EC_expat27
Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2023
Long time reader, first time poster. When you have to work in CA for the winter, one must do as the Californians do...ski Lake Tahoe of course!
Due to forces beyond my control, I could not hit the road until around 8AM on New Year’s Day, so decided on a half day at Heavenly or Northstar followed by a full day on the 2nd before driving back to the Bay Area.
A couple of coworkers and I departed at 8 with a 3hr ride to Heavenly according to the GPS, traversing US-50 from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe. As we went through the state capitol, the ETA started to steadily creep up from 11AM to around 1PM, indicating some serious delays were building ahead.
California has been hit with a deluge of rain and snow over the past few weeks, and New Year’s Eve brought a mix of rain and then 2-3’ of snow to higher elevations. We knew for sure there was one landslide ahead of us, but it turned out to not be the source of the delays.
Not long after the slide, the several hour snake of bumper-to-bumper traffic began, as a result of a chain control checkpoint further up the road. Around 1.5 hours later, the slow crawl brought us to the checkpoint and chain-up area- a sea of Teslas, Priuses, and minivans waiting for Caltrans workers to install their chains in absolute chaos. Having 4WD, we were fortunately able to skip the chains, but the slow down and remaining trip did not land us in the parking lot until 2PM.
The storm had most of the mountain closed, which we later realized was due to a power outage for the Gondola and NV side lifts, leaving us with the lower CA face to explore. We started with the tram for the first run, taking in the spectacular lake views and blue skies.
We opted for a tree run from the tram leading down the front face, during which we quickly learned what skiing in (and being stuck waist-deep in) 3’ of heavy Sierra snow is like. Lacking the proper tools (60mm waist SL skis), I chose to spend the rest of the day lapping the bump run under the tram, enjoying quick turns through the powdery moguls and chop. After 4 runs, the lifts stopped spinning, and we headed to the Stateline area of South Lake Tahoe to stay the night.
Monday brought cloudy skies and colder temps to start off the day, with snow forecasted to start later in the afternoon. I decided to splurge and demo a much wider pair of Atomic Mavericks, vastly improving the experience from the day prior. The original plan was to leave the car at the hotel for the day and walk to the gondola, but after learning that the gondola and NV side would remain closed again, we drove back to the CA base to start the day.
Luckily, the Canyon chair was spinning on the CA side, providing access to ⅔ of the up the CA upper mountain. The Sky chair, seen from the canyon chair below, was on delay as crews dug out the terminals, but it did not open at all unfortunately.
Enjoying the untracked snow from the day before, we spent the day lapping the canyon chair, alternating between tree runs on skier’s far right and blue groomers to give the legs a break.
Being the only upper mountain lift open, the canyon chair had some pretty Epic lift lines, with around a 15 minute wait. While this was a bummer, it did keep on-trail skier traffic relatively low.
We decided to start making our way down around 2:30, hitting some wider-spaced trees on the way back to the lower CA face. The cat track down had a cool snow-canyon section.
As we reached the CA base, snow clouds were moving in and visibility was closing up on the west side of the lake. In fear of getting stuck in US-50 traffic, we decided to head up the lake and try returning via I-80, a wider and straighter highway. While it seemed like a good detour, the roads were slow going as the snow picked up, and another chain control checkpoint at the top of Donner Pass added stop-and-go traffic. After slowly winding our way out of the mountains, the night had one last trick up its sleeve in the form of a flat tire. Luckily we made our way to a gas station just before we completely lost all residual air, only to find a piece of broken chain piercing the rubber. After a quick change-out, we were rolling again, completing the trip back to the bay in around 6 hours.
Disclaimer: Epic offers an incredibly cheap pass for active duty members, so I typically put up with the crowds and overpriced food that come with skiing at their resorts. While the skiing was fun, this trip was definitely a challenging introduction to visiting Lake Tahoe to say the least. I credit the chaos on the roads and mountain to a perfect storm of new snow, holiday weekend, limited terrain, and bad luck, so hopefully my next trip is a little smoother. If anyone more familiar with the area has any tips or tricks for Tahoe, I am all ears!
