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Planning California ski trip in Janaury
- Thread starter nhskier1969
- Start date
Zand
Well-known member
I've been toying with the idea of doing a Tahoe trip this year myself. I get free rooms at Harrah's (even though it's been at least 7 years since the last time I stayed at or played at a Caesar's property I believe) and now that I have an Epic Pass I could do the ol' stay and play at Harrah's and walk across the street to Heavenly thing.
I guess my biggest question is transportation. Do the Lake Tahoe casinos have shuttles/busses from Reno? Be nice to do this trip and pay for nothing besides a flight and food.
I guess my biggest question is transportation. Do the Lake Tahoe casinos have shuttles/busses from Reno? Be nice to do this trip and pay for nothing besides a flight and food.
There's a very efficient bus that runs straight from the airport to right next to Harrahs. Its not super cheap but not crazy expensive. Maybe 50 bucks?
There's also busses going to the other base areas at heavenly because that gondola closes a ton. Stagecoach is a good place to start your day imo
Zand
Well-known member
Just searched up on it a bit...
There is a bus from Reno to Tahoe for $33 which runs 5 times per day. Not too bad, and definitely cheaper than renting a car. Could always rent a car in town if I wanted to go to Northstar or Kirkwood.
And yeah I read that about the gondola but sounds like the resort has pretty sufficient shuttle service between the gondola and the other base areas for those kind of days.
I got the jist from my searching that Heavenly kinda sucks compared to a lot of the other resorts in the area but the convenience is unmatched. But for Epic Pass it's under an hour to Kirkwood and Northstar.
There is a bus from Reno to Tahoe for $33 which runs 5 times per day. Not too bad, and definitely cheaper than renting a car. Could always rent a car in town if I wanted to go to Northstar or Kirkwood.
And yeah I read that about the gondola but sounds like the resort has pretty sufficient shuttle service between the gondola and the other base areas for those kind of days.
I got the jist from my searching that Heavenly kinda sucks compared to a lot of the other resorts in the area but the convenience is unmatched. But for Epic Pass it's under an hour to Kirkwood and Northstar.
If Mott and killebrew are open then that's gonna get your craving for steep stuff more that satisfied. Colorado can only dream of terrain like that. The main ski area is lots of cruisers but the trees in between are fun as hell. Heavnly get alot of unnecessary hate from people that don't really know what it has to offer. Get down to kirkwood if you can. Northstar is not really worth it but ok if you want a day with high speed cruisers or a storm day
Zand
Well-known member
That's good to hear. I know searching the internet generally gives mixed results, it's good to hear that the ragging on Heavenly is overblown. And I've heard Kirkwood gets insane snow sometimes so that would be worth seeing.
Edd
Well-known member
Consider Homewood also if snow is good. Charming local hill with killer lake views. Terrain isn’t extreme but more than enough fun stuff for a day.
urungus
Well-known member
Have you skied Quail Face at Homewood ?
Last edited:
jimk
Well-known member
Old photos from some of my visits to the Lake Tahoe area:
Heavenly 2005 venerable tram view, legendary Gunbarrel bump run below:
Homewood 2013 from the Quail Face side country area, my son is standing on top of a really steep slope called Main Cirque:
Diamond Peak 2024, I think this ski area takes first prize for numerous and great views of Lake Tahoe, but the other two are beautiful as well.
Heavenly 2005 venerable tram view, legendary Gunbarrel bump run below:
Homewood 2013 from the Quail Face side country area, my son is standing on top of a really steep slope called Main Cirque:
Diamond Peak 2024, I think this ski area takes first prize for numerous and great views of Lake Tahoe, but the other two are beautiful as well.
kancamagus
Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2019
- Messages
- 36
- Points
- 18
I have probably over a hundred days at Palisades (both Olympic Valley and Alpine Meadows).
Weather in January, or pretty much any time from November through April, is as others have said a crap shoot and is feast or famine.
