THE OFFICIAL 20/21 TAHOE SKI & SNOWBOARD THREAD. PANDEMIC SCHMANDEMIC!

[TahoeJ]

It's snowing in Truckee... a little accumulation so far but starting to pickup. Storm came in late - we'll see how it goes today.

[old goat]

It's not Vail's and Epics's and IKON's and Alterra's fault that a lot of people want to ski or just be in the mountains for some fresh air (not really), scenery, exercise, or just a change of scene. We're all part of the crowd so stop blaming someone else. While the mountains themselves aren't that crowded, the infrastructure isn't up to the numbers, especially now with people driving separately, and likely never will be. So figure out how to make the best of it and stop whining. And stop thinking that you're some special being that is one with the soul of the mountains who is more deserving to be here than someone else.

I'm beat up from skiing the powder Friday, shoveling snow all weekend, and wrestling the mank yesterday. Good day to take the day off, since this storm seems to be underperforming.

[teledad]

Yep, Sugar Bowl. Top of Disney and head out along the ridge a ways. View is mostly blocked by trees.

Or top of Crow's (hike to the top or take the traverse to the boundary line). That's Snow Mountain with the north fork of the American to the left.

[gone2alpine]

^^^^^
Multiple times on Sat/Sunday while at Alpine my friend and I would take a break and realize we couldn't see a single other person. Yet the parking lot was full and traffic was chaos. We sat in Wolverine bowl for about 15 minutes waiting for a friend to hike and drop Idiot's and counted 3 people skiing by. I don't know where everyone was but it wasn't skiing the terrain we were.

Did you happen to see any pics of the Sherwood line? Photo credit to Sinecure

[gone2alpine]

As far as Ikon in Tahoe...they desperately need another big mountain in the Tahoe area to handle the load. The rough numbers I have heard is that there are 4x the number of passholders within a 4 hour radius of Tahoe (day trippers) than the maximum capacity at SVAM. Wirthless blew the negotiations with both Sugar Bowl and Rose...which is probably a good thing for those mountains...but the Ikon oversell in NorCal is definitely an issue.

[powdork]

Well, I’m happy there’s more snow coming and we get a reset. Anyone else? Jeez.

Liked this light looking out back from SB earlier. See some of ya in the Alpine lineup tomorrow.

Attachment 360889

Ahhh that's Snow mountain. Makes way more sense now. I thought the clear (grey) sky above the mountains under the clouds was the lake, which is what had me so confused

[old goat]

Did you happen to see any pics of the Sherwood line? Photo credit to Sinecure

That's not bad for a powder weekend, first time Sherwood open all season, chairs not filling and people in line spread out. I've seen worse than that for years.

[TahoeJ]

Ahhh that's Snow mountain. Makes way more sense now. I thought the clear (grey) sky above the mountains under the clouds was the lake, which is what had me so confused

Yeah, it was kind of an unusual looking cloud / lighting situation, with the sun only beaming down on Snow Mountain. Would have turned out a lot better with a real camera.

[jorion]

Vibes to all you locals getting squeezed on housing and being invaded by us kooks every weekend. Or apparently everyday now. I hate being part of the problem although I like to think I keep my impact pretty minimal.

Lake Tahoe would be better off if it could be moved to Idaho. (I’d say central Nevada but there’s not enough snow.)

[hercule33]

It's not Vail's and Epics's and IKON's and Alterra's fault that a lot of people want to ski or just be in the mountains for some fresh air (not really), scenery, exercise, or just a change of scene. We're all part of the crowd so stop blaming someone else. While the mountains themselves aren't that crowded, the infrastructure isn't up to the numbers, especially now with people driving separately, and likely never will be. So figure out how to make the best of it and stop whining. And stop thinking that you're some special being that is one with the soul of the mountains who is more deserving to be here than someone else.

I'm beat up from skiing the powder Friday, shoveling snow all weekend, and wrestling the mank yesterday. Good day to take the day off, since this storm seems to be underperforming.

