Thread: 11/12 Tahoe Weather, Conditions, Stoke, and What's Up Thread... IT'S BAAAAAAAACK!!!

Just saw this on unnofficial...Squaw-Alpine connect will be open starting tomorrow until April 29th.

http://unofficialnetworks.com/squawa...omorrow-90895/

So we can ride the cat track for access but not ski any of whitewolf's terrain?
Regardless seems like a step in the right direction. I did overhear some alpine patrollers talking about new bombing routes so perhaps that's a good sign for next season.

yehaw! at least they are trying... maybe? i wonder if troy is letting people ski over his terrain or what the deal is with that? i thought he would fuss a little bit haha, it appears he helped with grooming it out though..

Doesn't seem like it would be a whole lot of fun--the snow in Beaver today, except for the very top, was pretty nasty. I don't expect Bernie's would be a lot better. And getting back by hiking out to Estelle seems like a lot of work just to say you did it. But it sounds like they're going to keep it open, so once things corn up should be some fun. I just hope KSL isn't planning a lift in Estelle. The traverse to terrain is the best part of Alpine.

I hope this means we can go get into other touring options around sqauw... sure would be nice to get back into national geographic bowl someday

Originally Posted by old goat

Doesn't seem like it would be a whole lot of fun--the snow in Beaver today, except for the very top, was pretty nasty. I don't expect Bernie's would be a lot better. And getting back by hiking out to Estelle seems like a lot of work just to say you did it. But it sounds like they're going to keep it open, so once things corn up should be some fun. I just hope KSL isn't planning a lift in Estelle. The traverse to terrain is the best part of Alpine.

A patroller once told me a lift to Estelle can't be done because of avy/long range bombing concerns. And traversing is what's wrong with alpine - it's for lazy fags who won't hike and fucks shit up for those that do.
As for the connection, we'll see how well it works, sounds higher on novelty than fun factor. Also wondering if skins would be needed or helpful.

Originally Posted by mmmm...pow!

A patroller once told me a lift to Estelle can't be done because of avy/long range bombing concerns.

More of a USFS concern, apparently.

Originally Posted by The Dad

More of a USFS concern, apparently.

Hey that document is sort of fascinating. I scanned the rest of that site and found other bits and pieces. Any idea where to find a complete copy?

Originally Posted by Tyrone Shoelaces

Super fun day today at Kirkwood. Beautiful day....not very crowded, great snow...if not nearly as deep as the day prior, but suuuuper fun. Lot's of untracked runs on Vista and Thunder Saddle vicinity.

Grabbed the first bombhole on Kodak and couldn't believe I was the only one off it, but then realized that maybe the Twisted Sister slopestyle comp had Kodak as part of their venue...so maybe it was closed?....really? Nah, couldn't be, there were no closed signs coming from the Saddle area. Oh well, I then had to go back up and hit it a second time (this time with SuPu) since I was still the only bombhole off of it This time, we get yelled at by a patroller who said it was part of the venue. How the fuck are we supposed to know? Well, too bad, should have been closed signs there or something...did they actually expect people to not hit it from the other side on a powder day?? This is Kirkwood.....c'mon.

Stuff was starting to get pretty sun baked and set-up after 12:30-ish. Still good turns in the Saddle and the upper part of the Wall and Funnel area as the winds in those areas seemed to be keeping things cool and chalky even though they were heavily tracked.

I saw you guys hit Kodak from the bottom of the venue. One of you was wearing a green or blue jacket? We were all cheering. I'm pretty sure it wasn't part of the venue, the waterfall was the edge.

Originally Posted by Marhankins

I saw you guys hit Kodak from the bottom of the venue. One of you was wearing a green or blue jacket? We were all cheering. I'm pretty sure it wasn't part of the venue, the waterfall was the edge.

Ha that's funny. Punani was in a blue jacket, and I was in green.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Shoelaces

Ha that's funny. Punani was in a blue jacket, and I was in green.

What was twisted sister playing when you hit it?


It's kind of important. I definitely would have waited for a good song. Having your own twisted sister soundtrack while sending it off a big rock is an opportunity not to be missed.

Originally Posted by old goat

On a completely unrelated matter, I was looking at a trail map at Squaw today and there was a section warning people that if they go out of bounds they can die etc, and that the boundary might be closed at time for safety "in conjunction with the USFS", but nothing about going out of bounds being forbidden. I know the backside of KT is still closed as it's private land--are there other boundaries that are open now? Is this a change in policy?

Sorry for quoting myself--but in light of the opening at the saddle--does anyone know the answer to my question? Maybe the backside of Granite for example, has been open all season and Squaw has chosen to keep quiet about it so as not to encourage people? As much as I've been along the boundaries--Granite, Sunbowl, the ridge down to Bullet--I don't recall that I've seen closed signs at the boundary.

Originally Posted by mmmm...pow!

A patroller once told me a lift to Estelle can't be done because of avy/long range bombing concerns. And traversing is what's wrong with alpine - it's for lazy fags who won't hike and fucks shit up for those that do.
As for the connection, we'll see how well it works, sounds higher on novelty than fun factor. Also wondering if skins would be needed or helpful.

