Page 20 of 126 FirstFirst ... 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ... LastLast
Results 476 to 500 of 3140
  1. #476
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Tahoe-ish
    Posts
    3,139
    Quote Originally Posted by powdork View Post
    Great news. The next forest order change (in the next several days) will reopen the snoparks, including Echo! There is still a question about Iron Mountain but the rest in this area should open. I did not hear if the sno park opening means access to Ralston, Becker, Talking etc would be allowed, but....
    Man, it's almost like the USFS doesn't want to keep stuff closed longer than necessary. Who'd a thunk it?
    ride bikes, climb, ski, travel, cook, work to fund former, repeat.

  2. #477
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Posts
    465
    Quote Originally Posted by sruffian View Post
    Crusty on all aspects up to and above 9.5k this morning around rose. Beautiful morning tho

    Also adding two items to the list of ski shit stolen from me - a pair of 27.5 dynafit radical pro boots almost new and a 47 liter blue alpine threadworks Selkirk pack. Fuckers new what they were after - left a lot of other shit in my garage and truck. That pack is rare enough that if you see one just murder the guy on my behalf

    Attachment 392323


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
    Yep I found it too. Crusty-slushy-lowtide combo made for a bit of an adventure on the way down.

    Huge shout out to lepistoir for picking up and holding onto a craigslist splitboard for me until I could make it up there. Hopefully the karma boost materializes for you in your gear swap quest!

  3. #478
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Da Norf Lake
    Posts
    2,449

    22 Blue - Looking ahead to the New (aka Fuck Summer (aka Tahoe Thread))

    Quote Originally Posted by bonewrenched View Post
    This pic has me
    This is the beginning of winter! Not late spring!
    Even sometimes when I'm snowboarding I'm like "Hey I'm snowboarding! Because I suck dick, I'm snowboarding!" --Dan Savage

  4. #479
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,768
    Scruff and Bone:
    What time were you guys out there?
    Seems to me, given the recent temps, if y'all hit some S-facing aspects around noonish you'd get some November corn...
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  5. #480
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Tahoe
    Posts
    16,104
    Quote Originally Posted by dookeyXXX View Post
    Scruff and Bone:
    What time were you guys out there?
    Seems to me, given the recent temps, if y'all hit some S-facing aspects around noonish you'd get some November corn...
    are there s facing aspects holding snow?
    powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.

  6. #481
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Tahoe
    Posts
    16,104
    Quote Originally Posted by climberevan View Post
    Man, it's almost like the USFS doesn't want to keep stuff closed longer than necessary. Who'd a thunk it?
    You're right it is almost like it, except that the Meiss sno park closure had already been unnecessary for a while before we were discussing it 3 weeks ago. They might not want to keep things closed longer than necessary, but they do.
    Last edited by powdork; 11-12-2021 at 01:01 AM.
    powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.

  7. #482
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Posts
    465
    There wasn't much snow on S aspects where I was. On top of that it was a pretty weak freeze so was soft under the crust, which was rarely supportive anyway (8am).

    Quote Originally Posted by lepistoir View Post
    This pic has me
    This is the beginning of winter! Not late spring!
    The funny thing was I crossed one creek on the way out and three on the way back

  8. #483
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Posts
    263
    SF Chronicle article about Sierra at Tahoe

    Near the top of a ski run high on the slopes of Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, John Rice walked along a charred fir log about 4 feet in diameter and chucked a hunk of burnt bark to the ground. A hundred yards away, a timber crew chainsawed through a grove, felling one blackened tree after another, each landing on the muddy slope with an explosive thud.

    It hurts me to see these trees come down,” said Rice, 66, who has managed the resort for 29 years.

    But it has to be done.

    Thousands of conifers burned when the Caldor Fire swept through the resort property in August. Many are now considered “hazard trees” — so damaged that they could topple without warning — and will have to be leveled at their stumps before the resort can reopen safely. The fire also scorched chairlift towers, destroyed a maintenance shop and raised temperatures in some places to an estimated 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt a snowcat.

    Only weeks removed from the fire, Sierra will miss its typical winter opening this month. But it is forging ahead with repairs to its ski infrastructure and tree removal in the hope of opening in early 2022 for a shortened season.

    “At a minimum, we’re open 100% next season,” Rice said. “Our goal is to get open this winter, but there is so much to be done between now and then.”

    Wildfires have grazed the edges of ski areas before, but a resort has never taken the brunt of one, head-on.

