Sorry for the delay but being a tourist and playing in a blackjack tournament took up my free time on Thursday.
The weather stayed beautiful both days. Mountain temps started out in teens or low 20's and finished in upper 30's to low 40's. No rain and it began to snow as I left Friday afternoon around 4. A sunny weeknd with temps in the 50's forecast but the night tenperatures are still in the 20's so it takes a while for the groomed slopes to soften. Powder hounds will be disappointed as no new snow is in the immediate forecast. With bases of 6 feet or more, I don't think slush and rocks are much of a worry.
My observation is that Sierra blues are considerably more challenging then Heavenly. They drop of the sides of green trails rather steeply , sometimes mellowing out like on Short Swing and sometimes not, like Lower Snoweshoe. One definite plus for me is that they don't use cat tracks for trails. Never made it to the West Bowl because Beaver was the only entance point and my confidence was not up to the task.
Ah,but the greens were great. Aspen is a Heavenly blue and Wagon Trail has some steeper section but I really enjoyed them.
A food report, much better and more reasonable than Heavenly. Never saw meat loaf, mashed potatoes and green beans on a ski cafeteria menu before.
Finally, this would be a good place to learn to ski for the whole family. I don't normally pay attention to such stuff but a very gentle wide beginners' slope was nice to see. Definitely not an afterthought A specail place for the young uns that loked like a lot of fun. A small warning, however, is in order. While putting a premium on getting new skiers out in 2 lessons, anyone between beginner and all mountain skier may find the offering week. You go from new skier, to confident blue skier in their plans. That said, I did take a group lesson that was useful but the instructor clearly wanted us to go off trail and try the steeper stuff.
Well, back to Norfolk today at the end of ski season that saw two flights instead of the usual one. This three days was much better than the wierd trip in January. For those who have not considered Tahoe before I would say that the variety offered in a small area is matched only by Salt Lake City or maybe Colorado (haven't been there yet). If you plan to visit, three final pieces of advice: (1) rent a car/SUV beacuse although you can get almost everywhere on shuttles or public transit you will spend a lot of time in transit (2) buy chains and learn to install them as the snow really dumps here and the roads quickly become impassable, and (3) never go to the casinos unless you can accept that the casinos always win in the long run for most of us.
Kirby
The weather stayed beautiful both days. Mountain temps started out in teens or low 20's and finished in upper 30's to low 40's. No rain and it began to snow as I left Friday afternoon around 4. A sunny weeknd with temps in the 50's forecast but the night tenperatures are still in the 20's so it takes a while for the groomed slopes to soften. Powder hounds will be disappointed as no new snow is in the immediate forecast. With bases of 6 feet or more, I don't think slush and rocks are much of a worry.
My observation is that Sierra blues are considerably more challenging then Heavenly. They drop of the sides of green trails rather steeply , sometimes mellowing out like on Short Swing and sometimes not, like Lower Snoweshoe. One definite plus for me is that they don't use cat tracks for trails. Never made it to the West Bowl because Beaver was the only entance point and my confidence was not up to the task.
Ah,but the greens were great. Aspen is a Heavenly blue and Wagon Trail has some steeper section but I really enjoyed them.
A food report, much better and more reasonable than Heavenly. Never saw meat loaf, mashed potatoes and green beans on a ski cafeteria menu before.
Finally, this would be a good place to learn to ski for the whole family. I don't normally pay attention to such stuff but a very gentle wide beginners' slope was nice to see. Definitely not an afterthought A specail place for the young uns that loked like a lot of fun. A small warning, however, is in order. While putting a premium on getting new skiers out in 2 lessons, anyone between beginner and all mountain skier may find the offering week. You go from new skier, to confident blue skier in their plans. That said, I did take a group lesson that was useful but the instructor clearly wanted us to go off trail and try the steeper stuff.
Well, back to Norfolk today at the end of ski season that saw two flights instead of the usual one. This three days was much better than the wierd trip in January. For those who have not considered Tahoe before I would say that the variety offered in a small area is matched only by Salt Lake City or maybe Colorado (haven't been there yet). If you plan to visit, three final pieces of advice: (1) rent a car/SUV beacuse although you can get almost everywhere on shuttles or public transit you will spend a lot of time in transit (2) buy chains and learn to install them as the snow really dumps here and the roads quickly become impassable, and (3) never go to the casinos unless you can accept that the casinos always win in the long run for most of us.
Kirby