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California/Nevada cold storms at Heavenly Valley

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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CaliforniaTrail1.jpg


Skied Nevada side of Heavenly Valley 4 days Tuesday 1/23 through Friday 1/26. A good 19 inches of light snow had fallen a couple days before and then the Wednesday storm added 16 inches. I had not skied Heavenly since the 90s so much was new. Most older lifts have been replaced and realigned plus new trails have been carved out and forest trees at higher elevations thinned. All images taken with my moto g.

Tuesday after dawn drive from San Jose, arrived late at 11am after being forced to use the Boulder parking lot and then taking the shuttle bus. Note the Lower Boulder lift and terrain is still closed due to low snow. Very pleasant day with sun, cold 20F temperatures, minor breezes, and thin high clouds making for excellent visibility. On my 2011 Dynastar Twisters, a 65mm waist 168cm rec bump ski, I skied Comet Express, Dipper Express most of the day, especially the Little Dipper moguls that had numbers of thin spots. Grazed across a few rocks during the day. Link to Heavenly Valley satellite map view (zoom in per upper left controls)

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=38.94487,-119.90443&z=17&t=H

Tuesday night motel'd in Gardnerville for $62 then Wednesday morning arrived early at the Stagecoach lot. Temperatures were even colder but worse was the forecast wind before the coming storm. Day began mostly cloudy with a few sun holes poking through but became increasingly cloudy by late morning with strong gusts at ridge lines. I skied Olympic Express early morning and by late morning with winds increasing, more protected lower Stagecoach Express lift where I skied the 500 feet of junky snow bumps under the lift at the top and found a lot of shallow obstacles to avoid. Over nighted for $43 at the Carson City Motel 6 while monitoring the TV and Internet as the big forecast storm moved in.

Thursday dawn was up and packing. Checked the good Internet storm totals and with 16 inches went with the easiest drive up SR207 Kingbury Grade, back to the Stagecoach lot where a large crowd had already formed by 8:15am putting me in the back lot. Although it was partly cloudy with sun, the air temp was only 18F and still rather windy, thus dressed warmly especially my headgear. Today was on my 173cm Rossignol S7's a very popular soft powder ski. Got into the long line and that began moving at 8:55am. Was on the Stagecoach Express at 9:07 with lots more in line behind me. At the top skied down to Olympic Express lift as I expected most people would be going over to Comet Express and Dipper Express at the East Peak Lodge area. The bottom of Olympic Express is at 8580 and the top at 9450 or 1100 feet of vertical.

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With lots of skiers and boarders moving up slopes, for someone wanting at least one long unmolested fall line powder run, it was key to have a plan. My plan as someone not too familiar with Heavenly, was to ski The Pines that begins at 9220 along the north side of the groomed Olympic Downhill run. Riding up the lift solo one can see that whole The Pines slope right below so could see just a few tracks and none were through the denser trees. Nearing the top also noticed just two tracks right below the lift that is a lower gradient variable slope with trees and rock obstacles. So upon reaching the top, for the amusement of lift riders bounced down the powder below the lift rabbit style the 150 or so vertical feet till the fall line reached groomed Olympic Downhill.

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Then crossed that wide groomed trail and into the top of The Pines where a few more skiers in front of me had also gone since I had just looked at it while on the lift. Most of the tracks were through the thin trees right along the groomed run while the rest were predictably well into the forest near the closed boundary where trees are also thin. However the center denser trees had remained untouched so that is where I laid down about 300 vertical feet of short powder turns before reaching any other tracks. Below that picked various open spots between other tracks on back to the lift. What a great fall line treed powder run.

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After that my next two runs were off to the east side of Olympic Downhill in dense forest between that groomed run and Cloud 9 run. I chose heaviest forest where few could venture and found good areas with few tracks. By that time all the obvious areas were tracked out so traversed around the south side of the ridge above Cloud 9 and then out above Crossover road beyond where any others had yet gone where there were still lots of clean fall lines, short though enough for more than a dozen or more good steep turns. Later traded my S7's for the Twisters and skied groomed and junk snow bumps till 2pm.

After another cheap night at Carson City Motel 6, Friday drove to the C lot in back of the Hard Rock Casino where one can park for free in order to use the Heavenly Village gondola. Never been in that new casino since the Sahara Tahoe Casino days. One can park in that lot then walk into the auxiliary hotel tower, through the enclosed walkway and into the main hotel and casino most of which is on soft carpet thus no wearing down ski boots. Very interesting classic rock stuff on all the walls. Had a long 15 minute fun conversation with one of the info counter gals then got my gear on and went through the casino to the front boulevard along SR50 where there is a free shuttle bus stop for the Route 23 bus. A few minutes later took that to the Heavenly Village Transit lot where one then walks a minor distance on abrasive walkways to the gondola. Mostly sunny day with minor wind and another inch of fresh snow overnight. Gondola line was about 5 minutes so was soon up at the new Tamarack Lodge area where I went up the Tamarack Express lift.

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Overall as someone mainly skiing Kirkwood and Sierra-At-Tahoe over the last two decades while skiing old Heavenly a fair amount in 80s and 90s, was quite impressed with the new Heavenly Valley resort. The Little Dipper run has a good variety of moguls at a high altitude for nicely soft packed powder moguls that I like. Additionally if better snow depths accumulate with colder snow, there are considerable tree areas on the Nevada side where one might ski unmolested lines for hours. In fact I and C-99 much enjoyed our woods visits each day. :D Much like the East Bowl and Gunbarrel slopes, the lower Nevada slopes do need lower elevation storms.
 
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Slim

Making fresh tracks
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That looks like awesome conditions! and good job finding all that powder.

Beautiful there with ehfresh snow, blue sky and Gorgeous Pines.
 

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