    “Across the nation, this is the first ski area that took what we consider a direct hit,” said Scot Rogers, district ranger with the Eldorado National Forest, where the resort is located. “We’ve had some other ski runs or sides of ski areas burn. But getting hit by a whole flame front is new.”

    In the days before the fire hit, Rice and Paul Beran, Sierra’s mountain manager, aided by a private structure-defense crew, worked to armor the resort from the fire, going so far as to aim its snow-making water hydrants at chairlift terminals and lodge buildings when they evacuated.

    When he returned to the resort after the flame front had passed, Rice thought the damage might be minimal. The lift terminals and towers were still standing, with chairs dangling from their cables. The base buildings were unscathed, having been doused in flame-retardant gel. Most of the trees remained upright.

    But expert assessments have revealed significant damages to ski infrastructure and deep trauma to the landscape that will almost certainly change the character of Sierra’s runs and the experience of skiing there. For an industry built into increasingly fire-prone forestlands, Sierra serves as a frightening case study in surviving a threat that seems to grow each year.

    “There’s really no playbook to follow so we’re making it up as we go,” Rice said. “This isn’t the last fire that’s going to hit a ski area, so the whole world is watching us.”

    Sierra-at-Tahoe is built into the side of a canyon cut by the South Fork American River down the western slopes of the Sierra crest, just over the hill from the Lake Tahoe basin. Since the resort opened in 1946, it has grown to 2,000 acres, with nine aerial chairlifts, legendary tree runs, a championship youth ski team, and a reputation as a friendly place for beginners from the Bay Area and Central Valley.

    Inside the resort offices, dozens of framed photos of local sports teams Sierra has sponsored over its 75 years in operation hang next to award plaques for environmental and community stewardship.

    Without a hotel or condo development, Sierra is known as a California-locals’ resort outside the more touristed Tahoe scene. Since the fire, there’s been an outpouring of support from skiers for whom Sierra functions as a communal hub during the cold months.

    “It hurts people’s hearts. It’s much more than an economic driver for the county,” said Carla Hass, communications director for El Dorado County. “This is a place where people teach their kids to ski. It’s a part of families’ histories. From a community standpoint, it’s a significant loss.”

    Its hiatus will also deal a blow to the local economy. Sierra’s 600 seasonal staffers make the resort El Dorado’s second-largest employer. With its reopening date uncertain, the county and state are compiling an economic impact analysis to understand the scope of the losses under the presumption that Sierra won’t return to normal operations for two years.

    “Last week was a tough week,” Rice said Tuesday. “We had to tell 550 of our 600 people, ‘There’s nothing for you right now.’”

    The ski area operates under a lease with Eldorado National Forest. Both the resort and forestland have been closed since the fire, and some locals worry the resort is in jeopardy of shutting down for good. But in a statement provided to The Chronicle, Booth Creek Resort Properties, the Colorado company that owns Sierra, declared its intention to reopen the resort.

    “We are dedicated to our team’s singular focus to continue to provide the world-class skiing experience that our guests have come to expect from Sierra, with an unwavering commitment to safety,” the company wrote.

    Rice stressed that repairing the resort remains the only plan.

    “We’re doing everything we can to try to get open again,” he said. “But we’re also very mindful about doing it right. We’re not rushing.”

    While Sierra represents a fraction of the Caldor Fire’s 221,000-acre burn area, the importance of preserving the ski area isn’t lost on anyone. The Forest Service’s top brass, including its national chief, has visited the resort several times since the fire.

    “We’re seeing an incredible prioritization of the Caldor Fire from the Washington office,” said Rogers, of the Forest Service. He expects the agency to produce a detailed recovery plan for the entire burn area within six months.

    On a recent visit, early-season snow had melted away and crews worked in pockets across the property. Skidders stacked logs in high piles along the road to the resort’s base. Sawyers cut trees along the margins of ski runs the resort wants to restore this winter.

    Caldor destroyed power lines throughout the canyon, and the resort had been running on two giant diesel generators until recently. Its main electrical hookup, which is necessary to run all nine of its chairlifts at once, hasn’t been replaced yet.

    Six lifts need significant work, including Grandview Express, the premier quad-chair that runs 1,500 feet from the base area to the top of Huckleberry Mountain. Heat from the fire melted the haul rope’s synthetic-polymer core in places, rendering it unsafe. A new one, custom-made in Switzerland, is en route. All of Grandview’s chairs had been removed and stored in the parking lot.

    Weeks after the fire, a falling tree derailed Grandview’s haul cable. Two technicians in red hard hats on top of a lift tower muscled it back into place with pry bars. If Sierra can regain its primary power line, repair Grandview and clear the hazard trees along the edges of key runs, it can open nearly two-thirds of its groomed terrain this winter.

