The Official 19/20 Tahoe Ski Snowboard Thread. Plus bonus Bootfitting Recs!

[bodywhomper]

I heard the wind blows high there.

[MashedPotatoes]

I heard the wind blows high there.

Phish!

[TahoeBC]

What is divided sky?

Asking for a friend

Gimpy answered, but its fun to do a beacon check in the bar, often someone forgets to turn theirs off after a day of touring.

[ridge_skier]

March is too far out to forecast. Could be ugly, could get some snow. Ski Heavenly if you want some views of the lake. Otherwise, Kirkwood. If it does snow, don’t hang around nursing a hangover—get to the lot. Lots of people in a 4-hour radius love to ski and the lots park out.

Hit Divided Sky on the way back from Kirkwood.

Thanks for the advice!

[TahoeJ]

Wearing shorts and flip flops today. We may need to put out a hit on that damn groundhog.

[AKbruin]

Man, looking at the 10-day forecast has become a form of self-harm. 2020 is all wind and very little snow.



Anybody got a line on cheap flights to places with snow?

[Ottime]

I'm coming out to the Tahoe area the beginning of March with some buddies. Staying in South Lake Tahoe but will have a car and are planning to ski Kirkwood and Heavenly since we have the Epic pass. Any recommendations on stuff to do in the area or tips on when to ski KW versus Heavenly would be greatly appreciated by this jong.

Also praying for some snow before then but the forecast is looking fairly dry in the near term.

Depends on the weather really. If we don’t get snow, it would depend on wind and temperatures. Heavenly has way more acreage of low angle terrain at lower elevation and softens up quicker, especially by March. High elevation fresh snow, Kirkwood. Lots of wind, Heavenly. White out, Heavenly.

Get out to KW early and park within yards of the lift. Weekend at KW are way less crowded. Mid week it is empty. Unless fresh snow, then...

[El Chupacabra]

Man, looking at the 10-day forecast has become a form of self-harm. 2020 is all wind and very little snow.



Anybody got a line on cheap flights to places with snow?

SLC is a 7 hr drive...

I think I'm going to pull the winter tires off my car. Long range forecast looks like nothing until March. Going to head for central CA next week, visit parents, go mountain biking...

[mr. hankey]

Still some brutal winds above ~9k today, keeping things frozen above that, but stuff below that had good corn.
Coverage at the start looked pretty bad, but it was actually pretty good after a couple hundred feet, and all of it was skiable to the road.







Sherpa1:

[TahoeJ]

SLC is a 7 hr drive...

Or a super quick hop flight on Southwest from Reno or Oakland. Just got back... it actually feels like winter there.

[TurxSki]

Rose was all about the groomers...mostly...and lots was groomed.
Some deposits of dust on crust in the trees were worth it.
Some not so much.

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[El Chupacabra]

Or a super quick hop flight on Southwest from Reno or Oakland. Just got back... it actually feels like winter there.

The only nonstop flights from RNO to SLC are on Delta. Southwest makes you go through another stop.

[TahoeBC]

Did a couple laps below 8600 today, corn skied great and the window stayed open, could have skied longer

[skier666]

Here's some Squaw footage from last Saturday...

[reid]

I think I'm going to pull the winter tires off my car.

We appreciate your sacrifice.

[El Chupacabra]

We appreciate your sacrifice.

Winter wheels are off and in the shed.

Couple of plastic Adirondack chairs pulled out from storage, cleaned up, and on the porch. (Regular porch swings get put away for winter.)

[old goat]

My wife puts out the deck furniture in April and it always snows.

[TahoeBC]

One from today




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[Dark Energy]

Nice pic of Ralston. Trying to deliver some stoke, I can only offer a description of some Class III February Fun after an attempt to ski the south ramp of Pyramid last Saturday. Starting from the Pyramid Creek pull-out on 50, I went too far up the valley before attempting to gain the ridge through the brush described in Richens’ guidebook. Confronting a big granite wall, I had to down-climb but figured there must be a trail up by Horsetail Falls. Wrong. So I channeled my inner Muir traversed some scary rocks and brush in my ski boots. 1,800 vertical later I topped out, but it was the wrong ridge and where I needed to be was way above me and guarded by cliffs. No way I was going back the way I came and not enough time to keep heading up towards the east side of Pyramid, I diverted across Pyramid Creek and some of the lakes in the neighborhood to Ralston with the intent of skiing some south facing corn back to the highway. By the time I got up to Ralston’s summit after another 1,800 vertical, the wind was howling and it had re-frozen the slopes. Ended up skiing back to a pull-out on 50 populated by some snow-fun enthusiasts. After attempting to hitch back to my car, one of the sled riders gave me a ride down the hill in the back of their pick-up. At least I was home in time for dinner.

[Fish Rider]

One from today's corn harvest.

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[mr. hankey]

Dark Energy, Yeah those slabs on the pyramid ridge are no joke That route is great skinning/skiing when coverage is good, but when it's low tide/snowpack, it's hazardous. Kudo's to you for doing it in ski boots!
There's another route up pyramid a half a mile down the road (Rocky canyon?) that is good for booting up/down the first thousand feet when coverage is poor. It sucks that you can't ski the low portion(tight trees), but it's safe hike and really direct.
Nice pics TahoeBC, FishRider!

[Jay P]

Tahoe is overrated. I'm going back to Colorado

[TahoeJ]

This weather really makes no sense. I have bruised ribs from a bad crash in Utah and can't really ski right now, so it should be dumping.

What is the lowest snowfall amount ever recorded in February? Looks like we may be breaking it. Even during the drought stretch of 2012 - 15 we got a few decent storms, IIRC.

[old goat]

Tahoe is overrated. I'm going back to Colorado

Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out. (But yeah, Tahoe elevation is too low and weather is too fickle for it to be a world class ski destination.)

[2_1_3]

What is the lowest snowfall amount ever recorded in February? Looks like we may be breaking it. Even during the drought stretch of 2012 - 15 we got a few decent storms, IIRC.

For Tahoe City (best long record in the region, spanning ~1910-2020), here's the worst 15 Februaries:

Rank, Precip, Year, Missing Days
1 T 1912-02-29 0
2 0.07 1988-02-29 0
3 0.12 2020-02-29 18
4 0.14 2013-02-28 0
5 0.42 1964-02-29 0
6 0.44 1967-02-28 0
7 0.47 1953-02-28 0
8 0.63 1913-02-28 0
9 0.85 1965-02-28 0
10 0.87 1924-02-29 0
11 0.89 1933-02-28 0
12 0.91 1997-02-28 0
- 0.91 1971-02-28 0
14 1.04 1928-02-29 0
15 1.06 2016-02-29 0
- 1.06 1924-02-28 0

Hopefully we can move backwards a bit out of third place! Only 2013 included in the 'core' drought years, but interesting to see 2016 (still part of the 2012-2016 drought (using water years, Oct 2011-Sep 2016)) make the list. If we back off the dry spell duration to 27 days (above uses 28), 2012 makes it onto the list with 0.60". 2018 also a close one with 0.71" between Feb 1-Feb 25.

Edit since I pulled precip not snow like you asked, I checked that and we're 6th in least snowy with 1 measly inch recorded. 2013 being 7th with 2 inches.

tl;dr
given the long-range forecast, February 2020 is on track to be in the top 10 driest and (a top 20 least snowy) Februaries in the last century for Tahoe City if not top 5.