14/?? The OFFICIAL Tahoe Thread

[Vets]

^
or a foot of fresh in June...

[LightRanger]

The 87-92 drought was bad, but the difference with this season (and last to a lesser extent) is just how goddamn warm it's been. That's new. The temp records bear it out and the climate dudes suggest it's going to be quite "normal" in a few years.

[meter-man]

The 87-92 drought was bad, but the difference with this season (and last to a lesser extent) is just how goddamn warm it's been. That's new. The temp records bear it out and the climate dudes suggest it's going to be quite "normal" in a few years.

Yep. Hope next winter brings colder temps to the west coast.

[splat]

Over the 14th, 15th and 16th of March in '97, it dumped ten feet of fluff in kirkwood.
The road was closed and they bombed the shit out it but it was stable as hell and damn light.
On the 17th, the gate opened and the sun came out. Most incredible pow day I've ever had at the wood.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Good snow still on the East Side. Get some.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...astern-Sierra)

[TurxSki]

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

Yesterday last day for Disney at SB although they are still open.
Bottom of lift was a pond but plenty of Groomer on CrowsNest side. Not much left under lift but East face was fun.
Under Lincoln lift was fine slidey bumps (beside Banzai finals course).
E.Face of Lincoln had nice cornice to drop off. Vanderbilt almost gone.

Alpine on Sat stayed cool with cloud cover & cool breeze. Lots of comps/racing happening. High Yellow looked good but closed for one of them. Pallisades & Petes Peril excellent steep shot but over so soon.

Felt warmer at Squaw. N.Bowl was busy.

[TahoeJ]

Just got a new computer so I've been transferring files and ended up sifting through some old photos. Alpine on St. Patty's - exactly 4 years ago to the day. Not the best vantage point of Sherwood but I had forgotten just how filled in it was back there, not to mention Bernie's and the backside of Squaw. I'm pretty sure this was the last time I skied through Hot Wheels Gully.




And like LightRanger said - precip and snowfall counts don't mean much when comparing years - how much of it melts during the season is just as important. Sure, there have been other years without much snow, but I haven't heard *anyone* say they can remember a winter when it was this consistently warm. That applies to the bay area and NorCal in general, not just around the lake.

[Dhelihiker]

The 60's were good.

I think this problem is about to crush California. I cant imagine what the farmer are going thru

[Ottime]

^^^^truth. Fuck, I'm headed to the desert in a few weeks, and am positive I will see sprinklers running mid afternoon in 90F temps with 10mph winds. Water prices need to sky rocket, or that shit will soon be gone.



I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel. I can not recall such consistently warm winters, but extended warm periods I do recall. In fact, 2010-11, had a six week dry spell that started with rain up to 10k in early January, and 70F beach temps by mid month, and the first rain coming in mid February. Of course, it got cold and dumped.

The years between 2004 (another epic season) and 2011 felt colder, with colder snow fall, then the late 90s and early OOs. Did not pay any attention to it prior to then.

Anyway, there does seem to be a bad combination of warming and cyclical drought. Some reports are suggesting we are entering a 30 year mega drought, but I'm not yet ready to buy into weather predictions beyond 3 days. But this year really does seem to be the shittiest yet. While we got our 'almost' base earlier this year, it never got above low tide. The few inbound powder days I got, I was pretty aware of sharks lurking every where.

[skier666]

Meter-man,

Maybe you should swing over for a drink and forget about the epic season.

[TahoeJ]

Get ready for $10 avacados and heads of broccoli. CA better start regulating ground water use too - it's amazing what a shit-show it still is - it's like the wild west but everyone has a lawyer instead of a gun.

[SchralphMacchio]

At least we have had a better season than PNW ... they lost Snoqualmie, Alpy, Stevens, and Mt. Baker before mid-March. Amazing.

[splat]

Ahhhh.....sweet reminiscence of the goodle days. I was looking up old snowfall totals for kw in 97 to see if I could find that storm but there was no mention of it. I know it was March 17. Maybe it was '95. But here is a pic of how it skied.
I remember we had a storm like this in October in, what, 2006 or 2007?

