Squaw/Alpine Meadows 3/8-9/08

[ChrisC]

I usually do not write this up, but I heart Tahoe a lot and took some pics.


Even at night, Tahoe is beautiful. Why I can never move away...

It snowed a bit this year - friend's garage. They gave up.

Alpine Meadows can be steep - Keyhole.

But generally it's just expansive and amazing...

Squaw is good too

One my favorites - SilveRADo. The bases are deep down low this year.

Tahoe is just sweet

 

[rfarren]

I just finished the godfather II. I think whenever I see lake tahoe, I will always think about poor fredo.

 

[EMSC]

Even at night, Tahoe is beautiful. Why I can never move away...

I came close to that sentiment, but I couldn't find a 'real' job within what I felt was a reasonable distance so I ended up moving on... For me, 2 to 2.5hrs drive is my max reasonable dist to good skiing (now that I'm long since out of the east). So for Tahoe, that would be Reno or Sac. Neither floated my boat as cities, and neither had all that much available for my interest for 'real' work at the time either (early 90's).

I would guess being in the banana belt, that Tahoe is total spring ski conditions by now?

 

[ChrisC]

Even at night, Tahoe is beautiful. Why I can never move away...

I came close to that sentiment, but I couldn't find a 'real' job within what I felt was a reasonable distance so I ended up moving on... For me, 2 to 2.5hrs drive is my max reasonable dist to good skiing (now that I'm long since out of the east). So for Tahoe, that would be Reno or Sac. Neither floated my boat as cities, and neither had all that much available for my interest for 'real' work at the time either (early 90's).

I would guess being in the banana belt, that Tahoe is total spring ski conditions by now?

Are you calling Tahoe the 'banana belt'? The entire West Coast is. It barely gets below 20F for most of the season.

Yeah, it is starting to warm up - not the 60 slop type weather, more like the good 20/30 -> 50 weather. All the northerly aspects of Squaw/Alpine are nice - especially above 7000'. Otherwise, you are skiing with the sun somewhat - but things are skiing better than expected.

SF -> Tahoe
Yes, the trip is too long for day trips. I do one per season at least. Not a fan of Sacramento - Reno not sure about, but it's not an obvious winner. SF is too expensive real estate wise, but for tech mktg/fin/bizdev type jobs it's obvious choice. However, I like Seattle better - in every way - except it is a smaller city that web 2.0 companies not cropping up.

However, the skiing of Alpine/Squaw is pretty similar to Alpental/Crystal in quality.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I judged from the both the attire and the snow in those pics that spring was fully in force. The last Sierra snow was Feb. 25 but as Chris notes,the bases are deep. Both Squaw and Alpine ski well under those conditions because they have a range of exposures and on a clear day there is always somewhere the snow is just right once you know your way around.

But down at Mammoth we have Snowbird altitude and temperature ranges, so I suspect it's still half winter snow there.

I've often said that Squaw and Crystal have obvious similarities in terrain and snow. Now that Molly has enjoyed 3 days at Snowbird, Adam plans to give her a tour of Squaw March 21, 4 days before the ACL surgery that will conclude her ski season.