Heavenly - South Lake Tahoe. Tips or insights ????

[abc]

Whistler can definitely rain at any time.

So like other west coast mountains, no one should fly there from afar for skiing.

I have no doubt many avoid Whistler for the same reason they never go to Tahoe. Thank god for that. All of those mountains are pretty crowded already even with so many avoiding them. Can't imagine what it'll be like if they never get rain.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Welp, stuck in Chicago on the return flight from Sacramento. Ended up skiing Heavenly 2 days, Kirkwood 1 day, Mt Rose 1 day, and Northstar 1 day. This was a minor change of original plans due to travel issues and burnout factor.

Didn't make it to Squaw with the last ticket we had and no regrets on that account- we were skied out.

Very cool vacation but it also made me appreciate how good we have it skiing the Northeast in some ways. Kirkwood in particular was very cool to ski.. and conditions were spectacular including a massive powder day at Heavenly, packed powder most days and lovely corn snow towards the end of the trip.

Still a part of me was thinking about that Mad River Glen day before we left though, it was really melting down out there but got a couple runs in on Fall Line, and something about that place and the way it skis, the way the terrain dips and rolls, the way the trails twist, turn, merge and split.

Tree skiing is different too. In Tahoe you ski between the trees. In Northern VT you are IN the trees. The latter is better than the former, but the former probably has better snow conditions.

 

[dlague]

Tree skiing is different too. In Tahoe you ski between the trees. In Northern VT you are IN the trees. The latter is better than the former, but the former probably has better snow conditions.

And skis faster too!

 

[abc]

The difference between hardwood vs evergreen.

There are hardwood forest in the west too, but that's not what most people think of when talking about western tree skiing.

 

[bdfreetuna]

And evergreens in the East but they are smaller pines and spruce... unlike the typical Tahoe tree which had a trunk 10x bigger in circumference. And the canopy of these large hardwoods often so high it doesn't feel like you're skiing in the woods much.

Not hoping to start a "which is better" debate, but my best day of the season still remains January 29 powder day at Jay Peak.

 

[abc]

Not hoping to start a "which is better" debate, but my best day of the season still remains January 29 powder day at Jay Peak.

"Best day" will always depend on the randomness of condition. I thought my "best day of the season" was the day after 19" of snow in Utah. But that got eclipsed by the 19 cm in Whistler last week. It was only half the powder, but 3 times the vertical!

But then, it may have to do with the most recent memory being the freshest. In between those 2, I also had a day in Jackson when the Sublette chair was on wind hold, so the only way to get to Larimie bowl was by the tram, which doesn't hold that many people. There's fresh powder left, right and center!

In short, I don't have a "best day", just a bunch of really, really fantastic days.

 

[dlague]

In short, I don't have a "best day", just a bunch of really, really fantastic days.

I like that! Truth!

 

[Kleetus]

So like other west coast mountains, no one should fly there from afar for skiing.

I have no doubt many avoid Whistler for the same reason they never go to Tahoe. Thank god for that. All of those mountains are pretty crowded already even with so many avoiding them. Can't imagine what it'll be like if they never get rain.

When they get the snow though place is insane. Too bad it gets so busy. Whistler that is


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[bdfreetuna]

Kirkwood and Mt Rose didn't have much of a crowd on week days. Northstar was kind of a zoo and Heavenly definitely packs them in.

Mt Rose especially I would recommend and give highest overall marks.

 

[abc]

did you do Northstar weekday or weekend?

 

[bdfreetuna]

Northstar I think was a Friday. It actually wasn't super crowded but the parking situation was rediculous with the faraway lots and shuttles, and the "village" was basically a giant area to traverse before getting tickets and skiing. And there was no "lodge" just a small area with day lockers and a couple benches to try and boot up at. (I like to boot up in a lodge not in my car)

Basically we ended up wasting almost an hour between parking and getting on the lift due to ritzy resort nonsense.

Mt Rose was the opposite and in fact one of the fastest lot to ski times I can remember. If I lived around there this is where I'd buy my season pass.

Northstar I will say does have some fun terrain though. The only hard terrain was on Lookout Mountain but a few of those trails were indeed pretty steep and gnarly. One of them had a sick double fall line that made me think of lift line at Smuggs.

Northstar reminded me of a combo of Killington, Okemo and Mt Snow to some extent. Very "familiar" to eastern skiers but yet having a little something different.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Heavenly was worth skiing 2 days as it took that long to explore all the areas, in fact I could have used more time.

Kirkwood is the local's favorite and super scenic, and has super steep and gnar stuff to ski if you want to; however I was satisfied with skiing what we had skied after 1 day and felt like another day wasn't necessary.

Mt Rose I would have liked to return to mostly because the lifts closed early due to high winds and my plans got cut short, but what we had skied (many runs on both sides of the mountain) was spectacular.

Northstar we chose mainly as a "down day" as we were exhausted and sunburnt already.

Never got to Squaw or Alpine but after skiing Kirkwood and talking to the locals I felt like I could make peace going home without doing it. We had some relatives join us up at South Lake Tahoe for the last couple days and we preferred to go back to Sacramento with them rather than stay and ski another day, exhausting ourselves further and weirding up the plans.

By that point my mind had already wandered back East and I felt our trip to Tahoe had served it's purpose and then some...