Due to forces beyond my control, I could not hit the road until around 8AM on New Year’s Day, so decided on a half day at Heavenly or Northstar followed by a full day on the 2nd before driving back to the Bay Area.
A couple of coworkers and I departed at 8 with a 3hr ride to Heavenly according to the GPS, traversing US-50 from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe. As we went through the state capitol, the ETA started to steadily creep up from 11AM to around 1PM, indicating some serious delays were building ahead.
California has been hit with a deluge of rain and snow over the past few weeks, and New Year’s Eve brought a mix of rain and then 2-3’ of snow to higher elevations. We knew for sure there was one landslide ahead of us, but it turned out to not be the source of the delays.
Not long after the slide, the several hour snake of bumper-to-bumper traffic began, as a result of a chain control checkpoint further up the road. Around 1.5 hours later, the slow crawl brought us to the checkpoint and chain-up area- a sea of Teslas, Priuses, and minivans waiting for Caltrans workers to install their chains in absolute chaos. Having 4WD, we were fortunately able to skip the chains, but the slow down and remaining trip did not land us in the parking lot until 2PM.
The storm had most of the mountain closed, which we later realized was due to a power outage for the Gondola and NV side lifts, leaving us with the lower CA face to explore. We started with the tram for the first run, taking in the spectacular lake views and blue skies.
We opted for a tree run from the tram leading down the front face, during which we quickly learned what skiing in (and being stuck waist-deep in) 3’ of heavy Sierra snow is like. Lacking the proper tools (60mm waist SL skis), I chose to spend the rest of the day lapping the bump run under the tram, enjoying quick turns through the powdery moguls and chop. After 4 runs, the lifts stopped spinning, and we headed to the Stateline area of South Lake Tahoe to stay the night.
Monday brought cloudy skies and colder temps to start off the day, with snow forecasted to start later in the afternoon. I decided to splurge and demo a much wider pair of Atomic Mavericks, vastly improving the experience from the day prior. The original plan was to leave the car at the hotel for the day and walk to the gondola, but after learning that the gondola and NV side would remain closed again, we drove back to the CA base to start the day.
Luckily, the Canyon chair was spinning on the CA side, providing access to ⅔ of the up the CA upper mountain. The Sky chair, seen from the canyon chair below, was on delay as crews dug out the terminals, but it did not open at all unfortunately.
Enjoying the untracked snow from the day before, we spent the day lapping the canyon chair, alternating between tree runs on skier’s far right and blue groomers to give the legs a break.
Being the only upper mountain lift open, the canyon chair had some pretty Epic lift lines, with around a 15 minute wait. While this was a bummer, it did keep on-trail skier traffic relatively low.
We decided to start making our way down around 2:30, hitting some wider-spaced trees on the way back to the lower CA face. The cat track down had a cool snow-canyon section.
As we reached the CA base, snow clouds were moving in and visibility was closing up on the west side of the lake. In fear of getting stuck in US-50 traffic, we decided to head up the lake and try returning via I-80, a wider and straighter highway. While it seemed like a good detour, the roads were slow going as the snow picked up, and another chain control checkpoint at the top of Donner Pass added stop-and-go traffic. After slowly winding our way out of the mountains, the night had one last trick up its sleeve in the form of a flat tire. Luckily we made our way to a gas station just before we completely lost all residual air, only to find a piece of broken chain piercing the rubber. After a quick change-out, we were rolling again, completing the trip back to the bay in around 6 hours.
Disclaimer: Epic offers an incredibly cheap pass for active duty members, so I typically put up with the crowds and overpriced food that come with skiing at their resorts. While the skiing was fun, this trip was definitely a challenging introduction to visiting Lake Tahoe to say the least. I credit the chaos on the roads and mountain to a perfect storm of new snow, holiday weekend, limited terrain, and bad luck, so hopefully my next trip is a little smoother. If anyone more familiar with the area has any tips or tricks for Tahoe, I am all ears!
