Tahoe

[johnnash]

We're hoping to make use of our Vail group passes to get in a few early season turns before Christmas, so I've been keeping an eye on Summit Co and the Tahoe area. Summit hasn't been looking very good, but Tahoe has gotten a few decent dumps, yet they don't seem to have much terrain open. In particular, Kirkwood claims to have gotten 68- 77 inches and to have a 26-36 inch base, which compares favorably to the Cottonwood Canyons, yet they have much less territory open than the Cottonwood ski areas. What gives? And more generally, is there any rule of thumb as to how much snow is necessary in order to open most of the groomers in a resort? I'm sure this depends to some extent on water content of the snow, wind conditions, skier traffic, etc., but is there any kind of general range?

 

[EMSC]

Not looking so great here in Colo again this early season. Once again Wolf Creek is the only place with natural snow trails open (about 1/3 of the place is open this year right now vs 100% open last year). I would guess that especially Kirkwood will be opening more terrain as they get ropes up, rocks marked etc... and once they get enough business to justify it too. Of course the steeper stuff will require a lot more than 2-3 feet before it opens out in Tahoe. Given the forecast I can't yet see when Colo will get enough snow to open natural snow terrain right now. That said, it gets plenty cold at night for snowmaking so more groomer terrain will gradually open up here in Colo as time goes along.

If I was booking for say mid-Dec I'd probably risk it and head to Tahoe. Northstar and Heavenly also have huge snowmaking systems, so worst case is similar to what you'd get in Colorado this year, but if Tahoe gets just one more storm they should be close to opening at least a fair bit of the intermediate terrain... My 2c.

 

[Marc_C]

And more generally, is there any rule of thumb as to how much snow is necessary in order to open most of the groomers in a resort? I'm sure this depends to some extent on water content of the snow, wind conditions, skier traffic, etc., but is there any kind of general range?

Not really, because there are other huge factors you didn't list: steepness, rocky vs grassy, how big the rocks are, etc. There are groomers at Stowe in VT that can be skied with a 6" settled base. There are groomers at Alta that require at least a 2 foot settled base to cover the rocks.

 

[Tony Crocker]

MarcC is correct. The answer varies by individual resort topography. Kirkwood is usually the best for snowfall but its upper half is steep and needs a decent base. Most of the front of Northstar is quite flat, doesn't need that much base. Heavenly would be the worst bet of the VR Tahoe areas in most early seasons.

Pre-Christmas you can probably wait a week or two before committing. But if I had to commit now, Utah seems obvious.

 

[EMSC]

But if I had to commit now, Utah seems obvious.

Not.

PNW or western Canada seems obvious. But Vail never got the opportunity to bid on Whistler so it's not really what Johnnash is looking for. Supposed storm coming in about a week per Opensnow.com... possible multiple feet in Tahoe (no guarantees this far out obviously), Colo will take the leftovers... I still say Tahoe is more likely to offer something decent than Colo in a couple weeks.

 

[EMSC]

below is all you need to read to head for Tahoe... Esp Kirkwood and Heavenly.

http://opensnow.com/dailysnow/tahoe

http://opensnow.com/dailysnow/colorado

 

[Tony Crocker]

That Tahoe forecast reinforces what I've just written in my progress report: http://173.193.223.192/~bestsnow/seas13.htm .

Mammoth is 60% open and Kirkwood 50%. No one else at Tahoe is more than 1/4 open. Altitude seems to be the key this early season, as in Utah. Johnnash has been to Mammoth before and I think he might want to spend half his week there this time too if conditions continue on the current trend.

With regard to the PNW and western Canada I agree in general, but at the moment not as much terrain is open as in LCC or Mammoth. Whistler and Bachelor should have more open based upon reported recent dumps, and in the case of Whistler I would expect that within a week. Lake Louise and Sunshine are also ~60% open, which is very good for them. Other places in western Canada aren't open yet due to remote location so I did not search out their snow info when I was collecting it under time pressure at Fiji's airport.