Lake Tahoe: April 14-17, 2016

We were a group of 6, mostly Platty skiers. A few ex-racers,  one person with 3 decades of skiing experience, one current college college club racer (the fastest of us all!) and yours truly trying to keep up on my (NTN) teles.  (More on that later).

Reno's access to the north shore of Lake Tahoe rivals that of Salt Lake City to the Wasatch front. After working a full day our flight left JFK at 7:30.  With the time change we landed at 10:30 local time.  We were able to taxi to the gate, get our bags, the rental cars, drive the 42 miles to our very sweet rental home at the base of Squaw Valley, overlooking KT22, all before midnight.

This was the view from the deck and the rear bedrooms of the house:



A close up of some of the KT22 runs, again from the deck:

 

Day 1:
Some fresh snow was predicted and when we woke up on April 14, Squaw was reporting 2" of new.  But, with temps forecasted to only rise to 35 and Sugarbowl reporting 6" of fresh, it was a no brainer to take the 40 minute drive past Donner Lake and get some fresh snow.  The drive was spectacular.  

This pic was taken on the way home after the clouds lifted.



Sugarbowl is a really cool, old school ski area, with California's first chairlift installed in 1939!.  The 6" was real,  covering a pretty firm base on the off-piste.  However, after our less than stellar east coast season, 6" was enough to get me into the 3rd dimension for the first time this season and it felt beyond spectacular to be floating again!!  

Sugarbowl had just started their spring operations, which meant unfortunately that they cut back on a few lifts (Mt. Judah and Crow's Nest were closed) and they shut down at 2.  But, the Mt. Lincoln Express and Disneyland express lifts provided us with plenty of really fun, alpine terrain to ski.  I really liked Sugarbowl. They claim the most snow in the Tahoe region and it has a really fun, old school feel with interesting and diverse terrain.  We were stoked to be skiing fresh, so unfortunately, no action shots but here is a lame pic of showing the overall area from the distance.  It was steeper than it appears.

 

And another of our group enjoying an apres ski cold one:



Day 2:
Friday was our "worst" day for snow conditions.  We stayed and skied at Squaw Valley.  The temps stayed close to 40, but with a strong, dry wind out of the east, the snow surface stayed firm most of the day.  Some of the off-piste that had more favorable sun aspects started to soften later in the day, but unfortunately most of the morning was spent cruising groomed runs under the Shirley, Headwall and KT-22  lifts.   Most of the steeper terrain off the backside of KT-22 was not open due to it being too firm. Also, since it was quite windy,  the Emigrant and Granite Chief lifts, which service the upper ridge, were on wind hold. In fact, we got a few runs on the Siberia lift early before that lift was also closed down due to the high winds up top.
 
After a nice, sit down lunch at 8200', some of the off-piste softened and became enjoyable to ski.  We ended the day doing a few laps on the Red Dog lift.  Apres ski was supremely enjoyable spent socializing with a few locals at Le Chammois at the base of Squaw under the setting sun.

Squaw Valley is huge (3600 acres) and incredibly beautiful.  Bowls, chutes and steep ridges in every direction that are all skiable.  There are also tons of lifts that cover the mountain going in all directions; mostly high speed including a Tram and a Funitel.  







Day 3:
Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley are under the same ownership now and we were able to get a 2 day discounted ticket.  It was an easy choice to drive the 15 minutes to the next valley and ski Alpine for a day.  And, wow, that place is really cool.  

This is a pic of Alpine from high up on Squaw Valley:



We pulled into the parking lot at about 8:45.  As we were booting up, we began to talk to the guys who parked next to us. Dean and Michael, both long time local Alpine Meadows skiers, who ripped and offered to show us around. We took them up on their offer and found soft snow all day long skiing like locals.

We started by making our way over to the backside to ski the Sherwood lift for a few laps.  The vista on the way to the backside was grand:



3 of us and our guide:



Some hiking was required across a rocky dirt area but it took us to beautiful, soft, cream cheese like snow on a nice sustained vertical.  

J.T. skiing one of the fingers on South Face:



Yours truly, trying to drop a knee:



Later in the morning, we went to the Alpine Bowl Chair and traversed across skiers left to Sunspot in search of sun warmed soft snow.  Eventually, everything started to warm and we skied fun, challenging terrain off the top including Upper and Lower Saddle and High Yellow Face and the Lower Three Sisters area.  We also skied off the Scott Chair and then back to the Southface bowls to Sherwood lift.  From the top of Sherwood we skied Our Father and then High Yellow Gully, which together was an amazingly fun run back to the front side.

