2011/12 Tahoe Weather & General Discussion - Page 8

They made a little snow last night at heavenly on some of the busier sections. Groomers are skiing better and better each day this week.

I also noticed they plowed up a HUGE pile of snow at the bottom of sky chairand were manually shoveling it into big plastic totes and sending up the chair. I am told this will be dumped bucket by bucket onto the skyline trail to make the connection. If so then wow!

No, something is wrong with the snowmaking. You can ski from nv to ca but not ca to nv. You have to download GB, take the bus to stateline ect...  It's been a thorn in their side but has somehow made afternoons tolerable as I've just been lapping ridge run with way less people than NV.

I think ridge run is the name of the trail that's open off of sky. Kinda flat cruiser with killer lake view? They ran a different chair today (the one that goes dumps you off further down the ridge) and were doing their thing over by the sky chair

I have absolutely no idea if JayT is on the money with his forecast, but his weather pattern change sounds good to me.  The Bay area doesn't need a water crisis, and the economy of Lake Tahoe (casinos to the guy that plows driveways) doesn't need a massive drop in the economy.  This is the first January in a long time where half my annuals are still flowering here in the East Bay.   Weird.  Ullr needs to bless us with his ability to make it snow.  Otherwise it will be difficult to make it past the Amador County vineyards this month. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by snoseek 

No, something is wrong with the snowmaking. You can ski from nv to ca but not ca to nv. 

There's no point covering an access trail that's in the sun and runs downhill from CA to NV. 
 

quant, the guy who plows driveways is psyched! He got paid in the fall and hasn't had to do a lick of maintenance or put fuel in his snowblowers yet this season. All the other local merchants, not so much.

Drove up to Ta-hoe today with my mom. It looks pretty good for early summer. Don't know why I didn't see any boats on the water or people lounging on the beach...

Quote:

Originally Posted by quant2325 

I have absolutely no idea if JayT is on the money with his forecast, but his weather pattern change sounds good to me.  

First of all it isn't JayT's forecast, he is borrowing from a person that actually knows how to forecast, the guy who runs Tahoe Weather Discussion. Secondly, I hope the forecast is correct also. 

Please, can we get an early start and moan about the closed roads, traffic snarls and the buried lifts?

Okay here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to boycott dusting my house, (furniture and hard wood floors) until we get a good dusting.

I'm also going to go skiing today in my full powder outfit, complete with zip together top and bottom.

Off to meet Shima to ski!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trekchick 

Okay here's what I'm going to do.

 

I'm going to boycott dusting my house, (furniture and had wood floors) until we get a good dusting.

 

I'm also going to go skiing today in my full powder outfit, complete with zip together top and bottom.

 

 

Off to meet Shima to ski!

 

She also left with beacon, avipack and probe (DeWalt 18V high powered drill with extra long bit )

Just thought I would visit and see how Tahoe is doing.  Sounds like some very anxious skiers.  Not too good up here either.  Schweitzer and Lookout are the best and groomer skiing only. We haven't had any significant snowfall since Thanksgiving so we are getting a little anxious too-well more than a little actually.  Have a 2 day cat ski at Big Red Cats in BC planned for 17&18 so will post a trip report when get back.  Southern BC isn't getting a lot of snow either so we'll see. Keep waiting for it to turn to Winter, and the key word is waiting.  At least it cooled off again. Last Wed it was 56 degrees midday in Couer d Alene which set a record that stood since 1918 - ugh.  Sorry for butting in on tahoe thread but just thought I would comiserate with ya.

While everyone here was pissing and moaning about the lack of snow in Tahoe over NYE, I decided to drive down to Santa Cruz and rediscovered my love for mtn biking. Thanks La Nina for being the dirty tease you are.

Schweitzer has claimed 100% operation since Dec. 10 and also claimed 16 inches of new snow during Christmas week.  Both seemed reasonable given what was happening in Washington State where most of Schweitzer's weather originates.  Am I wrong?

