# Going to Tahoe, Pointers?



## sk8_choco21 (Sep 8, 2011)

So I'm going to Sierra-at-Tahoe this November, the week after thanksgiving. I have only ever been to Bear and Mt. High so I figure I'm in for a nice surprise, but is this a good time to go? 

I believe we are going to do two trips there, one early season, and one after Christmas because we can't go during holiday season because the passes we are using are the ones that are included in the Mt. High season pass. 

So i guess my question is, is the that going to be still a good time to go or should I find other non-holiday dates to go?

Also what are a few good non-boarding things to hit up for a 19 year old kid?

Any suggestions are helpful thanks guys!


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## kctahoe (Nov 14, 2010)

If you can I would defenetly wait till after Christmas for both of your trips. I may be wrong but i don't think sierra makes any snow, so if we don't get much snow they won't have much if anything open. I wanna say sierra didn't even open till early december last year.


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## sk8_choco21 (Sep 8, 2011)

oh wow... thats a downer  thanks for the advice man!


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## kctahoe (Nov 14, 2010)

Are your passes limited to Sierra only? If not id say plan a trip to northstar they have great snowmaking, great park, but the terrain is blah, but if there isn't much snow that doesn't matter much


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## sk8_choco21 (Sep 8, 2011)

kctahoe said:


> Are your passes limited to Sierra only? If not id say plan a trip to northstar they have great snowmaking, great park, but the terrain is blah, but if there isn't much snow that doesn't matter much


Yeah actually it is  but whatever i guess Mt High will have to do till december... how do you like Sierra though? Is it as good as people say?


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## kctahoe (Nov 14, 2010)

I like it a lot, good park, i loved it on pow days, not quit as big as some of the other resorts but still plenty big enough. I used to go there a lot back when you could buy the double whammy pass with north star and sierra.


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## sk8_choco21 (Sep 8, 2011)

kctahoe said:


> I like it a lot, good park, i loved it on pow days, not quit as big as some of the other resorts but still plenty big enough. I used to go there a lot back when you could buy the double whammy pass with north star and sierra.


Dude thats like the pass of all passes haha but cool, im more park oriented anyways so im sure ill be stoked on it.


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## abngirly (Jan 15, 2011)

I work at Sierra and it's a super fun mountain, but KC is right they don't blow their own snow so they depend on mother nature to open. Luckily, the snow from the other week looks like it's still holding and there may be some more on the way. If we do get some weather I'd say there's a chance we could be open around thanksgiving. I think your best bet is to just stay flexible and see what the weather does. Otherwise I'd even recommend just saving your tickets until after Christmas, it'll be worth the wait!


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

abngirly said:


> I work at Sierra and it's a super fun mountain, but KC is right they don't blow their own snow so they depend on mother nature to open. Luckily, the snow from the other week looks like it's still holding and there may be some more on the way. If we do get some weather I'd say there's a chance we could be open around thanksgiving. I think your best bet is to just stay flexible and see what the weather does. Otherwise I'd even recommend just saving your tickets until after Christmas, it'll be worth the wait!


This girl knows her shiz. It'll surely be worth the wait!


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## surfinsnow (Feb 4, 2010)

kctahoe said:


> If you can I would defenetly wait till after Christmas for both of your trips. I may be wrong but i don't think sierra makes any snow, so if we don't get much snow they won't have much if anything open. I wanna say sierra didn't even open till early december last year.


Yeah, I've never had much luck with early-season at Tahoe. You're likely to be met with a lot of closed/bare terrain. But you never know. We started holding off until mid/late February. Much better shot at getting good conditions. Nothing worse than looking at all these awesome mountains with closed trails!


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## Skinny Bam (Sep 7, 2012)

Plan on going sometime between late Feb. and early March and just watch the weather. I went for a week on presidents day a couple years ago and got sooo lucky with the conditions. Literally snowed at least 30" almost every night after we got there....powder was so ridiculous the parks at both Heavenly and Sierra weren't open. Not that I cared too much as I def got some of the best tree runs in ever at both places.


