14/?? The OFFICIAL Tahoe Thread

[LightRanger]

Let's see--rain and a couple of inches of wet snow high, then hard freeze last night and a serious east wind. should make for a fine day on the slopes.
Lynn Hill talking at Squaw tonight though,

Ask her if she recalls climbing with Jim Manning at Mount Rubidoux.

(Close family friend who was apparently friends with her brother and went bouldering with her in like middle school or high school.)

[Rodneyyee]

3-6" forecast for Mammoth.

Stick to the PRONS gaper-it shit and pizzled all over-not even worth reporting anything new. Get on it quick, we'er only about 2 weeks behind tahlow suckage down here.

[powdork]

Thanks Powdork, I will check out Oneidas. Completely forgot about the climb to 89 on South Upper truckee somehow.

Yer gonna miss all the housewives though

[WestCoastPDR]

Yer gonna miss all the housewives though

They are in high supply at the East Lake Tahoe chick-fil-à locations. Some in yoga pants too.

[RaccoonFace]

I guess it's time for...

I liked that.

[lepistoir]

I just watched this at the art haus. Then I drove home with my eyes closed, feeling good that there are people in the world doing far riskier things.

The Unrideables: Alaska Range - TRAILER:

[Frank Naets]

Squaw or alpine tomorrow? Hit me!

[old goat]

I guess it's time for...

Is that safe?

[SchralphMacchio]

Crumble cakes of wintery snow in Crescent today with MapleLeafGillies and a couple others. Good edge holding dry snow, not hero snow but not bad at all. Mank city on the lower apron and exit. Temps not boding well for decent skiing tomorrow ...

[skier666]

Stoke from last week....finally!

[parkmeister]

Stoke from last week....finally!

that did not suck.
crazy impressive skiing on the west shore blue ice.
you guys are 'the best skiers on the mountain'!

[powdork]

Nice video. Can't believe you went back to the boulevard after west shore conditions.

[TahoeJ]

Those runs down the west shore / Boulevard were scary - way to hold it together. Dang.

[Vets]

Stoke from last week....finally!

Thank you.
Impressive and enjoyable! Great kid stoke!

[powdork]

Sierra at Tahoe is the latest victim of the dry spell.

[LongShortLong]

Add weather service optimism to the victim list "AS HAS BEEN THE CASE ALL WINTER
THERE ARE HINTS OF SOME PATTERN CHANGE IN THE LONGER RANGE BUT
THAT SEEMS DUBIOUS AT THIS POINT."

[LightRanger]

At least they're keeping it real.

[SchralphMacchio]

So I got my first day on my Kirkwood pass on Sunday.

Conditions Report:
Cold winds were keeping off-piste conditions enjoyable until about 2 PM, at which point they were starting to get a bit too soupy and slow for fun in techy terrain. Top of the Wall was surprisingly firm and cold considering the lack of refreeze; you wanted really sharp edges if dropping in through any of the exposed areas. Coverage is enjoyable, but thin: backside is closed, even Chair 2 has the groomers burnt out; trees alongside the lower mountain groomed runs are bone dry to ground, there are inches of snow on the ground down by the lift loading areas, the drain has several creek openings showing that will be treacherous if it snows 2-3 feet. The Funnel line off 6 is like a 15' air right now, left finger is the only one that really goes, the line between Monte Wolfe runout and Fingers runout doesn't even really go anymore. Basically, I'd advocate avoiding any kind of lumps or dips in the snow if it ever snows again this season, until waiting a few days after the storm.

Other coverage notes ... literally ZERO inches of snow on south faces all the way above 10K ... no snow on backside of Round Top, no snow on south faces of Red Lake Peak. North faces of CP have decent coverage above 8600' but pretty patchy below that. Definitely will be fun skiing at CP for at least a bit longer once it starts refreezing again, and hopefully some refreshers keep the skintrack from completely burning out at pass level (it's getting awfully close). The Wattabike sign is up ... were they even in business as "Vertical Sports" any time during the season???

Seeing all of this, I can't even imagine what the Norf shore looks like, or how Squawlpine are handling lower mountain conditions. I'm hoping for a serious lack of convective uplifting storms this summer, yeesh. I hope all western states governers started banking for fire management at the beginning of winter. It is what it is, huh?

[TahoeJ]

You know things are bad when you're looking back at last season with nostalgia. I just realized I didn't even ride Red Dog or Lakeview once this year. Maybe a dozen laps on KT, none of which were particularly great. Two days over on Sherwood. Only skied Scott chute once. At least Headwall still gets snow... sort of.

Anyone else heading to Colorado (or somewhere) during the second half of March? I'm thinking Aspen might be good...

[powdork]

You know things are bad when you're looking back at last season with nostalgia. I just realized I didn't even ride Red Dog or Lakeview once this year. Maybe a dozen laps on KT, none of which were particularly great. Two days over on Sherwood. Only skied Scott chute once. At least Headwall still gets snow... sort of.

Anyone else heading to Colorado (or somewhere) during the second half of March? I'm thinking Aspen might be good...

Leaving for Snowbird/Alta on the 21st for 5 days, then 5 days to go wherever looks good

[TahoeBC]

I had to laugh getting this e-mail last week

Wow, you've had a great season and skied or rode 3 days so far! Because of how much you've already skied and your love for Heavenly Resort, we recommend renewing your Tahoe Value Pass for next season. Buy your pass before 4/12 and lock in another great season for only $49 down! Thanks for being a continued and valued season pass holder.

[Ottime]

Interesting on backside of KW being closed on Sunday. On Saturday they were running the rope tow. Maybe there was a lift issue? Do you know if they are planning to keep it closed?

[Ottime]

Never mind. Snow phone says 100% open.

[splat]

You know things are bad when you're looking back at last season with nostalgia.

No shit. We thought we had some thin years back in the 90's. Those would be like a gift from the gods these days.
Back then we could still get 8-10 foot storms in March and 5 footers in April, even May. That's incomprehensible now.

[meter-man]

Don't know from personal experience what the 80s and 90s were like, but given the last 4 years of subpar snow, I was curious about historical snow trends. I looked at Mammoth's stats because they are broken down by month. Average from 1970-2014: 352 inches/year. http://highwire.stanford.edu/~galic/...ow_report.html

From 1986-1992, it was totally bleak - every year was below 251 inches, except March 1991 (175 inches that month alone). Throw in 1983/84 and 84/85, and that's two more 250ish years. So 8 of 9 seasons running were below 270.

Compare 2004-2011, with 4 of 7 seasons above 550 inches (!!) and 5 of 7 above 450 inches. Those were good years.

I don't need to remind anyone about the last four years.

It's all cycles, and we're stuck in a shitty one, that's for sure. Pow is special mainly bc it's ephemeral. I can't wait to get it back....

In the meantime, who's got a large 29er they want to sell me??