California/Nevada 2019-2020 Tahoe Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups Thread....

[ProLeisure]

Squaw was a lot of fun today, especially Headwall.

I got there about 11:30 and most of the mountain was still covered in clouds, but by 12:00 the curtain was lifted and it was beautiful.

 

[Paul Lutes]

Those days that start out overcast and dreary, then open up to glorious bright blue, are better than powder.
Most of the time.

 

[Rainbow Jenny]

Those days that start out overcast and dreary, then open up to glorious bright blue, are better than powder.
Mot of the time.

Pretty darn good but a distant second to powder days, IMHO.

 

[Tony]

I found some untracked powder? in trees next to Heidi’s. First time I was returning from a couple of Resort laps and had to side-step to get up hill on way past old Red Dog lift top terminal. Second time I carried enough speed and only did a couple of herringbones. Only track is probably my first lap.

I also found some refrozen mank when I skied an alternate East Face to get to Olympic Lady which I had to ride (twice) since it was running.


More W-facing snow off steep ridge past Tamara’s was OK as was a last run down West Face of KT.

 

[SSSdave]

Wednesday great fun skiing Northstar again under partly sunny skies, but with 2 to 3 inches overnight. Most runs again down The Rapids, early enjoying finding powder bump technique with my new SA88's, and not as long as non-stoppers given the less smearable surfaces.

Today looks a bit more cloudy. Moguls will be more suitable for running long lines so am excited. Likely ski a groomer mix a bit more.

 

[Paul Lutes]

Pretty darn good but a distant second to powder days, IMHO.

How about a powder day that starts out overcast and foggy, with flat light geezer challenging visibility, that suddenly pops open into brilliant blue bird sunshine?

 

[Alexzn]

How about a powder day that starts out overcast and foggy, with flat light geezer challenging visibility, that suddenly pops open into brilliant blue bird sunshine?

How about a powder day, period?

 

[Eric267]

Got out to alpine a little before noon. Off piste easily accessible from the lift was a variable combination of thick and a little chunky but not too bad. High T was where it was at as you could find tons of smoothies everywhere with a little work. Wasn’t quite a corn cycle but the untouched wind buff from the Tuesday Storm definitely settled into a freeze/thaw transition to cream cheese. This incoming storm brought a little bit of an inversion into the basin with it being 45° at alpine base and dropping below 40° at lake level when I left a bit after 3. Definitely better than expected!

Hopefully tonights weather stays to the north pushes the R#%N up and away from the basin. Then I guess we wait and see how the snow levels for the storm Saturday night into Sunday pan out

 

[Paul Lutes]

How about a powder day, period?

Pay attention: must be PERFECT.

 

[Philpug]

Who si skiing Squaw or Alpine tomorrow? Anyone...Bueller?

 

[luliski]

Who si skiing Squaw or Alpine tomorrow? Anyone...Bueller?

Skiing ⛷ Alpine!

 

[luliski]

Fun day at Alpine today. Snow was a little heavy, but we had fun. We need ca cold storm.

 

[luliski]

Got out to alpine a little before noon. Off piste easily accessible from the lift was a variable combination of thick and a little chunky but not too bad. High T was where it was at as you could find tons of smoothies everywhere with a little work. Wasn’t quite a corn cycle but the untouched wind buff from the Tuesday Storm definitely settled into a freeze/thaw transition to cream cheese. This incoming storm brought a little bit of an inversion into the basin with it being 45° at alpine base and dropping below 40° at lake level when I left a bit after 3. Definitely better than expected!

Hopefully tonights weather stays to the north pushes the R#%N up and away from the basin. Then I guess we wait and see how the snow levels for the storm Saturday night into Sunday pan out

View attachment 91133 View attachment 91134

Almost the same photo

 

[SSSdave]

Depending on exposure, snow quality at Northstar has changed considerably in just two balmy days after the weak wet overruning storm, Tuesday. Today versus the steep groomed top of Martis, the bottom of Lookout Mtn was way more changed to heavy wet frozen snow. Still quite good packed powder snow up high, especially on The Rapids above tower 19. For a couple lift rides followed a group skiing another part of the mountain, that was fun as I have much yet to explore at NS. Looking forward to next Mon/Tue.

Some fresh tracks off West Ridge 2pm Wednesday 1/22/2020 more than 2>3 inches deep.



View from lift on Backside Express with tower 21 at left. Note top of lift is tower 23/24. One of the best lines of lower gradient moguls in Tahoe to practice bump skiing on. Just veer out to nearby Burnout at tower 20.



View from lift lower down at tower 19 where the slope gradient is steepest. The above image was thus taken at about the next tower higher up, tower 20. My first run today skied from the top at tower 24 non-stop down to a bit below this tower 19, then went over to groomed Burnout.



