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

[Plai]

Just arrived Auburn. 5hrs from Kings Beach. 1.5hr was just to get past N*.

At least was able to work on powder technique in the morning.

 

[Alexzn]

Epic day, everything skied really well,sweet lines on KT (first thing), Sibo, Emigrant, headwall and granite. A few lines today were REALLY memorable.

Traffic on the other hand.... Such a clusterfuck. I feel for @Plai. Driving out on a last day of a long weekend that happens to be a powder day is going to be dicey. Took us two hours to get from Squaw to TD. Should have staid in the village and drunk beer...

 

[Andy Mink]

And another of Rose today. Shortly before they spun the Slide lift. It has lines on both sides.

 

[Alexzn]

What Alex said, above. If you really mean what you say, for this week, you can't go too big.

EDIT: The groomers at squaw suck, and are generally used to get from one off trail location to another. Also, make sure to get over to alpine. it's really good too, and has WAY better cruising and groomers.

Just sayin.

@Spelunker if they open Silvy, be careful, this is easy cliff-out terrain. If you are there when they open it (within 15 minutes) take a normal run (gates 1-6), you just can't let that opportunity slip by, but be very careful and do not go too fast. All other scenarios: take gate 7 first and look at the terrain from the bottom before venturing into any of the normal gates. You have been warned.

Groomers: they do not quite suck esp on a weekday. If they groom Main Backside on Granite, it's super fun and is significantly steeper than anything comparable length in Tahoe. Alpine groomers are admittedly longer and have more variety.

 

[SSSdave]

Snow on SR88 was down to Buckhorn at 3.5k so the top layer of snow was quite light. Was parked by 8:40am. Large lines at openings. Ch 6 opened at 9:10am then Ch 5 about 9:20am and Ch11 I chose at 9:30am with Ch 10 9:40am. Best run was first powder run of day and season down skiers left edge of Buckboard. With big crowd, worked ignored ch2/3 areas. Took a lot of smartphone shots of my tracks and will post some later this week. This snow will make excellent packed powder bumps this mid-week. In SLT tonight and will ski HV tomorrow.

 

[Alexzn]

80 is still a mess...

 

[Plai]

80 is still a mess...

Thanks, that made me feel better. It was a running debate in my head if I should have waited until after 6p.

Anyways, safely home now, so all well now.

 

[textrovert]

I thought I was being clever leaving early and taking 28/50 from Incline Village to avoid 267/80... It was just me and 4000 other Wazers
My longest non-storm/clear weather drive back ever from Tahoe to San Jose. It took 3 hrs just to get to Sierra from Incline- this was the worst of it. Spent a good 45 mins of this at complete rest, engine off. No idea what it was. Never saw an accident or anything that could explain it along the way. Once we crossed Sierra, it was an average Sunday evening drive - 4 hours. So total of 7 hours today

But, that's all forgotten already. The memories will be more like this-

 

[Alexzn]

Home in less than 3 hours but we left at 11:30pm. Even at 11pm there was still pockets of traffic over the pass.

Does anyone know what happened this Monday? I can't remember such traffic clusterfuck on a day with no storm and fairly nice roads...

 

[Jellybeans1000]

The 10 day forecast is obviously pretty dry, but I am interested in the 1-10 Feb period in potential for some more snowfall for the Tahoe region.

https://longrangesnowcenter.blogspot.com/2019/01/north-america-on-long-term-22nd-jan.html

It looked like a great time in the past few days, some sunshine isn't awful after a nice snowfall

 

[Mendieta]

Does anyone know what happened this Monday? I can't remember such traffic clusterfuck on a day with no storm and fairly nice roads...

Not sure. But as we were slowly approaching Sugar Bowl Friday, with significant delays, I was telling my son that we probably still had made the right decision for a day trip this weekend. That this not rare combination of an epic storm in what had been a dry season, during a normally zoo-like long-weekend, was going to bring huge masses to Tahoe. MLK crowd plus Powder crowd = too much for me.

The sad thing is that many ski areas close in April with lots of snow, perfect weather and a total lack of visitors

 

[Alexzn]

Not sure. But as we were slowly approaching Sugar Bowl Friday, with significant delays, I was telling my son that we probably still had made the right decision for a day trip this weekend. That this not rare combination of an epic storm in what had been a dry season, during a normally zoo-like long-weekend, was going to bring huge masses to Tahoe. MLK crowd plus Powder crowd = too much for me.

The sad thing is that many ski areas close in April with lots of snow, perfect weather and a total lack of visitors

I remember other holiday + epic storm combinations, nothing like yesterday. The only comparable experience was when it is a holiday weekend and It is snowing over the pass. Yesterday was dry. A few observations: Squaw usually makes Squaw Valley road with cones to turn it into a two-day lane road in the exit direction, yesterday they didn't do that. Not sure how much effect that makes, but getting out of the parking lot became a chore. But the maninnissue was 80. Usually it has enough capacity to absorb traffic from 89 and whatever the Northstar road is. Yesterday it was gridlocked. And the worst were the idiots who tried to take a "shortcut" through Tahoe Donner....

 

[Pequenita]

I randomly checked traffic last night to see the impact of a truck that had spilled thousands of pounds of marble on EB80 in Roseville, and I was shocked at the traffic on 89 and 80. The only thing I can think of "happening" yesterday is day trippers.

