loafer89
New member
Area Skied: Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort AKA Mount Charleston Nevada
Date Skied: February 22nd, 2007 from 11:00am - 2:00pm
Surface conditions: Packed powder, hardpacked off non groomed areas.
My son and I had a few hours to spare and take advantage of skiing nearby to Las Vegas while my wife worked our booth at the Spa show we where attending. This enabled us to drive the 46 miles from Las Vegas to Mount Charleston and add Nevada to my list of western states that I have skied in, with cherry trees in blossom in Las Vegas we set off to ski
Mount Charleston juts into the sky reaching 11,918' while the ski area's top lift only reaches a more modest 9,370' with a vertical of 840' and 11 trails serviced by one double and one triple as well as a beginner area with its own double chair.
Primarily the skiing consists of intermediate terrain with a few short natural snow black trails and glades. This ski area is in a canyon that is extremely avalanche prone and a 13 year old snowboarder was swept off the triple chair in a monster 10' slab slide and buried under 4' of snow and subsequently killed in January of 2005. The top terminal of the chairlift was located in a slide path and the USFS deemed it too dangerous and the mountain was forced to shorten the chair and reduce the vertical drop from 1,020 to it's present size.
There are numerous warnings not to venture out of the patrolled area and it's hard to imagine having to worry about avalanche dangers less than 50 miles from Las Vegas. Luckily for us this was a lighter than normal snowfall season with the mountain sporting a 32" natural base.
We skied all of the trails including the glades/natural skiing areas, and the snowmaking/groomed trails where best with packed powder snow. The weather was fairly cold with temperatures around 35-40F with painfully bright sunshine which felt harsh due to the high elevation and southern latitude.
Warren skiing on Keno, this is the trail/lift that was hit by the avalanche in 2005:
The Line and The Strip trails with a view of the Amargosa Desert in the middle backround of the picture:
View of the mountain showing both slide paths:
Date Skied: February 22nd, 2007 from 11:00am - 2:00pm
Surface conditions: Packed powder, hardpacked off non groomed areas.
My son and I had a few hours to spare and take advantage of skiing nearby to Las Vegas while my wife worked our booth at the Spa show we where attending. This enabled us to drive the 46 miles from Las Vegas to Mount Charleston and add Nevada to my list of western states that I have skied in, with cherry trees in blossom in Las Vegas we set off to ski
Mount Charleston juts into the sky reaching 11,918' while the ski area's top lift only reaches a more modest 9,370' with a vertical of 840' and 11 trails serviced by one double and one triple as well as a beginner area with its own double chair.
Primarily the skiing consists of intermediate terrain with a few short natural snow black trails and glades. This ski area is in a canyon that is extremely avalanche prone and a 13 year old snowboarder was swept off the triple chair in a monster 10' slab slide and buried under 4' of snow and subsequently killed in January of 2005. The top terminal of the chairlift was located in a slide path and the USFS deemed it too dangerous and the mountain was forced to shorten the chair and reduce the vertical drop from 1,020 to it's present size.
There are numerous warnings not to venture out of the patrolled area and it's hard to imagine having to worry about avalanche dangers less than 50 miles from Las Vegas. Luckily for us this was a lighter than normal snowfall season with the mountain sporting a 32" natural base.
We skied all of the trails including the glades/natural skiing areas, and the snowmaking/groomed trails where best with packed powder snow. The weather was fairly cold with temperatures around 35-40F with painfully bright sunshine which felt harsh due to the high elevation and southern latitude.
Warren skiing on Keno, this is the trail/lift that was hit by the avalanche in 2005:
The Line and The Strip trails with a view of the Amargosa Desert in the middle backround of the picture:
View of the mountain showing both slide paths:
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