first ever tahoe trip after about 20 colorado & utah trips. perfect combo of pow for the first half and sunshine to end the trip. really had a great time and the skiing was awesome.
day 1 sunday: homewood-after arriving at our motel at 3:30am due to various travel related delays, we were on the hill by about 11am and greeted by 6-10" of very heavy fresh snow. even at that late hour we were still able to find untracked in trees off the rainbow ridge and in hobbit land. glory hole & last resort were nice with stunning views of the lake. their most xtreme terrain, the quail face, was closed and we respected those ropes. by the end of the day, i had developed a strong dislike for chopped, heavy crud. locals said the place was as crowded as they'd seen it but liftlines never got more than a couple of minutes. nice quaint place though the trails were a bit short and the lifts slow. all-in-all a good warmup.
day 2 monday: squaw-decided to hit the beast, squaw, on the monday of the holiday weekend thinking folks would be leaving early. we were right. skied onto lifts all day. another pow day. didn't get an official report but seemed like about 4-8". what an awesome place! steeps, chutes & cliffs all over the place. one huge terrain park. dwarfs anything i'd previously skied in colorado or utah including snowbird. very poor visibility with the upper half of the mtn in the clouds. made tracks all morning. spent most of the day on the kt-22, headwall, siberia & red dog chairs.
day 3 tuesday: mt. rose-yet another 9-13" of fresh overnight. the lightest snow we encountered on this trip due to rose's high elevation. loved the place ... at least what we could see of it. totally socked in. skied by braille most of the day. one run somehow wound up in a terrain park and went off a jump that i didn't know was even there. not a pretty landing. the 'chutes' were incredible. generally steep and each with a different character. definitely worth the price of admission. easily accessible served by 2 hi-speed 6 packs on either side of the bowl and a short quad ride to take you out. when we weren't in the chutes, we mostly stayed on the mt. rose side. runs had good pitch and we could ski the trees between just about every trail. the east (slide) bowl side didn't seem as interesting though we did find a nice bowl area and some good trees.
day 4 wednesday: alpine meadows-no new snow. very windy. in the morning winds at the summit were over 50 mph. snow stiffened up a bit. great place also but seemed like more hiking or traversing was necessary to get to the goods. alpine bowl chair was closed, so we spent most of the day on the summit 6 and the scott chair hitting the wolverine & beaver bowls, three sisters and scott chutes. also hit the backside with the south face being too cruded up for my taste. the return from the sherwood chair was steep & hairy. some folks were hucking the cliffs off the idiots delight area.
day 5 thursday: mt. rose-since we couldn't see it the first time, decided to give it another shot. really like the small area feel and the challenge offered by the chutes. a bit disappointed that they had brutally groomed most of the trails so we spent the day doing in laps in the various chutes and breaking that up with a tree foray on the mt. rose side.
day 6 friday: squaw-like rose, wanted to see it this time and hit some of the other areas we didn't the first time. started out as a bluebelle day though clouds did roll in later with some flurrage. enjoyed both granite chief and shirley lake areas and the funnel off emigrant. great to actually see & ski kt-22, headwall & siberia without worrying about getting cliffed out. awesome terrain. called it early as my back was really acting up.
a few thoughts, did notice the snow, heavier and wetter as compared to utah or colorado or even vermont. days were generally warm as i skied in a shell without the liner most days. almost seemed unfair that it's so warm and yet they get so much snow. generally we're bump & tree people and we found virtually no 'bump' runs. didn't hit any bumps until the last day at squaw. is it the fact they get so much snow? disappointed that we didn't get to sugar or kirkwood. next trip. thanks to chris & tony for their advice.
day 1 sunday: homewood-after arriving at our motel at 3:30am due to various travel related delays, we were on the hill by about 11am and greeted by 6-10" of very heavy fresh snow. even at that late hour we were still able to find untracked in trees off the rainbow ridge and in hobbit land. glory hole & last resort were nice with stunning views of the lake. their most xtreme terrain, the quail face, was closed and we respected those ropes. by the end of the day, i had developed a strong dislike for chopped, heavy crud. locals said the place was as crowded as they'd seen it but liftlines never got more than a couple of minutes. nice quaint place though the trails were a bit short and the lifts slow. all-in-all a good warmup.
day 2 monday: squaw-decided to hit the beast, squaw, on the monday of the holiday weekend thinking folks would be leaving early. we were right. skied onto lifts all day. another pow day. didn't get an official report but seemed like about 4-8". what an awesome place! steeps, chutes & cliffs all over the place. one huge terrain park. dwarfs anything i'd previously skied in colorado or utah including snowbird. very poor visibility with the upper half of the mtn in the clouds. made tracks all morning. spent most of the day on the kt-22, headwall, siberia & red dog chairs.
day 3 tuesday: mt. rose-yet another 9-13" of fresh overnight. the lightest snow we encountered on this trip due to rose's high elevation. loved the place ... at least what we could see of it. totally socked in. skied by braille most of the day. one run somehow wound up in a terrain park and went off a jump that i didn't know was even there. not a pretty landing. the 'chutes' were incredible. generally steep and each with a different character. definitely worth the price of admission. easily accessible served by 2 hi-speed 6 packs on either side of the bowl and a short quad ride to take you out. when we weren't in the chutes, we mostly stayed on the mt. rose side. runs had good pitch and we could ski the trees between just about every trail. the east (slide) bowl side didn't seem as interesting though we did find a nice bowl area and some good trees.
day 4 wednesday: alpine meadows-no new snow. very windy. in the morning winds at the summit were over 50 mph. snow stiffened up a bit. great place also but seemed like more hiking or traversing was necessary to get to the goods. alpine bowl chair was closed, so we spent most of the day on the summit 6 and the scott chair hitting the wolverine & beaver bowls, three sisters and scott chutes. also hit the backside with the south face being too cruded up for my taste. the return from the sherwood chair was steep & hairy. some folks were hucking the cliffs off the idiots delight area.
day 5 thursday: mt. rose-since we couldn't see it the first time, decided to give it another shot. really like the small area feel and the challenge offered by the chutes. a bit disappointed that they had brutally groomed most of the trails so we spent the day doing in laps in the various chutes and breaking that up with a tree foray on the mt. rose side.
day 6 friday: squaw-like rose, wanted to see it this time and hit some of the other areas we didn't the first time. started out as a bluebelle day though clouds did roll in later with some flurrage. enjoyed both granite chief and shirley lake areas and the funnel off emigrant. great to actually see & ski kt-22, headwall & siberia without worrying about getting cliffed out. awesome terrain. called it early as my back was really acting up.
a few thoughts, did notice the snow, heavier and wetter as compared to utah or colorado or even vermont. days were generally warm as i skied in a shell without the liner most days. almost seemed unfair that it's so warm and yet they get so much snow. generally we're bump & tree people and we found virtually no 'bump' runs. didn't hit any bumps until the last day at squaw. is it the fact they get so much snow? disappointed that we didn't get to sugar or kirkwood. next trip. thanks to chris & tony for their advice.
