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California/Nevada 90" fresh powder Dodge Ridge

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
Skier
Joined
Sep 12, 2017
Posts
2,516
Location
Silicon Valley
aa_0055w.jpg


In the midst of a multi storm series over the February 2/3 weekend, many California powder skiing enthusiasts were making plans on how to ski what will probably be the biggest cold dump of the 2019 winter. Fair numbers skied Monday 2/5/2019, however the storm did not wane over Monday wee hours as forecast and instead raged into Monday afternoon. Thus many highways were still closed and ski resorts had limited lifts open as they had much to dig out. Thus by Sunday evening with storm #3 obviously delayed, I with an Epic Tahoe Local Senior Pass targeted Tuesday instead. But where to ski? Kirkwood with SR88 closed at Carson Pass and Carson Spur for avalanche work was not an option. Heavenly at South Lake Tahoe was a 220 mile drive with Echo Summit on US50 only intermittently open. Sunday Heavenly had most of their lower and some upper areas open so was already partially tracked out and I knew there would be a lot of locals hitting those to be opened areas as soon as the ropes dropped Tuesday.

Instead I decided to ski Dodge Ridge that is only 165 miles from where I live in the South Bay. Thus Tuesday dawn got on the road. Snow along SR108 was down to Jamestown at 1400 feet that usually happens maybe once every decade. Sonora up at 2000 feet had more snow than they've seen in decades. At Tahoe resort elevation this was exceptionally dry cold light snow. I stopped in Sonora and bought a SaveMart senior discount voucher for $56 (ain't that cheap!) and continued up the increasingly snowy road in my 2007 Forester in a small train of other 4WD vehicles, reaching the mostly still empty resort parking lot at 9:09am. A half hour later I was on the Chair 3 lift and a bit later on Chair 7 that goes to the top of the ridge at 8200 feet. Skies were mostly cloudy, temperature 18F, with light breezes. Crystalline flakes sparkled in the air. Unfortunately photography-wise, the clouds for most of this day made for flat light that made many of my images taken with a tiny Canon ELPH 900 point and shoot camera rather useless, unable to show skiing tracks.

The resort had recorded 90 inches of snow during the storm series with pine and fir trees covered with heavy loads of snow. At the top of the lift, Chair 8 slopes were still roped off so I took a route back down to Chair 7 that was already too tracked up. By time I reached the top again about 10:15am, the ropes had dropped within a couple minutes so I skied off down Six Shooter and then vectored out into the trees skier left. That turned out to be a rather mediocre choice as that steep forest has much lumpy terrain. Nothing on the low gradient top half of that run was steep enough to turn in so lots of straight tracks to reach a steeper slopes.

DR-Ch8tm.jpg


DR-Ch8ge.jpg


The above map shows the Chair 8 north facing side of the ridge and below that is a Google Earth view of that terrain. Slopes at top are low gradient that abruptly steepen where the forest road shows as Boulder Over. Slopes off the ridge are considerably uneven and the top half has level terrain traps one must avoid in deep fresh snow. Trees are nicely spaced throughout for tree skiing. The easiest way down was groomed Amazing Grace while the Granite Bowl and Six Shooter run are steepest areas. East of the lift, the Creekside run was also groomed with the Shots runs still roped off.

aa_0070w.jpg


The image above shows the west side of Granite Bowl on my first ride up Chair 8 before anyone had come down. The Boulder Over road above the top of Granite Bowl brings skiers around the bowl and into Amazing Grace while entry into the bowl is awkward and not obvious from that road. There are lots of larger boulders mid frame in this view that the resort decades ago bulldozered off the forest cut slopes and into piles that here are just snow covered bumps.

aa_0076w.jpg


On my fifth run of the morning, I finally skied a long untracked line off slopes just east of the lift. Track on above image was taken form the lift on my subsequent ride up, is where it meets the lift along High Noon. Note when I went down, there was just one track and indeed these slopes were soon tracked out as most customers this Tuesday were here to ski or board the Chair 8 areas as the other side of the ridge had been open Monday so was somewhat tracked out.

aa_0087w.jpg


On my sixth run, I took another nice track down the same slope beside the lift, then down below along the Boulder Over road worked my way out to this location on the west side of Granite Bowl then skied to the right of the pine at frame center. To reach this spot required climbing up several steps above the groomed road and traversing. At frame left one can see tracks beside the groomed Amazing Grace trail. Snowboarders could not reach where I am at because they cannot climb up in deep snow and there are not many advanced skiers at the resort that understand tricks to reaching untracked slopes. It was a fine bounce down in view of lift riders that lower down one needs to move to the left lest get stuck in a gully.

aa_0091w.jpg


At 11:26am the sun finally came out as I road back up the lift. The purple dots show where I went down in Granite Bowl on my previous noted run with a large zone of untracked snow not yet mutilated.

