Tahoe Weather, Conditions, Stoke, and What's Up Thread...

[unpossible]

AM delivered today. Not being open or skied during that last wet storm was clutch. The entire mountain was a groomer with corn on sunny aspects. Beaver/Idiots were going off all day. Great corn and grippy smooth crust. Good day to get steep turns in. Much more fun and more terrain open than Squaw.

I know gimpy is down on the eastside right now. I'm interested to see what he finds. I'm gonna shoot for a Monday mission down there if reports are worthy.

How were the crowds? Has everything been slayed or should the fun snow continue tomorrow?

[lepistoir]

AM delivered today. Not being open or skied during that last wet storm was clutch. The entire mountain was a groomer with corn on sunny aspects. Beaver/Idiots were going off all day. Great corn and grippy smooth crust. Good day to get steep turns in. Much more fun and more terrain open than Squaw.

I know gimpy is down on the eastside right now. I'm interested to see what he finds. I'm gonna shoot for a Monday mission down there if reports are worthy.

I'm in. No work all week.

[old goat]

crowds minimal

[dookeyXXX]

I'll echo what BGNight said, but be extra careful on the shaded aspects (Palisades, The Saddle, Terry's Run, all the stuff under Alpine Bowl Chair). Also they've groomed what is essentially a giant semi-halfpipe on Dance Floor (unless it naturally has that really skewed pitch, which I've never noticed before).

Wolveriine, Beaver, and Estelle are the muy bueno choices as they, especially Beaver, got some nice sun and turned into supreme spring skiing. You know it's good when the sole member of the Jamaican Ski Team is standing up top for his second lap telling you how great the corn was and picking out your line for you...

That said, if it freezes tonight, then Wolverine, Beaver, and Estelle are gonna suck tomorrow and be more like everything off-piste at Squaw (as BG noted, AM was nice in that everything hasn't been skied in more than a month, so it was all smooth, Tahoe Boiler Plate smooth, but smooth nonetheless).

Foreshadowing of the day was when some of the kids I was skiing with saw the new (I've never seen it before) sign on Alpine Bowl Chair that warned about self-arresting and I had to explain what it meant. Later, around 1 p.m. we hazarded a venture out to Lower Saddle thinking that it might have softened up a bit. Not so. On my second turn my edges slipped out and I began to slide out of control toward the tree line. It was nigh impossible to dig my edges in and self-arrest and I only managed to stop by snagging myself on a couple of young saplings and giving myself a nice Charlie Manson on the right thigh in the bargain. Not the greatest demonstration of self-arrest, but it got the job done without serious injury.

Oh yeah, a patroller I stopped to talk to early morning about hitting The Saddle warned about breakable crust. He'd been up on Rose doing some BC on Thursday and said it was nothing but breakable crust. Didn't really encounter any serious breakable crust anywhere on the hill, but some spots had started to soften and such conditions could become more evident Sat/Sun if the weather holds.

[gone2alpine]

Dooks -

How was Jason's Run?

[LongShortLong]

Headed up early Sat am to see what all the hype is about at KW. From south bay, PM if you wanna ride/carpool.

Sad about the Burnside Lake folks. I always think "I coulda got out of there" when I read these stories, but hope I never need to find out. ~Vibes~

[Ottime]

^^^^let me know how it goes. Considering a day trip Sunday. anyone want to ride share?

Schralph. Do you have the red sleds up there? Might like to spend an hour or so on them.

Mid to long term looks promising. Fingers crossed. I fly east on the 23rd, so I fully expect things to get good by them.

[Piggity]

I fly east on the 23rd, so I fully expect things to get good by them.

Thanks in advance

[powdork]

Headed up early Sat am to see what all the hype is about at KW. From south bay, PM if you wanna ride/carpool.

Sad about the Burnside Lake folks. I always think "I coulda got out of there" when I read these stories, but hope I never need to find out. ~Vibes~

it is sad. but there are so many ways to armchair this one. if they had a map they would have known how close blue lakes road was. hell. they could have walked down to grover hot springs much quicker too. and 6 miles down burnside lake road in condition that it was drivable shouldn't be much more than two hours.

[hopelesslyadolescent]

Hybrid corn on anything southfacing around Bear Valley today. Excellent. Heading back up again tomorrow. Lotsa powder + lotsa rain + good freeze + a little sun = instant corn.

[LongShortLong]

For a place that got rained on, KW skied amazing. Yes, there's some firm stuff as the report says, but there's also some soft stuff, and some smooth groomers - especially if you can find the morning groomer track. Sunnyside was corny goodness all day. Anything untracked has 1-2 inches of fluff on a hard but edgeable crust. Thunder Saddle's tracked stuff could turn out really nice with a bit more traffic (the crust takes damage from edged turns - break that up and it's soft goodness underneath to mix with the fluff on top). The Wall was survivable early in the day. Heard good reports about Palisades. In the afternoon shade, much of 99 steps was too icy for my taste - the fluff is spotty when present (or I missed the good spot).

Also, the base is in good shape - nice spackle for anything that comes in this week.

[MrSmith]

Took my skis for a walk today. Operative phrases were "adventure" and "character building". Saw some crazy frost/hoar formations near lake level.

Yes, we were on dirt for the first 1,000 feet or so.

But we found a skiable east slope around 7,500. That is until we climbed high enough to make it worthwhile and got everything sorted out, during which time the sun ducked behind the ridge and turned everything back to the freeze side of melt/freeze crust. Missed that window by about 20 minutes. But look, there are tracks in that there snow.

Continuing with our character building, we climbed.

And climbed some more.

