10/11 Tahoe Weather, Conditions, Stoke, and What's Up Thread

[The Dad]

Met Huck4bucks yesterday as he was hiking down Alpine and we were hiking up. He reported 400' vertical of nice turns.

[huck4bucks]

Nice putting a name to a face. It was pretty fun for August. Firm sun cups, but probably the longest sustained vert you'll find on the north shore. 75 minutes from my truck to the summit.

[CaliKid]

Skied two patches on Sat morning. One to the left of summit and then this shot in Beaver bowl. Had to step over some rocks through the crux, not gonna go the full way too much longer

[RaccoonFace]

Since it's almost winter again I gotta ask.

Would you like a "fresh" thread or let this bad boy roll?

okbye

[powdork]

the bad boy rolls till we're skiing on new snow. doesn't mean you can't start the new one any time you like, though. generally i think it's about when we start talking about upcoming forecasts that the new one gets going. we've definitely had both on the front page simultaneously before. this one started 8/29 so theoretically, it's a year long thread.

[dookeyXXX]

Personally, for me, I always go with the new seasons starting in October (that's when the current season in So. Am/New Z ends; Timberline usually closes the last week of Sept. and then re-opens in Oct.; Loveland & A-Basin usually begin spinning their WROD in Oct.).

But I'm also amicable with the "when new snow falls" as the start of the new season.

So, I'm inclined to suggest keeping this bad boy rolling until either October (i.e. when Timberline or Loveland/A-Basin open) or the first new snowfall...

[splat]

Patches kick ass. At least my ass. Hit the Blue Lakes to Red Lake ski/hike with Vets and MJ yesterday and was properly fuckin tired at the end of a long day on the ubershuttle. After three years of barely being able to walk, I think it was just what I needed. I imagine Vets will do a TR, but here's the synopsis....

Arriving at our departure point far above Upper Blue Lakes on a very 4X4 road...



MJ creams his jeans. We had some nice snow up high...



Vets in a fun little slot that unfortunately crapped out for a section down lower...



There was some up and down and sideways traversing some killer scree like this...



Then there was more skiing and we were done and the ubershuttle had to be implemented to get back to our starting point, which we reached as dark fell....



Great road, great fun, long day....

[powdrhound]

the bad boy rolls till we're skiing on new snow.

I agree. My season ended last year at Timberline, on old snow, October 2nd. This year began on October 23rd, on 16" new snow, skinning 49 Degrees North.

This season will not be over until we get next years pow shots. Lots of patching yet to do for This year.

Let it Snow!

[PBR and POW = FUN]

Yeah, this season is still going strong- at this rate this could have been the 2009 to 2013 Tahoe Stoke thread haha. I spent the weekend hitting up some stuff allover C Pass/Caples area. I think Sunday may have had better conditions than early February.

Anyway...
Headed up Luther's Ass from Myers, you can see the Little Roundtop Chutes down to Showers Lake right now. They look great from Myers, great enough for me to hike to them on Saturday morning. They weren't so great up close. Many were burnt out, others weren't, but even those were more like short blocks of ice stuck in the chutes. Because they were so melted, the chute walls were real high above the snow, keeping the sun off the snow most of the day, so they were kind of icy.


Went across the street to Roundtop and Sisters on Sunday...better than Little Roundtop, no surprise. Hiked up from Woods Lake, and planned to just start making laps down from below the Crescent to close to Winnemucca Lake. On my hike up I talked with a skier who had just came from below the Crescent to near Winnemucca Lake; don't know if that was any of you guys or not? Once I got up around Roundtop Lake, I thought Sisters looked better. Plus riding Sisters would put me down on the steep side of Roundtop Lake each time, away from the tourists who want pictures and and explanation this time of year. Suncups galore, but still a kick-ass day considering its August.

Some of the weekend:
[tgrvideo]1617349[/tgrvideo]

Oh, did anyone here a loud explosion/boom noise on Saturday, probably 4:30 or 5:00. I was hiking back to my car, near the would-be Whopper when I heard it.

[dookeyXXX]

Loud explosions/booms were most likely in tribute to Dick Reuter over at Kirkwood (me, Vets, and Gone2Alpine were at the Kirkwood Inn around that time and heard several explosions emanating from KW area).

http://www.kirkwood.com/site/dish/di...aug-6th-200-pm

[splat]

Dude, nice. I can see those teeth chattering suncups that didn't thaw coming through in the footie. Sisters looked a lot better from Caples. We're thinking about grabbing a boat at Caples and heading up Immigrant. Is that pipeline that still goes up there??? There's still some kill shots to be had.. From Caples far shore you can skim the ridge right to them. Least it looks that way...

[powdork]

and when might you be thinking about this?

[splat]

Better be soon. huh?

[powdork]

my plan is to head out there again with the girls tomorrow, but without having to be back to work like last time. don't think i'll take the skis though since it looks like an ultra high work/reward ratio given i'm not totally comfortable getting that far away from the girls that far away from everything else. lots of recon though. i'm pretty sure the best bet would be right up the trail until you get to the lake. then gain the ridge. bug spray is not optional.

[powdork]

radio tower and west shore


sally alley


close up of crux(es). the lower one will be melted, but that didn't connect to the lower field anyway

[Vets]

^
Recon kicks ass!
How would it be getting around the lake from the bottom of the snow? I recall some pretty steep shoreline around those parts.

[powdork]

looks like a fishing trail going around to lookers left. the snow at top right is where you see it end in the pics above.


to the lookers right you have to cross a small marshy zone to get to the fishing trail. be veeewy careful. we heard something and looked up to see the zone marked in pink had broken off into the lake. we were on the opposite side of the lake and heard it clearly through a brisk wind

[powdork]

and here's a link to a 1600x900 version so you can see it all at once
http://www.aboutlaketahoe.com/hiking...lake-large.jpg

and a dry suit or pfd might come in handy (although i've never been on that side of the lake without ice and have no idea how deep it is).

[Vets]

^
The 1600x900 is nice.
That is looking very tempting.

[powdork]

almost forgot, we left from the woods creek access. it is defintiely shorter but the trail ends almost immediately after woods creek. while the bushwhacking wasn't bad even for the girls in sneakers, carrying skis would not be fun. i'm liking the boat idea. there was also an excellent camp spot/firepit at the furthermost point of the caples lake.

[gone2alpine]

Hmmm....the elusive kayak and ski and camp combo. That sounds interesting. If only there were more days of summer vakay left. When do you return to work Vets?

[dookeyXXX]

i've got a wet suit (alas, no dry suit), but no PFD nor a kayak. i do have a couple of OG wooden paddles and i'd be tempted to tie a couple of inner tubes together...

[powdork]

this kayak better fucking have a motor!

[splat]

What's the continuous vert available on the northern aspect, powdork? Top to lake?

[Sinecure]

Dook, I have an inflatable raft in the garage that you're welcome to use. The easiest thing would be to put the gear in there and tow it behind a kayak, but you could paddle the raft if you wanted. It will hold a lot of gear.