New Tahoe Nukeage thread: Xmas Week

I was at Squaw at 8 am this AM. A patrol buddy walked up in street clothes? "This is what you call a bad sign" he says to us. :nonono2:

His exact words were, "it is an upside down icerink". He said his buddy went down to the slot and decided it was too sketchy and hiked around....not a good sign.

The other key point was that all lifts are so rime encrusted that he doesnt think anything but Funi, KT and RedDog could even open.

I need a Kirkwood report for Monday??? I must find something this weekend.

Ok, I am off to go cross country on some ice. :)

Squaw Valley Ski corp are a bunch of chislers, perhaps they should start chiseling away at the rime

12:30 on New Year's and it's PUKING in Truckee. 1-1.5 inches in the past 30 minutes, big fat flakes.

Crossing my fingers that this bonds to yesterday's layer.

Heck Huck, could you please clarify your "it is an upside down icerink" comment?

I’ve heard of an upside down cake, where the heavy snow is on top of the light snow but what is an upside down icerink? Ice on top of powder?

TIA :yourock:

It's certainly dumping now, and it's definately sticking too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Huckwheat

I was at Squaw at 8 am this AM. A patrol buddy walked up in street clothes? "This is what you call a bad sign" he says to us. :nonono2:

His exact words were, "it is an upside down icerink". He said his buddy went down to the slot and decided it was too sketchy and hiked around....not a good sign.

The other key point was that all lifts are so rime encrusted that he doesnt think anything but Funi, KT and RedDog could even open.

I need a Kirkwood report for Monday??? I must find something this weekend.

Ok, I am off to go cross country on some ice. :)

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Exact same experience here. Gold Coast was the only thing open on the upper mountain, looking up at North Bowl, all you could see was blue ice.

just back from the wood. 6 & 10 were open early, but closed by 10am. by then it was so windy, you could barely stand at the top of chair 5. skied for 2 hours on 9 & 7 with my kids, then drove home.

only managed 1 run on chair 6 at kirkwood, before it closed due to winds, but although there was crust in spots, most of the 1 run we did was very fun. It skied about 4-6" deep, it was smooth and fast.

right now they are calling for another windy day at kirkwood tomorrow, but we will have to see in the morning.

Spent the morning at Alpine. Surfaces alternated between blue boilerplate and sweet fresh, and as visibility dropped, it became harder to tell the difference. My noon run up Roundhouse (waiting for a kid to finish her lesson) was essentially a whiteout, so we called it a day.

We left at about 12:30, after I scraped 2-3" off the car, and it kept coming fast and furious until about 10 minutes ago.

Currently light snow in TD.

It's starting to rain now at lake level... :mad:

Pulling the plug on 4 or 5 days of sitting on the drive to Tahoe fence. Looks like the winds may be a factor again tomorrow. Off to the 'loin to find a dark bar, maybe O' Joe's.

Huckwheat saved my ass today.

After bumping into him at the Squaw Village, hearing his info, and talking to a ski patrolman who said "don't even think about it", we left Squaw and got to Rose about 11am. Very good. Not awesome but not close to bad. It was getting better as the day went on. Tomorrow at Rose should be great.

Spent the day snowmobiling at rose meadows, incredibly deep, pretty heavy. Left at 3ish because of complete white out conditions. Tomorrow bringing the skis there.

Me, DG, and Uber just got back from Sugar Bowl. It actually turned out to be a really good day! 9:30-3:45, the day started out a little icy but with some sweet fresh in select gullies. About 11 it started nuking and never let up. By the end of the day there was at least 4-6 of pretty heavy fresh that hid the ice well. Lots of fast buttery untracked runs through the trees. It was really only windy on the top 100 vert of Lincoln, other than that all chairs were open and there were never any lines. Looking forward to going there tomorrow.

anybody know if the upper mtn was open at heavenly today/sunday?????

