tseeb
Well-known member
I had not been skiing in CA since early Dec. as I skipped a couple of possible two-day trips because the snow conditions drive not seem worth the drive. Since Tahoe areas got up to 4" new over the weekend and nothing is predicted for the rest of the month, plus a friend had a nice timeshare to share, I drove up early Wed. morning, turning onto Northstar Dr at 10 AM. Truckee and Tahoe temperature were predicted to be 55/10. While it did not get quite that cold, So. Tahoe did set a record with 58 on Wed.
It was 11 by the time I changed for skiing, shuttled to very little closer than where I parked, then walked through village, took gondola and got off Vista chair. Runs to skiers right were open so I went that way twice. Only a couple of intermediate runs were open as Cat's Face, the steepest pitch open on the front side, was closed for racing. I moved to the Backside where Burnout is the only run open. (Drifter from Zephyr Lodge to Backside also is open.) Conditions were good with very consistent surface, very good coverage, loose snow in many places and the start of a zipper line on skiers right. It was not too crowded, so if you waited for a lull or skied past slower traffic, you could get some speed and carry it through the flatter bottom.
My friend, driving up from the Sierra foothills, joined me about 1 PM. We skied Burnout a few more times. EpicMix showed me with a total of 10 rides on 1,800+ vertical Backside lift. We then took the drag lift to Lookout Mountain where only Washoe run is open. Snow was also good there and I think the Burnout and Washoe may be the two best combination of length, steepness and snow condition runs open at Tahoe. Northstar exceeded out expectations. We also skied closed Tonini's which had 4" of nice untracked on the top, but we had to cross a couple of rock bands to get back to open run. I totaled almost 31K vertical.
Heavenly on Thursday 1/16 barely met expectations. We parked at Stagecoach a little before 10 and the upper lot was full so we had a long walk to lift. We skied Upper North Bowl, probably the best snow and pitch open - but way too short, to Olympic and did the Downhill a couple of times. We tried to move up the mountain using Olympic but found that way was closed so we skied to the bottom and used Stagecoach to get to Dipper. Dipper run We only skied to CA once, where we did Ridge to Upper Mombo, as Ridge is too flat (but with always incredible very of Lake) to ski more than once. Mombo was recently opened and skied well especially where afternoon sun was hitting it hard.
When we returned to NV my friend rode the gondola down to get picked up by his wife for a late lunch. I did Dipper, then Olympic and Stagecoach a couple of more times each finishing at 3 PM with 24 lifts and over 26.5K vertical. Since it my first time this year on lower NV and any CA terrain, it was OK for a while, but I hate to think I only have so many turns to make in my life and I used a lot of them yesterday on blue cruisers. Was able to ski to within 50 feet of car by going above lodge. I was OK with spring fleece gloves, but could have been dressed a little warmer as it was in the low 40s up high and there was a 20 mph wind from the E all day.
Some notes: Still having problems posting pictures over 200K. Maybe only admin and moderators can go higher?
All of Heavenly and Northstar are currently posted as slow skiing areas. They have people posted in the usual places, but you don't want to get to much speed in some areas as there are some thin, icy or gravelly spots.
Heavenly is planning to open Boulder base this weekend so they are still expanding terrain. I heard their snowmaking lakes/ponds are running low. I've seen them open The Face under the tram with snowmaking in past years, but they only have it open for racing on East Bowl chair at the bottom so far. A bear crossed the course there during a Master's slalom race last weekend.
I have broken even on both my Tahoe Value and Mountain Collective passes.
It was 11 by the time I changed for skiing, shuttled to very little closer than where I parked, then walked through village, took gondola and got off Vista chair. Runs to skiers right were open so I went that way twice. Only a couple of intermediate runs were open as Cat's Face, the steepest pitch open on the front side, was closed for racing. I moved to the Backside where Burnout is the only run open. (Drifter from Zephyr Lodge to Backside also is open.) Conditions were good with very consistent surface, very good coverage, loose snow in many places and the start of a zipper line on skiers right. It was not too crowded, so if you waited for a lull or skied past slower traffic, you could get some speed and carry it through the flatter bottom.
My friend, driving up from the Sierra foothills, joined me about 1 PM. We skied Burnout a few more times. EpicMix showed me with a total of 10 rides on 1,800+ vertical Backside lift. We then took the drag lift to Lookout Mountain where only Washoe run is open. Snow was also good there and I think the Burnout and Washoe may be the two best combination of length, steepness and snow condition runs open at Tahoe. Northstar exceeded out expectations. We also skied closed Tonini's which had 4" of nice untracked on the top, but we had to cross a couple of rock bands to get back to open run. I totaled almost 31K vertical.
Heavenly on Thursday 1/16 barely met expectations. We parked at Stagecoach a little before 10 and the upper lot was full so we had a long walk to lift. We skied Upper North Bowl, probably the best snow and pitch open - but way too short, to Olympic and did the Downhill a couple of times. We tried to move up the mountain using Olympic but found that way was closed so we skied to the bottom and used Stagecoach to get to Dipper. Dipper run We only skied to CA once, where we did Ridge to Upper Mombo, as Ridge is too flat (but with always incredible very of Lake) to ski more than once. Mombo was recently opened and skied well especially where afternoon sun was hitting it hard.
When we returned to NV my friend rode the gondola down to get picked up by his wife for a late lunch. I did Dipper, then Olympic and Stagecoach a couple of more times each finishing at 3 PM with 24 lifts and over 26.5K vertical. Since it my first time this year on lower NV and any CA terrain, it was OK for a while, but I hate to think I only have so many turns to make in my life and I used a lot of them yesterday on blue cruisers. Was able to ski to within 50 feet of car by going above lodge. I was OK with spring fleece gloves, but could have been dressed a little warmer as it was in the low 40s up high and there was a 20 mph wind from the E all day.
Some notes: Still having problems posting pictures over 200K. Maybe only admin and moderators can go higher?
All of Heavenly and Northstar are currently posted as slow skiing areas. They have people posted in the usual places, but you don't want to get to much speed in some areas as there are some thin, icy or gravelly spots.
Heavenly is planning to open Boulder base this weekend so they are still expanding terrain. I heard their snowmaking lakes/ponds are running low. I've seen them open The Face under the tram with snowmaking in past years, but they only have it open for racing on East Bowl chair at the bottom so far. A bear crossed the course there during a Master's slalom race last weekend.
I have broken even on both my Tahoe Value and Mountain Collective passes.
