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phillycore

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Is Alpine Meadows even step enough for 122"?

 

Assuming you meant "steep", yes it has plenty over on the right as you look up the hill. Maybe even steep enough for super-heroes like yourself. it's effectively the backside of Squaw valley so has very similar terrain.

 

would this qualify?

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Ahahaha yeah Glenn is a superhero. And 10 feet deep snow is too deep. When Bridger Bowl received 105 inches in five days when I lived there only the steepest pitches were initially skiable. It was especially tough on snowboarders who were getting stuckin neck deep snow. I find about 15 inches of fresh to be ideal. Enough pow for complete float but you still maintain your speed. Yes I'd rather ski 15 inches of fresh than 50.

 

WP can't handle much more than 20" gracefully, but I had the best runs of my life there with more snow than that. I assumed bridger would get shitty with the run outs near the bottoms of the upper mountain lifts. Even squaw as steep and gnar as it is has runouts immediately after the steeps. I just feel like thats too much snow for those hills.

 

At the same time, I would never turn down the opportunity to get on it. 100" is a lifetime memory.

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Okay yes it is EPIC. It took 9 hours to get there last Friday but Saturday was SO worth it. Even paid $92 for a lift pass to the Mtn where I have a season pass (holiday blackout) to ride Saturday. They didn't open the upper mtn ALL week due to avalanche danger and started opening lifts around 10:30 Saturday. We got 5th chair when headwall opened and it was AMAZING. Something like 80" since it was opened last. Skiied there for a while until Siberia opened. It has a steep face then a relatively flat traverse then a final blueish face. So many people were stuck or searching for skis...I felt SO bad for them but whatevs you can't stop or slow down fools.

 

Granite opened around 1:45 and was beyond EPIC. I rode from 9:00 to 4:00 and really don't do that but I just couldn't stop.

 

Then on Monday they opened the last remaining closed area of the mountain, Silverado. It is so freaking rugged am amazing. It's this little side of the mountain all to itself and you have to take this awful fixed grip lift to get out of there. The line was 45 minutes long but the queue had the same vibe as a concert before the show. Big smiles and excitement all around.

 

It's snowing in Tahoe again now and I am headed back Saturday morning and will be there for 9 days of riding/entertaining lucky folks from out east.

 

Don't hate for no pics. We forgot the camera at home and I was not about to turn around :)

 

God its great with that much snow too, going off things I would never dream of going off. Taking the steepest runs straight. Runs that I am normally pretty scared of in normal conditions. Squaw is an incredible mountain. :)

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Nice report Erin...The Montana boys and Aspen boys could learn from that!!! I'm glad you got the goods.

 

The week before Xmas I'm staying in my bro in laws fathers friends house by Northstar but I don't have much interest skiing there....how far is Squaw from Northstar and do you know if there are buses?

 

Northstar to Squaw is about 20-30 minutes in a car, probably no direct bus. Northstar is worth a day, has some great trees but not much (maybe nothing) in the way of real steeps but not if it's your only day. It also get real busy mid season.

 

Regarding the snow depths, it packs down anyway so none has to deal with 100", we rode after 8 feet had fallen at thankgiving and only my 10 year old was struggling with the depth. Alot depends on the snow ratios, which for this weekend look very high, real blower.

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Someone said there is a shuttle from N* to Squaw but I don't know. Like Timeless said, it can get very busy and its very family but I hear if you stick to the backside its not bad.

 

It snowed 29" in the last 24 at Squaw. I am hoping that the roads are clear-ish tomorrow morning when we take the trek. Timeless, where are you headed this weekend?

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Someone said there is a shuttle from N* to Squaw but I don't know. Like Timeless said, it can get very busy and its very family but I hear if you stick to the backside its not bad.

 

It snowed 29" in the last 24 at Squaw. I am hoping that the roads are clear-ish tomorrow morning when we take the trek. Timeless, where are you headed this weekend?

 

Sugarbowl Saturday (nearest, most sheltered from the wind and less likely to be affected by traffic issues, plus my kids like it)

Alpine Meadows Sunday (My favorite)

 

Where will you be?

 

I'd rank the Tahoe resorts that I've been to in this order --- Squaw, Kirkwood, Alpine, Heavenly, Homewood

 

Erin.... pics this weekend please!!!

 

I will have pic's both days but saturday might be too snowy for good shots.... :drool

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some pics from this weekend. no apologies for lack of steeps or pro-riders, just me and the kids having fun.

 

Sugarbowl on Saturday, sunnier than expected and the snow was not blower, but not really heavy. VERY deep, so much so that a fall was almost dangerous in places. The open faces were quickly chewed up but still deep, soft powder, speed really your friend here.

 

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Alpine Meadows on Sunday, took a couple of "vista" pics just to give a good feel for the place for those that haven't been there. This is backside and frontside of the resort, everything seen in these pic's is either directly lift served or hike-able.

 

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despite the lovely view of the lake from the resort, this means not many (decent) slopes where you can catch the lake in the background.

 

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Overall this was a great day at Alpine, quite warm and the snow still soft and loose off of the groomers, groomers were kind of "pebble"-like, fun but quite slow. Base is enormous up there wih more snow coming, back-country must be amazing right now.

 

Hope you all had great weekends too.

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Timeless, do you know how to access 'munchkins'?

 

I've been to Alpine several times. Awesome place. At some point we were told to find 'Outer-Outer' and 'Munchkins'. We found Outer-Outer and it is awesome, but were never able to get any intel on Munchkins.

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Timeless, do you know how to access 'munchkins'?

 

I've been to Alpine several times. Awesome place. At some point we were told to find 'Outer-Outer' and 'Munchkins'. We found Outer-Outer and it is awesome, but were never able to get any intel on Munchkins.

 

Acess to munchkins depends on how you like to hike. It's straight up-hill from the access road if you're really into the back-country touring kind of thing, or you can hike out from the summit past wolverine, beaver and estelle bowls, it's essentially the backside of KT22. Plenty of stuff out there to keep you happy. Never got as far as Munchkins myself, I'm told they are 3 chutes, only one of which is a death trap.

 

There's probably plenty of stuff on you-tube, they are quite famous locally,

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  • 2 weeks later...

That ties into the whole closed boundaries discussion at Squaw. We have closed boundaries but Alpine has BC gates. If there were BC gates at Squaw you could slide right into some AMAZING terrain. There's a whole rumor mill that KSL (Squaw's new owners) are going to buy Alpine.

 

I digress. Timeless- we have a house (right above Mtn Mikes) and passes to Squaw so I am always there. We might take advantage of the $100 April pass at Alpine but we might not. I have 32 days at Squaw this winter and while I really want to check Alpine out its so hard to leave Squaw...I just love it too much and I can walk to the lifts.

 

Sorry for not posting sooner! And I will post some pics this week. All in all it was AWESOME. A mix of powder days and sunshine. Timeless is correct that the storm that blew through was wet and heavy. It got skiied out really fast so you just had to get there faster :P The thing about Tahoe resorts is that they typically do not open all the terrain right after the heavy snow. There are so many avey tracks that patrol needs to blast a lot so usually things open throughout the day into the next day so you can get freshies all day.

 

It looks like some more storms are coming through this week and our late season is going to rock :)

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