No, Upper mtn closed. Gondola closed, most everything closed.
I'am at work accross the street.

rolled into alpine this morning at 8:30am and cruised up roundhouse (summit closed). looked icey. but, there were good carvable wind buff sections and areas of wind load pow pockets that were super fun. summit spun about 10am and hopped on that, windy as all hell up there. patrol had almost everything off summit closed, and you were forced down into alpine bowl, etc. sunspot (a usually mellow run most would skip) skied really well as it held fresh snow and not as much blue ice, plus is wind sheltered. hit that several times and around noon it really started to snow, vis went from bad to worse, and we were out. hit the river ranch for beers and burgers.

right now at 5:30 in TD it is misting (was snowing heavily earlier). NWS calling for a big snow day tmrw, Tues. should be good. Mon. might yield some good stoem skiing depending on what they can open. Regardless, I will be at Alpine again tmrw and see whats what.

Well the floods stopped literally at my next door neighbors house...phew close call...so me and the wife had to go and celebrate at Mt Rose today....

...Rose was crowded and windy early with only Northwest turning (slowly).....then it started dumping, the crowds left and the wind died down....it was totally puking by noon and the snow turned from mostly breakable crust to utter sweetness....each run got better and better (of course visability got worse and worse...but that's what trees are for)....ran into a bunch of friends (including El Chupie on his spats for the 1st time and Jim S for a quick hello) and had a great New Years Day....if the winds and the roads don't get too crazy tomorrow it should be off the hook....

..oh btw - Rose got blasted yesterday...definitely 4ft+....looks like a totally different mountain...if they open the Chutes tomorrow they'll be :fmicon: !!

...Rose or Kirkwood that is the question??? Taking a wait and see approach for the morning...

(fingers twiddling) ehhhhhhhhhxxxxcellent (fingers twiddling)

For me I think the question is Squaw or Sugar (thanks to Lego)......just to keep it local and simple.

Man, hiked for a hour this afternoon with the dog, and it was just pouring. Not sure what the snow level was, but I was at about 6300 and it was making me question tomorrow's conditions.

Glad to hear everyone I had a fun at AM. Also, glad we decided to drive back to Berk yesterday afternoon. Nice to have one day home before getting back into the swing of things after 2 weeks away. We'll be back up for next weekend.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by onehotchili

BTW, skiied my 177 Mantras ... held on the ice great, ...

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You got to try the LPs. I have a feeling the LP will feed your inner racer. :FIREdevil

Love my Mantras, but (IMHO) they don't have the bite on hard snow/ice as the LPs.

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Originally Posted by freshies

... we were out. ...

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if it is bluebird on Tues, get some pics for us to drool over.

[QUOTE=huckasoreass]Just raced around trying to get shots of all of this mess. But there was no possible way to keep lenses and cameras dry with the deluge pouring sideways. The valley of Squaw is a lake...89 is closed from Squaw to Truckee due to mudslides. Reno is getting worked, and from what's going on up here, they still have a LOT of water coming their way. I'm on a hill in Tahoe City and protected from flooding, but at this very moment I'm waiting for the super saturated trees to fall on our house.

So, I wrote that yesterday, about five minutes before the power went out for all of the north side of the lake--from Tahoma to Tahoe Vista. About 5 minutes later, I heard a cracking sound. About 100 meters away from my house, a huge tree uprooted, taking out a gas line and a neighbor's little Subaru. Happy New Year!

http://www.biglines.com/photos/norma...ines_49904.jpg

Since skiing was out, we decided to skip some rope in the neighborhood.

http://www.biglines.com/photos/norma...ines_49905.jpg

With the power out and one grocery store flooded and closed, the Tahoe City Safeway was a zoo. The out-of-towners cleaned up.

http://www.biglines.com/photos/norma...ines_49906.jpg

We just regained power after 28 hours without--including a dark, dark candlelt New Years Eve. Didn't get to the mountain today after hearing how sketched patrol was on the boilerplate, so we'll be seeing the damage tomorrow--if we can see. Yet another Winter Storm warning, a couple more feet up high, then finally a little breather...

Those pics make it look like a war zone. Some freaky weather.

Well now the 5-6 inches that rapidly dumped in the mid-afternoon is chocked full of water holes and runnels. Considering the mountain was pure boiler plate today, the rain could help bond any new snow, but it could also just moisten the top layer and started sliding off the bottom ice. All in all it's pretty damn disappointing to finally see some significant snowfall and within in hour that snowfall get melted by yet another Tahoe rain storm.

Yet High Camp data is saying 13 inches of new and a max temp of 31 degrees and falling. Looks like Granite Chief is this years mothership.