I met up with Shima  ( a new member on EpicSki)  at Northstar on Saturday.  The crowds were non existent, but the temps were cool and it was evident that Northstar had blown  gobs of new snow.

I was planning on skiing til Noon, but ended up skiing until 4.  

Shima has friends who only have Squaw pass' and skied Squaw Saturday.  Their day ended early because (in their words) "There wasn't much open and it was really icy"

I have a Squaw pass too, but I'm not terribly anxious to go there until we get some natural snow.   I'd like to hear from some Bears who've been at Alpine and/or Heavenly about how their holding up.

Edit:

Dookey and his buddy hooked up with us after a few warm up runs on the Big Easy, and (I don't have to tell you) THAT made my day.  Dookey is sooooooo much fun to ski with and the Chair LIft Stories (capitalized because they're worthy of being a NYTimes Best Seller) Whoooooo Hoooooo!  Man, we shared some good stories.  We rode the pie plate(though not together, but in a single file) and ripped some sweet lines on Martis and Washoe, which are shaded nicely and are holding snow very well!   Someone from California would call those runs icy, but being from Michigan, I call them "firm groomers". 

As many of you may know, I can rarely eat a full meal, so Dookey shared a Tostada Salad from Chili Pepper's Shack.  That was uber yummy, and fun to share. After lunch, Dookey led the gang to the top of Zephyr where we stopped to take a pee at the new lodge. (nice bathrooms by the way) and hit some nice soft new snow on the edge of Drifter, which lead us to the promise land chair, and an interesting run down Castle Peak.   After hooking up with Shima again(she left us to help out her SO with a small crash incident - He's fine) we headed to check out the massive Shaun White Half Pipe, which is(in deed) massive!!

This was a very good day and Dookey made it sooooooo much better!!

Did I tell you how awesome Dookey is?  He is,.........really!  AWESOME!!

Pic of Dookey with me and Shima - 

OK, big secret revealed:  Alpine is pretty good early, but the layer is thin and fragile and scrapes down to ice and rocks by noon. Lots of sun reaches Alpine Bowl and Dancefloor which is pleasant. People are pulling out older and older model skis for the rocks: where is Rossi, or VA, or any of the old school dudes, this is your moment to shine, and use some of the old moves, like I'm doing on my Snow Rangers, heck yeah! Phil says he's about ready to dis-semble his ski fence and tune something up. haha

I love how TC always tells me in person how cool I am, yet she never, ever mentions hooking up with me on the mountain here on Epic.

:P

I, on the otherhand, am not embarrassed to admit that I hooked-up with TC at Gnarthstar yesterday. I even had my trainee instructor Brandon in tow and the poor guy got the TC shock-and-awe treatment in fuego. Heck,  I'm not sure if he'll ever be the same again.

I lost points with the crew early on by taking them on a connector run that, unbeknownst to me, was littered with rocks, gravel, and pebbles. Since I was on my freshly dead and newly minted rock ski T9's, I just ran over the rock garden and kept going. Behind me, however, I heard faint cries of despair as TC's friend Shima had just purchased some new sticks. At the lift line the crew scolded me and I made the verbal caveat that from that point forth they shouldn't follow me unless they didn't give a squat about their bases (they promptly forgot this warning and continued to follow me...nicely, nobody scored any serious base damage).

As per usual TC was an EpicMix Photo Sl#t, going so far as to encourage at least 5 of the green suited gents to pose with her atop Drifter.

She also spent a fair amount of time showing off her PSIA L3 side slipping skills on Washoe.

The snow was actually skiing pretty decent due to the previous two days of snowmaking. The funnest part of my day was schussing down the right margin of Castle Peak and doing swishy dog turns that kicked up rooster spray. I timed it so that each spray hit the green pads covering the snowmaking equipment, with the snow making a satisfying "THWUMP" as it smacked the foam. Needless to say I am easily amused. 

