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White Out in Sierra Nevada

Yosemite_Sam1
Explorer
Explorer
21 REPLIES 21

Yosemite_Sam1
Explorer
Explorer
joshuajim wrote:
S Davis wrote:
I remember living in South Lake Tahoe in the winter of 1983, we got 65โ€ in a 24 hour period and had about 168โ€ in a three day period, we were climbing out second story windows that year. We ended up with over 44 feet of snow that year.


Second ski trip. back in the 80's i belonged to a Southern California ski club. Every year we made a 1 week trip to a major mountain. I was scheduled to go to Tahoe one year but a major storm hit just before we were supposed to go. Local Tahoe news was saying don't come, we are in blizzard conditions. Well since the trip was fully paid in advance and there was no refund, we decided to go anyway.

When we got, we were booked into a hotel on the Nevada side as rates were cheaper. We come to find out that the main gas line into the Nevada side broke under the river and there was no gas for heat. The hotel rebooked us to a hotel on the California side. OK, that's good, but when we got there we found out that an avalanche had wiped out major transmission towers on the CA side so electric was very limited.

When you went by the casinos, none of their Marquees were lit up. If you went inside, 80% of the tables were covered and the rest had few patrons. We then found out that you could go to any of the night club show by just showing up and there was no fee. Woo Hoo!

The next day we hit the slopes. There were no lines at any lift because the smart people stayed home. All the lifts we being run on generators so they only ran at about 1/2 speed.

Next the fun part. The snow was so deep that they had to dig out the loading station and dig a trench under the chairs until they were high enough to get above the snow. Same thing at the unloading station. In addition, they had to dig out around each of the towers all the way down to ground level. In some places it could have been 20'. I guess OSHA wasn't there. I'm guessing that they did not want the snow putting pressure on the towers.

Now the best news... we skied fresh powder all week just off the runs which they had groomed.

Now the final part of this story. I was skiing the powder behind a couple of other guys from the club when i skied behind a pine tree. It was the leeward side of the tree and the powder was absolutely loose. I immediately sunk up to my waist and was stuck with no one behind me. After a couple of minutes I managed to dig down until i was able to release my skies with my poles. Then dig down again to recover my skies. I tried putting my skies back on but in the powder i couldn't get it done.

So then I laid my skies down side by side, crawled up on them prone and "surfed" out of the powder until i could get to the groomed snow.

Best ski trip i ever had.


Looks like a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing.

I don't ski but one of my favorite activity, aside from camping and canoeing is craw fishing.

For some reason, Lake Tahoe crawdads are sweetish and has tender flesh. Read that there are billions of them in that lake.

joshuajim
Explorer II
Explorer II
S Davis wrote:
I remember living in South Lake Tahoe in the winter of 1983, we got 65โ€ in a 24 hour period and had about 168โ€ in a three day period, we were climbing out second story windows that year. We ended up with over 44 feet of snow that year.


Second ski trip. back in the 80's i belonged to a Southern California ski club. Every year we made a 1 week trip to a major mountain. I was scheduled to go to Tahoe one year but a major storm hit just before we were supposed to go. Local Tahoe news was saying don't come, we are in blizzard conditions. Well since the trip was fully paid in advance and there was no refund, we decided to go anyway.

When we got, we were booked into a hotel on the Nevada side as rates were cheaper. We come to find out that the main gas line into the Nevada side broke under the river and there was no gas for heat. The hotel rebooked us to a hotel on the California side. OK, that's good, but when we got there we found out that an avalanche had wiped out major transmission towers on the CA side so electric was very limited.

When you went by the casinos, none of their Marquees were lit up. If you went inside, 80% of the tables were covered and the rest had few patrons. We then found out that you could go to any of the night club show by just showing up and there was no fee. Woo Hoo!

The next day we hit the slopes. There were no lines at any lift because the smart people stayed home. All the lifts we being run on generators so they only ran at about 1/2 speed.

