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

[SSSdave]

Tahoe early season snow varies too much to have much value for planning. Long range forecasts have been improving but are still not much better than flipping coins. Even Christmas has sometimes still been bony. Best Tahoe strategy is don't believe it till you see it. Mammoth and southern Rockies are worse, northern Rockies better, and Pacific Northwest most reliable.

 

[Tony]

Tahoe early season snow varies too much to have much value for planning. Long range forecasts have been improving but are still not much better than flipping coins. Even Christmas has sometimes still been bony. Best Tahoe strategy is don't believe it till you see it. Mammoth and southern Rockies are worse, northern Rockies better, and Pacific Northwest most reliable.

Dave, I agree with you up to where you say "Mammoth". Mammoth has been in the teens this week and will open on 11/8, if not earlier. It will probably first be a WROD, but should get better every day and if there are storms, Mammoth does not get usually get r--n that can hit Tahoe. Contrast Mammoth during Fall, especially three years ago, with Tahoe when temps were not low enough for Northstar and some other Tahoe areas to make snow to open when scheduled. I also don't agree that Pacific Northwest is always "most reliable". While Bachelor is usually good early (and also Baker), other WA areas have experienced poor or no early season due to warm temps.

 

[Decreed_It]

Tahoe early season snow varies too much to have much value for planning. Long range forecasts have been improving but are still not much better than flipping coins. Even Christmas has sometimes still been bony. Best Tahoe strategy is don't believe it till you see it. Mammoth and southern Rockies are worse, northern Rockies better, and Pacific Northwest most reliable.

Heard. We're now looking at Grand Targhee or Banff - both somewhat of a pain to get to from NC - Targhee moreso. It might not happen at all, but thanks everyone for the input. Tahoe's still high on the bucket list! Just later season.

 

[Mendieta]

I'm feeling it, baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tricia]

Just a heads up, The TGR Film Winterland is showing next week in Reno.
Greater Nevada Field. Great venue from last year.
https://www.tetongravity.com/films/winterland/tour/reno-premiere-of-winterland

 

[Plai]

Rose (and IKON) passes just arrived today. Winter must be closing in....

 

[Tricia]

Its encouraging to see patches of snow up on Mt Rose.

Meanwhile I'm wondering how many of our Tahoe readers will be on line the next few days considering the PG&E shut offs that are scheduled.
https://abc7news.com/society/maps-pg-e-power-outage-is-affecting-these-bay-area-cities/5603768/

 

[skibob]

Its encouraging to see patches of snow up on Mt Rose.

Meanwhile I'm wondering how many of our Tahoe readers will be on line the next few days considering the PG&E shut offs that are scheduled.
https://abc7news.com/society/maps-pg-e-power-outage-is-affecting-these-bay-area-cities/5603768/

I have no power at home. This was a no-brainer as we were less than 1/4 mile from the edge of the Tubbs fire in 2017 (two years ago . . . TODAY!).

As much as a 48 hour power outage sucks, it sure as hell beats a fire storm whose progress is measured in football fields per minute. A lot of people are moaning about PGE overreacting. And maybe they are. I think that is more likely than not. But anybody who has fled that with their family in the middle of the night . . . let's just say power outages are easy.

The big surprise was no cellular data at home. Calls are working just fine. But no data at all.

So I went to the office at 6:30 this A.M.

 

[Mendieta]

So I went to the office at 6:30 this A.M

So, what took them so long? (To kick you out of a house with no data !!!)

EDIT: we are losing power at noon.

 

[SSSdave]

Latest shut offs will be extending as far south as mountain and foothill sections of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties. Let's hope all this media attention does not encourage fire psycho's. Thus far 2019 has been our quietest fire year in at least a decade maybe two.

 

[Andy Mink]

It's a shame that PG&E doesn't fix the issue instead of shutting power off. Power lines and other fixtures don't last forever and those costs of repair and replace should have been in place for decades.

 

[skibob]

It's a shame that PG&E doesn't fix the issue instead of shutting power off. Power lines and other fixtures don't last forever and those costs of repair and replace should have been in place for decades.

The real and best fix is undergrounding them in critical places and/or micro-gridding so they can actively shut off just critical areas instead 1/2 of a city of 170,000 (ie, Santa Rosa) at one time for lack of a better strategy. You look at their maps and a lot of people are "casualties" of the fact that there is a tiny block of vulnerable terrain 5 miles away, but on the same sub-grid.

 

[textrovert]

Winter stoke - Got this in the mail today

Saw @Philpug listed in the back in the Kickstarter backer's list. (
I messed up and forgot to send the name I wanted in time So I'm not listed, haha).

 

[Tony]

I'm in the part of San Jose that was supposed to have (or maybe have) power shutoff at noon today (I received three texts from PGE saying 10/9). Our house is at least a mile from where homes end and East Foothills/grasslands start. I had a meeting scheduled for 11, but moved it up to 10 to try to avoid any problems even though I only had to go through about 5 signals to get home from meeting. Since was I almost home and it was only 11:30 I stopped at CVS to do some shopping. I heard they were out of flashlights and checker said they had sold a lot of ice.

