Snow already piled high in Sierra Nevada, many ski areas open. All 23 ski areas, big and small, will open by Dec. 14 weekend-SF Chronicle, 12/6/18

12/6/18, “Snow already piled high, ski areas open gates," San Francisco Chronicle, Dan Stienstra


Snowplows working at Northstar California Resort at Truckee last week

“Across the flank of the Tahoe Basin, miles of forest are glazed with a white frost and tree branches are flexing under the weight of snow.

This is the first week of December?

The scenes across the Sierra Nevada and Shasta-Cascade ranges are a testament to early-season storms that have swept across the high country in Northern California. 

In contrast with last year, all 23 ski areas–big and small–are projected to be open by the Dec. 14-16 weekend, just in time for a banner Christmas holiday season.

Along Highway 89 near Tahoma on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, you can stand at Homewood Mountain Resort and see snow stretching from your boot tips to the crest. Ice-encrusted Ellis Peak towers overhead like a giant serac. Earlier this week, scarcely a breath of wind whispered off Lake Tahoe. 

Homewood, set just above lakeside at 6,230 feet, will open for the season Friday, a landmark early opener. Because of its low elevation, it is typically the last Tahoe ski area to open. 

“If it’s good at Homewood, you know it’s good everywhere,” said Kaersten Swain, a member of Homewood’s guest-services unit, as preparations continued for the opener.

The base at Sugar Bowl is between 26 and 55 inches with 78 inches of snow having already fallen this season. (Photo: Vincent Zacha-Herthel / Sugar Bowl Resort). 

This year, Boreal opened Nov. 13 and each week since then has brought with it more snow. And with the snow piling up, ski areas across the Sierra are scrambling to call in employees and make new hires to open the gates. Most are looking at a season of at least 150 days--one that is expected to stretch into early April. 

“As best as we can figure, this snow is from heaven,” said Janet Tuttle at Donner Ski Ranch, the ski area just south of Interstate 80 that plans to open Friday. 

Mammoth Mountain, 150 miles south of Lake Tahoe, claims the most snowfall and highest snowpack in North America. On Wednesday morning, the resort said its summit had topped 100 inches for the season, with a 40-inch base at the lodge and 70-inch base on top. That is enough to open 94 of 150 runs, with more lifts and runs expected to open this weekend, plus three terrain parks.

“A snow cat returns after making a grooming run at the Kirkwood Mountain Resort Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, in Kirkwood, Calif.

More than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow has fallen at some ski resorts around Lake Tahoe. The National Weather Service in Reno reported more than 2 feet (61 cm) of snow was recorded on the ridgetops early Thursday in the southern Sierra south of the mountain lake where as much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) is possible by the weekend. (Kirkwood Mountain Resort via AP)…

I contacted every Sierra ski area this week, in part to collect and post this year’s prices of lift tickets, and found a confusing collage that make it near impossible to compare same-day, walk-up window rates. 

Some places, like Northstar, don’t publish window rates. Instead, you get advance pricing, flex pricing, multiday pricing, and weekday, weekend and holiday pricing. You often can get discounts by buying in advance, or for your age (youth or seniors), or by being active military….

This year, with so many choices — and so much snow to start the season — you can find your match.” Northstar image from Northstar California Resort
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“Snow falls at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. on Wednesday, November 28, 2018. Photo: Andrew Miller / MMSA“

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Added: Early 2017 massive snows in Sierra Nevada. 2/21/2017, Sierra-at-Tahoe, image SF Chronicle
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2/22/2017, “Photos show the insane amounts of snow piled up in Tahoe," SF Chronicle, Amy Graff 

“The snow keeps piling up in the Sierra Nevada. In the first three weeks of January alone, the Lake Tahoe area received nearly a full winter’s worth of snow, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Houses were buried, cars blanketed and driveways covered. 

And then came February, and the Sierra Nevada was slammed yet again with moisture-packed storms fueled by atmospheric rivers.

“We usually see three or four atmospheric rivers in a season,” said Scott McGuire, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Reno. “We’ve already had 10. We’ve had so much snow to the point where it’s getting hard to measure.”

Those numbers that have been collected indicate remarkable amounts of the white stuff.

The snow survey from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of California found the snow pack in the Lake Tahoe Basin is 219 percent of normal as of Feb. 21, [2017] the Truckee River Basin is 212 percent of normal, and the Walker River Basin, which includes Mammoth Ski Resort, is 224 percent of average.

Mount Rose, the Tahoe ski resort with highest base at 7,900 feet, has recorded 636 inches, some 53 feet of accumulative snow since the start of the season. Squaw Valley has seen 565 inches, over 47 feet.

“In 2017 alone, since January 1, we’ve had 460 inches,” said Sam Kieckhefer, a spokesperson for Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows. “Our season average is 450 inches. We received more snow since the start of 2017 than our average season.””…




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