I am “doing my part” with crowds and haven’t been to Tahoe once this season. I would like to say that this is a self less act to help with problem but the reality is that with the lack of snow in the early season and then the crazy crowds kill it for me.

When it’s good Tahoe is one of the most spectacular places to ski in the world, in my opinion. But I am shocked by so many people’s lack of imagination of other places to go to play in the snow. For example there are plenty of other places not in Tahoe that are good for sledding especially with the last storm. Ditto for getting fresh air. I don’t consider sitting in a car for 8 hours in traffic “getting fresh air.”

Now bring on the midweek stoke for those of us who aren’t in Tahoe.

[skysos]

Before this season started I was telling my wife this would either be the best or the worst season at Vail resorts due to COVID. Best would have been a reservation system that meant something and limited the amount of people on the hill to something like 50% of capacity. This would have made sense.

Worst is what happened, which is a reservation system that meant nothing, and COVID reduced lift capacity. I did not anticipate the added demand this year adding to the problem.

Some of the posts above talk about messaging customers that they should come up on non-powder days. I don't think that is going to happen. Fat skis have allowed people with limited skills the ability to ski powder, and once they could they discovered how great it is. Add the Instagram FOMO effect and it's game over on resort powder days.

Vail built a really good reservation system. I know this isn't going to happen, but this is their opportunity to just keep it and manage their capacity. This would allow people to reserve a day and be guaranteed a good experience. Yeah, you might not be there on a powder day but as others have said I'd much rather ski uncrowded groomers under blue sky than stand in another soul-crushing 25 minute lift line.

We live in South Lake so we are tied to Epic pretty much forever, but we will definitely re-up our Sierra passes next year, with the Fastpass option. We don't do any weekend skiing at either resort unless family are visiting. Out of 34 resort days this year, 18 are at Sierra because people seem to arrive there later, giving us a window to get in a bunch of laps before it gets nuts.

Kirkwood actually has a great XC ski trail system that is a good option for us on weekends. It's a $115 pass add-on. There are like 50 people there on a Sunday.

[RockChalk]

Finally snowing in Meyers

[gimpy]

^^^^^ this isn’t a stoke thread anymore.......it’s now a lift line bitch thread

[NakedShorts]

Fingers crossed for a happy ending.
The only chart that is relatively meaningful is the Temperature fluctuating one. It has to be lower than 32* for it to really snow.

[lepistoir]

Vibes to all you locals getting squeezed on housing and being invaded by us kooks every weekend. Or apparently everyday now. I hate being part of the problem although I like to think I keep my impact pretty minimal.

Lake Tahoe would be better off if it could be moved to Idaho. (I’d say central Nevada but there’s not enough snow.)

McCall is building a wall right now. Sandpoint is blowing up the bridge. CdA will have militia controlling the borders.


(Parked at tamarack and later at dogshit lake peak)

[gimpy]

Oh yeah....... and fuck that fast pass bullshit....... next thing they’ll have red velvet ropes for the fagpass holders to have that special vip experience

[hercule33]

Before this season started I was telling my wife this would either be the best or the worst season at Vail resorts due to COVID. Best would have been a reservation system that meant something and limited the amount of people on the hill to something like 50% of capacity. This would have made sense.

Worst is what happened, which is a reservation system that meant nothing, and COVID reduced lift capacity. I did not anticipate the added demand this year adding to the problem.

Some of the posts above talk about messaging customers that they should come up on non-powder days. I don't think that is going to happen. Fat skis have allowed people with limited skills the ability to ski powder, and once they could they discovered how great it is. Add the Instagram FOMO effect and it's game over on resort powder days.

Vail built a really good reservation system. I know this isn't going to happen, but this is their opportunity to just keep it and manage their capacity. This would allow people to reserve a day and be guaranteed a good experience. Yeah, you might not be there on a powder day but as others have said I'd much rather ski uncrowded groomers under blue sky than stand in another soul-crushing 25 minute lift line.