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## surfinsnow (Feb 4, 2010)

Skinny Bam said:


> Plan on going sometime between late Feb. and early March and just watch the weather. I went for a week on presidents day a couple years ago and got sooo lucky with the conditions. Literally snowed at least 30" almost every night after we got there....powder was so ridiculous the parks at both Heavenly and Sierra weren't open. Not that I cared too much as I def got some of the best tree runs in ever at both places.


I think I was there that year, the last two weeks of Feb two years ago, starting President's Day week. It snowed for four days...never seen anything like it! I literally didn't know how to ride it. We stayed in Tahoe City, so Homewood was the easiest place to get to, and mid-week was sweet. Super quiet. But, man! That snow was fcuking crazy! So deep, I didn't know what to do with it! I've never ridden where you didn't even have to turn...just lean way back and go for it. Homewood glades were insane with that deep pow! Probably won't make it back this year...had foot surgery for a torn tendon last season. Still recovering. Very sad!


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## Skinny Bam (Sep 7, 2012)

surfinsnow said:


> I think I was there that year, the last two weeks of Feb two years ago, starting President's Day week. It snowed for four days...never seen anything like it! I literally didn't know how to ride it. We stayed in Tahoe City, so Homewood was the easiest place to get to, and mid-week was sweet. Super quiet. But, man! That snow was fcuking crazy! So deep, I didn't know what to do with it! I've never ridden where you didn't even have to turn...just lean way back and go for it. Homewood glades were insane with that deep pow! Probably won't make it back this year...had foot surgery for a torn tendon last season. Still recovering. Very sad!


Yeppp thats when it was. Shit was crazy. My buddy who I was riding with had never rode in real powder so he had a tough time following me through the trees but he started to catch on pretty quick. Not gonna lie I was a little bummed the parks were closed even though there was so much fresh...coming from AZ I dont get a lot of 35+ foot jumps. Pretty funny to see faces of the staff when I asked when they were opening the park when it was some of the best pow days of the year :laugh:

Luckily my last day we hit Diamond Peak which although very small did have 2 nice size jumps and park that was open. Looking forward to making a trip again this year since i got the Epic.


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## jdang307 (Feb 6, 2011)

Sierra is a nice, kind of out of the way place. It's not the shitshow Northstar is, with crowds.

That said Northstar was fun. Not challenging terrain but I don't always need that.

If you can make it to Squaw and Alpine those two are great


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## surfinsnow (Feb 4, 2010)

Skinny Bam said:


> Yeppp thats when it was. Shit was crazy. My buddy who I was riding with had never rode in real powder so he had a tough time following me through the trees but he started to catch on pretty quick. Not gonna lie I was a little bummed the parks were closed even though there was so much fresh...coming from AZ I dont get a lot of 35+ foot jumps. Pretty funny to see faces of the staff when I asked when they were opening the park when it was some of the best pow days of the year :laugh:
> 
> Luckily my last day we hit Diamond Peak which although very small did have 2 nice size jumps and park that was open. Looking forward to making a trip again this year since i got the Epic.


Diamond Peak is cute! We went only because I was doing a business call on the Marketing Dept, and they comped me after our meeting. Still only stayed for a couple of hours. It is BEAUTIFUL, but gets boring really fast. Still, we had deep pow, and I went down one of their little blacks and triggered a mini-avalanche! At Diamond Peak, of all places! Slide halfway down the mountain upside down and head first. Glad it was there, and not Kirkwood!


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

surfinsnow said:


> Diamond Peak is cute! We went only because I was doing a business call on the Marketing Dept, and they comped me after our meeting. Still only stayed for a couple of hours. It is BEAUTIFUL, but gets boring really fast. Still, we had deep pow, and I went down one of their little blacks and triggered a mini-avalanche! At Diamond Peak, of all places! Slide halfway down the mountain upside down and head first. Glad it was there, and not Kirkwood!


