Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows 1/18-1/21/16

Nice TR Matt - did you have this trip planned in advance or just decide to head out after the big snows?

Bought the tickets in November. Just got lucky. Heading back over to squaw now. Fingers crossed for KT-22 today.

Sweet its nice to win the vacation lottery

Yo! MC2,

Betcha can't do it in 22 Kick-Turns on Alpine gear.... oh wait you're a Nord, maybe you can on Tele.  Have Pinky post the Video with the X-Ray scans.  And stay the hell out of Harrah's.

Don't forget to patronize McP's. Ya Bastard.

All the best.  Ski you on the Hill.

Similar day to yesterday. In the morning, the KT-22 line was pretty long, so we worked Red Dog and Squaw Creek:





We worked our way back to the KT-22 lift. We hit a bunch of our favorites from our previous day. Snow was deep and really fun, but visibility was a bit rough all day, forcing us to always pay attention:







We still had fun:



And we ended our day back at the Chamois. Spot the coolness in this pic:



Tomorrow will be an interesting decision. Supposed to get a good weather window, so Alpine is going to open the summit area (which hasn't been open for 2 days and 38") and Squaw will open the upper mountain lifts (which haven't been open for 2 days & 38"). Either way it will be awesome. We'll probably check out the lift reports in the morning and make a decision.

Ski The Face!!

Looks great, excited for you for today!!

Love the report, makes me feel much better about potential trips the Squaw. Even without upper mountain lifts it seems like you can have a kick ass time when weather limits ops.

Another great day, lucky rat bastard.

Today's report will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm beat. Alpine Meadows. All lower mountain. Still great:

We got to the mountain early on Saturday because my brother had to work. Had a tasty breakfast in the village and tried to formulate a plan. Squaw would be running the lower mountain only again, so we decided to head over to Alpine Meadows, hoping we'd get lucky with the lifts there.

On the shuttle over, we heard that they'd be closing the Alpine Meadows road for Avalanche control. We snuck into the resort right before they closed the road behind us. Thinking that we had great luck (nobody could get to the resort for the next hour), we expected light crowds. We were wrong:



Unfortunately the summit lift wasn't running (due to wind) and a couple of other pods were also closed, forcing everyone who wanted to ski good terrain onto the Roundhouse lift. They also opened Hot Wheels. Neither really accessed any great terrain, but we found various 12-15 turn lines in consistent, untouched pow by traversing out away from the lifts. Here's some of the lines we skied:











We took one more run to finish off skiing for the trip. Final tally was 2 days at Alpine, 2 days at Squaw, limited visibility the whole time, 30-50" of snow, and calf to thigh deep pow (chest deep in some drifts) that refreshed every day I was out there. Here's a picture of Meadows meadowing:



We shuttled back to Squaw (the road had opened, then closed again for more avy work, then opened again). We hit Le Chamois for one more view of KT-22.



Then we went over to another bar on the way out, where employees' first PBR every day is only $1 (it's called the "shifter").



After packing up and eating a great Mexican dinner, my brother drove us down to Reno so that we could avoid traveling today (the area is supposed to get 1-2 feet more in just one day, and we were worried about major road closures). So, now I'm in Reno, where we'll kill some time before jumping on a plane home. I'll have some more thoughts on the scene and the mountains and the lifestyle later, but the skiing portion of this TR has concluded.

Sweet Reports!!!
Did you consider Sugarbowl or Northstar?  I heard Northstar is a good storm day mountain..

I've skied Northstar and I hate it. It's like a flatter, more boring version of Okemo with a Stratton Village and trails that ski like the Nothside of Gore. Also, my brother had the free pass hookup at Squaw/Alpine, and there were some other perks that I'll get into in a later post.

Looks like  things went well for you all in all. A day or two of blue bird would've been nice too but you can't have everything right?

Great reporting, MC2. If you are still in Reno and looking for something different for dinner, I recommend some Basque food. I went to this place years ago, it had fantastic food in a great setting, with family style service. Definitely not for vegetarians:
http://louisbasquecorner.com/

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I can't figure out how to hotlink the video. It is a cool edit from the recent storms.

MC2.....looks like I'm headed to Tahoe this weekend.  I'll go back and look over this report, but any advice or additional details on getting to fun spots would be greatly appreciated.  If I'm lucky, and forecasts pan out, they should see a mild to moderate atmospheric river event drop 2 to 3 feet of snow above 7,000 on Thurs/Fri, with clearing and low winds for the weekend.  May be more Sierra Cement than blower, but I'm excited to explore and play in some fresh.

Harder than I thought to find lodging at Squaw.  Grabbed Granlibakken Tahoe, in Tahoe City, 8 miles from the hill.

TC seems to be the spot that most Squaw locals live. Good brewery in town (good beer anyway, didn't eat the food). When driving to Squaw from there, you hit the road to Alpine Meadows first. That road is the one that periodically closes for Avalanche work. Then you hit the Squaw access road. I guess I'd suggest getting in early because there are steady lines of cars from around 8:30-10:00. Nectar's in squaw has good breakfast sandwiches, and the bakery in the KT-22 lodge has good cinnamon rolls.

Skiing wise, at Squaw, you might get lower mountain only, and if so, hit KT-22 early to get what you can (we had good luck in 75 Chute and Rock Garden to the right, and east face Gully to the left). If they open the upper mountain, farm the Shirley Chair, and Granite Chief. We never got up there, but my brother said that's good terrain away from crowds.

At alpine, you want the Scott chair (another chair we never rode because of wind). We did have some success after a long traverse to the Sherwood chair - a lot of people didn't want to make the trek (or didn't know it was open). If that goes, get there early.

Aprés, I suggest Le Chamois at Squaw. At Alpine, there's a cool little place halfway up the mountain called the Chalet that had a pretty cool vibe (only open while the lifts run, though).

My brother works on top of the Tram at Squaw probably somewhere around the ice rink. He's got a huge bushy beard, looks like a crazy old man, and answers to "Chuck". He'd probably be able to help you out with more local information if you can keep your pro-trump comments to yourself.

  Thanks!

With two days would you recommend 1 at Alpine and 1 at Squaw, or 2 at Squaw to get around more?  If winds aren't a factor (big if), what makes you partial to thinking that only the Squaw lower mountain might be in play?  General avy control after a couple three feet?  Maybe Alpine on Sat with a better chance of more terrain available at Squaw on Sun???

Sugar Bowl has also caught my eye......

I was there this past April. We did 2 at Squaw, 1 at Alpine and 1 at SugarBowl.  All were really fun and worthwhile. IMHO get Squaw when the goods are in play. It is huge but you want to hit KT-22 as well as the upper mountain lifts. The place is large. SugarBowl has a great old school vibe, up past Donner Lake. Not as yahoo crazy crowds either.  The day we went they reported 6", Squaw/Alpine 2-3".  

Definitely hit the Chamois at Squaw for apres.  Alpine had a rockin' band on the deck of the baselodge the day we went so we did apres right there.   Different in spring.

before i had to cancel
my plan was sugarbowl and mt rose and squaw..


enjoy

Thanks!

Matt...you made morning decisions on where to go based on open lifts, availability of summits, etc.  Any particularly good source of early info on that, or just watch the resort conditions reports?

Any tips on lift ticket deals?

Marcski.....you gotta give me more!    Sugar Bowl would be an extra half hour of driving in the am.  It looks cool, just gotta decide if it's worth the extra drive time, and it's a better choice than Alpine or a second day at Squaw.  Tell me more about the place, please. They also run some backcountry guide services out of there.....