Record Snowfall in Tahoe
West Bowl at Sierra at Tahoe, January 2023
Wow, late December to mid January was crazy! As of January 19th Tahoe had received more than the average snowfall for a whole season. We experienced power failures, 8″ of RAIN in one day, resort closures, massive traffic jams, and unplowed roads for days in South Lake Tahoe. That much snow is actually not great for skiing since it impacts resort operations negatively. Yes, there is such a thing as too much snow! One day we went up to Sierra and just sat in the lodge for 1 1/2 hours waiting for them to open a lift — any lift. Later, both Sierra and Kirkwood had lifts taken down by wind on January 23rd. Sierra’s West Bowl and Puma chairs are still down as of this writing 9 days later. It’s also been the coldest winter in Tahoe since 1973 according to the NWS.
Neighborhood street XC skiing was about all we could do in early January, 2023
The Red and White trip
If you are reading this in 2023 you probably remember the meltdown of Southwest Airlines over Christmas. We had plans to fly to Spokane to ski Red Mountain and Whitewater in British Columbia but luckily canceled them in mid December due to lack of snow. Turns out our flight to Spokane would have been canceled anyway. Whew!
Well, the snow finally came and we made the trip in mid January after Southwest got things straightened out. Those were 2 of the easiest and emptiest flights we ever had. Our flight back had 33 people on a 170 person plane! Timing is everything…
Wait is that the sun?? Fun day at Whitewater, BC – January 2023
Trip reports are coming later, but we had a really good time and got a good feel for both resorts. The first day at Red was challenging with thick fog and even some rain at the bottom (again!). The snow was good starting 1/3 of the way up though, and coverage was great. Whitewater was fun on day 2 and is clearly loved by the local Nelson community.
There was some drama on the drive back from Nelson to Trail when a rock slide closed the road we were on. It was dark, there was no cell service / internet for GPS, and we had no idea where we were as we followed vague instructions from the police for a LONG detour to Castlegar. We made it though, and day 3 back at Red was clear-ish and allowed us to have a complete picture of the resort for a review.
A clear day at Red Mountain, BC – January 2023
Housing changes mean new options
We are now back to living part time in the SF Bay Area in Newark and part time in Tahoe. Because of that we have actually skied Dodge Ridge twice this year using our Sierra-at-Tahoe pass Powder Alliance benefits. We love it enough to make 2 day trips this year which means getting up at 5:30AM and not getting back until 6:30PM. The 2nd trip last weekend was our best day of the season with 6″ of snow falling during the day and a great time following AiRung’s friend Nicole and her family who are lifelong Dodge Ridge skiers. We got to see how the local community up there gathers for skiing and laughs.
Free refills at Dodge Ridge – January 2023
What’s next?
With 90 resorts complete, we need to get to work on the Northeastern resorts since 8 of the 10 remaining are there. We have a tentative plan to go back around March 1st. If that doesn’t work due to continuing lack of snow we will redirect to Alberta, Canada and re-ski Lake Louise and hit up Marmot Basin near Jasper for the first time. Until then we will be up in Tahoe enjoying the bountiful snow!
This is why we ski. Dodge Ridge – January 2023
Bret
Sunday 19th of March 2023
Pleasure meeting you at Kirkwood today and discussing the stickers on your helmet and number of places you've skied in N. America.
You have me beat! I'm up to 75 in the US and Canada. In total I've skied at least 86 resorts that I could remember in 7 countries. We don't have that much overlap interestingly. There may have been more in Maine, Mass, and NH ... I used to go to some tiny places. I have kept a log for a long time but never sat down and tabulated them. There are lot's more trips for heliskiing and backcountry trips (e.g., if I was in Revelstoke, I wouldn't waste my time at the resort you liked ... Selkirk-Tangiers is one of my favorite areas for backcountry skiing). Similarly if I was to travel to the east coast, probably wouldn't be heading to resorts---the absolute best skiing on the East Coast is Tuckerman's Ravine. I have only skied indoors once which was fun (Tokyo, now closed).
