Tour of Vail Tahoe resorts January 5-7, 2026

[tseeb]

Northstar, CA January 5, 2026
I was planning on Kirkwood, but 88 was closed over avalanche prone Carson Spur from Silver Lake to Kirkwood for at least 24 hrs. CA-88 return to So. Tahoe from Kirkwood was also closed on Sunday until after 9 PM. My alternative route US-50 to Meyers, then going S and W to Kirkwood seems too long and includes 3 passes. Caltrans was not very helpful as they posted that only EB was closed due to spinouts when it was closed both ways until 1 PM Monday for avy control. FB post. Don't think it was this clear and winds were strong over top of Cornice chair.

My original alternate was Sierra, but one of my Truckee friends said his neighbor and another friend from PA were in town and another Truckee friend would be at Northstar so after early start, I did the 4 1/2 drive with about 30 miles of chain control but no delays. I skied Northstar 9 to 315; 18 lifts and 28K according to my Garmin. Snow was better off East Ridge off Comstock, but Backside gives a lot more vertical. Lines stayed short all day.

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I made some powder turns on every run and some runs had many. I didn't stop for photos my first couple of Backside runs. This was probably my 3rd Backside.

My 70+ snowboarding friend who's had both knees replaced and used to be an instructor at Northstar quit about noon. This is him on Backside a little after 10.

The other 3 guys who had arrived together went only a little later. Two were on teles and one said snow was lighter on Sunday. It was OK to me, my first time on my powder skis since last April. I took a lunch break at Zephyr Lodge, then found some lightly tracked going to Backside that I rode and skied twice more.

View of Palisades from Northstar includes Alpine to left.

Not sure what they opened. It was windy at times at Northstar. Kirkwood ran chairs 6 and 10, but not their Backside AFAIK. My nephew reported "Heavenly was amazing. No lines and full mountain opened." I saw people ending Firebreak (Heavenly's 3000' vertical side-country) when I drove under gondola.

This is some of what I found at 130 after my short lunch break.

More of Northstar's Backside after 2 PM. Snow was wind/sun affected in places and as said earlier better off East Ride. I caught rope removal into Cat's Face on Vista. After skiing, I plan to ski Heavenly Tues with a friend from England and one from Minden, then Kirkwood on way home on Wed.

 

[ChrisC]

I was planning on Kirkwood, but 88 was closed over avalanche prone Carson Spur from Silver Lake to Kirkwood for at least 24 hrs. CA-88 return to So. Tahoe from Kirkwood was also closed on Sunday until after 9 PM. My alternative route US-50 to Meyers, then going S and W to Kirkwood seems too long and includes 3 passes.

Sunday in Tahoe was definitely horrendous, traveling-wise. I had one friend caught in the return saga.

I made some powder turns on every run and some runs had many. I didn't stop for photos my first couple of Backside runs. This was probably my 3rd Backside.

The Backside has nicely spaced trees between the runs. Likely the best storm-skiing on Tahoe's north shore. Always interesting how 30+ inches of snow skis like 12" inches due to wind, snow moisture content, and fat skis.

More of Northstar's Backside after 2 PM. Snow was wind/sun affected in places and as said earlier better off East Ride. I caught rope removal into Cat's Face on Vista

I find East Ridge to require too much relatively flat traversing to access and egress for a relatively short pitch.


Did you consider checking out Lookout Mountain / Martis? It looks like it is only officially about 50% open, but there is a lot of even steeper terrain than the backside to ski in the trees.

 

[tseeb]

I rode gondola with guy from Auburn who said it took 4 hrs to get to his Incline Airbnb as they had to take US-50.

Some of the guys I was with considered going to Lookout/Martis, but others including me were concerned that bottom of chair is lower than bottom of Backside and barely higher than Village so snow would get heavy at bottom. I liked Lookout better before they extended it to service the many million $ houses in area as it was very efficient, except for the additional powder you can find in and past Lookout Glades.

 

[ChrisC]

I liked Lookout better before they extended it to service the many million $ houses in area as it was very efficient, except for the additional powder you can find in and past Lookout Glades.

The chairlift extension was unnecessary skiing-wise. And the fact that the skiing public cannot use the Martis lodge as an additional access point is a bit short-sighted, but necessary for $$$.

I typically will cut across to the chair/liftline runout where the old lift used to have its higher start point. The skiing below that is not great - bad snow, melts off, flat, etc.....just a runout to the multi-million dollar private club development.

