13/14 Tahoe Thread -- Raddest Thread On The Internets!!!

[RockChalk]

Had a blast at kirkwood today, didn't really cross any tracks until well after lunch

[dhklauer]

Casa de Agua delivered today, 6-8" on top of a firm crust.

Agreed. Top half was great! The crust layer was a lot more manageable than I anticipated.

[Jack Burton]

Great afternoon on the MO-SHIP yesterday, good turns up deep creek today

[StormDay]

Alpine: backside was a little firm 1st thing this morning. Started to loosen up around 10.

[southern_expat]

Can someone recommend an affordable hotel in South Tahoe with good pedestrian access to the gondola, pubs, etc...?

Have found lots but looking for some first hand beta.
thanx.

[4matic]

Can someone recommend an affordable hotel in South Tahoe with good pedestrian access to the gondola, pubs, etc...?

Have found lots but looking for some first hand beta.
thanx.

Stationhouse Best Western. Early check in, next day parking, decent free breakfast, nice clean rooms

[old goat]

Alpine: backside was a little firm 1st thing this morning. Started to loosen up around 10.

11-12:30 when I left it was delightful--like Smoothie with a steady pitch. Maybe they closed it until tomorrow before it got too torn up but I suppose that's unlikely.

[BroadReach]

Had to work yesterday, but got up for some turns at Kirkwood today.

It was surprisingly good. Way more cars in the parking lot than I expected, but the only real line I saw was for 4 at the usual time. Lots of fun small bumps with occasional loud snow in the troughs. A few fun fresh turns between 6 and 10. I might have run in to a couple of maggots up there (orange jacket, lhasa pows). Left at 1pm. It hadn't gotten sloppy yet. Shaded aspects likely still good tomorrow.

[StormDay]

11-12:30 when I left it was delightful--like Smoothie with a steady pitch. Maybe they closed it until tomorrow before it got too torn up but I suppose that's unlikely.

still smooth corn at 2pm when took our last lap.


After today, I think Sherwood should always be only accessible via High T.

[gone2alpine]

LOL...we thought today that the bumpersticker should read "Save Sherwood, Close Ray's Rut"

[unpossible]

26 laps later, it was still smooth corn at 2:45pm off of Sherwood if you knew where to look.

old goat, were you on black topsheet Lhasa's? Pretty sure I saw Wobby lapping Sherwood as well.

[The Dad]

After several firm runs on the frontside trying out the XXLs, ran into StormDay at the Chalet. The ensuing conversation led me to try to convince my three companions to join me on Hi T. They demurred, and I went solo.

Went over the top into Big Bend Bowl about 11:15. The XXLs aren't the easiest sticks to hike with - damn, they're heavy - but once I started moving forward and down instead of up, they were a fantastic choice for the day. Not that there are really any skis in my quiver that would've been a bad choice.

Sherwood was in fantastic form today. Far better than I had any reason to hope. Every run reminded me of why it's my favorite part of the mountain. There simply was no bad choice of lines.

Yesterday and today were by far the best days of the season so far. Obviously, I hope the coming weeks will top them. But even if they don't, the season wasn't a washout.

[~mikey b]

Glad you got some

[ridefree]

Rare Supu sighting at the wood yesterday. Great day! Heading out again now.

[Driver]

Snow held up surprisingly well yesterday, especially north northwest facing stuff up high. Great last 2 days.

[Arcsim]

Squawpine pass was blacked out and was joneseing for a tour so headed up to Carson yesterday. Not too familiar with the area so just headed out to the Round Top area where I've been once before. Skinned up lookers right from the lake and it was rather windfucked which I guess should not have been surprising considering how strong the winds were over the weekend. Mostly smooth though - and transitioned to pow down below in the trees. Ended up having to skin up a bit to the car but it was worth it to get some more vertical in the trees.

Any recent beta on the west shore, specifically Tallac? I have a buddy coming into town this upcoming weekend who has never been to Tahoe and want to take him on a big tour with crazy lake views etc., but I imagine the lower approaches are quite bony until 7k or so.

[SchralphMacchio]

Tallac approach and exit looks like manzanita hell. A friend was out there and said "super challenging conditions below North Bowl." There is a reason there were no cars parked at the Spring Creek TH over the weekend. See my other beta in previous regarding other parts of the west shore.

[old goat]

Ski/skate week. Much fun to be had watching dads try to kill their kids.

[NatEE]

Tallac would be a lot of work right now... And the skiing below 8k or so is going to be pretty forgettable (or unforgettably miserable depending on your disposition).

[Jim S]

The Chutes were closed until Monday and they were mediocre at best despite many having many first tracks. A bit of pow on frozen bumps, crust, and plenty of obstacles. Some of the runs were downright ridiculous. Corky and I had a few 'WTF" expressions far to often.

Rose was near epic on Sunday and empty on President's Weekend.
Nothing gnarly, no steeps but easy fun high speed pow and trees.

Video is a bit long in the tooth but....

[Andeh]

Any recent beta on the west shore, specifically Tallac? I have a buddy coming into town this upcoming weekend who has never been to Tahoe and want to take him on a big tour with crazy lake views etc., but I imagine the lower approaches are quite bony until 7k or so.

My brother and I did Tallac Sunday 2/16. As you'd imagine, there's a hell of a bootpack right now to get to skin-able snow (at least 1.5 miles from the car) - basically to the bottom of the first real slope. The main bowl has definitely gotten a lot of sun and is really risky for avalanches. We saw there had been one right in the main part there, plus the snow conditions were ~3" of packed new over a couple inches of ice over a ~4" soft corn layer -> Surface cracking and whumping. We sort of hugged the looker's right side of the ridge, moving up onto the ridgeline when we got higher because the blown snow was making skinning a bitch. We stopped shy of the top ridge as we could hear the wind was going pretty good and figured it'd be nasty. Skied the NE trees which was pretty decent considering the season we're having. It was about 4" or so of light new snow over an icy layer. The bottom was a pretty hellish bootpack out through the Manzanitas, as people speculated. All in all, if you're up for an adventure, it's not bad, but I'm not rushing back next weekend to repeat it.

I also did Rose Nob on Saturday 2/15. I'd be more reluctant to recommend that. The upper slope was decent corn, but the bottom was hellish melted slop.

[TahoeJ]

I get sick for the first time in like a year and of course everyone is saying it was the best weekend of the season so far. Fuck. Glad someone enjoyed it at least. Holding out hope for the end of February / early March now that we have a base to ski on.

[Jim S]

I also did Rose Nob on Saturday 2/15. I'd be more reluctant to recommend that. The upper slope was decent corn, but the bottom was hellish melted slop.

Winds must have been insane up there on Saturday.

[Andeh]

Winds must have been insane up there on Saturday.

It was definitely windy up at the top, luckily we were just finishing de-skinning and eating when they really started to pick up. There was one big gust that hit right when I was about to step in to my bindings that almost knocked me over - had to stab my skis in the ground and wait for like a minute for it to die down long enough to step in.

[Sutter]

Rare fully-clothed Supu sighting at the wood yesterday.

fixed that for ya.