[strawjack]

From 1986-1992, it was totally bleak - every year was below 251 inches, except March 1991 (175 inches that month alone).

I moved back to JH from LakeNoSnow in Feb of '91 and lived on a couch. That was a hell year...then it dumped on them.

http://snowbrains.com/miracle-march-...h-saved-tahoe/

edit - $10 avocados? Isn't that normal?

[splat]

Interesting data on the Miracle March everyone relates to - went from 17% to 73% of normal snow pack over the course of the month. I think we're running out of March for that to happen now.

[meter-man]

And like LightRanger said - precip and snowfall counts don't mean much when comparing years - how much of it melts during the season is just as important. Sure, there have been other years without much snow, but I haven't heard *anyone* say they can remember a winter when it was this consistently warm. That applies to the bay area and NorCal in general, not just around the lake.

Agreed. It's been fucked down here on the coast - so warm. Barely need a wetsuit to surf. I ride a bike to work, and haven't been cold ONCE all winter on my ride. Truckee is sitting at 54% of annual precip for the water year, but hasn't been shit for snow. Here's a good map of this winter's temps: http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/c...2-20150310.gif And, for kicks - the commercial roofing bros at Saratoga nailed this winter's forecast: http://saratogaroofing.com/blog/?p=1732 WTF!

Meter-man,

Maybe you should swing over for a drink and forget about the epic season.

Hard to forget pain like this, but drinking usually helps.

[thefrush]

Only skied Scott chute once.

I didn't even think it had opened at all this year, when was that?

[bodywhomper]

some forecasts are also for winters that are warm with typical precip, only as mid/high elevation rain instead of snow (ugh). water agencies do not currently have dam storage to capture all that liquid during winter/early spring, so available water will remain at very roughly 50%-ish of typical under that apparently likely scenario... unless (ugh!)

[Ottime]

I don't know about board shorting the surf, but the water is the warmest in my twenty year memory.

splat, I think that October storm was '04. My wife and a few friends ended up buying passes for their first time when we were on our second weekend of fresh pow on Veteran's Day. What was great about back then, was the resorts would actually get their shit open and get the stoke brewing. We actually had some decent base by November in '08, but all the big corporate owned joints waited until the snow pack got rained on Thanksgiving week to open.

[LegoSkier]

I don't know about board shorting the surf, but the water is the warmest in my twenty year memory.

splat, I think that October storm was '04. My wife and a few friends ended up buying passes for their first time when we were on our second weekend of fresh pow on Veteran's Day. What was great about back then, was the resorts would actually get their shit open and get the stoke brewing. We actually had some decent base by November in '08, but all the big corporate owned joints waited until the snow pack got rained on Thanksgiving week to open.

Early October 04. Ridge above the backside of Tahoe Donner.

[TahoeJ]

I didn't even think it had opened at all this year, when was that?

Late January / early February I think. It was not enjoyable but I felt like I had to go for it - a patroller decided to flip the sign and let me ski down with him, and it was scratchy / billy-goating for the most part. They closed it again an hour later after some guy went sliding down a good stretch. This was around the time Sherwood was still open via the high T, but the sun wasn't high enough to soften up Scott even a little in the afternoon.

[Superstar Punani]

Since everyone's getting all Nostalgic... I think this storm dumped more snow in a couple days than this entire season.

South Lake Poon Palace buried

[meter-man]

Anyone want the Benson Hut for 4/3 and 4/4? A friend got the whole place (6 spots) but now can't fill any of the spots. He's looking for someone to take over the whole place for the weekend. PM me if interested.

[powdork]

Since everyone's getting all Nostalgic...

Yes, getting nostalgic


that was the frush on 3/2/15. It only takes one storm and we're back in business. hope to have a full tr up later tonight or tomorrow morning

[TahoeJ]

c'mon your from cali, avocado, and what schralp said is da truth.
bet were back to da normal by next year and this will just be part of a one year every decade or so warm niño event.

I hope you're right. Of course, you guys in the PNW just had one shitty year... so it's easy to stay optimistic. Try four in a row.

But again, we all hope you're right. We're certainly due.