 

[tseeb]

Heavenly, NV January 6, 2026 (and 2 lifts on CA side)
Skied from 9 AM opening until almost 3:30. Garmin counted just over 25K, my lowest so far this season.

Friend from Minden and I were both surprised we found some slow vehicles/almost traffic and upper Stagecoach lot full when we arrived @830 and lower lot half full. Liftlines stayed short all day as long as chairs kept running. Comet stopped twice while we were in line and the 2nd time we bailed to Dipper as they announced after a few minutes wait that it could take some time to restart. My only time up Sky a young snowboarder was in danger of falling off chair and liftees ran out with a pad, only getting halfway to where he was, but others on chair got him reseated. Drop would have been at least 20'.

My Minden friend had only an early Dec. day at Heavenly when very limited runs on Patsy's and Powder Bowl chairs were open, so we took a few groomers on Dipper together. Then I skied left side of Milky Way Bowl, which was not that great, hoping to catch opening of Mott. I was too early, so I did another lap and found better snow and some untracked to skiers right of Milky Way Bowl then entered highest gate into Mott. I turned into gate from there towards Killibrew's thin SE-facing Under The Gun and went to right into E-facing Sweetwater. Even though it was sunny the copped-up powder still skied well. I caught the barely covered highest exit to back to lift. Looking up Sweetwater.

Looking down from same place to Carson Valley. Boundary Chutes on ridge to right.

We skied more Dipper groomers, Comet once, then took a break to re-hydrate at Tamarack Lodge. Since Comet had problem after our break we rode Dipper and skied to Stagecoach base on Nevada Trail finding some good snow on Lower Stagecoach, an intermediate run signed advanced only. More surprising to left at top of Stagecoach signs said expert only for ungroomed main intermediate Stagecoach run.

My friend quit after 1 and we plan to meet at Kirkwood on Wednesday. High clouds started blowing over and were enough to make it cooler. Clouds over top of Dipper taken from top of North Bowl chair at 115.

Clouds blocking most of view of Lake from Upper North Bowl.

After friend left, I skied main North Bowl run (below base of Olympic chair) where there were some big rocks in middle of run at top and good steep snow lower. But gully at bottom of the steeps was less filled in than I remember ever seeing it. Looking up and down North Bowl.

Then I skied California Trail to Maggie's Canyon where I found some untracked. After riding Powder Bowl and Sky chairs, I returned to Nevada and caught high enough traverse above Milky Way Bowl that I got a few turns at top of Fulstone, from where I've heard you are not supposed to return.

Then I skied some of Outer Limits into Pipeline which had good snow but was as challenging as I've seen it. Choke in Pipeline where rock in center is often covered.

Looking down from same place. I did a little side-slipping to get past the hump. Left side may have been doable but could have required air over rocks.

I traversed to and caught some of the shady and lightly tracked Meadows, Second photo is a slightly reduced size, barely cropped panoramic.

I was too low to take thin upper exit from Killibrew and knew I'd have some suffering on lower one, so I left some tracks.

It was unusual for me to get two laps into Killibrew without any into Mott. And since I was before the 3 pm Mott lift closing, I came down skiers left of The Y in Mott. I stopped to take photo of where I skied and caught snowboarder coming down same area I skied in The Y.

I did one more lap skiing Lower Nevada trail to North Bowl lift which I used to ski Upper North Bowl, then some of busy Olympic Downhill before cutting across high enough to catch Stagecoach run. I skied to within less than 50' of my car before carefully dropping off almost 4' snowbank into parking lot (after removing skis). My day was not over as back at the cabin I spent an hour working on it, first using neighbors snow rake to remove snow along eaves in front. Then I used ladder to get on roof in back and swept snow off skylights then used snow shovel to remove snow and ice berm building along edge of roof. Dinner was Mon-Thurs local specials at Libation Lodge, single cheeseburger with bacon and fries and a beer for not much over $20. It was Singo night which is like Bingo, but cards are filled in by listening to songs played and seeing if their names are on your card. Winner gets a beer. I could barely hear the songs and only got one square covered on Millennium version before someone won.

 

[ChrisC]

Were you tempted to ski Firebreak, or is it still too early / not enough snow yet?

 

[tseeb]

Not tempted. Last 500 vertical would be thin and it’s rocky. Coverage probably better in trees closer to the stateline, but there is a creek to cross there.