I was at Rose all day today and it was pretty good. By far the best in Tahoe for me all year. The winds were strong at times, but nothing too hectic. Tomorrow at Rose should be pretty nice. Everything that's exposed to the wind is buffed out, but if you stay in the trees where it's sheltered, the snow is A+. Go get sum!

It's currently dumping at our house here in Truckee!! Hopefully that means lighter snow up at the mountain - the snow is a tad heavy here. Whohoo - finally!! We'll be at Sugarbowl today.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SquawMan

I've got relatives heading up there today, so any updates as to conditions would be appreciated

tomorrow looks nice

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Q: HOW DO YOU CIRRRRCUMSIZE SQUAWKFAG?

A: KICK HIS RRRRELATIVES IN THE JAW.

I SEE YOU'VE BEEN BUSY WITH YOURRRRR USUAL FOTOSHOP FAGGOTRRRRY!!!!

From the Squawkfag Faggotry Files:
http://tetongravity.com/forums/attac...1&d=1136226925

http://tetongravity.com/forums/attac...1&d=1136226809

oh look, Punani is back from vacation

what a surprise!

actually those are quite funny, even for you

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SquawMan

oh look, Punani is back from vacation

what a surprise!

actually those are quite funny, even for you

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LOOKS LIKE YOU FOUND YOURRRRR NORRRRTH LAKE TAHOE GAY BARRRRR, YOU THRRRREAD DELETING PANSY ASS!!!!

I may be guilty of over-praising "Sierra Cement". But after the destructive weather we've had this past week, and after potentially deadly, "unskiable" ice yesterday (as reported by Squaw patrollers who were straight-up gripped on many parts of the mountain and had to be belayed out of some ordinary runs), we're right back in business. With a foot of new, today ripped--just hauling ass snow, not touching bottom, beautiful creamy goodness. I didn't stay long enough for areas other than KT to open to see the rest of the mountain, but there was practically no slide activity, just big bomb hole plugs in the snowpack. It's an insane about-face.

I can't stop thinking how people keep disparaging "Sierra Cement", and yet any area in the Rockies and Utah would have been screwed for months--if not the year--with the sheer ice layer we had. There will still probably be some big slides, but basically we've recovered in less than 24 hours. And if the response is the naive, "Yeah, but you're skiing Sierra Cement," my retort is, yeah, did you ski a foot of silky, ultra-smooth powder at 40 mph through old-growth forest, throwing huge fans of snow at every turn? I didn't get a single face shot today, and I could care less.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by huckasoreass

I may be guilty of over-praising "Sierra Cement". But after the destructive weather we've had this past week, and after potentially deadly, "unskiable" ice yesterday (as reported by Squaw patrollers who were straight-up gripped on many parts of the mountain and had to be belayed out of some ordinary runs), we're right back in business. With a foot of new, today ripped--just hauling ass snow, not touching bottom, beautiful creamy goodness. I didn't stay long enough for areas other than KT to open to see the rest of the mountain, but there was practically no slide activity, just big bomb hole plugs in the snowpack. It's an insane about-face.

I can't stop thinking how people keep disparaging "Sierra Cement", and yet any area in the Rockies and Utah would have been screwed for months--if not the year--with the sheer ice layer we had. There will still probably be some big slides, but basically we've recovered in less than 24 hours. And if the response is the naive, "Yeah, but you're skiing Sierra Cement," my retort is, yeah, did you ski a foot of silky, ultra-smooth powder at 40 mph through old-growth forest, throwing huge fans of snow at every turn? I didn't get a single face shot today, and I could care less.

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Gets my vote for post-of-the-week. Here, here.

snow today kicked-ass. also was my first day out on the new spats: wow, thank you shane, those things just fuggin' KILLED IT today...awesome. Rolled into alpine around 10am and hit summit and d chutes to waterfall goodness, then traversing out to palisades and lower yellow, etc. scott closed all day today, and its still nuking. after 3 hours of spatulating, decided to call it. vis was zero, nuking snow and i was soaked. tomorow is gonna rock.

then, may follow this storm to UT on Wed (if it looks like it will be worth it), or head south to Mammy for a day or two...

WSD posting here..


holy. crap.

today was sooooooooooooo good. Kirkwood was bottomless. Snow was heavy, but as Huck said, just creamy goodness all around. And totally agreed - you would never guess that we just endured the rainstorm from hell.

