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

[skibob]

View attachment 63781 Does anyone know what the biscuit is at N*?
Mtn ops has posted a cryptic tweet the last couple days

haha, no. Google doesn't reveal either (aside: google does reveal there is apparently a "Northstar Cafe" in Ohio that serves "Heavenly Biscuits" thought that was rather ironic! No reference to Kirkwood or Vail on their menu . . . )

White Rabbit I know. The Biscuit, I do not. Will keep my eyes open for it . . .

 

[Mendieta]

Tose is beautiful today.early sprimg conditions.

Booted up at 8 (yup, left home early). Took fourth chair 8:30 on slide, one hour of drills on groomers and when it started getting crowded I went to shop for turns on mild glades. Tons of fun. Crustu first bu never hard, everything was edgeable.

 

[Alexzn]

Chairlift conversation of the day (I'm on my GS race skis):
- How old are your skis?
-Two years.
- No way, they are too narrow to be only two years old....

 

[Alexzn]

And Squaw is super crowded today.

 

[Andy Mink]

Easy laps at Rose today. Good to see @Mendieta in the lodge though we didn't get any runs in together. Skied with some friends and their kids, then a lap with my son and his buddy. They were in the bar waiting to see if they won a pair of Bonafides or a *gack* snowboard!

 

[skibob]

Northstar snow was quite good still. On and off piste. Backside was icier as usual, but all good.

The slopes weren't terribly crowded if you know where to go. But we got one of the last parking spaces around 10am.

 

[Alexzn]

Plenty of good snow at Squaw today, big lines on all major chairs up top. KT snow was also good although ice is showing at some places. Best snow of the day: middle of Chute75.

Some gaper ran me over when I was going uphill to get to the NASTAR course, put some gashes into my ski topsheet and had the nerve to yell at me. I politely explain that if you are moving downhill in a pizza you still need to yeild to uphill traffic. He was not convinced.

I'm most likely skiing Diamond Peak tomorrow (parenting the U14 race).

 

[Eric267]

Northstar snow was quite good still. On and off piste. Backside was icier as usual, but all good.

The slopes weren't terribly crowded if you know where to go. But we got one of the last parking spaces around 10am.

Did you find the biscuit?

 

[skibob]

Did you find the biscuit?

Nope! But I was looking for it.

Did have an absolute freak occurrence though. Been laughing about it all evening although it confused the hell out of me at the time.

Got on Rendezvous lift with my kids. For those unfamiliar, its an old fixed grip triple. So when there are kids, the liftie usually grabs the chair and pulls it back and down. So it kind of shoots out at you and scoops you up and then, of course, bounces down. I don't like this practice as its pretty low anyway and I've gotten a few really nasty pinches on the back of my calves when the chair comes down on the back of the legs and pinches skin against the top of my boots.

Anyway, this time it lifted my son (9) up, but my much longer legs had my feet on the ground still. When it bounced down he apparently landed on the heel piece of my binding. So when we then shot forward one of my skis stayed put on the ground! WTF! My ski came up on the next chair and all was well, but that was bizarre. As he said, "I couldn't have done that if I tried to".

 

[marjoram_sage]

Northstar snow was quite good still. On and off piste. Backside was icier as usual, but all good.

The slopes weren't terribly crowded if you know where to go. But we got one of the last parking spaces around 10am.

Clearly I don't know where to escape the crowds. Comstock, backside, promised Land were all crowded. Rendezvous was not crowded but I didn't ride that lift. Is the timber line lift uncrowded?

 

[skibob]

Clearly I don't know where to escape the crowds. Comstock, backside, promised Land were all crowded. Rendezvous was not crowded but I didn't ride that lift. Is the number line lift uncrowded?

What really made it possible yesterday was that hte snow was good everywhere.

Rendezvous is a good place to get away. There are a few steep groomers. To the left of the lift the glades are steep and to the right they are not steep. Yesterday with the compliant snow the low angle glades were quite fun. There is also loggers loop off of Vista which gives access to some fun stuff that is less traveled. Didn't use that lift yesterday, but usually its not too bad because most people erroneously think it accesses only terrain parks.