You might have a 10-20% chance of an atmospheric river which dumps so much snow the resort needs to close for a day or two to dig out, a 10-20% chance there are still only a few WROD snowmaking trails unless you're feeling brave with rock skis, and the remainder 60-80% chance the weather will be genuinely sunny and pleasant, likely with below freezing temps overnight and above freezing temps, at least at lower elevations and south-facing terrain during the day. Every time I've had east coast friends or family come out to ski or ride with us, they are always so surprised at how sunny and nice it generally is, even in January. Basically if it's not actively snowing (or raining if rain/snow line is too low), it's great weather. If there is snow, there can be a high chance its heavy and wet Sierra Cement. Which isn't really any different than east coast snow in terms of water content, but it can easily be several feet deep, which can quickly scare you back onto the groomed runs.
What this means is that if it hasn't snowed much recently, there is a high likelihood that there may be icy freeze/thaw conditions in January, especially on south facing terrain and especially in the mornings. Palisades grooming is usually great after the first few weeks (snowmaking-only trails in November or early December can have a lot of death cookies), but they do a wonderful job grooming once mother nature brings some goods. The key if there are freeze-thaw conditions from lack of recent snow is to follow the sun: start on groomed trails, then you can start to work off-piste on south/east facing terrain, then you can transition to more west-facing terrain in the afternoon. If you time terrain right, you can usually find spring-skiing like snow conditions for most of the season.
There are some terrain aspects that face north and pretty much never get any sun (like the pocket of trees at Alpine between the top of TLC and Alpine chairs, and this area usually has great snow even week+ after a storm).
For the past few seasons, Jan 2022 had a ton of base depth, but "stale" freeze/thaw snow (after Dec 2021 dumped 17 feet, but then the weather pattern shifted dry for Jan-Mar 2022), Jan 2023 was great with tons of snow, Jan 2024 was kind of WROD until right near the end of the month / beginning of Feb, when the weather pattern shifted from dry to massive dumps.
Monday through Thursday are great days to ski at either Alpine or Palisades (Olympic Valley side). I try to avoid skiing the Olympic Valley side on weekends (and Fridays can be dicy) if Alpine is open, because the Olympic Valley side gets a ton more jerries on weekends, and Alpine is more chill locals. The parking lot capacity at Alpine side if very well matched to lift capacity, so there are rarely lines there more than about 15 minutes as long as all of the lifts are open. The Gondola doesn't seem to have had any notably negative impact on Alpine - it seems like there is about equal amount of people leaving there to go to Olympic side as there are people coming from Alpine. The only difference I've noticed is that the lift line for TLC is generally a bit longer (it used to almost always be nearly ski on) and the line for Roundhouse is generally a bit shorter.
Pay close attention to whether storms are coming. Because both Palisades and Alpine have terrain aspects on all faces of the mountain, and there are generally few trees, they are HIGHLY suseptible to wind holds. Whenever there is now at Tahoe, it's generally accompanied by basically hurrican force winds, especially at the summits. At Alpine, if there is any kind of notable wind, pretty much everything will go on wind hold except TLC to the mid station (which esspecially only has one groomed run with a really long and flat runout, but has some limited tree skiing near Skateboard Alley and Hot Wheels Gulley to the skiers left and right of the groomed Weasel run). On the Olympic Valley side, there are more lower-elevation lifts that can run in windy conditions, like Resort Chair, Red Dog, Exhibibition, Far East, and sometimes KT. The base to base Gondola goes on wind hold frequently, so plan accordingly if there is wind in the forecast. They also have backup shuttle buses between the two bases.
There are nearly endless amounts of runs (both marked and unmarked) at the mountains. You can pretty much ski anywhere unless it's explicitely marked as closed, so there are tons of secret stashes everywhere. Don't expect Silverado area to be open in January, but you might get lucky if the early season in November or December starts off with a bang, and then has a lull in January where they can dig out and build their snow cat roads. The most dangerous trail is Mountain Run after 2pm. Enjoy the Olympic base village afterwords as others have noted, it's great, and personally I can't wait until they expand it and build more lodging to make it easier for me to stay there for a whole weekend instead of driving up each weekend day from 2+ hours away.
Weather in January, or pretty much any time from November through April, is as others have said a crap shoot and is feast or famine.
