tseeb
Well-known member
Yes, I skied Tahoe on Sunday of President’s Day after attending a memorial event for my sister’s best friend in Sacramento on Saturday. I left event a little before 4 PM and had to call ski shop tuning my skis to make sure someone would be there a few minutes after 6 PM close. At 5 pm CHP was stopping traffic on US-50, only allowing about 50 cars to go past entrance road to Sierra, causing a mile long backup which made my last 16 miles take an hour. Ski shop owner said he’d heard from customers who spent 8-12 hrs. getting from Bay Area to Tahoe on Friday.
Sun AM it was misting heavily at cabin and turned to snow as I got farther from Lake and went up small hill on Pioneer Trail. I wanted to be turning onto road to Sierra by 8 the next morning and only missed that by a couple of minutes, but it still took 15 minutes for the 2 miles to parking. I took my time getting ready as I didn’t realize lifts started loading at 8:30. I walked to high-speed beginner chair that gets you to the West Bowl lift that I rode 4 times. On the W-facing entrance run I could feel frozen layer until the thin new snow. On N-facing groomed runs there was an inch or two new that skied well. I skied Pyramid or Powderhorn once (along with almost all trees, some signage is lacking) and Bashful twice. Visibility was poor and there was some wind. No line on West Bowl chair, but when I returned to main base, it was very busy. I went into temporary plastic lodge and had a coffee/hot chocolate ($6 with $1 for a refill) while adding heat packs to my gloves and getting boots tightened better. Sfgate story about Sierra's recovery from Caldor Fire August 2021 was posted yesterday.
During my break the visibility had improved. I rode slow and prone to short stops Nob Hill and found the 1-2” unskied on left edge of Main Street. I then rode busy, even going to far side singles line, Grandview, and skied Coyote on the Backside often finding the hard layer in underneath the mostly SW-facing run. Backside chair does not seem to be running this season so I rode Short Stuff to return to Nob Hill where only lines all day were from gate and loading issues. I met up with Leo from Argentina and SkiTalk and we stepped it up skiing Avalanche Bowl three times finding the couple of inches new skiing well on top of the almost 3’ of new snow from end of previous week. At the bottom I led Leo under rope into an open untracked low angle powder field next to terrain park that skied well. We were going to do it again, but asked patroller working on rope line if it was OK and he said it was closed and dangerous and would result in pass suspension. Leo is in center of this Avy Bowl photo. I'd come down a good ramp between rocks. It and bad ramp I did later not in photo.
Frozen waterfalls over cliffs in Avalanche Bowl
We moved to still busy Grandview for 5 laps, sometimes splitting up and loading as singles. Line was being managed but a lot of customers had trouble with gates and ramp so chairs were often going up less than full. At worst, I timed line at 11 min. That time from singles line we both loaded chair with two patrollers including the one we’d asked about ducking rope. We skied Preacher’s Passion twice, once entering from under not running (slow, parallel) Tahoe King chair and once from main entrance near top of Castle. There were great nearly untracked lines and while I saw a lot that was barely covered, I never hit anything. Leo skiing Preachers Passion. New snow was not deep, but always fun to make some tracks.
We also skied Eastabout, then went into gully to right that was hard to get out of due to overhanging cornice, but once out I found more low-angle barely tracked that I skied twice to boundary line. We also skied trees between Eastabout and Castle, which Leo didn’t want to ski as it was too groomed last time he was at Sierra. Leo with to right behind him. We'd skied the trees behind him.
He said we should try Jackrabbit, but I think he meant and went into Dynamite while I dropped ridge into powder in Jack’s Bowl before Jackrabbit and uncovered a log, but still no rocks. I found more barely tracked snow in Chute that I used to return to Nob Hill that I rode twice more. First lap I got onto a ramp I’d spotted from chair that dropped between cliffs, but once committed found I had to side-slip a little to get to where I started turning again. My last Nob Hill lap was dropping off road to Upper Sleighride and skiing between it and Avalanche Bowl. I got back to car at 3:20 with 22.4K on my watch, less on SkiTracks and my Garmin.
Leaving Sierra at 3:30, traffic was not bad and delay at US-50 much much shorter than I had on highway previous day. I avoided Pioneer Trail traffic near Ski Run and receipt from Hardware Store past cabin says I was done there 4:15. I bought sticky mouse traps as I saw one or two small mice when I got into cabin. I baited snap trap with peanut butter Sat. Night and it was snapped without catching a mouse. Snaptrap caught one when I went out Sun. eve for a beer with FL fried who arrived Reno Sat. Night and has a timeshare across street from Heavenly’s gondola for a week that comes with a parking pass for me. And I caught another overnight Sunday. Not sure if there are more, but probably will put out a sticky trap or two along with the snap trap I re-baited. Part of mural on wall near Hardware store.
