South/North Lake Tahoe weather pattern

[freshies]

got up to the house in truckee around 10 and still snowing, maybe 10 or so at the house, super-light snow, "blower" is the word here, tmrw is gonna be $$$$. will be @ summit 6 line-up by 8:30am. with many locals passes blacked-out, should be sweet freshies if ya know where to go and avoid the crowds, and they pop the hikes. no winds for tmrw, so hopefully they get some stuff open, should be the lightest snow of the year and temps not expected to get above 20

[The Dad]

So looking at the radar, I'd say that the warning to 10pm looks overly cautious from a safety perspective / overoptimistic from a snowsport perspective. Unless what remains of this storm literally sits on the lake and thereabouts, significant snowfall seems likely to end by late morning.

Bad news for total accumulation.

Good news for hitting the mountain today while the tourons freak out over snow.

[gimpy]

the snow stopped right after freshies posted

[The Dad]

the snow stopped right after freshies posted

... and started again.

Now the radar looks like it's not likely to stop soon. Who knows?

Wonderfully weird snow out there today. A couple of feet of blower powder on top of boilerplate and crunch. Once you got up enough speed to plane, it was pretty much money, but go any slower and it was really mixed.

Got to the top of Summit for the first run of the day, and I hear, "That looks like someone with change for a nickel!" So we got several runs in with a fellow mag, but I think I must've gotten her member ID wrong somehow, because in retrospect, I don't think that was LPH. Anyway, we had some nice runs, showed her a bit of the hill until she got tired of waiting for us around an hour or an hour and a half in. (Not posting real world name out of respect for privacy.)

Hopefully they open High Traverse tomorrow (unless they did this afternoon after we reined it in for the five-year-olds).

[3pin]

Just got back from Alpine, and can confirm.... blower.

I've been dealing with a wicked cold for the past week, and I was supposed to take it easy this weekend. I decided if it was 6" or less, I wouldn't go today. Snowphone said 12" up high. Oh well, I can get better this evening. Pulled up around 8, got in line probably ten chairs back. First lap, tough visibility off the D Chutes, but not bad. Report was pretty spot on... seemed like a foot of light, dry pow. There was definitely a bottom, even with my Thrashers, but it wasn't really a problem. D Chutes to Three Sisters, and things are looking good. Bump into OneHotChili and get faceshots down to the bottom. Not bad, not bad at all. Another lap of the same, then over to Keyhole. I made a bad line choice in Keyhole, hitting a slid-out gully. No good there, but High Yellow gully made up for it. By this time, Scott's turning, so I make a lap down Gentian Gully and back to Summit. Western-facing stuff is a bit more baked underneath, but still, with a foot of fresh over it, no problem. The morning gets better down Lower Beaver and the slope above the park. Seems deeper over there, with no bottom. I do three or four laps of that and it feels like it's deeper the further over I go. So far, a fantastic morning, but not an exceptional powder day. Until....

The hikes opened! Bombing down to Wolverine Saddle, I was gonna do another lap down Lower Beaver, but saw two people hiking toward Idiots/Beaver. Awesome... step out of my skis and start hiking. A couple peel off to Idiots, and there's maybe ten people standing above Beaver. Realizing that this is it in front of me, I start hiking a little faster. Three guys start booting up to Estelle, and I hurry a little more. But wait... what's this? One by one, they all pull over to hit the far side of Beaver.

Standing on top of Estelle, I'm the only one. I've been the only one standing up here before, but never the FIRST and only one to stand up here. The lines through the cliffs look like they've slid some, or at least sloughed a bunch off, so I choose the chute just skier's right of the main cliff band. Drop off the cornice and expect at least one scraping turn, as it looked a little firm right under the drop. Instead, a totally soft touchdown.

Dropping a knee into the first turn, the snow comes up... knee, waist, chest. Holy shit... no bottom. There's no crust, and by some stroke of luck, the wind seems to have funneled everything into this line, just right. It's incredibly deeper than anything I've hit so far today. Each turn gets deeper and deeper as I get closer to the choke. Chest, face.. remember to breathe between turns. I'm trying to knock snow off my goggles going into the next one. Roll over into the choke... face, snow going over me. Holy deep. The turns go totally white and quiet, and when I come out all I can see for a second are my hands pushing forward. Just a split second to see how far the trees at the bottom are before the next turn. What do I remember about this line? There's nothing in the way is there? It goes. And goes and goes.

The downside to being the first a top Estelle, is that now I have to break trail around Estelle Lake at the bottom. Oh well, small price to pay for hitting the fall line all the way to the bottom. I can't believe how light and deep it is. The Thrashers are 147mm in the tip, and I didn't see them once as I broke trail. They just cruised along, beneath snow that's knee deep the whole way out. Estelle's like it's own universe. A couple minutes, and I'm on the traverse that some ambitious skiers put in out to the Butress. It's packed, but there's a lot of untracked still out there. More deep turns off the top, faceshots, then chest shots. A couple little cliff drops for fun, and the bottom returns a little as I drop the last pitch down to the parking lot.