This image is looking up at tower 14, a lot of moguls below those in the above image at tower 19. Below this is more bumps till the end at tower 10 where a road veers off left to lower Burnout. Snow on these lower bumps is noticeably heavier now Thursday versus the top though was excellent cold snow Wednesday morning so it changed quickly during the single day as temp reached above 40F. Forecast is showing even warmer days at the end of next week.

 

[Tony]

At Squaw for third day in a row. Seems like overnight r—n froze. Headwall not loading early due to wind (or maybe firm conditions). Only skiing until noon so I can get home ahead of traffic and walk dogs.

Thursday was good in most places and excellent on Squaw Creek where groom did not freeze overnight and barely got skied including Upper Nob Hill which requires short hike up Sully’s Knob that I did twice.

 

[textrovert]

I was at Northstar today. I was worried that the rain yesterday would make for some miserable conditions.. but it was really much better than I expected. Seemed like they got some heavy snow at the top. Groomers were really nice all day.

I took a test run into Monument Glade in the afternoon. Top third was smearable and then it transitioned into firm crust that randomly punched through. At that point I bailed into burnout nearby.

I did a pass through Rapids bump run under the chair line too (aka @SSSdave 's run ). Top half was really nice. Even I could manage

After that, it was back to groomers on Lookout (Prosser, Martis). I was tempted to give Stampede a try, but started punching through crust near the entry and chickened back to the groomer.

Overall, nice day. No rain!!
I used to ski regularly at Northstar 5-10 years ago. This was my first time back since 16-17 season. I did shell out $20 for the old paid parking near there Gondola/first aid area. On Sat/Sun, the same parking will be $40!

Some pics-




I took a run with my 360 camera on extension pole attached to my helmet. I looked ridiculous and weight felt unbalanced on my helmet... But the video looks almost like a follow-drone recording.

 

[Tony]

I skied past Funitel a couple of times and line kept getting longer so I waited until Headwall opened sometime after 10. I dropped off road to Chicken Bowl and did not find snow that great, then skied Siberia Bowl (picture taken at 1045)
a couple of times before finding run of the day, Siberia Ridge, which had a couple of inches of new that skied well. I only did it once then cutting across to get to Emigrant which seemed to slow down when I got on. Since it was such a long ride, I went into the Funnel for the first time in a while and skied the steep left side where there was a couple of inches new, before cutting to the right to get through the choke. Shirley Bowl was also good, but both Shirley and Granite Chief had longer lines than I had time to wait in since I was quitting early.
Shirley 1 was more crowded a minute or so before I took picture.
\
So I returned to Siberia and skied the new snow off the Ridge three more times and also found some new snow on top of smooth groom on Racers.
I was on the road about 12:15 and back in San Jose 3 1/2 hrs later. It was high 60s going through Concord and almost 70 when I got home.

Following picture is when I left Squaw at 5 pm on Thurs after having two beers at Cornice Cantina; a $8 50-50 CAPA and a $1 PBR Shifter

 

[Philpug]

Squaw was pretty good today. We hung out at Sibo and Headwall.

 

[Alexzn]

@Tony this is really not a big line at Granite... but I hear you...

 

[Eric267]

I was at Northstar today. I was worried that the rain yesterday would make for some miserable conditions.. but it was really much better than I expected. Seemed like they got some heavy snow at the top. Groomers were really nice all day.

I took a test run into Monument Glade in the afternoon. Top third was smearable and then it transitioned into firm crust that randomly punched through. At that point I bailed into burnout nearby.

I did a pass through Rapids bump run under the chair line too (aka @SSSdave 's run ). Top half was really nice. Even I could manage

After that, it was back to groomers on Lookout (Prosser, Martis). I was tempted to give Stampede a try, but started punching through crust near the entry and chickened back to the groomer.

Overall, nice day. No rain!!
I used to ski regularly at Northstar 5-10 years ago. This was my first time back since 16-17 season. I did shell out $20 for the old paid parking near there Gondola/first aid area. On Sat/Sun, the same parking will be $40!

Some pics-
View attachment 91244

View attachment 91245

I took a run with my 360 camera on extension pole attached to my helmet. I looked ridiculous and weight felt unbalanced on my helmet... But the video looks almost like a follow-drone recording.

That’s a pretty rad angle!

Was out at N* today also but only from 1:30-4 all backside . Off piste and in the trees was definitely junkshow. Castle peak was the winner with nice butter and quick laps via promised land. CP and Kit Carson might be my favorite blue groomers in Tahoe. So wide & you can really open it up full on hip to the ground when softish

Almost the same photo

Sorta. Same general angle.. I was on the other side of the bowl out the high-t on top of S.P. Cornice. Yours looks like from the top of Xpert shortcut before the Return road split