Lots of cool kids to do laps with - shoe, lph, arty, AKA, slim, skier666, mrs. 666 and mrs. Slim (who I got to rip around the hill with and we had a blast - hucking little rocks and just blasting around).

Today was simply fanfreakingtastic.

And I have to say, I'm stoked for the locals who've endured a crappy season start, who will now get to enjoy some of the best snow in a while during a post holiday slow week. You guys deserve it!!

It's finnally here, and sticking! Tommorow should definately be epic, now I just have to find a way to blow off a few hours of work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by onehotchili

AM rocked today!!! scored 3rd chair on Summit... 2 behind 3Pin's 1st chair. Nice!

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Would you believe that was a first for me at Alpine? Rather surprised step out of the lodge and not see anyone in the corral. Awesome morning for me, although somewhat limited by AM not opening very quickly. First run, straight off the ridge into Wolverine, right down Waterfall. Ridiculous. Second run, D chutes to 3 Sisters, more untracked. Third run, Palisades into lower keyhole, sent my first air of the season, then out Yellow Gully.

As an aside, Capital Thrashers - FKNA! :yourock: Within one run, undoubtedly the best pow ski that I've been on (haven't skied Spats or Pontoons, but beats the Pow Pluses and everything else in the garage). More detailed review to come after further experience in tomorrow morning's sickness! :biggrin:

OHC - You better be there tomorrow. I just talked the gf into having the morning off.

I love Tahoe snow.

I'm gonna agree with scott, the power of sierra cement is amazing. Instead of a multitude of avys that would of sliden off of the blue ice, we get a foot of rippable butter. In Utah, a bottomless day is a 4 foot dump, in Cali, it's a 8 inch dump.

JT and I were discussing the fact that sierra cement got such a bad rap cause 15 years ago when the only fats were the women at Bar One, a skinny ski gets absolutely thrashed in this kind of snow. Going more than 15 mph threw up massive potential for knee-tweaking unstable hooker turns. But today, I floated, stayed on top and was able to do as huck said, "40 mph through old growth forest".

3rd chair on Headwall wasn't too bad either. Actually, it was fuggin amazing. Quinner, KK and myself were the first down the slut, not crossing a track on the way down. Felt good to let 'er go and open up with some linked Super G turns.

I love Tahoe snow.

Just as a note and warning, it is still early season snow depth, there are lots of open creeks and deep holes that plenty of people got played in today. One broken ankle and one fellow with serious internal injuries (they considered life flighting him) on the same open creek well is what a patrolmen told me this afternoon.

ok, maybe I'll make another appearance in a couple of days... :)

Good day. I'll leave it at that. ;)

alka any in particular besides lower mountain stuff?

absolutely windless on the summit of powderhouse after a relatively grueling trailbreaking session that took an extra 20-30 minutes (i forgot my watch). best run of the year so far in boot to thigh deep and pretty light for sierra powpow. bombas going off all over from echo, carson pass, and the spur and spirits were real high. winter is finally really here. not much snow on the hike but it started nuking up top about 8 am.
then off to the heave w/ the wife and joesnow. upper mtn access from cali was closed so made duw w/ some decent but pretty cutup stuff till sky opened around 11 and it was off to the glorious light pow that the nv side is famous for. totally nuking and tracks were filling in fast and it was getting lighter as the day progressed. the hike to the top of monument/milky way was $$$ but best run of the day was maggies high traverse which we endured 3 lift rides to lap again and that was it for me. mott wasn't open by 1 when i bailed and i doubt it will open till manana. roads were pretty bad but local shortcuts made short work of it and came home to a solid foot in the driveway.
my sis said kwood was absofuckinglutely sick today w/ all but the backside open but they are now at a standstill in the access rd trying to get home. if this keeps up, the heave will be too flat to ski tomorrow except for the canyons and the face. unfortuanately the j o b is needing some attention so an actual dawn patrol summiting by sunrise will be the only skiing i'll be doing tomorrow. if anyone does go to the heave, mott and killebrew will be off the hizzoook so if you can, GO. touring options this weekend are finally gonna have some variety. tallac and other lake level approaches should all be in play now :yourock: goddamnn i love this shit and its about fucking time. yum yum:D


edited to add that anyone calls this new snow sierra cement is totally fucking clueless