tseeb
Well-known member
Monday evening the snow stopped for a while, but it started again in the night and was snowing very heavily and windy Tuesday morning. The snow on his deck railing was not much deeper than previous day, as the wind had prevented it from piling up, but my SUV and his driveway had more than a foot of new snow. After he cooked us bacon and eggs, I had to wait for him to clear his driveway where a couple of inches of snow fell between his less than 30 minutes passes with his snowblower. I left for Squaw at 9:45 where they were reporting 16-18” new at the bottom and 20-22” new on top and a storm total of 66” at 6200 feet and 99” (but I question their Math as I only add it up to 89”) at 8200 feet.
My friend finished his driveway and followed me to Squaw. He called when I was booting up (while listening to a radio interview with Squaw’s president who could not announce an opening date for KT-22) to see if he should head to Northstar instead. I told him Red Dog was running, but I could not see much else. When I started walking to the lift, I saw it had slowed way down, but was still running and it looked like Exhibition was running so I called him back. By the time I got to Red Dog, it had closed due to wind so I walked further to Exhibition, which was the only non-beginner lift running. My first run, I headed for the giant dead tree where I had gotten face shots the previous day. It was more tracked out than previous day and wind-affected, but the coverage had continued to improve. Next run, I went further towards Schimmelpfennig Gully and found untracked that had me wanting fatter skis. On my third lift ride, the wind was howling. Gusts that had to be over 40 mph rocked us and were blowing some of the 8 feet of new snow from the rest of Squaw towards us. I began to question whether I should have stayed another night (and used a kitchen pass from my wife), but leaving the previous evening looked difficult as I-80 West had miles of stopped traffic that I passed when I went east. They slowed down the lift and I was surprised they were able to keep running it. After skiing through a whiteout, I went to the right off the main Exhibition run and skied deep powder on the lee of the hill until running into the return road.
Red Dog was running again so I went up it and, since Squaw Creek was running, alone I headed that way, out of the wind. I skied the main run which had collected about 6 inches of new snow since it was groomed and only saw two other people. The second and third time down, I found about 30 untracked, medium-angle, powder turns on the slope between Montezuma’s and Valley View. On the lift ride in between I saw two guys, who I first noticed due to the panic in their voices, dig out their friend who had crashed in a small dip at the bottom of a steep slope, probably a little below the catch line. The skier who had been buried was breathing when they got him out and may owe his life to his friends. It made me more cautious the rest of the day. Ski patrol was still working on him when I made my final ride up Squaw Creek. I did cut in the very steep gullies below Red Dog chair, taking a long time getting down, ending up at Far East. I rode Far East twice: skiing Dog Leg and cutting into powder to the right, ending up on the Olympic Jumping Hill, then skiing Red Dog Face for my final run. The light got very bad towards the bottom, but improved when I got to my car. I totaled only 9 runs and a little over 10K vertical before quitting at 1:45.
My friend got to Squaw when Red Dog was closed and went back to Truckee and drove to Northstar, where he said he boarded more powder than in the previous two days at Squaw. But it was mostly low angle as the best lift running was Vista, which I think takes almost 6,000 feet to rise 1,150 feet. I did not get on I-80 West at CA-89, but instead went past the High School, but found the on-ramp West of Truckee closed. I went past very rough Donner Lake, almost to the end, before turning and going up to Donner Lake Interchange, partway up Donner Pass. I was not the only one with that idea as there were about a dozen vehicles ahead of me being held. After a less than 10 minute delay, we were allowed to enter the nearly empty, snow-covered highway. I had no big delays the rest of the way home where I arrived at 7 pm to cook filets for my wife, sister and son, who is home from college for the first time for more than a quick stop when passing through.
Will add some pictures when I have more time. I did not have my my camera out when a skier over-rotated and did a one and three quarters off a rock or when I saw skiers blasting through the powder at the top of Far East.
My friend finished his driveway and followed me to Squaw. He called when I was booting up (while listening to a radio interview with Squaw’s president who could not announce an opening date for KT-22) to see if he should head to Northstar instead. I told him Red Dog was running, but I could not see much else. When I started walking to the lift, I saw it had slowed way down, but was still running and it looked like Exhibition was running so I called him back. By the time I got to Red Dog, it had closed due to wind so I walked further to Exhibition, which was the only non-beginner lift running. My first run, I headed for the giant dead tree where I had gotten face shots the previous day. It was more tracked out than previous day and wind-affected, but the coverage had continued to improve. Next run, I went further towards Schimmelpfennig Gully and found untracked that had me wanting fatter skis. On my third lift ride, the wind was howling. Gusts that had to be over 40 mph rocked us and were blowing some of the 8 feet of new snow from the rest of Squaw towards us. I began to question whether I should have stayed another night (and used a kitchen pass from my wife), but leaving the previous evening looked difficult as I-80 West had miles of stopped traffic that I passed when I went east. They slowed down the lift and I was surprised they were able to keep running it. After skiing through a whiteout, I went to the right off the main Exhibition run and skied deep powder on the lee of the hill until running into the return road.
Red Dog was running again so I went up it and, since Squaw Creek was running, alone I headed that way, out of the wind. I skied the main run which had collected about 6 inches of new snow since it was groomed and only saw two other people. The second and third time down, I found about 30 untracked, medium-angle, powder turns on the slope between Montezuma’s and Valley View. On the lift ride in between I saw two guys, who I first noticed due to the panic in their voices, dig out their friend who had crashed in a small dip at the bottom of a steep slope, probably a little below the catch line. The skier who had been buried was breathing when they got him out and may owe his life to his friends. It made me more cautious the rest of the day. Ski patrol was still working on him when I made my final ride up Squaw Creek. I did cut in the very steep gullies below Red Dog chair, taking a long time getting down, ending up at Far East. I rode Far East twice: skiing Dog Leg and cutting into powder to the right, ending up on the Olympic Jumping Hill, then skiing Red Dog Face for my final run. The light got very bad towards the bottom, but improved when I got to my car. I totaled only 9 runs and a little over 10K vertical before quitting at 1:45.
My friend got to Squaw when Red Dog was closed and went back to Truckee and drove to Northstar, where he said he boarded more powder than in the previous two days at Squaw. But it was mostly low angle as the best lift running was Vista, which I think takes almost 6,000 feet to rise 1,150 feet. I did not get on I-80 West at CA-89, but instead went past the High School, but found the on-ramp West of Truckee closed. I went past very rough Donner Lake, almost to the end, before turning and going up to Donner Lake Interchange, partway up Donner Pass. I was not the only one with that idea as there were about a dozen vehicles ahead of me being held. After a less than 10 minute delay, we were allowed to enter the nearly empty, snow-covered highway. I had no big delays the rest of the way home where I arrived at 7 pm to cook filets for my wife, sister and son, who is home from college for the first time for more than a quick stop when passing through.
Will add some pictures when I have more time. I did not have my my camera out when a skier over-rotated and did a one and three quarters off a rock or when I saw skiers blasting through the powder at the top of Far East.
