A little more prognostication help...kicking horse vs tahoe

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hey there -

I'm planning a March 4-11th trip to Kicking Horse, but all the sick weather in Tahoe has me looking there too...do you think it will be Sierra Cement in Squaw et al?

Thanks in advance guys!
 
Surface conditions at Tahoe are not predictable that far in advance. What we do know is that the base is deep and most of Squaw's extreme terrain will be skiable. If you don't have fresh snow it will probably be warm and the sunny exposures will still be good skiing at the right time of day. Steep north faces should still have dry snow.

If you haven't made a monetary commitment yet I think this is an easy call this season. YTD snowfall Squaw 254 inches, Kicking Horse 89 inches.
 
stick with kicking horse. well, it depends what kind of snow and terrain
you'd like to ride/ski. are you looking for a scene or terrain? tahoe will
have a big ol base and most likely sunny warm weather. keep your
fingers crossed for fresh and get it quick, cause i'm sure it goes quick.

kicking horse should have more snow by that late in the season. why
else did you plan a trip there, right? both places would be a good choice,
but if you want steep deep big mtn type terrain with some fresh pow, then
stick with kicking horse. it's light and just gets thrown around vs sierra
cement that just gets tracked. the snow lasts longer than Sierra cement.
crowds will most likely be less up there too, aye?

IMO.
disclaimer: i have never been to either of these places, but i am a bit
south of kicking horse and would expect the snow to be similar; light and
dry. sierra cement is probably much like the east coast pow. so my
above reply is just merely educated assumptions/guesses. take it with a
grain of salt i suppose. :roll:
 
I have skied Kicking Horse one day in the very good snow season of 2002. When I was there you had to ski the whole 3,800 gondola vertical each run. The lower half of the mountain gets much less snow and it has often been reported thin (or restricted to a couple of groomers) in the past couple of years. Since I was there the Blue Heaven chair as been added, which allows you to run laps on about 1/4 of the upper terrain.

As one who been doing advance plan destination trips for a long time, I must disillusion some of you regarding powder. The probability of hitting a big dump (say 1+ foot overnight) during a one week advance-planned trip is probably 10-20% at best at most destination resorts. Even at Alta/Snowbird it's probably no more than 40%.

The probability of that dump is definitely higher at Tahoe than at Kicking Horse (I'd guess 30% vs. 15%). Hamdog is certainly right that if you get that at Tahoe you'll have one day to enjoy it vs. several at Kicking Horse. Without fresh snow you're better off at Tahoe with the big snow base and variety of terrain this season. So, to paraphrase Dirty Harry, the question is, "Are you feeling lucky?"

This goes to a general philosophy of what you want out of a ski trip. I believe the first priority when shelling out the $ is to avoid big mistakes, primarily unskiable terrain due to inadequate coverage or snow conditions. Fresh powder is a lower priority since you're not going to get it most of the time anyway. Many FTO readers may disagree with these priorities.

I love powder as much as most of you, but after a powderless 1995-96 I came to the conclusion that if I had to have a powder fix, the only way to give that a high probability on a destination trip was to go cat or heli-skiing. I have therefore done 2-4 days of that most seasons since.

The best way by far to maximize powder is to live within day commute distance, so you can cherry pick your ski days on short notice instead of making advance commitments. That's why Mt. Baldy has 4 of my top powder days ( http://bestsnow.net/vertfeet.htm ). Our esteemed administrator has figured this out and chosen his new residence accordingly.
 
I'll also put in my 2 cents worth on light-and-dry vs. Sierra Cement. Since you sink into the light-and-dry, there needs to be a lot of it, especially on steep terrain, or you will just be skiing on the base underneath it. This is a chronic problem in Colorado with its typical pattern of frequent small snowfalls, and Kicking Horse weather patterns are similar.

Having fat skis is a great benefit in skiing Sierra Cement. That was the other decision I made in 1996, to buy the Volant Chubbs.

There is no question that the best of both worlds is the big dump of light and dry, just what western Colorado has had over the past week. But go ask a local at Crested Butte (or Aspen, Telluride, etc.) when was the last time they saw a storm that big. Utah's Cottonwood Canyons probably get 3 or 4 of them every season (another congrats to admin here).
 
Spring corn in the Sierras that time of year can be just about as good as powder. If you go to kicking horse, from what I understand they have some good outta bounds accessed from the resort. You might have to look there. Hard to tell you where to go. Both places should be pretty sweet as long as both are getting "their" fair share. I would just worry about one area experiencing less snowfall than usual for that area. That should not be a problem in Tahoe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top