Dry in the west

Snowfall in the west has been hard to come by this year, but here in Tahoe we’ve been a little luckier than many other regions.  We had a major storm that arrived just in time for Christmas, and another one right around the President’s holiday week.  Those 2 10-day storm cycles dropped about 200″ of snow. There was a 40-day dry spell between those storms though, which sometimes happens in the Sierra.

Heavenly’s Canyonland run after some fresh snow, Feb 20, 2026

So there have been a lot of warm, blue sky days skiing groomers at Heavenly, Sierra at Tahoe, and Kirkwood on our ice skis.  We’ve been going out about 3 times a week.  It doesn’t get boring because we have 4 or 5 resorts to choose from with a massive amount of terrain between them.  It’s great just getting up there for the views, and Heavenly is only 10-minutes from our house.

Lot’s of skiing groomers at Heavenly this season with long dry spells

We’ve also been over to Palisades and Northstar a couple of times and have a ton of new photos and info to update the reviews.  Palisades is a 55 minute drive even on a busy Saturday.  Northstar is longer but you can get a massive amount of vertical there in 3 hours so it works out.

Steep skiing at Palisades Tahoe, January 2026

Jackson Hole trip

Jackson Hole has probably become our #1 choice for a ski trip.  We do it every year now just before Christmas because it has reliable early-season snowfall.  Even with the relatively poor snowfall this year, we couldn’t complain about conditions.  There was rain at the base, but it turned to snow not far up the mountain and we skied a decent amount of fresh.  This year was the first year I did the hike up to the Headwall about an hour after it opened for the season which was a great deep powder experience.

Rendezvous bowl at Jackson Hole, Dec 2025

We also got over to Grand Targhee for a wonderful day skiing the empty slopes over there.  They are not on the Ikon or Epic pass, so this is one of the few large resorts that doesn’t get crowded.

Soft snow at Grand Targhee, December 2025

What’s next?

We are heading out to Salt Lake City in a few days to spend 2 weeks skiing Alta, Snowbird, Park City, and Deer Valley.  This will be an opportunity to freshen all of the reviews, but especially Deer Valley which has almost doubled their terrain since we went last.  We will see if our opinion of that resort improves.

There’s still a lot of winter left and with our new location we should get a lot more days in than last year.  There is nothing better than carving turns on perfect groomers or deep powder so we will get it while we can!

XC skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and biking are all activities we do right from the house but storm-day outings are the most fun