Will ski Heavenly on President’s Day with FL friend and another SkiTalker, who used to be on FirstTracks. I’d planned to stay through Wed or Thurs skiing Kirkwood, where I have few parking reservations all week, a couple of days, but my wife is flying out of SFO on Tues. and I’m going home late Mon to give her a ride. If I’d stayed longer, it would have meant I’d have to bring our dog who is usually OK being left for 6-7 hrs, but would probably have had to been left in SUV and checked on during day at Sierra.
Adding via edit some photos Leo took of me skiing between Castle and Eastabout.
Sun AM it was misting heavily at cabin and turned to snow as I got farther from Lake and went up small hill on Pioneer Trail. I wanted to be turning onto road to Sierra by 8 the next morning and only missed that by a couple of minutes, but it still took 15 minutes for the 2 miles to parking. I took my time getting ready as I didn’t realize lifts started loading at 8:30. I walked to high-speed beginner chair that gets you to the West Bowl lift that I rode 4 times. On the W-facing entrance run I could feel frozen layer until the thin new snow. On N-facing groomed runs there was an inch or two new that skied well. I skied Pyramid or Powderhorn once (along with almost all trees, some signage is lacking) and Bashful twice. Visibility was poor and there was some wind. No line on West Bowl chair, but when I returned to main base, it was very busy. I went into temporary plastic lodge and had a coffee/hot chocolate ($6 with $1 for a refill) while adding heat packs to my gloves and getting boots tightened better. Sfgate story about Sierra's recovery from Caldor Fire August 2021 was posted yesterday.
During my break the visibility had improved. I rode slow and prone to short stops Nob Hill and found the 1-2” unskied on left edge of Main Street. I then rode busy, even going to far side singles line, Grandview, and skied Coyote on the Backside often finding the hard layer in underneath the mostly SW-facing run. Backside chair does not seem to be running this season so I rode Short Stuff to return to Nob Hill where only lines all day were from gate and loading issues. I met up with Leo from Argentina and SkiTalk and we stepped it up skiing Avalanche Bowl three times finding the couple of inches new skiing well on top of the almost 3’ of new snow from end of previous week. At the bottom I led Leo under rope into an open untracked low angle powder field next to terrain park that skied well. We were going to do it again, but asked patroller working on rope line if it was OK and he said it was closed and dangerous and would result in pass suspension. Leo is in center of this Avy Bowl photo. I'd come down a good ramp between rocks. It and bad ramp I did later not in photo.
Frozen waterfalls over cliffs in Avalanche Bowl
We moved to still busy Grandview for 5 laps, sometimes splitting up and loading as singles. Line was being managed but a lot of customers had trouble with gates and ramp so chairs were often going up less than full. At worst, I timed line at 11 min. That time from singles line we both loaded chair with two patrollers including the one we’d asked about ducking rope. We skied Preacher’s Passion twice, once entering from under not running (slow, parallel) Tahoe King chair and once from main entrance near top of Castle. There were great nearly untracked lines and while I saw a lot that was barely covered, I never hit anything. Leo skiing Preachers Passion. New snow was not deep, but always fun to make some tracks.
He said we should try Jackrabbit, but I think he meant and went into Dynamite while I dropped ridge into powder in Jack’s Bowl before Jackrabbit and uncovered a log, but still no rocks. I found more barely tracked snow in Chute that I used to return to Nob Hill that I rode twice more. First lap I got onto a ramp I’d spotted from chair that dropped between cliffs, but once committed found I had to side-slip a little to get to where I started turning again. My last Nob Hill lap was dropping off road to Upper Sleighride and skiing between it and Avalanche Bowl. I got back to car at 3:20 with 22.4K on my watch, less on SkiTracks and my Garmin.
Leaving Sierra at 3:30, traffic was not bad and delay at US-50 much much shorter than I had on highway previous day. I avoided Pioneer Trail traffic near Ski Run and receipt from Hardware Store past cabin says I was done there 4:15. I bought sticky mouse traps as I saw one or two small mice when I got into cabin. I baited snap trap with peanut butter Sat. Night and it was snapped without catching a mouse. Snaptrap caught one when I went out Sun. eve for a beer with FL fried who arrived Reno Sat. Night and has a timeshare across street from Heavenly’s gondola for a week that comes with a parking pass for me. And I caught another overnight Sunday. Not sure if there are more, but probably will put out a sticky trap or two along with the snap trap I re-baited. Part of mural on wall near Hardware store.
Will ski Heavenly on President’s Day with FL friend and another SkiTalker, who used to be on FirstTracks. I’d planned to stay through Wed or Thurs skiing Kirkwood, where I have few parking reservations all week, a couple of days, but my wife is flying out of SFO on Tues. and I’m going home late Mon to give her a ride. If I’d stayed longer, it would have meant I’d have to bring our dog who is usually OK being left for 6-7 hrs, but would probably have had to been left in SUV and checked on during day at Sierra.
Adding via edit some photos Leo took of me skiing between Castle and Eastabout.
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