Ha! You forgot the first rule about avalanches. "If it's steep enough to ride, it's steep enough to slide". Though experiencing one in bounds is pretty rare it does happen. I got slid on the Quail Face at Homewood in 92.


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## surfinsnow (Feb 4, 2010)

jdang307 said:


> Sierra is a nice, kind of out of the way place. It's not the shitshow Northstar is, with crowds.
> 
> That said Northstar was fun. Not challenging terrain but I don't always need that.
> 
> If you can make it to Squaw and Alpine those two are great


I think Homewood, Alpine and Squaw tix are all interchangeable now. Homewood owns Alpine. That's why I like staying in North Lake (that, and the fact that a family friend owns the house and rents it to us for practically nothing). North Lake is the perfect location! It's a long way to Kirkwood, though, especially if the pass through E bay is closed. The days we go to K'wood we usually stay at the Lakeside Inn in SLT. Cheap digs, very snowboarder friendly, all-night Casino and Mexican food joint, cheap lift tix at the concierge desk, and it puts you 45 minutes closer to Kirkwood. I love the Lakeside! Great little dive!


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

Depends! 

2 seasons ago Kirkwood opened the 20th November with 5 feet of fresh, last season we had none until March....hoping for a November opening again!




sk8_choco21 said:


> So I'm going to Sierra-at-Tahoe this November, the week after thanksgiving. I have only ever been to Bear and Mt. High so I figure I'm in for a nice surprise, but is this a good time to go?
> 
> I believe we are going to do two trips there, one early season, and one after Christmas because we can't go during holiday season because the passes we are using are the ones that are included in the Mt. High season pass.
> 
> ...


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## surfinsnow (Feb 4, 2010)

killclimbz said:


> Ha! You forgot the first rule about avalanches. "If it's steep enough to ride, it's steep enough to slide". Though experiencing one in bounds is pretty rare it does happen. I got slid on the Quail Face at Homewood in 92.


Yeah...but it was only Diamond Peak! I was pretty amazed to feel the whole mountain slide out from underneath me! It was a nice day, sunny and in the 40's, so I was just wearing a hoodie. Was pretty wet and snow-filled by the time the slide stopped!

Quail Face is fun! That's the pic on my avatar, at the 55.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Scary how powerful moving snow is ain't it?

Didn't even recognize your avatar was from that spot. Very nice.


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## surfinsnow (Feb 4, 2010)

jdang307 said:


> Sierra is a nice, kind of out of the way place. It's not the shitshow Northstar is, with crowds.
> 
> That said Northstar was fun. Not challenging terrain but I don't always need that.
> 
> If you can make it to Squaw and Alpine those two are great


We went to Tahoe for five years before finally hitting Northstar...always heard such shit about it. It's like a mall with a ski resort behind it. But the local Shell stations were offering free tix with a minimum 10 gal fill up, so we went to two gas stations and forced 20 gallons into the rental, and then went to Northstar. It's a beautiful resort. The blues got boring pretty quick, but a big-ass storm moved in and we wound up doing those blacks on the other side during near white-out conditions. It was awesome! Those are some long runs, and no one was on them, all to ourselves. I don't hate Northstar. And the women-folk love it, because of all the shopping and restaurants.


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## jdang307 (Feb 6, 2011)

surfinsnow said:


> We went to Tahoe for five years before finally hitting Northstar...always heard such shit about it. It's like a mall with a ski resort behind it. But the local Shell stations were offering free tix with a minimum 10 gal fill up, so we went to two gas stations and forced 20 gallons into the rental, and then went to Northstar. It's a beautiful resort. The blues got boring pretty quick, but a big-ass storm moved in and we wound up doing those blacks on the other side during near white-out conditions. It was awesome! Those are some long runs, and no one was on them, all to ourselves. I don't hate Northstar. And the women-folk love it, because of all the shopping and restaurants.


