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

[JPaul]

Some old family movies that my dad and uncle took 1936 - 1950
not very exciting, but there isn't any real snow yet...

Wow, that was great, thanks for sharing. Really cool footage of so many aspects, including movie camera on roof rack (original GoPro?) going to Yosemite!

Also...um...do you know if Reba has a great-grand-sister?

[~mikey b]

https://youtu.be/R7GBlPgnh0g
How skiing has changed - and remains the same
Some old family movies that my dad and uncle took 1936 - 1950
not very exciting, but there isn't any real snow yet...

nice

[TahoeBC]

How skiing has changed - and remains the same
Some old family movies that my dad and uncle took 1936 - 1950
not very exciting, but there isn't any real snow yet...

That was awesome! thanks for sharing

[~mikey b]

seriously John - that's great - historically significant in my opinion

[powdork]

+1 on the great skiing history
-1 for all the times they outskied me on ancient equipment dammit


Vail postponed opening days at Heavenly til the 27th and Northstar til the 29th. That means Ikon has three (or two) California resorts open for two weeks before vail opens any.

[TurxSki]

I thought this system would be a total bust.
But we have (light) rain on the ground here in CC, and chain controls over Kingsbury Grade and Mt.Rose Hwy, as well as up in Virginia City.
Snow falling on Rose cam.

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[powdork]

that's why I thought it was weird Vail would announce the postponement the night before a potential storm. Kind of proves it was just about the numbers. They're gonna look pretty stupid if they get over 6" with two more days of almost 24 hour/day snowmaking conditions and still can't open.

[powdork]

and the idle snowgun right in front of Heavenly's east peak camera for the last hour isn't a good look.

[TahoeJ]

Extended forecast is looking better and better, with the storm dropping even lower and now including Mammoth, which bodes well for Tahoe. Fingers crossed.

[TurxSki]

☆Result!☆
Slide side of Mt.Rose has some coverage now. Wonder how long it'll stick around?
KW has some.
Mammy too, but mostly foggy white-out on cams.

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[meter-man]

Wifey commutes over Brockway summit on the daily. Her text from 7 am:

"Chain control. Winter is coming."

por fin!

[hercule33]

that's why I thought it was weird Vail would announce the postponement the night before a potential storm. Kind of proves it was just about the numbers. They're gonna look pretty stupid if they get over 6" with two more days of almost 24 hour/day snowmaking conditions and still can't open.

I wouldn’t hold my breath with Vail. I was wondering how they were going to respond to the stiffer competition from the Ikon Pass. Last year they bought a bunch of small resorts on the east coast and midwest, suggesting that they are focusing on appealing more to the casual skier rather than the hardcore one. Those skiers care less about opening and closing dates and are more likely to be fooled if Vail opens their California resorts “early” because of the snow they got.

I really wonder what will happen to Kirkwood which fits more into Ikon’s portfolio of resorts rather than Vail’s.

[TahoeJ]

It would be great if Alterra / Squaw could just buy Kirkwood but I don't see it happening. Now there's something we never thought we'd ever say several years back.

[hercule33]

It would be great if Alterra / Squaw could just buy Kirkwood but I don't see it happening. Now there's something we never thought we'd ever say several years back.

So true. It’s amazing the difference that Alterra has made in operations, particularly committing to opening Alpine early. This may not seem like a big deal to many but to those who understand Alpine’s history waiting until December to open the resort and telling pass holders to ski Squaw instead was a slap in the face.

[soyboy80]

that would be sick, I'd love to ski the wood but the 2 hour drive and 150 for lift ticket just... doesn't work for me in this day and age

[Ottime]

Even with Vail, lift tickets are not that high at KW. Holiday window rates are about $110.

It would be great if Alterra / Squaw could just buy Kirkwood but I don't see it happening. Now there's something we never thought we'd ever say several years back.

I’ve been saying that for several years. Vail has sucked the soul out of KW since 2012. That company just does not care about skiing.

Seeing my son and I bought an IKOn last spring, so we could keep skiing on steep terrain and back to a parking lot, it would save us a ton of we did not also need to pony up for a KW pass to pay for the 20 or so days we will ski there this year.

I would go all IKON except the winter drive from SC to north lake scares the hell out of me.

[hercule33]

As long as Kirkwood will drive Epic pass sales from the Bay Area, I can not see Vail selling it. Unfortunately, I also can’t see Vail running Kirkwood like Alterra is running Alpine.

If many of those Kirkwood skiers move to an IKON pass and Vail continues down the path of appealing to the casual skiers, many of whom are from the Midwest and east coast and willing to travel once a year out west, I can see them selling Kirkwood.

[mmmm...pow!]

I always wondered why ski areas committed so many resources to opening with a shitty product so early in the season. Are all of you guys bitching in here the same people that are gonna start golfing in April when there is still a fat base? Pretty much the Vail MO to open early and close early. I'm sure they would love to open something here and have one of those stupid pictures of some skiers tearing through a banner proclaiming that the season is official on the news. There was literally not a single speck of snow at Northstar as of yesterday. Still plenty dry and dusty on west shore and Truckee, mountain bike season is still on!