aa_0100w.jpg


Descending on run seven, I took Amazing Grace and then where the slope gradient steepens, climbed up a bit above the trail where snowboarders could not go in order to reach a wide untracked zone in tall firs with the above image at the bottom where I came out at the trail. The resort is popular with snowboarders living down in valley towns. There are more terrain traps at the resort than probably any other resort in California including level benches and ravines. Good for advance powder skiers is on fresh snow days, snowboarders cannot reach some areas and there simply are not many advanced skiers at the resort that understand how to locate untracked slopes. And there are many visually hidden slopes out in forest one cannot see from lifts or trail runs.

aa_0162w.jpg


About noon after my fifth ride up on Chair 8, the rope was dropped allowing access to the Shots slopes to the east. More long untracked lines and then after next ride up met and hooked up with Bryan a young dad from Walnut Creek that we then skied a few runs together with. I took the above slope into Granite Bowl that was quickly getting tracked. Note the groomed run at frame top left.

aa_0177w.jpg


This image at 2:17pm at the top of a drop into the center of Granite Bowl shows Bryan at center and 6 others. I had traversed over to the resort boundary along Sure Shot that even mid afternoon had long untracked lines because the tracked nature of those boundary slopes is somewhat visually blocked until one fully reaches that area. As I descended the above group of skiers noticed from a distance I was in untracked snow so continued over and followed. Where we all ended up above bowl I took this quick group shot and will email them jpgs.

aa_0201w.jpg


aa_0208w.jpg


By 3pm the day was getting long, obvious slopes had tracked up, and despite the fact I knew where untracked slopes were still likely, headed back over the ridge and with Bryan skied down to what is the most hidden zone at the resort, another place snowboarders cannot reach. There I found a large untracked area where we skied two long forest sections including maybe my favorite of the day. Ridiculous! At the lodge area, took up Chair 3 then traversed over to the low gradient slopes below not running Chair 1 and 2 in full view of the lodge and parking lot, where for my final runs of the day made two show off runs down the wide untracked slopes. Dodge Ridge is a place I know will not get tracked out quickly like the big Tahoe resorts delivering a full meal.

By 4pm I had stored gear and would be driving another 180 miles north on SR49 through Sonora to Placerville and then up US50 to South Lake Tahoe. Staying at midweek inexpensive Stateline motels, I would ski Heavenly two quite cold days with temps reaching mid 20F's, mostly looping Little Dipper bumps. With another big storm forecast for the weekend, drove home Friday late afternoon with a plan for more powder skiing as the next storm wanes. And an even larger cold storm was forecast a couple days later midweek.
 
Last edited:

luliski

Making fresh tracks
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
May 17, 2017
Posts
2,557
Location
California
aa_0055w.jpg


In the midst of a multi storm series over the February 2/3 weekend, many California powder skiing enthusiasts were making plans on how to ski what will probably be the biggest cold dump of the 2019 winter. Fair numbers skied Monday 2/5/2019, however the storm did not wane over Monday wee hours as forecast and instead raged into Monday afternoon. Thus many highways were still closed and ski resorts had limited lifts open as they had much to dig out. Thus by Sunday evening with storm #3 obviously delayed, I with an Epic Tahoe Local Senior Pass targeted Tuesday instead. But where to ski? Kirkwood with SR88 closed at Carson Pass and Carson Spur for avalanche work was not an option. Heavenly at South Lake Tahoe was a 220 mile drive with Echo Summit on US50 only intermittently open. Sunday Heavenly had most of their lower and some upper areas open so was already partially tracked out but I knew there would be a lot of locals hitting those to be opened areas as soon as the ropes dropped Tuesday.

Instead I decided to ski Dodge Ridge that is 165 miles from where I live in the South Bay. Thus Tuesday dawn got on the road. Snow along SR108 was down to Jamestown at 1400 feet that usually happens maybe once every decade. Sonora up at 2000 feet had more snow than they've seen in decades. I stopped there and bought a SaveMart senior discount voucher for $56 and continued up the increasingly snowy road in a small train of other 4WD vehicles, reaching the mostly still empty resort parking lot at 9:09am. A half hour later I was on the Chair 3 lift and a bit later on Chair 7 that goes to the top of the ridge at 8200 feet. Skies were mostly cloudy, temperature 18F, with light breezes. Crystalline flakes sparkled in the air. Unfortunately photography-wise, the clouds for most of this day made for flat light that made many of my images taken with a tiny Canon ELPH 900 point and shoot camera rather useless, unable to show skiing tracks.

The resort had recorded 90 inches of snow during the storm series with pine and fir trees covered with heavy loads of snow. At the top of the lift, Chair 8 slopes were still roped off so I took a route back down to Chair 7 that was already too tracked up. By time I reached the top again about 10:15am, the ropes had dropped within a couple minutes so I skied off down Six Shooter and then vectored out into the trees skier left. That turned out to be a rather mediocre choice as that steep forest has much lumpy terrain. Nothing on the low gradient top half of that run was steep enough to turn in so lots of straight tracks to reach a steeper slopes.

