Lake Tahoe Vail resorts, CA and NV 1/25-27/2021

Kirkwood 1/25/2021
I left home about 5:20 and arrived Kirkwood a little under 4 hours later. My trip was a bit longer than usual as I had to make a gas stop before getting on freeway in San Jose, then filled up near Jackson. When I had looked around 4 AM, chain control was at Jackson (50+ miles before Kirkwood), but by 7:30 when I went through it had moved 6 miles E of Jackson (I never saw it being enforced). There was snow down to 1500’ elevation.View attachment 7 While speed limit is 25 mph in chain control, I was third in a line mostly going 35-40 until CHP pulled out behind me. I pulled over in next turnout to let him go past, then stayed far back until he turned off miles later at Peddler Hill maintenance facility. I also had another delay starting skiing as I could not find this year’s Senior Tahoe Value Pass, but surprisingly my previous year’s Tahoe Local scanned so I was on lift about 9:45.Kirkwood reported 7” new, and although I found deeper in some places, since snow was so dry I also found some rocks including a hard hit of barely covered volcanic rock on one of my first powder turns after traversing past Sentinel run off Cornice chair. I moved to Reut chair where I found better coverage and some powder turns although I could usually feel or at least hear the subsurface.On my third lap, I carefully got into Waterfall, then after exiting the Drain I was surprised to see The Wall had began loading shortly after 11. I took three laps there. The first two, I found long lines of mostly untracked to skiers right of the chair. Then I went around the back and had a long foggy hike past Notch Chute, The Sistersand False Peak where I found some good steep untracked.I went back up Cornice and took a mostly gravity traverse into Palisades where I found a lot more untracked and had to do some careful navigation to avoid getting cliffed or rocked out.

After lunch at the car, I was tired and thought I was going to take it easy and only ride 5 chairs, but going up The Reut I saw chair 2 was loading so I went there and skied to the Backside which had also opened. I took one lap down Backside, skiing very lightly tracked line skiers left of Cold Shoulder. Next time up I traversed across to exit Backside via Thunder Saddle. I followed a patroller down gully before Larry’s Lip. A lot of snow in the area had been lost due to sun and/or wind-stripping. I should have followed patroller closer as I ended up in two barely covered rock patches getting to entry to Thunder Saddle where I made some untracked turns in one of the chutes by going high on the steep walls. I didn’t find any rocks there or, after riding chair 2, on left side of Low Whiskey where there was a large untracked area. I was beat and rode the Reut, then Solitude to return to my SUV after 4 pm with 19 lifts rides and almost 19K.

See, that last pic is one good thing about being stuck on manmade groomers in a low snow year :lol:

Or another way to put it is: a 20 something inch base depth at Kirkwood is not exactly confidence inspiring.

Heavenly 1/26/2021 Sleeper powder day. They only reported 4" new today and 1" yesterday, but it skied at least as deep as Kirkwood yesterday and I found way less rocks under the snow. I’d heard on Tahoe TV that Lake effect snow was possible Monday night and BA from OpenSnow said he had reports of 10” new from Kingsbury.

I stayed in NV all day after meeting up with friend, who recently moved to Minden from San Jose, at Stagecoach base which is just S and a couple of hundred feet above Daggett Pass and Kingsbury Grade. My friend was late and got one of the last parking spots at Stagecoach. When he arrived at 9, the line to load lift was all the way to the lodge, but it went down to almost nothing by the time we got there.

Since we were still somewhat early, we rode and skied Dipper a few times. I found some steep and deep dropping off Dipper Bowl towards the lift and on both side of Jack’s. We had to hike about two minutes to get this untrackedbut there were many other places good for 10-20 turns in mostly untracked super dry powder. I took one solo lap into Milky Way Bowl where I got some steep mostly untracked turns using entrance I found a few weeks ago. We also skied trees between Dipper Bowl and closed Meteor run, then continued all the way to Stagecoach base. I was surprised they were blowing some high quality snow where Nevada Trail and Stagecoach run meet.At some point we also rode Olympic and skied the Downhill back to Stagecoach base before returning to Dipper where wind had picked up and clouds had moved in and line had gone down.