Yes the backside has nice, long runs. Pretty cool for resort riding. The front sucks though, you have to take multiple lifts to get to the top. That's just dumb.


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## abngirly (Jan 15, 2011)

So this last storm was pretty sweet, but not great base building snow. It looks like we're going to get some pretty consistent weather coming through in the next couple weeks but it'll depend how much snow each storm brings. I don't wanna get on my amateur weatherman soapbox so I'll just say realistically, unless you absolutely have to get out here early season I think the longer you're able to wait the better it'll be. (Although conditions already look better than the first 2 months I moved here last winter!)

In other news, I haven't checked the forum but has anyone addressed the sierra/squaw/alpine merger rumors? 

Elvey! Miss ya big guy...hope to see you out here for some spring riding perhaps?


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

The approval process for a repeat of last-year is in the final Phase. I'll know in the next two weeks if I'm a go for Snowbbatical Pt. 2. I'll be in-touch.


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## rob7289 (Nov 14, 2010)

whats the nightlife out there look like? must go places?


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## Skinny Bam (Sep 7, 2012)

rob7289 said:


> whats the nightlife out there look like? must go places?


South Lake is basically Vegas...


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## sk8_choco21 (Sep 8, 2011)

You think a Pennsylvania fake I.D. would work there? How strict are they on this kind of stuff does anyone know?


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## waterryder (Nov 22, 2012)

Originally Posted by rob7289 
whats the nightlife out there look like? must go places? 

Depends when u go...if u go for new years stay close to the casinos as you will be walking home with a buzz.....lol the cabs are impossible to get that evening.....if you want to hit the club (Vex), you can....also the party is on the 50 that night and around the casinos....other than new years you can have fun but for the most part the tourists stick around the casinos.....


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## waterryder (Nov 22, 2012)

My 2 cents on a few SLT Resorts...

Kirkwood-absoultley epic on a POW day, but you gotta leave early in the am as the roads will get shut down even though they are clear the area is an avalanche area

Heavenly-sure why not ride it especially because of the ease of access....i mean who wouldnt want to drink all day on the mountain and then walk back or blue line it......if you know the area on a POW day check out firebreak, gotta ask a local they can direct you......

Sierra-fun resort, but i save my sierra days for when the other resorts go on a wind hold sierra sits in a make shift bowl and they rarely seem to go on wind hold.....


If this is your only chance to get to tahoe the week after thanksgiving then take advantage and hit it up, but you will not beable to even begin to ride any of the sick lines that are possible, i would reschedule for a new date and watch the weather, if im not mistaken there is a big set coming in next weds-sun.....


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## Triple8Sol (Nov 24, 2008)

surfinsnow said:


> Diamond Peak is cute! We went only because I was doing a business call on the Marketing Dept, and they comped me after our meeting. Still only stayed for a couple of hours. It is BEAUTIFUL, but gets boring really fast. Still, we had deep pow, and I went down one of their little blacks and triggered a mini-avalanche! At Diamond Peak, of all places! Slide halfway down the mountain upside down and head first. Glad it was there, and not Kirkwood!


Diamond Peak seems to have the best views of the Lake, of all the Tahoe mountains. It's true that it gets boring fast, depending on skill level I suppose, since it's such a small area and not that much to explore. Then again lift tickets are relatively cheap and parking is easy.


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## neednsnow (Nov 30, 2007)

Triple8Sol said:


> Diamond Peak seems to have the best views of the Lake, of all the Tahoe mountains.


Better than Homewood?


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## Triple8Sol (Nov 24, 2008)

neednsnow said:


> Better than Homewood?


Haven't been there, but best out of the 8 or so Tahoe mountains I've personally been to many times.


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## Skinny Bam (Sep 7, 2012)

neednsnow said:


> Better than Homewood?


Never been to Homewood but heres a pic I took a Diamond Peak a couple seasons ago.


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