DR-Ch8tm.jpg


DR-Ch8ge.jpg


The above map shows the Chair 8 north facing side of the ridge and below that is a Google Earth view of that terrain. Slopes at top are low gradient that abruptly steepen where the forest road shows. Slopes are considerably uneven and the top half has level terrain traps one must avoid in deep fresh snow. Trees are nicely spaced throughout for tree skiing. The easiest way down was groomed Amazing Grace while the Granite Bowl and Six Shooter run are steepest areas. East of the lift, the Creekside run was also groomed with the Shots runs still roped off.

aa_0070w.jpg


The image above shows the west side of Granite Bowl on my first ride up Chair 8 before anyone had come down. The Boulder Over road above the top of Granite Bowl brings skiers around the bowl and into Amazing Grace while entry into the bowl is awkward and not obvious from that road. There are lots of larger boulders mid frame in this view that the resort decades ago bulldozered off the forest cut slopes and into piles that here are just snow covered bumps.

aa_0076w.jpg


On my fifth run of the morning, I finally skied a long untracked line off slopes just east of the lift. Track on above image taken form the lift on my subsequent ride up, is where it meets the lift along High Noon. Note when I went down, there was just one track and indeed these slopes were soon tracked out as most customers this Tuesday were here to ski or board the Chair 8 areas as the other side of the ridge had been open Monday so was somewhat tracked out.

aa_0087w.jpg


On my sixth run, I took another nice track down the same slope beside the lift, then down below along the Boulder Over road worked my way out to this location on the west side of Granite Bowl then skied to the right to the pine at frame center. To reach this spot required climbing up several steps above the groomed road and traversing. At frame left one can see tracks beside the groomed Amazing Grace trail. Snowboarders could not reach where I am at because they cannot climb up in deep snow and there are not many advanced skiers at the resort that unbderstand tricks to reaching untracked slopes. It was a fine bounce down in view of lift riders that lower down one needs to move to the right lest get stuck in a gully.

aa_0091w.jpg


At 11:26am the sun finally came out as I road back up the lift. The purple dots show where I went down in Granite Bowl on my previous noted run with a large zone of untracked snow not yet mutilated.

aa_0100w.jpg


Descending on run seven, I took Amazing Grace and then where the slope gradient steepens, climbed up a bit above the trail where snowboarders could not go in order to reach a wide untracked zone in tall firs with the above image at the bottom where I came out at the trail. The resort is popular with snowboarders living down in valley towns. There are more terrain traps at the resort than probably any other resort in California including level benches and ravines. Good for advance powder skiers is on fresh snow days, snowboarders cannot reach some areas and there simply are not many advanced skiers at the resort that understand how to locate untracked slopes. And there are many visually hidden slopes out in forest one cannot see from lifts or trail runs.

aa_0162w.jpg


About noon after my fifth ride up on Chair 8, the rope was dropped allowing access to the Shots slopes to the east. More long untracked lines and then after next ride up hooked up with Bryan a young dad from Walnut Creek that we then skied a few runs together with. I took the above slope into Granite Bowl that was quickly getting tracked. Note the groomed run at frame top left.

aa_0177w.jpg


This image at 2:17pm at the top of a drop into the center of Granite Bowl shows Bryan at center and 6 others. I had traversed over to the resort boundary along Sure Shot that even mid afternoon had long untracked lines because the tracked nature of those boundary slopes is somewhat blocked until one fully reaches that area. As I descended the above group of skiers noticed from a distance I was in untracked snow so continued over and followed. Where we all ended up above bowl I took this quick group shot and will email them jpgs.

aa_0201w.jpg


aa_0208w.jpg


By 3pm the day was getting long, obvious slopes had tracked up, and despite the fact I knew where untracked slopes were still likely, headed back over the ridge and with Bryan skied down to what is the most hidden zone at the resort, another place snowboarders cannot reach. There I found a large untracked area where we skied two long forest sections including maybe my favorite of the day. At the lodge area, took up Chair 3 then traversed over to the low gradient slopes below not running Chair 1 and 2 in full view of the lodge and parking lot, where for my final runs of the day made two show off runs down the wide untracked slopes.

By 4pm I had stored gear and would be driving another 180 miles north on SR49 through Sonora to Placerville and then up US50 to South Lake Tahoe. Staying at midweek inexpensive Stateline motels, I would ski Heavenly two quite cold days with temps reaching mid 20F's, mostly looping Little Dipper bumps. With another big storm forecast for the weekend, drove home Friday late afternoon with a plan for more powder skiing as the next storm wanes. And an even larger cold storm was forecast a couple days later midweek.
That looks really cool, @SSSdave. Beautiful pictures. I never made it there on Friday because of a cold. But now I really want to check it out one of these days.
 

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