You might have a 10-20% chance of an atmospheric river which dumps so much snow the resort needs to close for a day or two to dig out, a 10-20% chance there are still only a few WROD snowmaking trails unless you're feeling brave with rock skis, and the remainder 60-80% chance the weather will be genuinely sunny and pleasant, likely with below freezing temps overnight and above freezing temps, at least at lower elevations and south-facing terrain during the day. Every time I've had east coast friends or family come out to ski or ride with us, they are always so surprised at how sunny and nice it generally is, even in January. Basically if it's not actively snowing (or raining if rain/snow line is too low), it's great weather. If there is snow, there can be a high chance its heavy and wet Sierra Cement. Which isn't really any different than east coast snow in terms of water content, but it can easily be several feet deep, which can quickly scare you back onto the groomed runs.
What this means is that if it hasn't snowed much recently, there is a high likelihood that there may be icy freeze/thaw conditions in January, especially on south facing terrain and especially in the mornings. Palisades grooming is usually great after the first few weeks (snowmaking-only trails in November or early December can have a lot of death cookies), but they do a wonderful job grooming once mother nature brings some goods. The key if there are freeze-thaw conditions from lack of recent snow is to follow the sun: start on groomed trails, then you can start to work off-piste on south/east facing terrain, then you can transition to more west-facing terrain in the afternoon. If you time terrain right, you can usually find spring-skiing like snow conditions for most of the season.
There are some terrain aspects that face north and pretty much never get any sun (like the pocket of trees at Alpine between the top of TLC and Alpine chairs, and this area usually has great snow even week+ after a storm).
For the past few seasons, Jan 2022 had a ton of base depth, but "stale" freeze/thaw snow (after Dec 2021 dumped 17 feet, but then the weather pattern shifted dry for Jan-Mar 2022), Jan 2023 was great with tons of snow, Jan 2024 was kind of WROD until right near the end of the month / beginning of Feb, when the weather pattern shifted from dry to massive dumps.
Monday through Thursday are great days to ski at either Alpine or Palisades (Olympic Valley side). I try to avoid skiing the Olympic Valley side on weekends (and Fridays can be dicy) if Alpine is open, because the Olympic Valley side gets a ton more jerries on weekends, and Alpine is more chill locals. The parking lot capacity at Alpine side if very well matched to lift capacity, so there are rarely lines there more than about 15 minutes as long as all of the lifts are open. The Gondola doesn't seem to have had any notably negative impact on Alpine - it seems like there is about equal amount of people leaving there to go to Olympic side as there are people coming from Alpine. The only difference I've noticed is that the lift line for TLC is generally a bit longer (it used to almost always be nearly ski on) and the line for Roundhouse is generally a bit shorter.
Pay close attention to whether storms are coming. Because both Palisades and Alpine have terrain aspects on all faces of the mountain, and there are generally few trees, they are HIGHLY suseptible to wind holds. Whenever there is now at Tahoe, it's generally accompanied by basically hurrican force winds, especially at the summits. At Alpine, if there is any kind of notable wind, pretty much everything will go on wind hold except TLC to the mid station (which esspecially only has one groomed run with a really long and flat runout, but has some limited tree skiing near Skateboard Alley and Hot Wheels Gulley to the skiers left and right of the groomed Weasel run). On the Olympic Valley side, there are more lower-elevation lifts that can run in windy conditions, like Resort Chair, Red Dog, Exhibibition, Far East, and sometimes KT. The base to base Gondola goes on wind hold frequently, so plan accordingly if there is wind in the forecast. They also have backup shuttle buses between the two bases.
There are nearly endless amounts of runs (both marked and unmarked) at the mountains. You can pretty much ski anywhere unless it's explicitely marked as closed, so there are tons of secret stashes everywhere. Don't expect Silverado area to be open in January, but you might get lucky if the early season in November or December starts off with a bang, and then has a lull in January where they can dig out and build their snow cat roads. The most dangerous trail is Mountain Run after 2pm. Enjoy the Olympic base village afterwords as others have noted, it's great, and personally I can't wait until they expand it and build more lodging to make it easier for me to stay there for a whole weekend instead of driving up each weekend day from 2+ hours away.