The 23/24 ski season wrapped up earlier than normal for us on April 21st when both Heavenly and Sierra at Tahoe closed for the season.  Last year we skied until July and posted our year end wrap post more than 2 months later!  Mammoth didn’t get much snow this year so will be closing before our schedule allows us to do our normal ski camping trip sadly.

Bluebird day at Bear Valley, April 2024

Season Recap

Most of the Tahoe area resorts did OK with about 80% of normal snowfall, but it didn’t come until January which wasn’t great for our holiday plans.  We hardly used our Sierra at Tahoe unlimited passes this year because we got them to ski mostly holidays and they only had the beginner terrain open over Christmas.  Half of the snow that did fall at our house came in one huge storm in early March which blocked the roads and trapped us in the house for days.  So it goes for a sport that is dependent on weather!

So 38 days for me and 30 for AiRung is the lowest number in years, but we did at least make to to resort #99 Marmot Basin in mid March.  And there were plenty of great times at our local Tahoe resorts as always.

Nice snow at Banff Sunshine Village, March 2024

Alberta Trip

The trip to Alberta to ski Marmot Basin in mid March was a huge success.  We spent a week up there and re-skied Lake Louise and Banff Sunshine in addition to Marmot.  Ironically, the day we skied our 99th resort was super warm and slushy by noon.  Jasper recorded a record high temp of 68F.  We had been so worried about frigid temps and we got one of the warmest days of the ski season!

A warm day at Marmot Basin, March 2024

We were 2 days early because right after that temperatures plummeted and a prolonged storm dumped 20-30″ of snow at Lake Louise and Sunshine Village over several days.  Each of the next 3 ski days was a powder day.  Lake Louise is one of our top 10 favorite resorts and we were thrilled to ski it with fresh snow.

Powder day at Lake Louise, March 2024

On the drive up to Jasper from Calgary, we stopped at the Yamnuska wolfdog sanctuary which is something we always do when we see one.   We are both into animal rescue (we have 2 rescue dogs currently) and like to support those places.

Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary, March 2024

Big changes…

After the Alberta trip, we cherished the last 6 days we will be skiing in Tahoe for a while.  We’ve had a house there for 19 years and it was our primary residence for the last 4 of those.  For many reasons we decided to change it up and make our Bay Area house our primary.  We will be swapping out the Tahoe house for a place in Arnold, CA near Bear Valley.  It’s a lot easier to get to and an hour closer.  We loved Tahoe and have many of our best ski memories from the hundreds of days skiing Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra at Tahoe.

The last day at our favorite Tahoe resort Heavenly, April 2024

Next year

We have 2 major trips planned for next year: Resort 100 is Alyeska which will be our first time skiing in Alaska, planned for early March.  And after talking about it for years we are finally planning a trip to ski in Japan in early February if everything works out.  Can’t wait!

Thanks for reading and see you back here in the fall!

A Nice day at Banff Sunshine Village, March 2024