I took another solo lap into Milky Way Bowl and couldn’t resist gate 1 into Mott Canyon where I used entrance I found earlier in month into Bill’s. Partway down I took steep nose to left of run and found great untracked, then cut across run and found more of the same on other side.My friend was ready to bail so after riding Comet together, we skied Crossover to the Downhill and separated as he continued to Stagecoach base while I enjoyed the smooth edge of lower Nevada trail to slow North Bowl chair where I finished PBJ I had started eating on Mott lift. I skied North Bowl which was very good and lightly tracked after 1 PM.View attachment 1I rode long slow lift again and was tempted to repeat run, but instead skied to Stagecoach base and skied lightly tracked Stagecoach run, finishing a little after 2 skiing way past lodge, getting to about 25 steps from where I parked. My watch counted 16 runs and almost 20K.

After a stop at Round Hill Safeway and 2 ski shops looking for reasonably-priced storm googles, I returned to cabin and cut and split some of the pine that had been outside garage since Summer. My latest plan is to try to clean, close and get out of cabin between 6:30 and 7, ski Northstar, and go home, if Donner Pass is open in late afternoon. No time to edit this or arrange photos, but throwing it up here anyway. Looks like at least 6" at cabin. (edited to put pictures where they belong)

Northstar 1/27/2021
Long day with many powder turns at Northstar (and 275+ miles of driving). Northstar spun all their usual lifts although they had at least a couple of operational problems. New snow was much denser than two previous days, from temperature or wind, probably both, and since I was on my powder skis, I usually did not sink in as much as preceding daysI left So. Tahoe at 6:45 and got to Northstar where they reported 11" new a little after 8, early enough to get good parking. After booting up and getting ready I started short walk to Highlands gondola at 8:30. The line moved slowly as does the lift as it's a pulse gondola which almost stops every minute or two while two cabins load. I loaded at 8:50 after declining liftees offer to share a cabin with another single, partially as I didn’t know guy I had been talking to in line and mostly because my goggles were already fogging and I knew I’d been working on goggles/helmet/masks on ride.I rode Zephyr and took low-angle powder run to Comstock lift where I had one powder run down edge of Tonini's before catching opening of Backside next time up. I skied nearly untracked Rail Splitter. Next run I skied most ‘of Monument Glades where I didn't cross many tracks and did not hit much under snow.

Line at bottom had grown, even though I came in from shorter Down Under side, then lift had a semi-long stoppage so at top I exited Backside via West Ridge. The right edge of Ax Handle was nearly untracked so I skied it and rode Comstock which had no line so I skied off East Ridge three times. My friend from Truckee who had to clear his 800' driveway and says to avoid Highlands gondola if there are more than 12 people waiting as it's faster to take Village Gondola gave up and went home when staff announced line there was over 20 minutes from where he was. I heard there was a stoppage that contributed to long line.

My last time up Comstock I skied next to The Chute and cut across in powder to Zephyr planning to go to Lookout, but it had just stopped loading. I heard it would be down for 30 minutes so I took two laps on Vista skiing Surprise, then a less tracked run next to it that I can't name as it may not have been open.It required about 10 steps of hiking to get in and going under a rope, but somebody I met on FirstTracks told me ropes without closed signs are only advisory. Zephyr was still not loading so I took Vista again and skied to and rode Comstock, where line was much longer than earlier. I skied West Ridge past top of Zephyr and rode Lookout Link poma.

I took two laps into Lookout; first skiing Sugar Pines Glades which were good at top, but snow got thin so I moved to bottom half of Boca run. Next time down I skied Stampede, entering from steep, nearly untracked trees on right. Both times I used lower Prosser to avoid thin snow to low base of lift. I finished my ski day with 20.7K shortly after 1 skiing Home Run which I'm not sure was open, but it was much quicker than any other way back to where I parked. I met my friend in Truckee at 1:30 as he had some gear to return to me. There was chain control and a lot of trucks going over Donner Summit, but trip back to San Jose was eventful other than very heavy rain S of Sacramento to Tracy, where somebody spun out not very far ahead of me on 3-lane I-205. I was home shortly after 6. Friend in Truckee reported 12” new by 8 PM and there has been heavy rain in San Jose most of the night. I saw Heavenly was unable to open top lifts (and Mott) and Kirkwood had delayed openings (not loading Cornice until 3:30) and Carson Spur closed early and will likely stayed closed into Friday.