Cheers,
Bret
AREAS SKIED:
Ski areas in Maine 4 1. Mount Abram — Greenwood 2. Sugarloaf — Carrabassett Valley 3. Sunday River — Newry 4. Shawnee Peak ME
Ski areas in Massachusetts 2 5. Ski Bradford — Haverhill 6. Wachusett Mountain — Princeton
Ski areas in New Hampshire 12 7. Attitash — Bartlett 8. Bretton Woods — Bretton Woods 9. Cannon Mountain — Franconia Notch 10. Cranmore Mountain Resort — North Conway 11. Crotched Mountain — Bennington 12. Gunstock Mountain Resort — Gilford 13. Loon Mountain — Lincoln 14. Mount Sunapee Resort — Sunapee 15. Pats Peak — Henniker 16. Ragged Mountain — Danbury 17. Waterville Valley Resort — Waterville Valley 18. Wildcat Mountain — Pinkham Notch
Ski areas in Vermont 10 19. Bromley Mountain — Peru 20. Haystack Mountain — Wilmington (private) 21. Jay Peak Resort — Jay 22. Killington Ski Resort — Killington 23. Magic Mountain — Londonderry 24. Mount Snow — West Dover 25. Okemo Mountain — Ludlow 26. Pico Mountain — Killington 27. Stowe Mountain Resort — Stowe 28. Stratton Mountain Resort — Stratton Mountain
Ski areas in Colorado 7 29. Arapahoe Basin — Keystone 30. Aspen/Snowmass — Aspen and Snowmass Village 31. Aspen Highlands[3] 32. Beaver Creek Resort — Beaver Creek 33. Steamboat Ski Resort — Steamboat Springs 34. Telluride Ski Resort — Telluride 35. Winter Park Resort — Winter Park 36. Wolf Creek ski area — Pagosa Springs Ski areas in Idaho 1 37. Sun Valley — Ketchum
Ski areas in Montana 1 38. Big Sky — Big Sky Ski areas in New Mexico 1 39. Taos Ski Valley — Taos
Ski areas in Utah 7 40. Alta — Alta (ski only) 41. Brighton — Big Cottonwood Canyon 42. Park City Mountain Resort — Park City 43. Snowbasin — Huntsville 44. Snowbird — Snowbird 45. Solitude — Big Cottonwood Canyon 46. Sundance — Provo Ski areas in Wyoming 2 47. Grand Targhee — Alta 48. Jackson Hole — Teton Village
Ski areas in California - 15 49. Alpine Meadows — Alpine Meadows 50. Badger Pass — Yosemite National Park 51. Bear Valley — Angels Camp 52. Boreal Mountain — Soda Springs 53. China Peak — Lakeshore 54. Dodge Ridge — Sonora 55. Heavenly Mountain — South Lake Tahoe 56. Homewood Mountain — Homewood 57. June Mountain — June Lake 58. Kirkwood Mountain — Kirkwood 59. Mammoth Mountain — Mammoth Lakes 60. Northstar California — Truckee 61. Sierra-at-Tahoe — Twin Bridges 62. Squaw Valley — Olympic Valley 63. Sugar Bowl — Norden
Ski areas in Nevada -2 64. Diamond Peak — Incline Village 65. Mount Rose — Reno Ski areas in Oregon -2 66. Mount Ashland — Ashland 67. Mount Bachelor — Bend Canada - 7 68. Panorama BC 69. Kicking Horse BC 70. Lake Louise BC 71. Silver Star BC 72. Big White BC 73. Sunshine Village Alberta 74. Mont Tremblanc Quebec
Japan -3 75. Minami-Funabash, Tokyo (indoor) 76. Naeba, Echigo-Yuzawa area, Niiqate pref, Japan 77. Hoppo-Hakuba skiing (Nagano)
Austria -4 78. Arlberg 79. Lech 80. Oberlech 81. Anton
Switzerland -3 82. St. Moritz 83. Corvatsch 84. Engelberg
France -1 85. Les Deux Alps
Germany -1 86. Garmisch Partenkirchen
Ron Thompson
Tuesday 21st of March 2023
Thanks for providing your list Bret -- impressive! It looks like you are truly addicted to skiing like we are. Most people we talk to have only skied 10-15 resorts.
BTW, my best powder day in Europe was at Engelberg, which I see you have skied. They have this 3,000+ vertical foot super wide run called the Laub that's a constant perfect pitch for powder skiing all the way down. I happened to ski it on a 16" powder day and oh man what an experience.
Have a great rest of this awesome season!