By traversing I mean the hikes along the ridge--not the infinite number of traverse lines across Wolverine for example, or for that matter stuff like Low Beaver across to even lower Estelle--wouldn't bother me a bit if the far side of Wolverine were closed except for a gate at the top--same with Low Beaver, etc, but that ain't gonna happen. I said "traverse" because I didn't want to dignify the nearly level ridgeline traverses as "hikes" (although at my age they don't fel as level as they used to.) I was keeping "hikes" for skinning up from the bottom, but I know most people don't use it that way.

Well, damn, that was about as good of a weekend of riding that I've had all year. I'm sad I missed out on Friday's insanity at Kirkwood, but 3 untracked Vista laps and 1 great untracked lower cirque line was pretty solid on Saturday. No winds and super deep fluffy meant the best snow I've had on Vista in several years ... none of the entrances were windscalped, slid out, snowboardslipped, or anything. Unfortunately, no spackle on the storm's way in also meant that the takeoffs and lurking snowsharks were pretty vicious on the polyethylene this weekend. A lot of shark bites inbounds and in the BC this weekend ... time to preheat the ptex iron.

Friggin righteous pow on NE/N facing slopes above 8500' in the CP area on Sunday! Despite the heat and Death Star, the stuff up high was staying fresh and perfect for skinning and ripping pretty well into the day on Sunday. Anyone here want to claim the diagonal chute coming off the Steven's Peak headwall? We considered going in for sloppy seconds, but decided it wasn't worth douching your signatures in that line and requiring a skin transition on the exit (yeah splitters are hella lazy).

dude - did we totally snake your line off Stevens? we thought we'd see you as you topped out but never did. didn't realize it was you skinning up. it was a beauty line. glad you had a good day out there.

saturday on RT and EB was super good too with nobody out.

Originally Posted by pajamas

dude - did we totally snake your line off Stevens? we thought we'd see you as you topped out but never did. didn't realize it was you skinning up.

Hahahah I didn't bother studying the other cars at the parking area, because we had no idea you guys would be out there too!

You guys hit the Shark Fin (I've heard that couloir called the Comma), and snaked the Tele and AT pair who were going up after it (but started after you guys anyways), who then turned off the summit down to the NE cirque and snaked our line feeding into the NE bowl, and then they skinned back up to the headwall and dropped that diagonal line that cuts across under the huge headwall. I don't know what it's called. We chatted with the other group and they told us about your group

NoKnees, I, and 2 other beginner splitters went in the long way - skinning up into the NE cirque because I was doing that split skills clinic and I wanted to work topo navigation and terrain selection into the day. Going in the long way, you get a better view of the cirque and appreciation for its radness, and also more chance to see how the snow changes by elevation and aspect. 2 other dudes from SB.com bailed because they were on snowshoes and thought they would not be able to keep up, despite my pleas for them to join our group anyways.

Not really powder, but the top of the tram was plenty of fun yesterday. Now I am busy doing some research on Tahquitz, hoping for an early morning corn run later this week.

heheh, such a small world. took the kiddies to kwood on sunday and it looked by far the busiest bc day of the year. trailheads at luther and crater/stevens were packed more then ive ever seen them. we are always commenting how now one skies in s shore other then luther cuz we hardly see anybody. the top of crater/red lake was as farmed/tracked as can be possible when we saw it today

so today, ima thinking where to go that is off the beaten path???? stevens n cirque!!!! never see any other trax in there. motor on up to see trax in the comma so we bailed on that initial startup and headed to diagonal(yes, another line called diagonal, original i know). on the point we see that it to had been hit. i claimed to have seen trax coming out of it in hope valley but my partner didnt believe me.

sooo, we ended up skiing the face between diagonal and the melowish line that had 6 trax in it. good steep skiing w/ good pow. we then did a lap in the sortacorn back on the eastish approach n then back up to the $$$ line in the n cirque......but the snow was far from $$$ so we bailed back out n down the springy snow on the east side.

south is gonna transition pretty well but north is cooked below 9 - 9.5 k. funny how every single track we witnessed was described here.

Originally Posted by gimpy

funny how every single track we witnessed was described here.

Hahahahahaha. Nice work on that line - it's a beaut. The view of that line, from the bench between the upper/lower cirque, makes tracks in there look Jeremy Jones gnar-worthy since it compresses the angle so much. Next time I've got to borrow a 300mm lens and bring in a tripod to shoot that thing - lemme know if you ever want to slut it! Did you also notice the tracks in the little chute between the skintrack out of the cirque and the line with 6 tracks? Yeah, after your work today, that area is officially worked until the corn reset.

Hopefully the nights get clearer and the freezes harder ...

Saturday I went to South Lake Tahoe




...and poppa's got a brand new ACL! Recover room snapshot:

ya see, the s shore is good for something. orr or banner???

yah we saw it all schralph. it got slizzzzayyyyyed. we need cold nightime temps n we be in bizness on the sunnysides

Dude, get some big toe socks! and heal up quick...

Squawpine connection closed again today

Good luck, Jim. If you had to miss a season, this was the one. Come back even stronger.

Thanks kindly guys.

Terrence Orr MD reconstructed my ACL.