Leaving there the next signal was an exit from the community college which had closed. So not only was a lot of traffic exiting, but people were still trying to go into college where a staffer (and a sign) was telling them it was closed. People turning left in front across from me blocked me from moving on the green for a little while. I was going to return some books to library, but decided getting home by noon was a better idea. I heard from NextDoor that there were problems, almost fights, at some local gas stations both last night and today.

My power has stayed on. To prepare for possible outage, I opened cover on my camper enough to get into back door and tested my generator, which manual says should be run under load monthly, and that I used during a 20 hr. power failure about a year ago to run my refrigerator enough to keep freezer from thawing and fridge from getting too warm. I also removed battery-powered lantern in case we need it tonight and made sure truck started. Later I rode my bike to return books to library and rode and walked up steep hill behind college. I couldn't do the downhill I usually do as a high school cross country race had started up it, but still had a good ride to Happy Hour at my local where I enjoyed a Central Coast Brewing Monterey Street IPA pint before beating my wife home by a couple of minutes. Last night we both got woken at 2:15 AM last by 3.5 earthquake less than 10 miles away.

 

[Mendieta]

But anybody who has fled that with their family in the middle of the night . . . let's just say power outages are easy.

We just had both! But we are fine! All good by now.

Woke up 3 a.m. to really really loud door knocking. Only one hour before my usual morning. I pick up my dog, go out, people yelling, smoke. No power.

Back home. Everybody dressed in 2 minutes, some extra clothes in two bacpacks, water, food, the dog. All five on one car.

As we talked to our neighboors and then police on pur way out, it was clear that this was not a disaster, not at the time, but decided to leave town regardless. There are only two roads to access our town. We wanted to be out juat in case.

Only one neighborhood was ordered to evacuate, just a few blocks away from our street.

The evacuation was much harder because of the lack of power. But the firefighters, God bless them, were there early enough to contain it. If winds had been gusting, we would be having a very different conversation. Oh dear.

 

[Tony]

Our power went off a couple of minutes before midnight, when it was still 10/9, and remains off. I had to go to camper in the dark this AM to get coffee press and to grind coffee beans using inverter so I could make good coffee. The camper is also where I can get local news on radio as the two boom boxes we have both use C batteries and I only have AA, AAA and D.

My wife made it to work using alternate route to freeway that only goes through two signals, and at both we make right turns. Both signals were working so that will be my route to 10:30 meeting today. I also noticed some streetlights between us and the East hills remained on, while my street which has underground power lines and LED streetlight was dark.

 

[luliski]

We just had both! But we are fine! All good by now.

Woke up 3 a.m. to really really loud door knocking. Only one hour before my usual morning. I pick up my dog, go out, people yelling, smoke. No power.

Back home. Everybody dressed in 2 minutes, some extra clothes in two bacpacks, water, food, the dog. All five on one car.

As we talked to our neighboors and then police on pur way out, it was clear that this was not a disaster, not at the time, but decided to leave town regardless. There are only two roads to access our town. We wanted to be out juat in case.

Only one neighborhood was ordered to evacuate, just a few blocks away from our street.

The evacuation was much harder because of the lack of power. But the firefighters, God bless them, were there early enough to contain it. If winds had been gusting, we would be having a very different conversation. Oh dear.

Glad that was contained, and hope it remains so. WInds are gusting here, but this isn't that uncommon for this area. We have power.

 

[textrovert]

Looking promising-

 

[skibob]

We just had both! But we are fine! All good by now.

Woke up 3 a.m. to really really loud door knocking. Only one hour before my usual morning. I pick up my dog, go out, people yelling, smoke. No power.

Back home. Everybody dressed in 2 minutes, some extra clothes in two bacpacks, water, food, the dog. All five on one car.

As we talked to our neighboors and then police on pur way out, it was clear that this was not a disaster, not at the time, but decided to leave town regardless. There are only two roads to access our town. We wanted to be out juat in case.

Only one neighborhood was ordered to evacuate, just a few blocks away from our street.

The evacuation was much harder because of the lack of power. But the firefighters, God bless them, were there early enough to contain it. If winds had been gusting, we would be having a very different conversation. Oh dear.

You did the right thing for sure. Don't mess around. Many of the people who died in the North Coast fires and Paradise fire had their escape routes cut off.

That must be the Merrill fire. Only 80 acres. But here is the thing. What we call "the Tubbs fire" was actually at least 11 different fires that flared up and rapidly merged. Honestly, the fact that the Merrill fire only managed 80 acres and is already mol fully contained can probably be credited to the fact that PGE shutoff the power in your area. As much as it sucks, as much as I am sure that PGE is being (generally) overly cautious, I am inclined to think that that just saved your home, and even possibly, your lives.

Toast the day and bring on the snow!

 

[Mendieta]

You did the right thing for sure. Don't mess around. Many of the people who died in the North Coast fires and Paradise fire had their escape routes cut off.

Exactly. Reading what these people went through was heart breaking, but our thought was getting the heck out, period. It is easy to come back if things go well. It is really hard to get out if thing go south A no brainer!

That must be the Merrill fire. Only 80 acres.

Yup!

Toast the day and bring on the snow!

Here



So, I might be confused, but I honestly don't see how the PG&E shutdown helped here, but at the end of the day, I am already off-topic enough from Ski content, haha. And there is a ton of debate everywhere around the subject overall (pros, cons and reasons for the shutoff). I am just happy to have a home to go back to, a safe family and I can go back to think about the upcoming snow!