 

[Tony]

Does anyone know what happened this Monday? I can't remember such traffic clusterfuck on a day with no storm and fairly nice roads...

I think we can all look in the mirror for the answer to your question. Too many people trying to beat the traffic home at the end of a three-day weekend. Or it could be this guy.
Picture was taken late afternoon on Sat. outside South Lake Brewing Company. I thought all Range Rovers were 4WD. In fairness, we don't know what his driveway looks like, but there were people taking chains off after going over Echo Summit on Monday afternoon.

It took me at least an extra hour to get onto climb out of South Tahoe leaving before 1 PM on Monday, taking all the shortcuts and driving past the local traffic only signs. The people who did not ignore the sign looked like they were going to be parked on Sawmill for a long time. Once on the climb, the traffic was not that bad.

 

[Andy Mink]

I think we can all look in the mirror for the answer to your question. Too many people trying to beat the traffic home at the end of a three-day weekend. Or it could be this guy. View attachment 63478
Picture was taken late afternoon on Sat. outside South Lake Brewing Company. I thought all Range Rovers were 4WD. In fairness, we don't know what his driveway looks like, but there were people taking chains off after going over Echo Summit on Monday afternoon.

It took me at least an extra hour to get onto climb out of South Tahoe leaving before 1 PM on Monday, taking all the shortcuts and driving past the local traffic only signs. The people who did not ignore the sign looked like they were going to be parked on Sawmill for a long time. Once on the climb, the traffic was not that bad.

The best is seeing people putting chains on the rear tires of Dodge Caravans, Toyota Camrys, etc.

 

[Tony]

Heavenly lived up to it's name on Monday. I was on about 10th chair on Gunbarrel when they started loading at 8:25. Even though lower mountain had been skied on Sunday, with 12 of the 18" new Heavenly claimed falling overnight, I couldn't pass up a Face lap where I didn't cross any tracks. Then I got four laps on Canyon before line drove my away including first tracks down Sky Canyon and a couple of long and deep untracked lines from traversing to just past Sky chair (which did not open until 12:30). Returning to lower mountain, I found rooms for more tracks in trees to skiers right of Waterfall, then got a little more untracked by taking the overlooked middle entrance into Gunbarrel. The next two times up, I took very lightly used track that got me high enough above main traverse to Avalanche Bowl to get about 10 deep turns before crossing anything. I quit before 11 as my wife, who came with me but did ski due a back problem, wanted to get on way home early. We were delayed at least 10 minutes looking for Beagle who got out gate and headed down the street while I was on the cabin roof, sweeping snow off skylights. I saw her turn off street into other cabin's yard, but she did not come out until she knew my wife was there with a treat. We were concerned that a coyote could have gotten her as they live in the area.

 

[textrovert]

I remember other holiday + epic storm combinations, nothing like yesterday. The only comparable experience was when it is a holiday weekend and It is snowing over the pass. Yesterday was dry. A few observations: Squaw usually makes Squaw Valley road with cones to turn it into a two-day lane road in the exit direction, yesterday they didn't do that. Not sure how much effect that makes, but getting out of the parking lot became a chore. But the maninnissue was 80. Usually it has enough capacity to absorb traffic from 89 and whatever the Northstar road is. Yesterday it was gridlocked. And the worst were the idiots who tried to take a "shortcut" through Tahoe Donner....

It was not just 80. 50 upto Sierra-at-Tahoe was ridiculous. And nothing that seemed to be triggering it. Clear weather, no accidents.

I have a feeling it was just too many people not used to mountain driving or etiquette. Examples I saw once it opened up a bit past Sierra-
Terrible use of passing lanes in the 25 miles stretch. Slow car on the right going 45 mph. "Fast" car overtaking on the left at 46 mph. :|
Once passing lane straight stretch done, both cars drop to 30 mph :|
When we finally got to 2 lanes, slow cars forming a 50mp wall and neither allowing passing :|'

There was a Tesla and a Acura MDX combo that particularly drove me nuts

 

[SSSdave]

Left KW early at 2:30pm after 5 solid hours of powder skiing. In singles lines all day that despite the large crowds we're only long once before ch 2 opened as otherwise worked Ch 2/3 that had much untracked in usual obscure favorite places. As everyone else rushed over to ch 4, I went the opposite direction skiing Juniper and totally untracked lookers left of the chair in full view of the huge line in the lift maze.

At the 89/50 junction traffic was fully backed up up towards the pass. As I went in via Pioneer Trail another 2 mile long backup. Town empty now. Near 9am, cold 12F sunrise, so will wait till about 10am to get out and walk over to the gondola.

 

[Alexzn]

I think we can all look in the mirror for the answer to your question. Too many people trying to beat the traffic home at the end of a three-day weekend. Or it could be this guy. View attachment 63478
Picture was taken late afternoon on Sat. outside South Lake Brewing Company. I thought all Range Rovers were 4WD. In fairness, we don't know what his driveway looks like, but there were people taking chains off after going over Echo Summit on Monday .

You don't know what his tires were. If he has summer tires, chains may not have been a bad call....

 

[SSSdave]

Oh one other thing, SR88 has tall snow banks averaging over car height for miles like we often we big years mid Winter, with some in drift spots now 15 to 20 feet above the pavement.