Tahoe report

[skidude]

Got back from Tahoe with 'Mum yesterday. We skied for 5 days. 3 at Heavenly, 1 at Squaw, and 1 at Dimond Peak.

 

First 3.5 ski days there was stuff falling from the sky, mostly snow. Made for some good powder skiing (about 8-10 inches ontop of Heavenly 2 out of 3 days I was there and the day at Squaw) Brought the 165 SL race skis, which are not the best in powder (something like 64mm waist) but I had fun on them anyway. Midway threw the day at Squaw the sun came out, and stayed out for another day at Heavenly (last day).

 

Heavenly is a huge mountain, that is in both NV and CA. We were staying by the base at Heavenly, and took the gondola up about 2,000 feet, then from there started skiing. You cannot ski down to the gondola, its just to get you up to the mountain. Its cool because the mountain is higher than lake level, giving it more snow and less rain. But there is no lodge at the Gondola, which means no place to stash your stuff (shoes and stuff). Luckily our hotel was literally less than a block away from the base of the lift. Mountain has a few bowls, lots of groomers, lots of trees, and pretty good lifts. Seemed like it got most of the recreational skiers from Reno.

The first 2 days we skied there, and had pow skiing in the trees, and flat groomers. The last day we skied we had lots of sun and no new snow. It was pretty warm, but everyone is so spread out, the trails stayed pretty nice.

They some pretty big jumps in their park...

 

Dimond Peak is a smaller mountain (about 1,800 vert) and I think its the 4th biggest vert around Tahoe. Has a bunch of sweet long steep groomers that I would have sold my soul for a pair of GS skis on. Very under advertised. Not a huge area, but there was almost no people there. Some nice glades too. Recomeneded runs, Slalom Glade, (not actully a glade) Lightning. and Show Off.

Worth a day if you go out there.

They have 2 lifts in the base area, and insted of making them high speed quads they have you stand on a converor (sp?) belt to speed you up before you get on the lift. This allows them to run the lift faster, without having to worry about you getting slammed by a super fast moving chair. This might be a good option for Bear Creek to look into, because it allows the quad to move faster.

Not too much of a park

 

Squaw is just like one huge open mountain. Huge amounts of expert areas. The mountain is very open, with not too many named trails. Mostly they name areas, and have some random patches of trees seperating them. Many steep bowls, cliffs, trees. Fun mountain. When we went (day 4) it was really warm, making us want to stay on the upper mountain. The 10 inches of pow at the top was pretty wet, which was not a good combination on steep trails, with a pair of skis that just sank. But I survived, which is always good.

They also have a very cool gondola type lift. Each cabin holds 28 people, and runs on 2 cables, but they cars keep coming, so its closer to a gondola than a small tram.

Deffinatly worth a day, especailly if their is fresh snow, and its cold out.

Not sure what their park looked like.

 

 

Deffinatly a fun trip. Got some pictures, but too lazy to put them online now. Give me a few days...