Advice re Tahoe please

M

mikeskeet

New member
So we're flying into San Francisco from England on 2 February for a 12 day trip to Tahoe, our first time there having skiied Colorado and Utah a lot before.

Accomodation is all refundable - (we'd booked 5 nights at Squaw, 2 at Mammoth and 5 at South Lake Tahoe) - but flights are not as booked on miles. We've also alraedy bought two Tahoe six pack lift tickets for $299 each that are non refundable.

As you can imagine we're very unsure what to do. My daughter went to Chamonix in France just before Christmas and two days before she left it was green and brown with no snow and then it dumped about 6 feet in 2/3 days and conditions were perfect. Could the same happen in Tahoe between now and 3 Feb?

Any suggestions from the kind folks on this board who know the area a lot better than we do?

Thanks
 
mikeskeet":354idfri said:
So we're flying into San Francisco from England on 2 February for a 12 day trip to Tahoe, our first time there having skiied Colorado and Utah a lot before.

Accomodation is all refundable - (we'd booked 5 nights at Squaw, 2 at Mammoth and 5 at South Lake Tahoe) - but flights are not as booked on miles. We've also alraedy bought two Tahoe six pack lift tickets for $299 each that are non refundable.

As you can imagine we're very unsure what to do. My daughter went to Chamonix in France just before Christmas and two days before she left it was green and brown with no snow and then it dumped about 6 feet in 2/3 days and conditions were perfect. Could the same happen in Tahoe between now and 3 Feb?

Any suggestions from the kind folks on this board who know the area a lot better than we do?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Give it a few weeks, it could easily snow a few feet and open things up.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 
socal":3ey6b6o5 said:
Give it a few weeks, it could easily snow a few feet and open things up.
Click to expand...
Yes, but the odds are far against you. We know it's going to be dry at least another week+. That leaves 3 weeks before you arrive. Really closer to two, because the first big storm is going to be so unstable it will take several days to clean things up and make it safe to open much terrain.

Tahoe is not just below average; there is essentially zero natural snow base. So you need 6 feet new snow minimum for close to full operation. Take 41 years of January snowfall at Alpine Meadows (representative of the Sierra Crest, less than Kirkwood but much more than Northstar or Heavenly) , multiply by 2/3 for the first 1/3 of the month with no snow, 11 of the 41 seasons get you 6 feet of snow in the remaining 2/3 of the month. One more dry week and the odds of getting that 6 feet in half a month fall to 3 out of 41.

You should try to move this trip somewhere else NOW. It will become more difficult as you get closer to departure date. 12 days is a long time to be on a completely busted ski trip. If you go through with it you should be planning alternative non-ski tourism in California.

booked on miles
Click to expand...
That normally means you CAN change the ticket to somewhere else for a fee up to $150 or so.
 
If you do end up wanting to change plans, the $600 for lift tickets seems to be the big sunken cost. I would suggest putting them up for sale on craigslist either locally (reno/tahoe) or the SF page, under "tickets: by-owner". Many people do this in Utah.
 
I
Evren":1midgznf said:
f you do end up wanting to change plans, the $600 for lift tickets seems to be the big sunken cost. I would suggest putting them up for sale on craigslist either locally (reno/tahoe) or the SF page, under "tickets: by-owner". Many people do this in Utah.
Click to expand...
Yes, but they won't fetch much now. Still a good idea as they might be worth something in March. I have that same Tahoe Six Pack ticket package for an intended trip in late February.
 
Thanks for your comments.

The flights we have are date changeable but not destination changeable and can be changed right up to the last minute. The first deadline for accomodation cancelling isn't until 20 Jan so I think we'll hold off for 10 days or so and see if a change is likely. Or if there's a vast improvement in Utah, colorado or somewhere we should be able to jump an internal flight from San Fran.

Putting the lift tickets up for sale sounds like a good idea.

Re the Switzerland comment yes it is great right across Europe at the moment - the first time in a long while I can recall European conditions being so much better than Western US. We never book trips more than a couple of weeks ahead of time in Europe as it's so unpredictable but have booked a trip to somewhere in the Western US ahead of time every year for the last 15 years and have always been pretty lucky - a number of times spectacularly so (although I'm not sure if 2.5 days out of 3 in Alta on interlodge is lucky or not!). Anyhow I guess the luck had to run out sometime.............
 
When you get close to Jan. 20, I recommend pushing the date to mid-March. Utah has never had inadequate snow then. California has had one wipeout season in 1977, but the odds of that now are probably 15% or so. Similar with I-70 Colorado, where March is defintely your best shot at good conditions.
 
