Month: February 2015

Picked the wrong season to start a ski blog….

Anyway… President’s weekend and ski/skate week.  They happened.  There were kids all over the place but no lift lines to speak of.   Except maybe Nob, haha.  It was sunny and warm.  Its been sunny and warm for two months.

Winter definitely returned to Tahoe today.  It has been so long that I forgot how to use my cold-weather gear.  Sugar had every snow gun in the place running.  Gotta give them credit, the big money making portions of the season are over, but they’re still willing to make as much fake snow as they can as soon as the temperature cooperates.

We actually might have something small on the way this weekend, weather wise!  We could sure use it.  The forecast should stabilize in a day or two, hopefully it isn’t just being a big snow tease.

-J Snow

It seems I’m always apologizing for living in the past.  Between $DAYJOB and a double equipment failure (boot and binding this time!) I wasn’t able to ski over the weekend or Monday.  I’ll try to stop slacking and get a little more on top of letting you know how it is in the now.

On the topic of last weekend’s storm, it wasn’t great, but it turned out a lot better than I thought.  There was snow, rain, snow again, and everything in between.  Sugar claimed 24 inches, which might be a total added over several days at the peak, but realistically, there was about a food of new ski-able snow on top.  Bottomless or super-light, no, but pretty freaking amazing nonetheless.

Friday was closed as the storm came in with super high winds.  Saturday was pretty heavy.  There’s a reason they call it Sierra cement.  I was able to take one run down Lincoln before a bolt sheared off in my boot and ended my day.

Word is that Sunday and Monday were pretty decent.  On Tuesday Sugar re-opened Disney and I was finally able to make it out again.  Still not sure why it was closed, but it was a real treat to get out there and make fresh lift-served turns on a weekday a few days after the storm, that’s for sure.  No Crow’s lift, but — even better, lots of fresh terrain over there and barely anyone skiing it.  Almost like the old days!

Coverage wise it was really amazing what a small amount of snow can do.  All of the troublesome thin spots were gone, and off-piste lines I hadn’t skiied in weeks were do-able again.  There was proper ski-up cave access again.  You could get out to Roller or Sugar Bowl and not worry about picking your way back.  Well, unless you were a snowboarder.

Unfortunately with solid suns in the forecast and the holiday weekend, I don’t think it will last very long.  I’m going to get it while I can!

Finally, I’ve also been slacking on the pictures, but here’ s a taste of what you missed (or not!) on Tuesday:

– John S.

Those pesky work and life obligations kept me off the mountain most of last week, but I was able to make it out for some turns again Friday and for the weekend.

Friday was another warm, follow-the-sun day, like most of January.

Saturday had enough wind to keep the snow nice all day, despite the warm temperatures and sunshine.  There was even a few spots with nice windblown powder-like turns to be had.  Definitely a surprisingly good day.

Sunday was warmer, heavy and buttery.  Even without much in the way of crowds, by the end of the day, coverage at key spots was suffering pretty badly.  It definitely showed what an impressive amount of repair work the grooming crews are doing each night to keep hanging on.

Sugar bowl offered $50 day tickets over the weekend, and it did bring in some crowds, but not enough for any significant lift lines.  The only annoying line was taking the gondola back to the parking lot at the end of the day on Saturday, since the Judah lodge and parking lot are closed.  The whole “snowbound village” is kind of silly at this point, they could just plow the road and run a shuttle for an hour or two at the end of the day.  There’s even an old white school bus just sitting there in gondola parking lot.  To Sugar’s credit, after the first time it happened last Saturday, they have been keeping Disney (and Nob) open until 4:30.

Weather on the way for next weekend… until today, it looked like depressing rain for days, which would really be a disaster for our already iffy coverage.  Today we see a hint it might be trending slightly colder, but that’s still kind of a long shot.  It does look like it will probably rain Friday through the weekend.  Get out there and get it while you can!

-John S.