California/Nevada 2017-18 Tahoe Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups Thread....

[Andy Mink]

It is now! About 1/4" accumulation at lake level and pretty steadily coming down right now.

NW Reno in about 30 minutes. Slowing to super fine flurries now.

 

[Eleeski]

Is it snowing?

No, clear as a bell or very close.

Now I don't feel too bad. Air near 80f, water 65f and glass. Waterskiing was the right call for a typical California February in the desert.

It will snow. But until then I'll keep my skills sharp on the water.

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

Wind is up now in the desert. Snow in Tahoe. New plans?

Eric

 

[John Webb]

NW Reno in about 30 minutes. Slowing to super fine flurries now. View attachment 39783

Almost time for a Luge or Skeleton run on hill in Chez Ziggy yard crashing into the hot tub !

 

[luliski]

The roads are slick.

 

[Brian Likes Pow]

Left Kirkwood at 815...maybe 5 inches down but raging. Hopefully it keeps up for a bit. Drive home was interesting. Super light snow!

 

[John Webb]

YES
BA says super light snow maybe 8-10 inches ! 20:1 ratio even !! -That's Colorado snow
Chains up all major roads ! Watch if winds die off.

 

[SSSdave]

This morning's long range NWS forecast is the first one indicating the jetstream seems to be setting up so March could give us some heavier cold storms.
Am hoping Heavenly picks up a few inches due to lake effect snows today given the below forecast that ought motivate me to return later this week.

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Reno NV
327 AM PST Mon Feb 19 2018

Bands of Lake effect snow are evident on radar from both Lake
Tahoe and Pyramid Lake this morning. Good low level instability
and light unidirectional winds today should keep lake effect snow
going through most of the day today. This could bring an
additional 3-6 inches of snow to areas 10-20 miles south-
southeast of Tahoe and Pyramid lakes

...After another very dry winter in the Sierra, conditions are
finally starting to look favorable for a transition to a more
stormy pattern. The high pressure that has been entrenched along
the west coast is finally forecast to retrograde westward likely
allowing storms from the Gulf of Alaska to again make their way
into the region. This will also be a cold pattern for the region
with below average temperatures likely to persist into early
March.

Next week into next weekend we could see multiple more cold
slider type storms with light to moderate addition snow amounts.
By the beginning of March there is a decent possibility that the
high pressure in Pacific will continue to retrograde allowing
stronger storms coming out of the Gulf of Alaska to move over the
Pacific before making it into the Sierra. This could allow the
first real chance of seeing strong cold storms... -Zach

 

[Plai]

Rose reported 9-11 from last night. I believe it. Not in the forecast was more snow during the day. It felt like skiing in a snow globe. Was able to find deep crud and had a good for me day.

 

[John Webb]

Snowing in Nevada City in foothills at 2600 ft elevation. Very good sign.

 

[Philpug]

@Plai making some turns on Bruce’s


It is a good thing this guy locked these up...or else I would have been tempted. He was skiing in period Lange Tsi boots too. Everyday is retro day at Mt. Rose.

 

[Alexzn]

Powder day at Squaw. A little dust on crust situation, but if you watched your turns you could have avoided the exposed ice. A lot of wind meant that a lot of snow shifted so coverage was really variable. But an awesome day. I was second chair on Granite, so I get a few good runs in before the masses arrived. It felt good to have the powder skis out in the morning.

Line for Funi:

 

[Alexzn]

You can now buy cool looking Bomber skis fir a cool $2,500 (yup). But the graphics rock.

 

[skibum4ever]

Hoping for some good strong cold storms in late February and in March.

 

[Chickenmonkey]

Alpine was fun today. Summit was pretty busy until about 11 and then it cleared out. Maybe too cold?

Spent most of the day on ABC in and around deer camp and middle yellow.

Wondering if tomorrow would be a fun Squaw day or if we should hit Alpine again.

 

[luliski]

Powder day at Squaw. A little dust on crust situation, but if you watched your turns you could have avoided the exposed ice. A lot of wind meant that a lot of snow shifted so coverage was really variable. But an awesome day. I was second chair on Granite, so I get a few good runs in before the masses arrived. It felt good to have the powder skis out in the morning.

Line for Funi:
View attachment 39838

Wow, makes me feel not so bad about being at Northstar today!

 

[luliski]

Skied at Alpine Friday, which was really fun. Hiked up to Picture Rocks with a few hundred others on Saturday, and skied Northstar today. No pics from today because it was too cold! Northstar snow conditions remain pretty dismal. My first run was the looker's left of the Comstock lift (Grouse Alley?) It looked pretty good from the lift, and in retrospect, it was better than most of what I skied today, but it had lots of scraped off spots with shrubbery poking through. Then I skied Powder Bowl off the Rendezvous chair. The snow there was actually pretty nice. We took Drifter down to the Backside chair, and Drifter was awfully icy. Did one run on Burnout, which had some good soft snow, but also large patches of exposed boilerplate. We need more snow!
Heading up Summit lift.

My nephew's first time on Alpine Bowl. He liked it!

Kids and dog playing with snow on hike.

Lake Tahoe

 

[Plai]

Bluebird day with lots of good leftovers.
Best of all, it was just sooo crowded the first couple of hours.

 

[TallGuy]

Skied Sugar Bowl yesterday with the family. I got fooled a couple times with dust on crust but found a few spots that had enough depth to sorta feel like powder skiing. The groomers were good in the morning but had a lot of exposed icy spots in the afternoon. I don't know the story of how the icicle trees were created at the top of Christmas Tree chair, but there was a group of trees that were really cool looking -- completely covered in long icicles.

2018-02-19 16.01.33

• TallGuy
• Feb 20, 2018

2018-02-19 16.01.29

• TallGuy
• Feb 20, 2018

Icicle trees at the top of Christmas Tree lift at Sugar Bowl on Feb 19, 2018.

 

[fatbob]

So getting to stick or twist time
I've decided to hold onto my Oakland flight and whatever happens I'll be skiing Kweed Sunday but deciding on whether to stick to Tahoe or twist to take advantage of Colorado's better base (via a stop in Park City).

Epic pass to burn so unlikely to be paying day tix elsewhere .

Stick Pros
- Don't have to drive across NV
- BA seems optimistic for next 10 days

Cons

- Base not all that
- If the West coast ridge settles again could be baad again quite quick

Twist Pros
- could possibly squeeze in day or 2 at Gatehring on way back (anyone got a line on tix discounts for non MCPers?)
- Colorado has been having a good time of late re snow

Cons
- Vail sux
- Joel doesn't sound as upbeat as BA about next week
- Ballache of Winnemucca- Elko- Wendover it's not a hard drive but a boring one