Next the fun part. The snow was so deep that they had to dig out the loading station and dig a trench under the chairs until they were high enough to get above the snow. Same thing at the unloading station. In addition, they had to dig out around each of the towers all the way down to ground level. In some places it could have been 20'. I guess OSHA wasn't there. I'm guessing that they did not want the snow putting pressure on the towers.

Now the best news... we skied fresh powder all week just off the runs which they had groomed.

Now the final part of this story. I was skiing the powder behind a couple of other guys from the club when i skied behind a pine tree. It was the leeward side of the tree and the powder was absolutely loose. I immediately sunk up to my waist and was stuck with no one behind me. After a couple of minutes I managed to dig down until i was able to release my skies with my poles. Then dig down again to recover my skies. I tried putting my skies back on but in the powder i couldn't get it done.

So then I laid my skies down side by side, crawled up on them prone and "surfed" out of the powder until i could get to the groomed snow.

Best ski trip i ever had.
RVing since 1995.

Yosemite_Sam1
Explorer
Explorer
Blazing Zippers wrote:
I love Juan's videos! If that man had been a teacher when I was in school, I would have been much smarterer.
As for the snow dump over Donner/Truckee, this is kind of like the good 'ol days-long ago. Interestingly, this spring will bring lots of "for sale" signs out due to second home owners leaving the area.
The last year we lived there, we had 8 feet of pack in our yard at the end of April and 16 feet still at the base of the resort I patrolled at. Good times!!
As for North Idaho--51 degrees here today. Shorts & sandals weather.


I was in Lake Tahoe area and looked at the real estate listing one particularly in the high mountains.

The real. estate agent I talked to asked me if it will be my vacation home. I answered it will be my main residence as we are retiring. He looked at me funny and it says everything.

I'm seeing that now as we eventually bought somewhere with less snow but still go there to marvel at 10-feet of accumulated snow on both sides of the pathway to some houses.

joshuajim
Explorer II
Explorer II
S Davis wrote:
I remember living in South Lake Tahoe in the winter of 1983, we got 65โ€ in a 24 hour period and had about 168โ€ in a three day period, we were climbing out second story windows that year. We ended up with over 44 feet of snow that year.


Reminds me of a ski trip my brother took to Mammoth on a Presidents Day 3 day ski trip about the same time. Bus arrived in Mammoth about 2:00 AM in a heavy snow. He went to condo and by morning there was 2โ€™ of snow on the ground. Stayed in the condo hoping it would subside. He spent 3 days in the condo as the snow continued to accumulate. By the third day, the snow was higher than the sliding glass door!

Got back on the bus and headed home. Great ski trip :B
RVing since 1995.

Blazing_Zippers
Explorer II
Explorer II
I love Juan's videos! If that man had been a teacher when I was in school, I would have been much smarterer.
As for the snow dump over Donner/Truckee, this is kind of like the good 'ol days-long ago. Interestingly, this spring will bring lots of "for sale" signs out due to second home owners leaving the area.
The last year we lived there, we had 8 feet of pack in our yard at the end of April and 16 feet still at the base of the resort I patrolled at. Good times!!
As for North Idaho--51 degrees here today. Shorts & sandals weather.

Yosemite_Sam1
Explorer
Explorer
Good or bad news.

Atmospheric river dumped 14 inches of rainfall in California last night.

I-80 from Sacramento to Nevada closed and so is 395 to Bishop.

Yose-might is closed but those who are trapped inside sent out lovely pictures (that's in my Yosemite forum).

deltabravo
Nomad
Nomad
Reisender wrote:
Well, thatโ€™s gotta be good for some of the lake and water reservoirs.


Yep.

Snow pack as of a few days ago was way below normal. The water level behind the Oroville Dam is pretty low as seen in this video.
2009 Silverado 3500HD Dually, D/A, CCLB 4x4 (bought new 8/30/09)
2018 Arctic Fox 992 with an Onan 2500i "quiet" model generator

blaczero
Explorer
Explorer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party

Reisender
Nomad
Nomad
Wel, the water was looking a little low at Hoover Dam this year. Maybe this will help.

