Tahoe vs. SLC for President's Day Week?

C

cweinman

New member
Curious to get opinions on this one. I'll be doing a full week of skiing for President's Day, driving from AZ to my destination. I've played with the idea of Telluride or Taos, but figure those would be better saved for a 4 or 5 day weekend (since they're both a good bit closer than SLC or Tahoe). Similarly, I figure Aspen or Summit County, CO should be saved for a better snow year when other options don't exist.

Utah would likely be a day at Brianhead on the way up (can make Cedar City the night before) and then 7 days based in SLC.

Tahoe would probably require a full day of driving and then 7 days based somewhere (no idea where). Wife and I are inclined to think about slope-side, but with the abundance of different ski areas in play, it just doesn't seem worth the extra money. So, any opinions on Tahoe vs. SLC given the snow bases and the current weather patterns? I noticed on the long range forecasts, for what it's worth, that it looks like this may be keeping up nicely into the first week or two of February, so I figure Tahoe bases will only get better, and SLC will probably do likewise.

Thanks!
 
If yuu are coming from AZ you migt check ot the flights from Phonex to Redmond OR (Bend) on Alegant. The presidents weekend can be a zoo at bachelor but that following week will be releativly calm for crowds. Generally a good time as far as weather goes but it is the pacific northwest so you never know. As far as current base, there is plenty... Good luck and have a fun trip.
 
That's a lot of driving... Why not fly? In any case I would lean towards SLC. Either Tahoe or Utah will have a good snow base, so no worries there. Utah is more likely to get fresh snow and retain soft snow conditions. Brian Head is having a great year and would break up the drive nicely. Staying in downtown Salt Lake is very convenient - there's enough to do there to keep you occupied when you're not skiing. From SLC you've got 10 destination resorts within an hour - you can find any type of skiing you want (and you can avoid traffic and bad roads if you plan right). In Tahoe it's quite a bit tougher to hit a variety of resorts. The bed bases (Reno, Truckee, South Lake) are convenient to a few resorts each - getting to other ski areas for day trips can be difficult. A decent size snowstorm will completely paralyze Tahoe, while in SLC the Park City (I-80) resorts are nearly always accessible. In addition, the Tahoe areas will be absolutely packed over President's day. Utah resorts will be busy, as well, but will seem empty compared to the crowds at Squaw/Heavenly.

Have a great trip!
 
On Prez Day weekend, crowd avoidance is obviously a signficant consideration. On that score, I can't speak from personal experience about the Tahoe resorts, but others seem to think that's a problem. I can tell you from 5 years experience skiing around SLC between Christmas and New Year that even in that peak week, the lift lines are very minimal, except for the Park City group. I guess the story would be much the same for other holiday peak periods. Solitude is especially sparsely populated, with hardly ever a line anywhere except sometimes a short one at the Moobeam base lift. At Brighton, the Great Western and Milly lifts are good bets to ski right up to the lift seat except right after lunch, when there is sometimes a short line. At Snowbird, Mineral Basin is great to avoid crowds.
 
johnnash":il30o4px said:
On Prez Day weekend, crowd avoidance is obviously a signficant consideration. On that score, I can't speak from personal experience about the Tahoe resorts, but others seem to think that's a problem. I can tell you from 5 years experience skiing around SLC between Christmas and New Year that even in that peak week, the lift lines are very minimal, except for the Park City group. I guess the story would be much the same for other holiday peak periods. Solitude is especially sparsely populated, with hardly ever a line anywhere except sometimes a short one at the Moobeam base lift. At Brighton, the Great Western and Milly lifts are good bets to ski right up to the lift seat except right after lunch, when there is sometimes a short line. At Snowbird, Mineral Basin is great to avoid crowds.
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I'm not sure why Tahoe resorts feel more crowded than Utah - from what I can tell the skier numbers are similar for each region (~4 million), and each region has around the same number of resorts (10ish). My theory is that Tahoe gets more slammed on weekends (especially over holidays) since the majority of skiers are Bay Area over-nighters (3+ hour commute). Utah, in contrast, has more local skiers that ski over weekdays so the numbers are more spread out. My guess is that Tahoe is perhaps even less crowded than Utah on a given weekday. The big name resorts in Tahoe probably set people's negative viewpoints. Kirkwood, for example, always felt similar crowd-wise to Alta. Heavenly and Squaw, however, get crowded beyond anything I've ever seen at the Park City resorts.

Crowds in Utah do exist, though. We had 10+ minute lift lines at Solitude (all lifts), 30 minute tram lines at Snowbird (on a Monday) and 10 minute waits to get out of Snowbasin base over this past weekend (non-holiday). Park City had 15+ minute lift-lines on a Friday (though significant terrain was closed). Overall, it wasn't terrible by any stretch (and crowds significantly emptied as the day went on), but getting fresh tracks was a rat-race.

Utah truly stands out in March, when you're still getting big winter storms but blue-sky days are more common (and crowds are non-existent).
 
I was at Kirkwood Wed-Fri of President's Week last year. Wednesday was very crowded as is was the first day the whole mountain was open after a big storm. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7709 Thursday and Friday were not crowded. The big crowd days are Sat. and Sun. of President's weekend and are the last two days my pass is blacked out. Monday is not as bad, but it seems like it usually snows and messes up traffic. Schools in my part of the Bay Area are off for the whole week, but not in Sacramento area AFAIK and many deals are not valid the whole week.
 
rsmith":1ecrko0o said:
Crowds in Utah do exist, though. We had 10+ minute lift lines at Solitude (all lifts), 30 minute tram lines at Snowbird (on a Monday) and 10 minute waits to get out of Snowbasin base over this past weekend (non-holiday). Park City had 15+ minute lift-lines on a Friday (though significant terrain was closed). Overall, it wasn't terrible by any stretch (and crowds significantly emptied as the day went on), but getting fresh tracks was a rat-race.
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Remember that you were here for the first significant snow storm after quite a powder drought. There was an amazing pent-up demand, so even though powder is always an aggro competition at Alta and Snowbird, it was particularly magnified last week.
 