I've had some incredible skiing in the last couple seasons. Today as a whole was great, but that individual run (which I went back for two more times), was undoubtedly best single lift-served run I've ever had, and probably top three runs of all time.

So now I'm back, and I'm trying to figure out where to tour and find that again for tomorrow.

[The Dad]

3pin, what time was that run? Was that you we saw from the lodge at around 12:30, 12:45?

[3pin]

That would've been me. The group I was with all decided to bail down Lower Beaver and get lunch instead of hiking. Glad I did. As I was breaking trail out from the bottom, a second tele guy dropped into the bowl on the looker's right side of the high point for the second run. He didn't agree with my "top three" assement... until we both hiked back up there. He dropped in the same line with me, and even with 5 or 6 tracks now down that chute, decided that was definitely a fair claim.

[freshies]

3pin summed it up nicely: blower. i had what were perhaps my deepest turns @ Alpine in years off the cliffs top of arts, i herringboned/broke trail up that saddle to stand a top the duble cliff line around 10am, not a single track up high, stood there licking my lips. there was a bottom so was a little nervous about airing it out, afraid i would punch through the goose down fetahers to the boilerplate at mach schnell after the air, but just said to myself "go light, ski light, land light" and launched it, total immersion, first turn out of the run out was up to my waist, contrails blowing over my head blinding me...best run of the year. its rare you get chest deep turns in Tahoe...that was amazing. went back and did variations of that line twice more

i was spent (partied last night until 3 with friends from LA) @ noon and called it, as hikes were still closed at that time...damn, sounds like they popped them (nice one on estelle 3pin!). did they open high t and the ridge out towards twin lakes? tmorrow should be great too, still snowing off and on here at the house.

[kush1]

The wood was sick today also, I would bet between 18-24 inches of fresh on top of the 7 from the other day. Got 1st tracks down the wall to water fall, snow was so light it was coming up and over my shoulders..............even though it was knee deep......so saweeet

[ja_surf]

Anyone have thoughts on backcountry stability? Considering Waterhouse for moderate to considerable forecast, and Elephants Back for Moderate. Although winds are not forecast to be high with this system, I will probably stay sheltered for Saturday.

Pass blackouts suck.

Well no stability problems at Waterhouse today, 4 laps of fun were had.

[Sierra Cement]

Well no stability problems at Waterhouse today, 4 laps of fun were had.

Well it's good to know that we can hold one dude responsible for a bunch of those tracks.

Did a dusk patrol on PowHow and was able to find plenty of that fresh for the taking. I laid a ski cut on one steep prone slope and got a 12" section to slide for about 15' before it just sort of fell apart and decided to stop. Not too worried about slides, even if you got buried in the slough, (as gimpy put it) you could practically sneeze your way out of it.

Sounds like North Shore takes the crown on this storm.

[kona12]

I got sucked into going to flatstar today. Though I was bummed to not be at alpine or squaw, I decided to make the best of it. That wasn't hard considering this was some of the lightest Tahoe pow I have skied in a long time! Depending upon the exposer, there was definitely crust underneath, but most of the day that was not an issue. Hit Lookout first then the backside plus a little hike out that ridge to the skiers left of the backside with sweet blower everywhere. Pics are kind of weak but you will at least get a little sample:

Still snowing early.
Attachment 10492
Yee Ha.
Attachment 10493
flatstar doesn't serve up to much challenge so we were forced to seek.
Attachment 10491
Its the flying crow style!
Attachment 10494

[Spats]

Mt. Rose claims they got over a foot last night (yes, it's the 12 hour figure). This seems odd since no one else is reporting more than 6" today, and Heavenly is reporting 3". Can anyone verify? powpig? Jim? MTT?

I would have paid $20 for that and slept on the floor, no problem

[kona12]

The last advisory I saw before I went to bed last night from the NOAA said there was going to be lake effect snow on the North end of the lake. I had to re-read it to make sure I wasn't looking at the great lakes. At the time the only thing on radar was around the north end of the lake. I wonder if this had anything to do with it? Diamond peak reported 13 inchs this AM so maybe . Reports anyone?

[StormDay]

Found plenty of thigh deep at Alpine today. The deep snow seemed to be a combination snow from yesterday and new snow day. The snow was still very lite and the temps were cold.

Any place with decent skier traffic yesterday only seem to have 3-5" of new snow this morning. Alpine did get snow showers throughout the day.


BTW: Alpine reported 7.5-10" new at 10:49am this morning.

[MTT]

Mt. Rose claims they got over a foot last night (yes, it's the 12 hour figure). This seems odd since no one else is reporting more than 6" today, and Heavenly is reporting 3". Can anyone verify? powpig? Jim? MTT?

