This Just In: Winter Storm Warning for Tahoe Cancelled

[Lane Meyer]

Bump in the hopes of an update from anyone who went out today - should we use our Get Out of Jail Free Cards tomorrow???

At Squaw last night ~7PM it was blowing 50+ at the base, and raining sideways. Spent the night up in Alpine at ~6800', rained and blew hard all night.

[Spats]

Tuesday at Sugarbowl was tits. A touch heavy but very, very skiable, and I only had to share the mountain with about 40 or 50 other people. Plus the wind meant refills on big parts of East Face in the afternoon = fresh lines at 3 PM.

Got my Spatulas mounted at GC that night and slept in the truck in anticipation of major snow the next day. Serious snow all night, got screwed by Caltrans (don't believe the sign by the freeway when it says Donner Pass Road is open, it won't be) and got to Sugarbowl late. Didn't matter -- the hill was shut down, and so was everything at North Lake but the Roundhouse chair at Alpine. And the snow level kept rising...rain at Sugarbowl base (6800') when I left, and no chain control over Donner Summit (7200'). Feck.

Still a massive Tuesday at the Bowl. I'll be back, with Spatulas.

edit: spelling

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

it really wasn't that bad you guys geeezzzzzz. in fact, w/ 95 mm waisted skis it was pretty damn fun. untracked pow is still untracked pow even if you gotta ride it w/ fat skiis in the WAY back machine. if i didn't have to work tomorrow i'd be all over the wall, eagle bowl, hike to thunder saddle and thunder bowl which all have been closed for days w/ 3' of new snow. now shut the f... up and go skiing!!!

...............

[Darkside]

I went up to Alpine this morning...got there at 9:15, realized I had forgot my bag, went home and got on the lift at 10, left at 11:15.
Let me say that any of you who bailed didn't miss anything. It's like friking April up there. Super slushy, and not a sign of the 48" summit storm totals they were reporting. If you were in the sun, it was fun, Spatula surfing. Made the mistake of trying to hit Deer Park, nothing but death crust. Also, there were mad slides all over the place, a huge one at the bottom of the side of Palisades.
I would guess tomorrow is going to be a bust too, as the call is for below-freezing temps tonite...
Oh well, like freshies said, it's just covering up the bad spots, making for better stuff down the road.

[freshies]

thx for the update Darkside...pretty much what i figured...but ya never know until ya go....let's hope the next one comes in cold....sooo, no Tahoe then for me this w/e...looks like i will be MTB'ing Sat/road riding Sun here in the Bay....

[ja_surf]

Heavenly was actually pretty fun today as things warmed up the turning got better. After Sky finally opened hit the dipper trees and a nice sight of the bull wheels running on Motts after a few laps waiting for them to open the gates I asked the liftie at the top when they where going to open, and he said probably Friday. So while having a safety meeting looking out towards the desert I saw people heading in to gate 1 Yea haa, they had just opened gates 1, 2 and 3. Started down bills only see an avy debris field with shit sticking out all over, cut over to the Y and found deep heavy pow, work for your turns steeps!!! A little better snow over around ernies with the typical minefield getting over there. Not the most epic opening day at Motts but fun none the less.

[skier666]

Nice to know that Motts is open....especially if I head over there with my family one day during the holidays.

[Sierra Cement]

ja surf -

Did they bomb the shit out of Motts? What aspects slid? It sounds like the north facing stuff was the most stable (the Y)?
Did it seem like things were consolidating a little with the warm temps?

It looked nice and sunny up there all day today, glad to hear the snow wasn't too bad. Thanks for the report, maybe I'll grab a gonjola ride at lunch tomorrow.

[ja_surf]

Sierra - Yep there were a lot of bomb holes, did not see any slides from gate 4 to 6. Bills was the worst slide all the way to the bottom, the whole runout from the Y/Bills was a debris field, couple of small ones in the Y, actually had a crack about 5 feet long and a couple inches wide form as I stopped in some thick stuff on skiers left of the Y about 1/3 of the way down. Stuff over past the Y towards Ernies was all intact. Stuffed my pole in a couple of times and found no bottom where I was skiing and of course quite a bit of sluff followed you down.