Lots of sound advice above. The major Tahoe areas are more crowd sensitive than anything in Utah IMHO. And the "off-the-radar" places in Utah are emptier too. Actually the worst crowd issue in Tahoe is traffic, big advantage to Utah there, unless you're stubborn about waiting for a canyon to open. :-P

Both of these trips are must-dos now that you live in AZ. But for a holiday week I'd lean to Utah.

Reading Schubwa's reports I' be tempted by those cheap flights to Bachelor too.
 
Glad to see the gnome is having the same dilemma I am. I don't plan on booking till around Feb 3, so maybe I'll wait for his decision. :-)

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm leaning towards SLC, but need to convince the wife. I figure avoiding Park City for the primary weekend is probably the one definite thing to do, and probably to also stay away from Alta and Snowbird those days. I wasn't taking into account crowd sensitivity issues in Tahoe, and am quickly realizing that is no where near as easy a place to do all the resorts from one centralized base as SLC.

On other fronts, we plan on finally doing AZ Snowbowl Superbowl Sunday, and possibly Sunrise this weekend (if the stars align), so may have some interesting trip reports from less visited places up shortly. Still have a long way to go towards my goal of 10+ days on snow (sigh). Sunrise is reporting a 93 to 140 base, and still haven't managed to get their mountain fully open from last week's Arizona snowpocalypse (6 to 9 feet at the resort). Could even setup fresh tracks a week after the snow stopped--quite strange.
 
For what it's worth, I was in LCC/BCC for Christmas weekend and there were minimal crowds. I was in Tahoe for New Years weekend (Heavenly) and it was a mob scene. Even this past weekend after the initial rush of people the lines at Alta/Solitude never exceeded 5 minutes.
 
cweinman":2ar2ep7i said:
I figure avoiding Park City for the primary weekend is probably the one definite thing to do, and probably to also stay away from Alta and Snowbird those days.
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In 9 seasons I've never noticed a detectable increase in crowds in LCC during President's Day weekend unless it coincided with lots of powder. IOW, pretty much like any weekend.
 
On a relative to normal basis the SIerra is clearly having a better year so far than Utah. So for a random February/March week this year I'd advise the Gnome or cweinman to Tahoe. But if it has to be the holiday week, the traffic issues in particular would sway me to Utah.

And per socal's experience, don't go near Heavenly on a holiday. Heavenly has some great skiing, particularly in the trees during storms but its awkward layout problems are greatly exacerbated by crowds. FYI experts can still enjoy Squaw when it's busy because so many lifts serve exclusively expert terrain. The key to Squaw on weekend/holidays (potential traffic nightmare) is to get there very early and have breakfast before the lifts open.
 
Tony Crocker":21qw7a6r said:
On a relative to normal basis the SIerra is clearly having a better year so far than Utah. So for a random February/March week this year I'd advise the Gnome or cweinman to Tahoe. But if it has to be the holiday week, the traffic issues in particular would sway me to Utah.
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I've really got to disagree with you, Tony. All of Utah is now sitting on a solid base - most terrain is open or will be upon stability. Thus, California's better overall snow year is pretty mute. Given Utah's higher probability of refresher storms + better snow consistency I would go to Utah every time if I was looking for powder. The only reasons to choose Tahoe over Utah given equivalent snow is for the lake (beautiful) and the nightlife in South Lake. Each place has great and unique resorts, but the odds of good snow in Utah are so much higher that for a week trip the choice is really easy, at least for me (and I live in California).

Last week is a good example of the area differences. From what I heard (from a local Kirkwood Master's snowboarder in the Snowbird liftline), Kirkwood was closed 3 days straight during the heavy storms. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but my bet is that while we were skiing exceptional conditions in the Wasatch people in Tahoe were lucky to even get to the resorts. In California it's feast or famine for snow - the number of days where you really can have a true powder day (when the upper, steep terrain is actually open) must be 50% of Utah's, even though they have equivalent overall snow totals.
 
rsmith":13q108uu said:
Tony Crocker":13q108uu said:
On a relative to normal basis the SIerra is clearly having a better year so far than Utah. So for a random February/March week this year I'd advise the Gnome or cweinman to Tahoe. But if it has to be the holiday week, the traffic issues in particular would sway me to Utah.
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I've really got to disagree with you, Tony. All of Utah is now sitting on a solid base - most terrain is open or will be upon stability. Thus, California's better overall snow year is pretty mute.
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As has been proven on this board dozens of times before, Tony bases his prognostications and pontifications strictly on statistical data from hundreds to thousands of miles away with no basis in current reality or actual conditions. If you're planning out next year's trips right now and plan to buy tickets in the next three weeks, follow Tony's advice. If you're figuring out what to do this weekend or next, listen to the local reports, which render 25 years of data essentially useless.
 
cweinman is new to the West. rsmith and MarC are essentially arguing that EVERY destination trip he makes should be to Utah. I have stated many times that AltaBird is the best overall ski area I have skied out of well over 100. That does not mean that I want to do 100% of my skiing there.

Presumably over the next several years cweinman would like to ski many destination resorts. The fact that LCC is reliable 95+% of the time argues for skiing the less reliable places when they having good years, knowing Utah is nearly always available as the fail-safe backup.
 
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