We live in South Lake so we are tied to Epic pretty much forever, but we will definitely re-up our Sierra passes next year, with the Fastpass option. We don't do any weekend skiing at either resort unless family are visiting. Out of 34 resort days this year, 18 are at Sierra because people seem to arrive there later, giving us a window to get in a bunch of laps before it gets nuts.

Kirkwood actually has a great XC ski trail system that is a good option for us on weekends. It's a $115 pass add-on. There are like 50 people there on a Sunday.

Vail is hurting with profits and missed their targets. Coronavirus really hurts their business model when they rely on lessons, lodging, food and drinks. My guess is that they abandoned the reservation system because they don’t want to give people refunds on their passes which would hurt their profits even more.

[Wobby]

Pay to park at Sand Harbor.

Thanks! Is there a time of morning that they won't be open? Like if I go there for dawn patrol is it too early??

[TahoeBC]

Ya gotta think some people are gonna become frustrated fighting traffic and lift lines eventually???? Really how fun can it be to spent hours stuck in traffic both ways, and if you don’t get skunked on parking and not able to ski at all, facing unprecedented lift lines.

People riding a beginner chair just to get in the gun barrel line?


Stagecoach line


Gondola line


Hopefully this is not the new norm, and things return to just the normal shitshow next year.

[TahoeBC]

Thanks! Is there a time of morning that they won't be open? Like if I go there for dawn patrol is it too early??

Saw a report from there a couple days ago sounds like they got skunked on the scratch lines due to needing like 4 more feet of snow

[climberevan]

Thanks! Is there a time of morning that they won't be open? Like if I go there for dawn patrol is it too early??

Based on all of the tracks people are putting on Strava, I'd guess Herlan is pretty skied out anyway. Plus the greenhouse effect nuked even the N faces in this area on Sun-Mon.... People have been hitting even lesser known BC spots pretty hard this year.

FWIW, my GF has been skiing at Heavenly (weekdays) this season and she reports that the parking is indeed incredibly full, but that the actual skiing experience is still fine. Even when the Boulder lot is overflowing with lines backed up to Tramway she says that the lift lines are short. We hypothesize that people are driving separately, but that the total number of skiers is normal-ish.

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[powdork]

8 am
$10


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[MashedPotatoes]

^^^^^ this isn’t a stoke thread anymore.......it’s now a lift line bitch thread

heh, we should all be grateful skiing is even there to be complained about this year, this is a perspective offered by MashedPotatoes. The fact that it's one of the few things going during the pandemic certainly compounds the problem along with all the other factors. Made the local news..

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/editor...d-15915557.php

[Ottime]

It's not Vail's and Epics's and IKON's and Alterra's fault that a lot of people want to ski or just be in the mountains for some fresh air (not really), scenery, exercise, or just a change of scene. We're all part of the crowd so stop blaming someone else. While the mountains themselves aren't that crowded, the infrastructure isn't up to the numbers, especially now with people driving separately, and likely never will be. So figure out how to make the best of it and stop whining. And stop thinking that you're some special being that is one with the soul of the mountains who is more deserving to be here than someone else.

I'm beat up from skiing the powder Friday, shoveling snow all weekend, and wrestling the mank yesterday. Good day to take the day off, since this storm seems to be underperforming.

Just close the STRs. Amirite?

It is for sure their fault they offer the multi pass. That is the crux of the issue at KW at least. Way too many with access that cluster fucks it with kooks.

[Ottime]

As far as Ikon in Tahoe...they desperately need another big mountain in the Tahoe area to handle the load. The rough numbers I have heard is that there are 4x the number of passholders within a 4 hour radius of Tahoe (day trippers) than the maximum capacity at SVAM. Wirthless blew the negotiations with both Sugar Bowl and Rose...which is probably a good thing for those mountains...but the Ikon oversell in NorCal is definitely an issue.

Dodge Ridge? Bear Valley? SAT?

Those would spread the road crowds out a bit.