Overheard outside Village lodge as I was warming up after my first few laps. 🙂
It was a great day and a challenging day. Definitely found some great deep stashes of light, blower pow pow. Not our usual Tahoe cement today for sure! But also wind, blowing snow, tough visibility, scoured-off aspects, not yet unlimited depth (maybe later in the afternoon), and cold and windy AF, yow!
Wow, we’re so incredibly blessed with an amazing Patrol and Ops team here at Sugar. I loaded Dis a few minutes after 9. Was on Lincoln and at the top of the mountain before midday. Other unmentioned unofficial folks struggled to get a little bit up their lower mountains.
Hopefully I-80 is open and I can get there Friday. Saturday is going to be prime. All the lollipops should flip to green!
Or, as BA over at Opensnow put it, “The Mid-Winter Lull is Over”. Time to bundle up and crush some pow!
Today was beautiful and sunny with spring-like conditions. A classic Tahoe Juneuary day, and our last one of the year. Next time we have a nice sunny day it’ll be real spring! I thought things would be over-the-top busy but it was way emptier than I thought. No road/tubing/overflow parking even.
I was lucky enough to find some friends and explore a new (to me) backcountry zone off the back of Crow’s. I’m pleased to report the corn harvest was successful! Creamy and perfect. Thanks Mean Dean, Christa, Kern and posse!
Hype is in full effect, storms are coming in next week!
Let’s have a quick talk about the best sites where you can obsess about the weather.
Number one these days is of course our good friend KCASODAS9, the Soda Springs point forecast. In addition to counting the feet I also like to check on the daily graphs for temperature and wind to help me plan my layers and whether Reese needs his coat, hehe.
The good ol’ Tahoe Daily Snow is also worth a read if you’re willing to pony up a few bucks for a subscription. Unfortunately, these days you can’t even read the daily snow without subscribing. I enjoy BA’s prose and how stoked he gets about storms, though I admit the super geeky weather model discussion is mostly beyond me.
And last but not least, shout out to the Sierra Avalanche Center! Always check their daily advisory before heading out the boundary.
I ski most days, but I especially enjoy a sunny, empty Monday. Pulling into the mostly-empty lot after the weekend crowd has left is a special treat.
This winter, I’ve been enjoying another Monday indulgence and letting someone else do the cooking one day a week. Mountain Lotus Provisions is a new food truck in Truckee, with a homebase at Mountain Lotus Yoga. Over the winter they’ve been doing an order-ahead Meatless Monday supper club with a new menu each week. Everything has been super-delicious and I’ve enjoyed the journey of checking out different regional cuisines. Even you omnivores should give it a try. Yum.
(As always, this is 100% my unsolicited personal opinion, not an ad, just supporting local.)
All the sastrugi blanketing the off-piste has been erased. Sunday storm skiing for the win!
Sastrugi? What were those? New vocabulary word for me this year too. The weird wind-scallops that have been everywhere off-piste the last couple weeks. The storm has fixed all that and left us with a normal ol’ pow blanketing everywhere.
See you Monday for some sunny Silver Belt, Sisters and J-Bowl action!
I could remind you that the lines this weekend weren’t just tolerable, they were barely there. I could be stoked to tell you that there were more people out representing Team Leopard than I’ve ever seen before (woo!). I could mention that mid-week skiing has been empty, sunny and fun.
But we don’t have time for any of that, because it’s time for a new regular feature highlighting local businesses right here in Tahoe. Whether you’ve been here for decades or you’re just visiting, I hope to introduce local businesses you may not have heard of and should consider patronizing.
Praxis MVP 109s at Dis Cave. Castle Peak in background.
What does DIsco ski on when he’s dropping the sisters, breaking trail and touring up to Lunch Rock? Praxis, manufactured right here in North Lake. I’m rocking the MVP 109. For me personally it is the perfect one-quiver Tahoe ski. Groomer day? Check. Pow day? Check. Backcountry day? Check. Light enough to skin with, stable enough to charge groomers, fat enough underfoot for pow days and happy to be playful and surf-y instead of hard-charging when I’m in the mood for that. Folks also love the more big-mountain GPO as well, with its well-known octopus graphics.
We’re blessed here in Tahoe with multiple brands of skis and boards manufacturing locally. We’ll feature some others in future posts. Support local with your next gear purchase!
Dishonorable mention: RMU. Nice bar and patio in downtown Truckee, but their skis aren’t made in Tahoe, the Rockies, or even in North America. That’s not “underground.”
Disclaimer: Not a paid endorsement of any kind, I doubt Keith even knows who I am. Didn’t pay full MSRP for my Praxis pair (got them on sale), but I did pay the same price as any other Jerry off the street would have.