    Another key attraction, the resort’s tree-covered West Bowl, is badly burned and won’t reopen this season.

    Ski areas nearby have chipped in to help get Sierra back on its feet. Mammoth Mountain donated a 3,200-foot haul rope for Sierra’s backside Short Stuff lift; a 16-person crew from Palisades Tahoe helped install it. Boreal sent over bales of communication lines.

    “It feels so good to have these places that are supposed to be our competitors reach out to help us,” Beran said.

    A key challenge in restoring the landscape is striking a balance between serving skiers and the federal mandate to reforest the property. The resort was initially built around the landscape, but now the ecology might be designed to conform to the ski infrastructure.

    Take the resort’s tree-covered West Bowl, for example, which was decimated.

    “Typically, our response would be to reforest that, which would mean clear-cutting and replanting. We’d manage that area for timber harvest,” Rogers said. “But with a ski area, that’s a different conversation.”

    Maybe the area is landscaped to create wider ski runs, or more of them, he said. Maybe they leave certain pockets to regrow on their own — a sort of living exhibition of California wildfire recovery.

    “There’s an important story here for the American public to understand what it means to live with fire,” Rogers said.

    Rice feels certain that Sierra will heal, but also that it will change. The snow will load on the mountain differently, the wind will hit in new places, and new ski runs will take shape.

    It could be an exciting rebirth, he said.

    “Underneath this burnt landscape is a resort waiting to come out of the ground and be glorious again,” Rice said. “It could be a whole bigger, better thing. When you start looking at it that way, it gives you hope.”
    "Holy Cow!" someone exclaimed from the back of the stationwagon.

  9. #484
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    tahoe de chingao
    Posts
    848
    Quote Originally Posted by dookeyXXX View Post
    Scruff and Bone:
    What time were you guys out there?
    Seems to me, given the recent temps, if y'all hit some S-facing aspects around noonish you'd get some November corn...
    I was out early before work - agree w that idea tho...

  10. #485
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Tahoe
    Posts
    16,104
    This part of the Sierra article doesn't seem to make sense.
    Six lifts need significant work, including Grandview Express, the premier quad-chair that runs 1,500 feet from the base area to the top of Huckleberry Mountain. Heat from the fire melted the haul rope’s synthetic-polymer core in places, rendering it unsafe. A new one, custom-made in Switzerland, is en route. All of Grandview’s chairs had been removed and stored in the parking lot.

    Weeks after the fire, a falling tree derailed Grandview’s haul cable. Two technicians in red hard hats on top of a lift tower muscled it back into place with pry bars. If Sierra can regain its primary power line, repair Grandview and clear the hazard trees along the edges of key runs, it can open nearly two-thirds of its groomed terrain this winter.
    powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.

  11. #486
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    NorCal
    Posts
    827
    Quote Originally Posted by powdork View Post
    This part of the Sierra article doesn't seem to make sense.
    Yeah, maybe they need the damaged cable in place for reasons?


    Unrelated, anyone looking for an old set of boots? Free to a good home (or plus ship if we can't work out an exchange).
    Lange RS130s, 26.5 size. Heavy use with maybe 300-400 days on them. No insoles included. Shell is in pretty good condition though. Ground out on left and right foot to make wider in the 6th toe area. Got a new pair this season and need the closet space.

  12. #487
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Norcal
    Posts
    2,190
    Got some good news on the snopark’s echo, meiss and iron mountain will open soon probably in the next two weeks. Sounds like at least the basin will probably fully open this month also

  13. #488
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    valley of the heart's delight
    Posts
    2,465
    Quote Originally Posted by powdork View Post
    Great news. The next forest order change (in the next several days) will reopen the snoparks, including Echo! There is still a question about Iron Mountain but the rest in this area should open. I did not hear if the sno park opening means access to Ralston, Becker, Talking etc would be allowed, but....
    Any burned area will be slick like snot this year, and maybe next too.

    Anyone know what that means for avies? Springtime isothermal packs may not stick to the ground well. Winter snow??