In the late afternoon, we had some fun watching 3 people straight-line a rock sided, chute while riding the Alpine Bowl chair. The first was successful and was skied rock solid.  The 2nd, was hesitant, never committed and ended up going down halfway through the cliff.  There was one exposed rock in the open bowl beneath the chute and the dude hit it and was slow getting up.  All I saw of the 3rd skier was a flash of orange falling and tumbling through the chute eventually stopping, immediately rising to the knees with 2 arms up in triumph to the cheers from the onlookers riding the lift.  After skiing down we realized the 3rd skier was a woman wearing a onepiece red/orange snowsuit and no helmet!   This leads to an observation I had, which was that there seemed to be a real lot of ripping women skiers in Tahoe...more so than what I have seen elsewhere in Colorado and Utah.  

Joy and Madness, a really rockin' funk band with a full horn section was playing on the deck. They were just starting as we went back out after lunch and by the time we finished our day there was enough dancing,  funk, beer and sun going around that would have made George Clinton proud!



Alpine Meadows was a very cool, laid back resort that was real, big mountain skiing, with chutes, bowls and cliffs, yet the entire front face funnels down to the main baselodge.  It seemed as though it was a true skier's mountain especially when compared to "Squallywood", the mega resort right next door.  

Saturday was the Truckee/Squaw Earth Day festival.  Most of it was over and packing up when we got back to the Squaw base but Le Chammois, a local's favorite, was having their skier appreciation party and it was hopping: A DJ, $16 pitchers of tasty IPA's, and dancing bikini girls!  Needless to say, we had to double down with our apres-ski partying on Saturday.



Day 4:
We woke up on Sunday to bluebird, warm skies and high temps predicted to be in the 60's. We had nothing else better to do, so we were online for the Funitel before it opened.  We started off on a groomer up high off the Headwall chair before making our way to the Shirley lift for a few runs and then back to the Headwall chair and skied Sunbowl in an effort to find the early sun-warmed snow.
 
We were were told by a local friend that if The Slot, high off the Headwall chair, was warm at 10:30, the entire mountain would be in play.  So, as recommended, we got there right on time and hiked into and skied The Slot, which was steep, soft goodness.  

The Group from the top of The Slot:



J.T. dropping into The Slot:



Michael:



After that, we skied a few laps off the front or eastside of KT22 on The Nose into GS Bowl before a quick stop for lunch on the deck.  After lunch and dropping a layer, we skied a few laps on the westside of KT, on and around Chute 75, which has a really awesome, continuously steep face.  IMHO, that area is what gives Squaw its awesome reputation.  

Ely on Chute 75:



Jenna:



We made our way over to the Granite Chief chair where we skied a really fun, steep chute. But, the snow over there was a bit manky:  sun warmed, unskied fresh from a few days prior.  So, after skiing Cornice Bowl, off the Headwall Chair, which had some peerfect soft, spring snow, we ended the day lapping the westside of KT22, which was pure heaven.  Probably about 1700' of steep, big bumps before heading on the cat track back to the lift to hit repeat.  

This gives no indication of how steep this area is:



With the warm California sunshine, (the usual) crazy deep Tahoe snow storms and snowpack plus some really fun, steep, gnarly terrain, not to mention picturesque vistas,  Squaw Valley and the north shore of Lake Tahoe, is truly a world class ski destination.

We took the redeye back Sunday night so we had time for a nice, leisurely dinner right on the lake at Moe's Original BBQ in Tahoe City.

Heavenly from Tahoe City area:

 

Tahoe is so great. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice

Looks like a blast!

Awesome report. The pics of Alpine really took me back to my days as a liftie there. Makes me want to load up and head west

Nice report. I got 9 days in at Squaw/Alpine in mid March, ditto everything you said in the report. I was lucky enough to get in a powder day at Alpine w about 15-17" fresh. What you were skiing on Sherwood, fingers, was really nice w all that fresh. Made multiple laps untracked for a couple hours, hard to beat. Anyone who hasn't been to Tahoe, especially Squaw, really should put on the bucket list.

Love that whole area. Almost moved to Truckee in the 90's. Shoulda woulda could've  
Great report,wish I was there.

Great, detailed report. Lake Tahoe is a true mecca with that easy access from Reno.

The problem is flying to Reno from BTV or ALB.  its usually 2 to 3 connections to make happen

Coach Z wrote

The problem is flying to Reno from BTV or ALB.  its usually 2 to 3 connections to make happen

Jetblue, Burlington to JFK and then JFK to Reno.  1 stop for you, Coach!