Irony of too much snow at Tahoe

[Anonymous]

Forgive me for a post that complains about too much snow, but I didn't fly from Virginia to Reno just to sit around for most of the past week.

Arrived last Friday night and woke up to serious snowfall Saturday. Unfortunately, the shuttle from Reno to Alpine was cancelled as I-80 was closed at the Nevada line. Spent the day in the casinos.

As noted in the Northstar post, the snow really flew Saturday and closed down most of the transit on Sunday. Nothstar shuttle cancelled. I-395 closed going South so no Heavenly. Mt. Rose road closed. Caught a Greyhound to Truckee and managed to ski half a day at Nortstar, but dead tired from chasing busses.

Monday - Mt Rose open. Blizzard by mid-afternoon

Tuesday - Squaw shuttle runs - Blizzard in the morning keep upper ountain closed until 11 AM.

Wednesday - hoofed it to Diamond Peak. Sun and all the new snow has been groomed - excellent for an intermediate like me.

Thursday - stayed overnight in Truckee. Heat goes off in hotel. Fire alarm has us evacuated by 7AM. Makes no difference as the Sugar Bowl shuttle driver and bus go missing and the company can't get aother bus to run. Back to Reno after noon and back to Virginia in the morning.

Trying to roll with the punches, but this has been a heck of a ski vacation.

 

[Killclimbz]

Wow, that really sucks. Usually bad timing is about being around with no new snow and no prospect of it. That really sucks to get nuked by too much snow. As soon as you got to the resort you should have never left. Set up camp in their cafeteria or something....

 

[Tony Crocker]

Nearly all of my snowbound misadventures are from Tahoe.

Christmas to New Year's 1992-93 was very similar to your week, with 45 inches new at the lake and up to 90 in the ski areas. We were in a house a mile off the north shore road. Out of 6 days I skied one at Squaw, and I had to thumb 3 rides to get there. Everything above KT22 was closed.

These storms generally do restrict the mountains, but it was exceptional for Reno to get as much snow as last weekend. The references to "biggest since 1916" are probably true for Reno and the Carson Valley.

I would try to have my own car or a rental up there and not depend on public transit. NASJA frovided a free (and quite plush) shuttle from South Shore to Sierra-at-Tahoe Friday. But it took almost 2 hours to get there in chains (plus they voted to leave early), and in retrospect I should have driven.

 

[Anonymous]

Glad in a way to hear that others have suffered the same fate at Tahoe. I was relucatnt to spend $450 for a week's SUV rental when the Southwest RT airline ticket was only $200 and I'm not sure that I would have enjoyed the chains on - chains off drill that was being played out on I-80 nearly every day.

All things considerd, the skiing that I did manage to eke out was probably the best I've ever experienced. I've never really skiied any significant fresh powder before and the virtul absence of ice was great.

Maybe Colorado next time?