    Good they are opening it. I remember a long closure after the Rim Fire that seemed excessive. When the Fred's Fire burned in Kyburz, the forest reopened around this time. I remember a smoldering log with snow on the ground. And the snot-like wet ash

  14. #489
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Da Norf Lake
    Posts
    2,449
    I'm pre shopping the Tahoe XC swap and here are some touring deals:

    185ish verdict with vertical and crampons $150

    186 Weston summit, g3 skins, g3 demo $800

    149W Jones solution, used board, new bindings and skins $1500

    184 Salomon MTN explore 95, Radical ST, BD skins, $500

    188 BentChetl flat, one mount for ion, excellent condition $200

    191 renoun citadel, zed 12, no brakes, excellent $800

    185 Camox freebird (red ones), voile free pivot tele $200
    Even sometimes when I'm snowboarding I'm like "Hey I'm snowboarding! Because I suck dick, I'm snowboarding!" --Dan Savage

  15. #490
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    California
    Posts
    256
    Quote Originally Posted by davjr96 View Post
    Yeah, maybe they need the damaged cable in place for reasons?
    Usually you use the old cable to pull the new one. There isn’t too much force involved since you have a balanced load, so a suspect haul rope can do the job.


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

  16. #491
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Da Norf Lake
    Posts
    2,449
    Since there's no snow and the forests are opening up, it's pretty quiet around here. One thing you can do in the meantime is help Tahoe XC win this USA Today poll of the best cross-country areas in North America. They are currently leading, but have traded leads many times with the second place place. It's neck and neck, folx! Vote once per day per device (does this mean unlimited from incognito?)!

    https://www.10best.com/awards/travel...ty-california/
    Even sometimes when I'm snowboarding I'm like "Hey I'm snowboarding! Because I suck dick, I'm snowboarding!" --Dan Savage

  17. #492
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    8,937

    22 Blue - Looking ahead to the New (aka Fuck Summer (aka Tahoe Thread))

    Pass it on thrift in TC has $50 194 rockered gotama’s. Flat. One previous mount.

    Add two pairs of alpine trekkers.
    Last edited by bodywhomper; 11-14-2021 at 03:18 PM.

  18. #493
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Mountains, Trees, and a Big Blue Lake
    Posts
    677
    Question - How many minutes before this happens to the start or the resort season?

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	img_1144.jpg 
Views:	126 
Size:	114.2 KB 
ID:	392790
    I'm cool with this, as long as you Kirkwood Bro Brah's stay away from Heavenly when 88 closes- TahoeBc

  19. #494
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Tahoe
    Posts
    16,104
    It happened last week to PaliTahoe. But as afar as Heavenly postponing I wouldn't count them out 100% just yet. They should be able have a couple good nights of snowmaking before Friday and they still have a bit of dense coverage above east peak and the the top of the gondola. But I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled the plug any minute.
    powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.

  20. #495
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    In rain shadow of the Sierra CC,NV
    Posts
    3,859
    ^^^ HV and NS just tweeted that postponing openings. But hey*
    "...the NS village is open, and HV Gondi for sightseeing"

    Sent from my SM-G950U1 using TGR Forums mobile app

    ...Remember, those who think Global Warming is Fake, also think that Adam & Eve were Real...

  21. #496
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,768
    Quote Originally Posted by lepistoir View Post
    Since there's no new snow and the forests are opening up, it's pretty quiet around here....
    FIFY

    I just got back from skiing a nice N-facing pitch of pure cane sugar.
    No overnight freeze and wind kept it nice. Was a bit punchy on the first run and the boot-pack sucked (kept post-holing into hidden manzanita air pockets), but by my third run it was skiing well.
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  22. #497
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Verdi NV
    Posts
    10,457
    Dang weather
    Own your fail. ~Jer~

  23. #498
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Da Norf Lake
    Posts
    2,449
    Thanks dooks. That'll keep me on life support for another week. Fingers crossed some form of hope shows up in the models by then.
    Even sometimes when I'm snowboarding I'm like "Hey I'm snowboarding! Because I suck dick, I'm snowboarding!" --Dan Savage

  24. #499
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Norcal
    Posts
    2,190
    Lake Tahoe basin fully reopened today

    Been working with Tamba to get the trails dialed back in, lots of work still to be done, caution on windy days as lots of trees will be coming down

    Video from sidewinder and lower corral, currently we are working on upper corral, I’d avoid connector for the time being.

    https://youtu.be/z9qyidB-7nM

  25. #500
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    SoTahoe
    Posts
    186
    Cool tune. Fun POV. Seriously depresso landscape. Thanks for your trail work.

    Quote Originally Posted by TahoeBC View Post
    Lake Tahoe basin fully reopened today

    Been working with Tamba to get the trails dialed back in, lots of work still to be done, caution on windy days as lots of trees will be coming down

    Video from sidewinder and lower corral, currently we are working on upper corral, I’d avoid connector for the time being.

    https://youtu.be/z9qyidB-7nM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •