a big mild bowl, I recommend the glades, skiers left, back to the chair. You might find untracked between the glades and the groomed run back to the chair.

To get there: come off Disney exiting right, stick to Disney traverse. It's a little hard to find, You'll probably see Rob's run to the left. But the chair doesn't always run. Try to ask the lifties in Disney before heading there.

Assuming you followed the tour, how do you come back? I normally go back to Disney, then up and come down on East Face. From there to Christmas tree, exit left, and you'll see signs back to the Judah lodge.

It's a bit of a tour so you don't want to start the way back too late in the day.

Boy, I just wrote a little guide to Sugar Bowl! I have a season pass there

I was just going to say, you should copy this and turn it into an "Unofficial Guide" with a little development. Nice work Leo.

 

[skibob]

The last time I spotted bears at Northstar was around the same time of the year a few seasons ago.

This was from Mid-March 2016, while riding up Promised Land Express.

isn't this awfully early for them to be out? I mean, especially with the weather this year?!?

 

[textrovert]

isn't this awfully early for them to be out? I mean, especially with the weather this year?!

That is surprising. It's not like it's been a warm or low-snow season like one of the drought years..

 

[textrovert]

Did not make the Tahoe trip this weekend since my daughter was out on a school robotics competition at Fresno.

Instead, made a season-edit style video with more "production" that I usually put into my clips. This is all from footage shot at Diamond Peak. I posted earlier in the video//photo stoke forum, re-posting here. This was actually quite fun to put together. I might do more once the season is done... So in August maybe?

 

[dbostedo]

Did not make the Tahoe trip this weekend since my daughter was out on a school robotics competition at Fresno.

Instead, made a season-edit style video with more "production" that I usually put into my clips. This is all from footage shot at Diamond Peak. I posted earlier in the video//photo stoke forum, re-posting here. This was actually quite fun to put together. I might do more once the season is done... So in August maybe?

Nice! I like the ending. And the zoom out to tiny planet view/zoom into a new scene transition.

 

[Tricia]

Beyond next weekend, my skiing will be interrupted for a week or two as this old landscape photographer drives way way down south to our Riverside and San Diego Counties where colorful desert wildflowers are beginning to explode.

Thought of this post when I saw this article pop up on my news feed.
Where to see desert wildflowers right now.

 

[neonorchid]

^ Great videos!

Looking for a go to ski destination, thinking I could make last week of this month (March) work but unshure of conditions, chances for new snow powder day(s) and decent soft snow, not gloop and seiera cement. Long term (two weeks out) weather reports for Tahoe Heavenly seem to be trending toward the warm side up above 32º at base elevations and up.

Can any here help convince me Tahoe (Heavenly & NStar) conditions could/would be worth the long cross-country flight, time and expense at the time of year this ski season?
Alternately I'm thinking CO is closer with many direct non-stop flight options and higher elevation...