Mt. Rose, NV, Dec. 5, 2019

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
We were in the Bay Area over Thanksgiving, and I then played Dec. 1-3 at the Fall National Bridge Tournament in SF. When we left home the day before Thanksgiving, we brought along our ski gear just in case.

With two major storms over the holiday, it was an easy call to head for the Sierra after we took a Tesla factory tour on Wednesday. With our Ikon passes, Squaw/Alpine seemed the logical call, but incredibly no upper lifts have opened yet at Squaw this season. There were three nice weather days last week, Dec. 3, 5 and 6, and Mammoth managed to open the top on all three of them. Squaw decided to wait for this weekend, planned 6 upper lifts today but of course the new storm has prevented that.

So we thought it was an easy call to ski Mt. Rose Thursday, entirely above last weekend’s rain/snow line, rather than variable surfaces on Red Dog and Squaw Creek.

The Chutes are not open yet, but everything else at Rose is with mostly packed powder conditions. On Thursday an electrical problem delayed the backside Zephyr Express lift until almost noon. Weather was ideal, upper 20’s F with almost no wind. There was a cloud inversion below. View NE toward Reno:
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We made our first turns of the new season on frontside groomers Ramsey and Kit Carson. The groomers closer to the high speed Northwest lift like Waterfall and Northwest Passage have steeper fall lines, similar to but longer than the face of Mammoth’s chair 3. Sunset was the only ungroomed, lightly mogulled of the 7 frontside runs we skied before Zephyr opened.

On the Slide Mt. side we first ventured on to Gold Run.
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This side had opened Tuesday, and the thick Sierra cement of the weekend was thoroughly tracked. It was best to ski in the most skier packed line.

We tested some untracked near the Silver Dollar run.
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This area is in morning sun so turns required some effort here.

Our next run was Washoe Zephyr on the eastern boundary, overlooking the Carson Valley.
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Snow was cut up but direct north facing and manageable. But after 15K in three hours we were ready for a lunch break.

After lunch here’s another view of the clouds over the Carson Valley.
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We skied one last ungroomed run, Central Pacific.
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Snow was very good on the upper half and a bit more set up lower down.

Liz skied great all morning but about 2 runs into the afternoon she started feeling some boot pain. Corti Lawrence at Footloose at Mammoth fixed her boots enough in spring 2016 that she was comfortable for the next 3 seasons. But at the end of last season a hole was developing in the liner.

So when we returned to the Mt. Rose side she skied to the lodge and called it a day. I skied one more run out Lakeview. Lake Tahoe had been under a cloud in the morning but was visible now.
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I finished the day with 24,100 vertical. FYI if you ski at Mt. Rose, buy your ticket in advance online as the window price is $145. The online price ranges from $99 Mon-Thu to $119 Sat. There are also promotions Thursdays ($69 ladies day) and Tuesdays (2 people for the $145 window price).

Tseeb recommended the Palau aftermarket liner which is sold by Olympic Bootworks in Squaw Valley. Therefore we left Mt. Rose at 3PM. Olympic Bootworks is run by a "star" bootfitter who has worked with a lot of racers, Johnny Moseley etc. He said Liz' boots were beyond repair. We both asked a lot of questions. It was not just the deteriorating liner. Liz has a high instep and the Salomon shell she has is not good for that. Prior mods had included shaving the bootboard and removing material from the liner above the instep to increase vertical volume. So the explanation made sense.

With the detour to Squaw we did not get to Mammoth until 8:15PM. This was the first time we have driven a Tesla an entire charge at freezing temperatures. The 235 miles driven consumed 312 "rated" miles, which is about the same as on a typical trip on Interstates in warm weather. The slower speeds driving around Lake Tahoe offset the hit to range from the cold weather. Our first Tesla had only 270 miles rated range and would have required a charge stop at Topaz Lake. The new Tesla Models S we got in August has 360 miles rated range and also charges 50% faster at superchargers than our 2016 version.
 
q":16f8csut said:
$145 a day to ski Mt Rose :shock:
I was shocked too, though not completely as it was $115 on March 28, 2017. I knew going in that time that it was 2-for-1 Tuesday. What's unique about Mt. Rose is the big disparity between previous day online and window prices. At the big Epic/Ikon places the online short notice price tends to be only a 10% discount or so.

In many ways Mt. Rose should make my short list of "best uncrowded areas." The Chutes (too early in the season this time) are elite level expert terrain and are never as busy as comparable terrain on KT-22 at Squaw or chair 22 at Mammoth. But overall Mt. Rose is not that empty being 15 miles from Reno's population base. There was a short 2-3 minute liftline on the frontside six-pack while the backside was closed. And yes the pricing is a lot different from those other areas.

q's home area Discovery is almost the paragon of "best uncrowded areas." I say almost only because of Castle Mt.
 
Mt. Rose is a more expensive place to ski at compared to other independents in Tahoe. Mt. Rose unrestricted season pass is $675. You can get a base Ikon or Epic local pass for a similar price. Homewood, Diamond Peak, Sierra-at-Tahoe are about $400.

It's also farther from the Bay Area/Sacramento compared to areas like Sugarbowl, Northstar, Squaw but closer to Reno.

So I believe Mt. Rose will be uncrowded compared to other places in Tahoe. I will know the facts this season.
 
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