In the afternoon we connected with my race team buddy Shanin and are crew of 5 hit up the massive (and muy intimidating) Shawn White Super Pipe, gaping our way down the 22 foot ice walls in suspended awe. That sucker is SCARY.

I had intended to only ski for a few hours, but got sucked into the TC vortex of ribald fun and risque conversations and didn't quit until a wee bit after 3 pm.

Not a bad Saturday all in all.

I am sorry Dookey 

I edited to share our adventure. 

http://www.epicski.com/t/105605/2011-12-tahoe-weather-general-discussion/210#post_1412921

Heavenly is now in fullon resurface/recovery mode, Each day getting better and better IMO. The slope congestion was frustrating earlier in the week, not so bad later in the week. I suspect next week will be very chill and they will move into full expansion mode. I do wish they would blow on something steep. Gunbarrel please. They could use an alternative to Ridge Run in California from the top also. Overall the mountain is skiing real nice in the am, getting icy in the middle by the pm. Plenty of snow on the sides however...

Snoseek, we should hook up!

I'm skiing prety much everyday. Northstar is blacked out on Saturdays for me I'm pretty sure. Any other day is fine...I actually need very little convincing to drive up there as the skiing is very nice! So just give a shout when you head that way, or if you head to the heave.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tony Crocker 

 

Schweitzer has claimed 100% operation since Dec. 10 and also claimed 16 inches of new snow during Christmas week.  Both seemed reasonable given what was happening in Washington State where most of Schweitzer's weather originates.  Am I wrong?

May be a little exaggeration but groomers are good, no hazards, ditto for Lookout.

Quote:

Originally Posted by snoseek 

I'm skiing prety much everyday. Northstar is blacked out on Saturdays for me I'm pretty sure. Any other day is fine...I actually need very little convincing to drive up there as the skiing is very nice! So just give a shout when you head that way, or if you head to the heave.

Phil and I will be heading for Northstar first thing tomorrow ( Monday) if you'd like to hook up.

I'll shoot you a pm with my phone number.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete No. Idaho 

May be a little exaggeration but groomers are good, no hazards, ditto for Lookout.

 

As Bob Barnes says (and one of my favorite barnes-isms):

There are two kinds of snow conditions.  Good and Good for You.

The groomers and unforgiving terrain we've been experiencing is honing skills so that the hero snow will really be HERO snow!

Dookey ROCKS..both on line and in person..even though he never says how cool it is to ski with us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

Dookey ROCKS..both on line and in person..even though he never says how cool it is to ski with us.

You forgot to mention the ROCKS that he took us through to get to his favorite sweet spot.
 

Check this out!  

We ripped the half pipe and Dookey had to take a nap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trekchick 

You forgot to mention the ROCKS that he took us through to get to his favorite sweet spot.
 

Check this out!  

We ripped the half pipe and Dookey had to take a nap.

 

Had a lot of fun meeting you and Dookey and the others that hung out with us! Thanks for skiing with me all weekend! :) 
 

Watched them remove the main electric motor from Summit yesterday morning. about a 44" diameter motor. anyone know more than that? any other issues with the lift? repair schedule?
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by davluri 

OK, big secret revealed:  Alpine is pretty good early, but the layer is thin and fragile and scrapes down to ice and rocks by noon. Lots of sun reaches Alpine Bowl and Dancefloor which is pleasant. People are pulling out older and older model skis for the rocks: where is Rossi, or VA, or any of the old school dudes, this is your moment to shine, and use some of the old moves, like I'm doing on my Snow Rangers, heck yeah! Phil says he's about ready to dis-semble his ski fence and tune something up. haha

Heard the main drive motor went the way of the Dodo bird. I would say three or more days easy to get it going again, based on seeing other lifts have the same issues. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by davluri 

Watched them remove the main electric motor from Summit yesterday morning. about a 44" diameter motor. anyone know more than that? any other issues with the lift? repair schedule?