California/Nevada Lake Tahoe Next Week

[s15199d]

I'm headed to Lake Tahoe next week for our annual guys ski trip. We're staying in Heavenly and will likely do 2 days there. We'll have a 3rd ski day...what other mt should we check out (Palisades, Northstar, Homewood, etc)?

At Heavenly, I'm looking at the ski map...are there certain lifts that are generally better in the AM, or lifts that are generally better in the PM?

Thanks in advance!

 

[fatbob]

Depends a bit on where you are staying and thus what base you upload from. I'd say my prime tip would be get high, get up early. Sky chair in particular can end up getting very busy and is most vulnerable to wind closure though all of the upper mountain is vulnerable in that respect. New Northbowl is a good chair if you like noodling around in trees and not yet really heavily used. Personally I prefer the NV side not least because parking capacity is a bit less and you aren't as vulnerable to the Sky factor.

Re other places from SLT I'd say Kirkwood different vibe, beautiful drive up etc but if you're not tied to an epic ticket Sierra is a good shout unless you really want to tick off the big gun of Palisades.

 

[Tony]

@fatbob covered it pretty well and I agree with him on Kirkwood. Other places to consider skiing are:
Diamond Peak - Great Lakeviews, two good chairs with many good runs, closer than Northstar and Palisades and should be well-covered this year.
Mt Rose - Especially if you can hit it on twofer Tuesday (although not the great deal it once was) or if it works to get an extra day on way to/from RNO airport.

Heavenly can be hard to figure out (I’ve been skiing there 60 years and still find new places) and was a mess in first half of Jan. If Sky is closed (and usually gondola closes with or before it), CA side becomes limited and overrun with people staying near gondola.

While you can ski from NV to CA using Olympic, Comet or Dipper, you can only get to NV from CA with Sky. And on way to NV, if are advanced, after the left turn to Pinnacles, make a right turn into Milky Way Bowl (see pix). You’ll need to carry speed after it flattens out to avoid uphill walk past/under Mott chair.

Besides trees on North Bowl, you can also ski run with same name (starts below bottom of Olympic chair) or Upper North Bowl to Olympic Downhill into lower NV trail or into Boulder Chute (not really a chute). Stagecoach is a tough place to park unless early, but has a few good runs and usually low crowds after opening unless it’s the highest lift running in NV. Gunbarrel, Face and East Bowl get good afternoon sun if you are up for long, steep bump runs.

 

[s15199d]

Thanks @fatbob and @Tony for the recs!!!