And were rewarded with some nice views.


Returning by the glow of headlamp, we managed only one bleeder.

Models blew it on the weather today. Calm and warm enough all day. If you hit the elevation/aspect/time just right, there's snow to be skied, but you better be on your game. Or, just enjoy being out in the backcountry on a pleasant December afternoon.

[powdork]

awesome view of echo and beyond from angora. amazing how many of those lines off the ridge are golden and below will be pillowy with the next storm

[gimpy]

definately worthy. plenty of snow up high. mammoth area looked kinda meh. better up north. pm me or text for the specifics as i'd rather not divulge certain info over the internet. at least until there are more options down there.

[jrf]

To echo some other comments, there is corn snow to be skied. Rose Knob was untouched and perfect yesterday skiing at 2pm. Was glad to have ski crampons for skinning anything north though, and the bottom 300 ft is mildly adventurous.

[MTT]

I got in my first day today.

It was very nice, gromers were in very good shape.

I even enjoyed a few runs in Sun softened manke. It was ok But I dont really have the legs for it yet.

The Tourons will have a nice time @ The Rose this Christmas. Probably the best December conditions in a few years.

[Ottime]

Everyone keeps saying that but two years ago was killer from Thanksgiving until it rained in January. Last year suck, tho.

[NatEE]

^^ Just from chairlift conversations I am amazed at how many people have already forgotten 2 years ago... After last year everyone seems to think that December always completely sucks.

There was still good snow to be had this weekend. You'll probably have to ski some crappy snow too. Despite fond memories of two years ago, I also do remember last year, and given that, I'm pretty happy right now...

[gone2alpine]

This looks far better compared to the forecasts we have seen in the last 2 weeks. There is certainly some level of stoke coming soon.

[SchralphMacchio]

Ottime, Red Sleds stayed in the Bay. Fischer WRC SL skis were the call for the weekend, from what I could see. Kinda was wishing I had some ... to mount with bindingfreedom inserts and Dynafits so I wouldn't need to change boot soles, heh.

Sunday was a bust on weather - way colder than forecasted, strong E winds high up to keep a lot of high elevation aspects firm. Saturday was decent skiing weather/conditions until clouds settled high up around 2 PM and things started setting up quickly. This isn't Dec 2010, but might be better than Dec 2004 - coverage up high is good. I didn't have my camera, but the Carson Range is plastered - Nipple looks pure white (a wet/refrozen, shimmering, shiny, white, haha). Pyramid was looking mighty tasty too ... I'm anxious to get skins back on soon.

Saturday night, TAFF killed it - best TAFF ever, by far (okay I don't have many under my belt to speak of, but it was seriously amazing, and very well organized this year). Hanging with Nuthon, others, even Tahoe Todd until 2 AM was a blast.

[/weekendreport]

[johndc]

Anybody visit Heavenly, Kirkwood, or Mt. Rose over the weekend? I'm coming to Tahoe later this week, staying at Heavenly, but might spend a day at Kirkwood or spend the last day staying in Reno and ski at Rose if conditions warrant. I'm having a little bit of a hard time understanding why Heavenly isn't opening more terrain at the top considering all the snow they got up high, or at the bottom, considering all their snow-making capacity. Kirkwood says they're totally open, but I wonder about surface conditions. Today is the last day I can change my housing arrangements without penalty, so any info greatly appreciated!

[4matic]

Anybody visit Heavenly, Kirkwood, or Mt. Rose over the weekend? I'm coming to Tahoe later this week, staying at Heavenly, but might spend a day at Kirkwood or spend the last day staying in Reno and ski at Rose if conditions warrant. I'm having a little bit of a hard time understanding why Heavenly isn't opening more terrain at the top considering all the snow they got up high, or at the bottom, considering all their snow-making capacity. Kirkwood says they're totally open, but I wonder about surface conditions. Today is the last day I can change my housing arrangements without penalty, so any info greatly appreciated!

Heavenly doesn't get much snow compared to Kirkwood and there haven't been many good snow making days. Heavenly's base is really low too. The cutoff line for any snow right now is 7000 ft but at 8000 feet (Kirkwood base) there is a good three feet or more. A lot of Heavenly's trails are worthless but if Dipper and Comet are open you can have some fast fun there.

[powdork]

kirkwood is the place for you. great coverage top to bottom and they will get the most snow out of this next one too.

[skysos]

Anybody visit Heavenly, Kirkwood, or Mt. Rose over the weekend?

We did Kirkwood on Saturday and Heavenly on Sunday. Kirkwood has amazing coverage, but was generally fairly icy until some areas softened up in the afternoon. Heavenly has way less snow, but if you compare groomers to groomers, it was better than KW and we all had more fun on Sunday ripping around at high-speed. They do an incredible job with grooming, and there was more of it available than KW. We only ventured off the groomed a couple of times at either place due to snow conditions. No idea what level skier you are, but if it snows more than 12" on Wednesday/Thursday, Kirkwood will be a wide-open feast whereas Heavenly has a long way to go before anything off-piste below 9,000' is really safe.

[TahoeBC]

Heavenly has a lot of snow up top (but less than Kirkwood) and most of the upper mountain is open including tree skiing on both Nev/Cal and they opened Olympic yesterday (But no Mott or Killebrew) The low base and the huge rains at the lower elevations killed any lower elevation snow making they had up to then. I think the Cal Base may open next weekend though (but probably loading & downloading gunbarrel) and possibly stagecoach as they are blowing snow to try and get them ready. The mountain biking is still really good down low also. You can see from the pics there is a very distinct snow line.