tseeb
Well-known member
From Heavenly Twitter Feed 2/2/22
7:58 | Open @ 9:00 AM Forecast @ 9,000 FT :Sunny L4° H21° F, E-NE winds 30-35 MPH, Gusts 55mph. Winds will impact lift ops.
9:00 | LIFT UPDATE: All 9 AM scheduled lifts are now OPEN, with the exception of Dipper, North Bowl, Gondola, Tamarack, and Big Easy which are on WINDHOLD.
9:25 | LIFT UPDATE: Canyon is now on WINDHOLD
I don’t see Sky mentioned, but it would be unusual for Canyon to go on windhold first.
I left So. Tahoe at 6:50 and turned off 267 into Northstar at 7:40. I should have been running my radar detector as I prefer Lakeshore Drive through Incline Village to avoid signals, but there are 4-5 stop signs. I was accelerating after the last one when I spotted Sheriff and quickly dropped my speed below 25 mph limit and waved to him as I passed.
Of course it was the every other Wed that Highlands gondola, that I parked near, is down for maintenance. I managed to get to Village gondola without shuttle or boot destroying walk though Village. It was high single digits (official low in Truckee was 3) early with some wind at very top of Northstar. They require masks on the gondola so I stopped and put on very thin helmet liner which nobody questioned. Person I rode lift with had knowledge of recent hard snow fatalities in N. Tahoe. He listed them by resort and total was between 5 and 10 with many ski areas represented.
I rode Comstock 6x skiing (all groomed) Ax Handle twice, Springboard once, Tonini’s (may have been day old groom) and Grouse Alley once. All had good snow and coverage. I moved to Backside and thought groomed next to lift Burnout was a little too firm in places. I next tried Follow Me which was signed as groomed but it was bumpy although left side was OK. Next time up I skied to Zephyr Lodge to warmup. Mask were required and I couldn’t figure out unstaffed cash register to buy a hot chocolate so I took a glass of water to seat in sun by window to warm up. Eventually they staffed a checkpoint with masks so I took one so I wouldn’t have to use helmet liner if I went into a lodge again.
After break, I skied Drifter to Backside where I skied groomed and very good Rail Splitter a few times. I tried Burnout again a little more slowly and found firm spots had mostly been skied down although you still needed to look for softer snow vs. scraped off for turns. I then moved to Lookout where Link drag lift was running (after a stoppage from ejecting a boarder). Entry to area using Washoe was not that good as it may have been groomed too many times. Prosser run to lookers right was mostly very good with some great windsift,
especially on left after rollover. Before that, the top was somewhat of a half-pipe as center was much lower than edges, but snow was good on most of it, especially edges. I took ungroomed Stampede, Northstar’s steepest sustained run once and found OK snow in small,
well-formed bumps although I should have exited to Prosser earlier as bottom was too firm.
I thought if looked like there was some good snow along edge of trees under chair at top and part of the way down, but did not want to commit to 1000’ vertical of it. Nobody was skiing it.
Leaving Lookout, I skied to slow Timberline lift which I’m not sure I’d ridden before. It has one main run, but mostly is there to allow
ski in-out to multi-million $ homes in area. Then I skied down to Vista, skied lower Chute to somewhat busy Comstock lift to go by Tost, the free 2 PM champagne toast, but it’s not happening at least during week. I cruised rest of well-groomed East Ridge and Loggers Loop, rode Vista, skied Forerunner to Zephyr chair that I rode twice. First I did Sodergrens, then next time up skied Upper Pioneer to Home Run to my car. I quit at 2:30 as I wanted to return to So. Tahoe for 4-5 Sushi Happy Hour. I ate a roll and a half (this was leftover)
before returning to cabin to try to remove snow and ice that has built up an ice dam that is leaking over front entry porch. At least it’s outside cabin.
My watch counted exactly 40K while EpicMix had me ~6.5% lower, but I think it skipped a Backside lift after break as I noticed in lodge that my watch had counted gondola and Vista as one lift as there is no elevation change between them. So at break, EpicMix was one lift higher than watch, but both ended day with count of 26.
7:58 | Open @ 9:00 AM Forecast @ 9,000 FT :Sunny L4° H21° F, E-NE winds 30-35 MPH, Gusts 55mph. Winds will impact lift ops.
9:00 | LIFT UPDATE: All 9 AM scheduled lifts are now OPEN, with the exception of Dipper, North Bowl, Gondola, Tamarack, and Big Easy which are on WINDHOLD.
9:25 | LIFT UPDATE: Canyon is now on WINDHOLD
I don’t see Sky mentioned, but it would be unusual for Canyon to go on windhold first.
I left So. Tahoe at 6:50 and turned off 267 into Northstar at 7:40. I should have been running my radar detector as I prefer Lakeshore Drive through Incline Village to avoid signals, but there are 4-5 stop signs. I was accelerating after the last one when I spotted Sheriff and quickly dropped my speed below 25 mph limit and waved to him as I passed.
Of course it was the every other Wed that Highlands gondola, that I parked near, is down for maintenance. I managed to get to Village gondola without shuttle or boot destroying walk though Village. It was high single digits (official low in Truckee was 3) early with some wind at very top of Northstar. They require masks on the gondola so I stopped and put on very thin helmet liner which nobody questioned. Person I rode lift with had knowledge of recent hard snow fatalities in N. Tahoe. He listed them by resort and total was between 5 and 10 with many ski areas represented.
I rode Comstock 6x skiing (all groomed) Ax Handle twice, Springboard once, Tonini’s (may have been day old groom) and Grouse Alley once. All had good snow and coverage. I moved to Backside and thought groomed next to lift Burnout was a little too firm in places. I next tried Follow Me which was signed as groomed but it was bumpy although left side was OK. Next time up I skied to Zephyr Lodge to warmup. Mask were required and I couldn’t figure out unstaffed cash register to buy a hot chocolate so I took a glass of water to seat in sun by window to warm up. Eventually they staffed a checkpoint with masks so I took one so I wouldn’t have to use helmet liner if I went into a lodge again.
After break, I skied Drifter to Backside where I skied groomed and very good Rail Splitter a few times. I tried Burnout again a little more slowly and found firm spots had mostly been skied down although you still needed to look for softer snow vs. scraped off for turns. I then moved to Lookout where Link drag lift was running (after a stoppage from ejecting a boarder). Entry to area using Washoe was not that good as it may have been groomed too many times. Prosser run to lookers right was mostly very good with some great windsift,
especially on left after rollover. Before that, the top was somewhat of a half-pipe as center was much lower than edges, but snow was good on most of it, especially edges. I took ungroomed Stampede, Northstar’s steepest sustained run once and found OK snow in small,
well-formed bumps although I should have exited to Prosser earlier as bottom was too firm.
I thought if looked like there was some good snow along edge of trees under chair at top and part of the way down, but did not want to commit to 1000’ vertical of it. Nobody was skiing it.
Leaving Lookout, I skied to slow Timberline lift which I’m not sure I’d ridden before. It has one main run, but mostly is there to allow
My watch counted exactly 40K while EpicMix had me ~6.5% lower, but I think it skipped a Backside lift after break as I noticed in lodge that my watch had counted gondola and Vista as one lift as there is no elevation change between them. So at break, EpicMix was one lift higher than watch, but both ended day with count of 26.
