After some great Christmas skiing in Tahoe and 3 consecutive powder days in mid-January, we headed out on our second trip of the ski season. We returned to one of our favorites: Sun Valley and hit our 2nd new resort of this ski season: Tamarack.
Heavenly powder in the trees, January 2020
This was the first time we ever flew into Boise and we discovered that it’s a super easy and quick flight from San Jose. In fact we think Boise is the best airport experience we have ever had. It took about 5 minutes for us to pick up the keys to our rental car and when we got to the luggage area it was already waiting for us. Within 20 minutes of landing we were on the road to Hailey. The drive on highway 20 through southern Idaho is very scenic and empty. Some day we would like to try Soldier Mountain which is a small resort between Sun Valley and Boise.
Sun Valley Selfie, February 2020
We had 3 days at Sun Valley and the truth is that the conditions weren’t very good. It had been very warm the week before, and then on the 2nd day of skiing it got really cold and windy. Although they have great grooming there, you can’t really effectively groom compacted ice. Still, the overall experience was fun because we got a lot of skiing in with zero lines, and cold sunny weather to enjoy the fantastic views.
Sun Valley wind, February 2020
Tamarack was a welcome change, with 2″ of fresh at the start of the day about about 3″ more by the end. It warmed up while it was snowing, and conditions were soft and prime. This was one of the best days of the season so far, and we were super impressed with the resort and would love to return some day. We figure there were only about 100 people skiing that day and with the size of the resort it felt like our own private playground.
Hero snow at Tamarack, February 2020
Since the last powder day in Tahoe over a month ago, it hasn’t snowed more than 2-4″ so we will have to look forward to our next trip to snowy Utah and Colorado, which are both experiencing above-average snowfall. We will be visiting 2 more new resorts and a couple of old favorites. Can’t wait to get on the road again!