Zephyr was awful the one time I rode it, but is still a better way up than Arrow-->Comstock. We rode Promised Land a couple of times and it wasn't too bad (ATC). Didn't wait more than 5-7 minutes. But the runs were crowded. For some reason I've noticed those wide open groomers people seem to bunch up and come in waves, so I just time it between the waves.

Lookout is usually a good bet on a busy day, but we didn't make it over there.

EDIT: Timberline I know nothing about. It hadnt turned in some time. They've only recently begun to spin it again. I know it is a slow FG Triple like Rendezvous.

 

[raytseng]

@marjoram_sage ive ridden northstar a lot on blackout and crowded weekends.
There is no perfect strategy to escape crowds based on lifts except for timing the magic hours.
Get there at 8am so you can bootup and get to the gondola before first chair get the first hour magic hour. Eat lunch early around 11 so you can get the lunch magic hour 12 to 1ish.
also by about 3 most families are calling it quits so you get the end of day magic hour if you aren't calling it quits with them. If you are traveling though keep traffic in mind.

The only other area to attempt is martis camp on lookout mtn. Your best resource though is just use the app or website to check lines before planning your next set of runs.
e.g. take zephyr to backside to get to summit instead of arrow and comstock.
comstock in general will have long lines and avoid it during peak.

 

[skibob]

@marjoram_sage ive ridden northstar a lot on blackout and crowded weekends.
There is no perfect strategy to escape crowds based on lifts except for timing the magic hours.
Get there at 8am so you can bootup and get to the gondola before first chair get the first hour magic hour. Eat lunch early around 11 so you can get the lunch magic hour 12 to 1ish.
also by about 3 most families are calling it quits so you get the end of day magic hour.

The only other area to attempt is martis camp on lookout mtn. Your best resource though is just use the app or website to check lines before planning your next set of runs.
e.g. take zephyr to backside to get to summit instead of arrow and comstock.
comstock in general will have long lines and avoid it during peak.

Good answer. We arrived late yesterday because I expected ice in the early hours. But I am told that didn't happen, so we missed out.

Rather than "timing lunch" though, we have a better strategy. Its all packed in our backpacks/jackets. We will sit down and eat once or twice during the day (better to eat smaller/more freqeuntly for energy/health too) just in an out of the way place on the mountain. Only visit a lodge for the bathroom ideally.

 

[Andy Mink]

More beautiful times at Mt. Rose. With @AKMINK.

 

[Tony]

At Kirkwood today, then probably Heavenly on Mon and Northstar on Tues, then home. Got 4 rides on Backside before crowds drove me away. Now on third Wall ride. Snow is great, especially in Eagle Bowl.

 

[Philpug]

HEavenly skied well this AM. Even with the inversion, the snow was nice and chalky.

Skied with the offspring.

 

[textrovert]

Agree with everyone that has reported in so far- Really nice conditions today. No crowds too. I was at Squaw. Met up with @oldfashoned and a friend of his! Fun day of skiing Headwall and Granite Chief with them both. I'll post some pics & clips later in the week.

Moon over KT


Red Dog ridge


Headwall tracks today-

Granite Chief tracks today-


Also, my daughter had GS Far West traces this weekend at Squaw. Posing at the bottom of the course yesterday-

 

[Philpug]

Agree with everyone that has reported in so far- Really nice conditions today. No crowds too. I was at Squaw. Met up with @oldfashoned and a friend of his! Fun day of skiing Headwall and Granite Chief with them both. I'll post some pics & clips later in the week.

Moon over KT
View attachment 63874

Red Dog ridge
View attachment 63875

Headwall tracks today- View attachment 63876

Granite Chief tracks today-
View attachment 63877

Also, my daughter had GS Far West traces this weekend at Squaw. Posing at the bottom of the course yesterday- View attachment 63878

Did the canting help?

 

[textrovert]

Did the canting help?

She loved it! Thanks. Her coach said he could see the difference in her turns with it.

 

[Andy Mink]

No crowds too.

That's because they were all at Rose! It got to be holiday nuts. We bailed when it got harder to swivel my head than ski. Watching cars in the parking lot was akin to watching a boat launch on the first nice summer day.