[powdork]

I always wondered why ski areas committed so many resources to opening with a shitty product so early in the season. Are all of you guys bitching in here the same people that are gonna start golfing in April when there is still a fat base?

Nope. We'll be bitching then because the vail resorts will be closing while alterra resorts will remain open (for months if they can), simply because they try.

[gimpy]

You shut your whore mouths. I’m just fine keeping Ikon out of south shore.
Bout 6” total at 7.7k. Unfortunately the snowmaking gains they made a few weeks ago were mostly gone Sunday.
3 weekends ago

A few days ago


Some classic ski patrol engineering?

2x6 decking vertically is bomber.
Putting it all on a 4x12.....not so bomber

And to top it off, the main corner posts were only attached with a single 16p toenail. What could go wrong? Amazing I’ve never noticed this thing before






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[hercule33]

I always wondered why ski areas committed so many resources to opening with a shitty product so early in the season. Are all of you guys bitching in here the same people that are gonna start golfing in April when there is still a fat base? Pretty much the Vail MO to open early and close early. I'm sure they would love to open something here and have one of those stupid pictures of some skiers tearing through a banner proclaiming that the season is official on the news. There was literally not a single speck of snow at Northstar as of yesterday. Still plenty dry and dusty on west shore and Truckee, mountain bike season is still on!

Haha. There is no “rational” reason for opening resorts early with man made snow. It’s horrible for the environment and the skiing is not great.

That being said, with Vail for me it’s an issue of expectations. In the past, Vail would put a big effort to open on the date that it was scheduled. For some customers this was an important reason for getting an Epic Pass. This year they seemed to have changed their policy without updating customers. This is similar to what they did with charging for parking at Northstar. You can make an argument that it was a good move but the fact that they announced after many people already bought their passes was messed up.

[powdork]

Was it even on a 4X12"? That looks like it was 2 4x12"s butted together.

[gone2alpine]

So true. It’s amazing the difference that Alterra has made in operations, particularly committing to opening Alpine early. This may not seem like a big deal to many but to those who understand Alpine’s history waiting until December to open the resort and telling pass holders to ski Squaw instead was a slap in the face.

Well what Alterra did was figure out what everybody else knew all along. It's far easier to get Kangaroo open at Alpine than any other terrain at Squaw, except for Extrabitchen or First Ventures. It was the big poop problems at Squaw a couple of years ago that forced that learning.

The unfortunate trade off is that with earlier openings, we also got earlier closings. I had assumed that Alpine would not be open midweek this week and would gladly trade these midweek days for midweek days in May, when much more of the mountain is open. But the new staff must be trained and as a bonus, it was nice to see Alpine doing long term run testing on the new Hotter Wheels chair today, hopefully avoiding embarrassing problems for a larger scale opening.

For the record, the skiing was pretty abysmal today. Dust on crust was tilled into sugar cookies. Generally speaking things always get worse just before they get better. In more positive news, my boots fit fantastic today. Dalbello Boss with intuition liner and hand cut blue SuperFeet footbeds.

[hercule33]

Well what Alterra did was figure out what everybody else knew all along. It's far easier to get Kangaroo open at Alpine than any other terrain at Squaw, except for Extrabitchen or First Ventures. It was the big poop problems at Squaw a couple of years ago that forced that learning.

The unfortunate trade off is that with earlier openings, we also got earlier closings. I had assumed that Alpine would not be open midweek this week and would gladly trade these midweek days for midweek days in May, when much more of the mountain is open. But the new staff must be trained and as a bonus, it was nice to see Alpine doing long term run testing on the new Hotter Wheels chair today, hopefully avoiding embarrassing problems for a larger scale opening.

For the record, the skiing was pretty abysmal today. Dust on crust was tilled into sugar cookies. Generally speaking things always get worse just before they get better. In more positive news, my boots fit fantastic today. Dalbello Boss with intuition liner and hand cut blue SuperFeet footbeds.

My general sentiment was that Alterra seems to understand the ski industry and their customers better. KSL decisions seemed to make no sense unless they were viewed from a purely “business” point of view that had no experience with ski culture. For early season, it easy to justify just opening Squaw since it is a more famous resort. The headline “Squaw Valley open” is more impressive than “Alpine Meadows Open” despite the fact that Alpine may have the better early season skiing.

For better or worse, the IKON pass is more geared at more hardcore skiers and as result they seem to be paying more attention to things such as early openings and late closings. It may not be like the good old days, but it’s a lot better than Vail. Vail seems to be going after families and more casual skiers and unfortunately I think that Tahoe has suffered as a result. Tahoe is not a huge tourist destination (compared to Colorado and Whistler) and the Tahoe resorts have not been a cash cow for Vail. In fact, I have noticed cost cutting at Vail resorts in Tahoe over the last 10 years and the skiing experience slowly eroding. It’s not horrible, but definitely noticeable and doesn’t bode well for those with an Epic pass. It will be interesting to see how committed Vail will be this season to opening terrain at their Tahoe resorts, especially if that opening requires a lot of snowmaking. Snowmaking ain’t cheap after all.

[TahoeBC]

Meanwhile 2000 feet below sky chair at high meadows drifts up to two feet deep, but generally 4 to 6 inches

Thought I better do a stability test before dropping into cold creek today



Powder and pillow lines down






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