Yea, I skied Tahoe one March - late 80's, early 90's - I can't remember the exact year. It was a friend's bachelor party ski trip. Up until the end of February, the skiing was terrible. Almost no snow the entire winter. A total disaster for the ski areas. I tried to get him to switch the trip to another location where there was more snow. Then, in early March, the weather pattern shifted and Tahoe got crushed with one snow storm after another. The week we skied Tahoe, we had 5 to 7 feet of new snow. Snow conditions were the best I have ever skied in.
 
berkshireskier":28gvytsr said:
I can't remember the exact year.
Click to expand...
That would be 1990-91.

Alpine Meadows:
Nov. 16.5
Dec. 42
Jan. 8
Feb. 15.5
Mar. 188
Apr. 19
Total 289

Mammoth's drought was even worse:
Nov. 7
Dec. 28
Jan. 11
Feb. 6
Mar. 176
Apr. 6
May 13
Total 247

Mammoth was overextended from when they bought June Mt. in 1986 and spent $$$ upgrading it. 1990-91 was the 3rd busted Christmas at Mammoth since 1986. At the end of February Mammoth had to renegotiate its debt and lay off a lot of long term employees. Summer of 1991 was the point Mammoth made a serious investment in snowmaking and built the big reservoir by the gondola mid-station.
 
Thanks for that reminder, Tony. It was 90-91. I can remember skiing at Alpine Meadows and we were skiing in the Sherwood Forest (totally ungroomed) after one of the big snowfalls that March and I was traversing across at one point to meet up with some friends and I fell in sort of an awkward position (and I was skiing on narrow, stiff Olin Mark IV slalom skis) with my knees bent and underneath me. I put my pole down into the snow to try to get some leverage to push myself up and the pole went all the way down, never hitting a bottom or firm snow. It was truly the snow equivalent of quicksand. I tried to reach down to undo my bindings but I couldn't get enough force on the binding to release it. I was literally stuck there. A couple of people had to come over and let me grab onto their poles to pull me up. As I said before, that week was the deepest snow I've ever skied in.
 
berkshireskier":2scqmfy5 said:
I was skiing on narrow, stiff Olin Mark IV slalom skis
Click to expand...
Olim Mark IV was a classic ski, but it wasn't a stiff slalom stiff. It was mainly a freestyle ski.

Carry on.
 
Patrick":1klbyyw5 said:
berkshireskier":1klbyyw5 said:
I was skiing on narrow, stiff Olin Mark IV slalom skis
Click to expand...
Olim Mark IV was a classic ski, but it wasn't a stiff slalom stiff. It was mainly a freestyle ski.

Carry on.
Click to expand...

#-o My memory is faulty. Sorry. I believe I was actually skiing on the Olin "Comp SL" ski (they were predominantly white, with "Comp SL" graphics on them), which I believe was a stiff, narrow slalom ski and NOT good in powder, even back in those days, before wider powder skis were available.
 
So decision made and Tahoe trip cancelled. Managed to persuade airline to refund miles - all it cost was a £15 cancellation fee.

Given the huge storm that passed through Europe late last week and over the weekend and the fact that it's only an hour's flight to Geneva we've rebooked to go to Sainte Foy in France. We can also ski Val D'isere, Tignes, Les Arcs and La Plagne within a ten miute drive from there.

We usually book US or Canada trips as the snow is on average so much better - but given it's the opposite at the moment no point in doing the long trip.

All we're out of pocket for is 2 x $299 for Tahoe six pack tickets - I'll put them up for sale on Craig's list at some point but on the off chance anyone on here wants them let me know.............

Thanks for your advice and in case anyones interested I'll post some details and pictures post-trip on the Europe board.

Will probably bring my kids over to Utah next season instead....
 
mikeskeet":2x1wx5wg said:
So decision made and Tahoe trip cancelled. Managed to persuade airline to refund miles - all it cost was a £15 cancellation fee.
Click to expand...
That's incredible, Mike -- only £15 to cancel? Which airline is this? Unless you're at a very high frequent-flyer level, they usually hit you for $150 per ticket to put the miles back in your account.
 
jamesdeluxe":752nlvka said:
Unless you're at a very high frequent-flyer level, they usually hit you for $150 per ticket to put the miles back in your account.
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm in the lowest of 4 preferred tiers with Delta. I get free baggage up to 70 pounds, occasional seat upgrades and better than average treatment responding to problems. But you have to be in the top 2 tiers (minimum 75K miles per year) to waive that $150 redeposit fee.

mikeskeet":752nlvka said:
Tahoe six pack tickets - .... on the off chance anyone on here wants them let me know.............
Click to expand...
I sent you a PM on that subject.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top