S_Davis
Explorer
Explorer
I remember living in South Lake Tahoe in the winter of 1983, we got 65โ€ in a 24 hour period and had about 168โ€ in a three day period, we were climbing out second story windows that year. We ended up with over 44 feet of snow that year.

Yosemite_Sam1
Explorer
Explorer
SteveAE wrote:
Yosemite,
Yes for 12 days in the spring of 2019.....though a much, much, longer trip than most folk do. Launched at the Hwy 12 bridge, floated 99 miles down to lake Powell, paddled a couple miles across Powell and up Willow Cyn arm, then hiked and bushwhacked (ugly bushwhacking BTW) up Willow Creek about 3 miles to our truck that we had parked off Hole-in-the-Rock road. Amazing trip. Since this is a RV forum, folks might be curious what we did with our RV (travel trailer) while on the river. We simply left it at the large dispersion area just south of Hwy 12 on Hole-in-the-Rock road (great spot to base from when exploring the area, BTW). When we go into the backcountry like this (which is as often as we can) I leave a note on the trailer door saying who we are, where we plan to be, when we plan to return, along with my In-Reach number should a LEO (cop) need to reach us. I realize that some folks wouldn't be comfortable advertising that they are gone like this. But it's only stuff and the important things are with me (my wife, my dog and me) and I think it is good for LEO's to know what's up when they drive by a seemingly abandoned RV. Hoping to do it again this spring....though maybe try to get a powerboat lift back to Bullfrog marina (and a longggg road shuttle back to Escalante) rather than hump our butts, camping and boating gear out of that canyon again. Pray for snow throughout the west.


Wow, nice adventure. Thanks for sharing!

SteveAE
Explorer
Explorer
Yosemite,
Yes for 12 days in the spring of 2019.....though a much, much, longer trip than most folk do. Launched at the Hwy 12 bridge, floated 99 miles down to lake Powell, paddled a couple miles across Powell and up Willow Cyn arm, then hiked and bushwhacked (ugly bushwhacking BTW) up Willow Creek about 3 miles to our truck that we had parked off Hole-in-the-Rock road. Amazing trip. Since this is a RV forum, folks might be curious what we did with our RV (travel trailer) while on the river. We simply left it at the large dispersion area just south of Hwy 12 on Hole-in-the-Rock road (great spot to base from when exploring the area, BTW). When we go into the backcountry like this (which is as often as we can) I leave a note on the trailer door saying who we are, where we plan to be, when we plan to return, along with my In-Reach number should a LEO (cop) need to reach us. I realize that some folks wouldn't be comfortable advertising that they are gone like this. But it's only stuff and the important things are with me (my wife, my dog and me) and I think it is good for LEO's to know what's up when they drive by a seemingly abandoned RV. Hoping to do it again this spring....though maybe try to get a powerboat lift back to Bullfrog marina (and a longggg road shuttle back to Escalante) rather than hump our butts, camping and boating gear out of that canyon again. Pray for snow throughout the west.

Yosemite_Sam1
Explorer
Explorer
SteveAE wrote:
Super_Dave wrote:
Up until this round of storms I was thinking, boy, the boat ramps are going to be long and steep this summer.


Come on Escalante drainage. Need more snow so we can float your beautiful river in April or May. For those of you who don't understand what I am referring to, put "packrafting Escalante River" into your favorite search engine (I prefer Duck Duck Go) and enjoy some awesome videos.



Nice! Did you do it?

Twenty years too late 4 me.

Grit_dog
Navigator
Navigator
Yosemite Sam1 wrote:
Grit dog wrote:
Yosemite Sam1 wrote:


Whiite Out and 8 Feet of Snow Forecast in Sierra Nevada


Please push further north...please push further north....


Seriously, you are not getting it there?


Nope just a spritz of snow each day forecast in the Cascades. Boooo

Enjoy the blizzard!
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5โ€ turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold