Timeless

Nice Pic's, Love Powder Mountain, I am always amazed how empty that place can be even with such conditions. Was powder country open?

Probably a good choice to stay away from the resorts with 9-10k ridgelines, more storms today and tomorrow. Looks like the pattern is going to change by wednesday though, you might even get some blue skies....

No way there can be that big a difference between Squaw and Alpine, they are practically on top of each other. It's all good though, when you are comparing the difference between 3 feet and 5 feet for the week. Some local reports are claiming that we will see 10-15 feet of new snow at the peaks through this week.

Just to hype Philly-C up a little more: Alpine meadows, not very well stitched panorama

plenty more to come, forecasting about a foot a day at the base level.

Storms are raging over here, I had to take a painful decision to bail out of the tahoe region yesterday (too much risk with the kids around), it was almost whiteout conditions and getting worse as we came out through echo pass. Back home in Morgan Hill the weather has just got worse and worse, which just means more snow (and wind)for the mountains. This weeks storms look to be just what they need, hopefully they'll drop the predicted 4-6ft as base level (much more higher up) and then clear out for next weekend. My only concerns for your trip will be getting here, once you're in it should be "epic".

by the time you get here it will be a different mountain, the storms this week look massive, it's snowing a storm right now and this is the first and smallest of the forecast storms. Given how the other resorts were at christmas with less than is forecast, you'll have great conditions. As for 2 days here, wouldn't be a problem for me, it's a big place and the new snow will open up a lot of options in the trees. I may be back in the area next weekend myself if these storms bear fruit as they are supposed to.

Hi All, just got down off of the mountain before they shut down the lifts for high winds. The storm arrived much later than we expected, with the wind picking up through the day but the snow not hitting until around 3pm, but when it arrived it went from sunshine to blizzard (and not the crunchy ice- cream type) in less than 30 minutes. Those of you familiar with Heavenly will know that it can be a real bitch to get across the mountain, we found this out the hard way as we needed to back to the summit to get back to the gondola from the lower californian side, the wind was blowing over 80mph at the peak (according to the lifty, but we all know they cant be trusted... ). Long story short, we made it down OK but it was a hairy end to a great day. We started from the gondola, where people were alreay telling us (at 8.30, 4 th gondola up)that they would stop the lifts early today and that it would be difficult to get down, everyone was telling us "you have to make a plan to get off of the mountain", I had a GPS, what did I need to worry... A quick blue groomer off of the tamarack (sp?) lift and my son takes a really hard slam with both ski's off, no idea what happened but after all the stuff he's been doing lately it was realy ironic that he would take a hard fall on an easy groomer. It took him a couple of runs to shake it off, but no lasting harm. Once he got over it we started a few of the more challenging runs off of the "dipper" lift, then ran down to the galaxy area. I really liked in down through the trees here, but the snowpack is painfully thin. They really need the snow coming this week, the claim of a 49" base seems a little hopeful, unless they had logs on the ground that were a foot thick and 4 feet deep. Either way, we spent a lot of time over on the nevada side, the only disappointment there was the stagecoach area, lots of flats and cat tracks, not worth the time we wasted there. Heading over the other side, we spent a lot of time off of the canyon express and the quad up to the peak (pics below from this area), then we had a late lunch and a few more runs here before running from the storm. One of these pic's really captures the day, lots of nice groomers in the sunshine but you can see the storm over the lake in the background. Takeaways from Heavenly for me: It's very big, and if they get the snowpack back then it would be great, but they need at least another 6 feet of snow to make some of those areas useable. There are way to many cat tracks, I hate this. The lodges are pretty expensive, but quite good and it wasn't too busy (impending storm?) Nice tree runs (better with more snow) Some nice steeps, but seem very happy to encourage long mogul runs (a plus for some but not me). That's about it, I would not rate it even with Squaw or Alpine meadows as a riding experience, not sure I'll be rushing to come back but glad we tried it and had a great day with my kids (as always)

Nice report and good pic's. It's amazing how quickly you forget the "chalk over hardpack" surface over there. It's wierdly different for me after learning to ride in the pocono's, it feels like very ski-day is a vacation day. I hope I never become a west coast ski-snob, looks like I might be coming back to ride at killington in March so I guess I'll find out...

Hope you feel better soon Doug

cold nature of the storms and snow levels down to 4000 feet mean that it shouldn't be heavy wet snow, the snow ratios are expected to be "quite high for the area". First storm looks set for Sunday night, I'll let you know how it looks.

Given the forecasts for these storms he may not be able to get anywherwe near Tahoe by next weekend, the forecast for this weekend has the storms not arriving until sunday, after that it could be 10 days of continous storms, I'm actually a little worried about getting back out on Monday night.

All booked up for Sunday & Monday, Arriving saturday PM in South Lake Tahoe staying right by the heavenly gondola. Will ski Heavenly on Sunday and then depending on the weather either have another day there or go to Sierra or Kirkwood on the way home. Must remember to take camera, will post pic's if possible but likely to be very grey and snowy

Isn't keystone thousands of miles from Killington & CB. I thought your original post was somewhat tenuous but now you've just blown any (small amount) of credibility you might have had. I don't understand why we have the conversation about CB's lifts every year, yes they close them in the first moderate breeze, yes they close them when it's not busy and they can save money, it's lame but it's a fact of life at CB. Do I miss it? Hell no....

Sad to hear that you can be somewhere that nice and give up on a ski day because the conditions are going downhill so fast. How many days do you have left?

Glad to be of help to a PASR'r, you can keep up with this guys blog at this link, he has been spot on with all the recent storms. http://sierraattahoesnow.blogspot.com/ I'll see if I can get some pic's this weekend, I think we headed for south lake, most likely sierra-at-tahoe and kirkwood. Looks like we may have to ride in the storms as it will begin on sunday and snow for some days.

Looking pretty thin.... and I don't mean Doug... Hope you guys get plenty of snow tonight.

One more update: Snow level was already at lake level this morning and several inches have already fallen. The snow is going to be lighter this afternoon with the snow level maybe coming up a tad before the heavier snow arrives tonight with the stronger storm and snow levels drop. Totals should be around 10-14 inches at the base, with 14-20 inches above 7000 ft. Also, this morning's GFS model is catching onto the idea of keeping next weeks storms going through the following week. First big storm comes in Sunday night and then they don't stop for at least 10 days. Early estimates for the first week are 4-6 feet, but we don't know yet the exact track of the heaviest snows. Snow levels will stay below lake level all week. looks like I will be up there this weekend, might not be able to to get back

Keep the pic's and reports coming, good to see you guys having good weather and conditions.

Awesome pictures, making plans to stay yet?

Latest Update : Tahoe to get Hammered as Phillycore arrives..... Storm coming in two waves for Tues/Wed. First wave is going to arrive Tuesday and work to moisten the atmosphere and break down the ridge. Second wave right on it's heals for Wednesday will be slitting but looks to bring a decent amount of snow over Tahoe. Models have been pretty consistent with an inch plus of liquid over Tahoe and up to 1.5 inches on the crest. Early estimates are for 8-12 inches at base, with 12+ inches above 7000 ft. The ridge will try to set back up going into next weekend with a storm moving by to our North. Meanwhile, the Negative NAO continues to head towards neutral weakening the block over Greenland and allowing the pattern to progress. At the same time the PNA goes towards negative allowing the the jet, being juiced by El Nino, to crash into CA for the week of the 18th. Once it starts snowing it may not stop for a long time as there will be nothing to stop storm after storm hitting CA going into the end of the month. The pattern favors the jet stream being towards Southern CA, but close enough for plenty of snow here, with some of the storms taking direct aim on Tahoe. Rest up your shoveling arms, gas your blowers, and get ready for to be buried in snow because in 10 days a real Tahoe winter looks to show up. Stay tuned for more details on this weeks storm........

Latest update: Two storms will hit Tahoe in the time period of Tues-Thurs (12th to 14th). Models have been very consistent the past few days with showing around 1-2 feet of snow from the two storms. These storms are in response to the ridge finally shifting East and allowing storms into the West Coast. The real pattern change looks to set-up for the third week of January as the jet stream looks like it may slam CA with a train of storms. All patterns are coming together to support this scenario. Stay tuned..........

Anyone have any recommendations for creating photo sequences? I think you can do this with photo-shop, I want to overlay a sequence of pictures with a moving subject but common background. Anyone have suggestions, anything free available? Thanks

Skiers can be such a-holes.....

Great Trip Report, nice pic's. Stowe looks pretty good from these pic's, wish I had ridden there before I left.