I would have paid $20 for that and slept on the floor, no problem

Spats, I am soory to say, I did not ski Rose Today. I did get first chair Saturday, It was pretty good, 1' most everywhere, Chutes were open from the starting bell. You could smack the bottom here and there but it was real light snow. When I left Saturday it was snowing, I belive it snowed all night, my guess Rose reported the numbers correctly it was probably bottomless blower today. I did not see it comming and was sore from yesterday so I did not even get up early and look @ the report.

My guess B/C around Mt. Rose and EVERYWHERE is gonna be great for days to come.

Are you planing on any easy touring on the North side in the next few days?
I am still a B/C Jong but have all the stuff?

[Cirquerider]

Well no stability problems at Waterhouse today, 4 laps of fun were had.

Ya beat me by one day. Still great.

[The Dad]

I. Am. Tired.

That is all.

[lhs]

to all you folks at alpine -
i'm new to this coast, and it seems that all that nonsense i heard about 'sierra cement' was actually just all of you passing on misinformation in order to hog the pow for yourselves. a good thing i saw through your silly ruse.
spent yesterday acquainting myself with the mountain (thanks alpinedad!) including one sweet hike out to somewhere around where 3pin was talking about, and today pretty much lapping all that goodness off the high traverse (!!!!). only bummer was all the time i had to spend cleaning the snow off my face and goggles...
a stellar weekend. whoever's doing the snow dance, please keep it up.

[The Dad]

Aaah, yes. Silly me. I knew you had a three-letter handle, but got confused as to which.

Let it be known to all: lhs has major league steeze.

Glad you enjoyed the rest of your weekend, lhs. Sorry we didn't run into you again yesterday, although I suspect I would've been too sore to keep up.

[avacadotoast]

Mt. Rose claims they got over a foot last night (yes, it's the 12 hour figure). This seems odd since no one else is reporting more than 6" today, and Heavenly is reporting 3". Can anyone verify? powpig? Jim? MTT?

I would have paid $20 for that and slept on the floor, no problem

Yes I can verify that Mt Rose did indeed go off yesterday....easily a foot-and-a-half of some crazy ass lake effect (on top of the foot + they got Fri & Sat)....

...I was on about the 30th chair and what I saw as I was riding up gave me a humongous boner....the lucky bastards coming down were just chest, arms and smiles with snow cascading over their heads every couple turns....it was freakin sloughing down gold run!!!

The Chutes surprisingly opened at 9:00 with out any fan-fare...I only found out because I got a garbled, excited radio message from my wife...something to the effect of "Honey the chutes are open.....I was just the first one down Nightmare....BEST RUN OF MY LIFE!!" So I took her advice and hightailed over to Nightmare where there was only maybe 3 tracks....I cruised up the untracked steeper left side and OMFG .....it was like falling through feathers....snow was cascading over my head the whole way to the point that I had to stop halfway down due to a dry pow induced coughing attack....

...anyway Jim S, my wife and I teamed up around 10:00 and just had an absolute blast....there wasn't much in the way of crowds so the Chutes were incredible until at least noon or 1:00....then there was still lots of untracked to be had in the trees on the Rose side...

..no lie....definite top 3 day ever for me!!

To those of you who missed it I'm sincerely sorry!!

[gageyk]

I'll confirm what Corky said. Lightest snow these parts have seen in years. Sunday I was on 3rd chair(had to throw some unoccupied skis out of the lineup, don't understand how unoccupied skis hold your place in line-they don't).

It was deep as well, first run down trees to left of Central, easliy as deep as reported. I was on my board and the snow was flying over my body on every turn-no tracks to be seen . Got at least 4 runs of pretty much untracked-the masses were out-amazingly some of the most obvious lines were left minimaly touched . Snow was light all morning so even the cutup was great.

Saturday was only about 8", managed 15th chair, had 12 runs in by 10:AM. Chutes were amazing. The trees in the Chutes have to be some of the best skiing in the Sierra-skied. 8:30 to 4:PM. Fantastic weekend!!

Livin' in Nevada is mighty fine.

[MTT]

Corky:

AS I posted earlier I missed sunday!

So take the edge off a bit, the visibility sucked (Right)?

I got a couple good chute runs on Saturday but with half the depth you got sunday.

Was it still snowing when you left Sunday afternoon?

[avacadotoast]

Corky:

AS I posted earlier I missed sunday!

So take the edge off a bit, the visibility sucked (Right)?

I got a couple good chute runs on Saturday but with half the depth you got sunday.

Was it still snowing when you left Sunday afternoon?

Sorry (I guess ) to report that the sun was out most of the day....there were strange lake effect clouds lurking here and there but with the sun strong above it just enhanced the surreal goodness of the day....only poor visibility was on my last run of the day on the slide side around 2 o'clock when some thick ass fog rolled in...

[MTT]

Well OK, Blower POW, expected crouwds did not show, and you could see.

I guess I missed it. So even better than the big Thursday back in early January then?

So now here I sit with all my BC stuff sitting on the living room floor and I am still not out the door to go skinning. I must be getting lazy
Still sore from Saturday. I fell two times!