Early season snow way above average for Tahoe ski resorts

On Thursday the Nevada Appeal reported on ski resorts opening around Lake Tahoe in one of the earliest such events in years.

But ever thinking of readers, the Nevada Appeal Saturday dispatched a team of editorial staffers to investigate ski and snowboard conditions. Since Heavenly is the closest ski area, the three were at the bottom of the Gunbarrel quad lift at 8:30 a.m., ready to perform a consumer test.

There three were Karl Horeis, copy editor; Rich Gunn, an Appeal photographer, and Sam Bauman, who edits the Diversions section. All three are skiers, although Gunn also snowboards and uses Telemark skis.

A quick individual report:

Horeis: "I'm stoked! This is awesome! I'm stoked!"

(It needs to be said that Horeis is more accustomed to skiing Mount Bachelor and Mount Hood in Oregon, so the comparative sophistication of Heavenly was impressive to him.)

Gunn: "It's great except for that snowboarder who told me I was traversing too much. I asked him if he wanted me to go straight down the hill."

Traversing means going back and forth across the hill. In theory that's just fine, but when it's opening weekend and skiers and boarders are firing straight down the hill it tends to make one an easy target.

Bauman, who taught skiing at Heavenly for several years, said: "Gee, I don't remember getting tired this fast."

Bauman has been skiing for 35 years and is of the senior persuasion. Enough said.

But the three did agree that the skiing was more mid-season than pre-Thanksgiving. For $45 skiers could use the Tram, Gunbarrel Express, Waterfall, Powderbowl, Sky Chair and Dipper quad in Nevada. And snow conditions were well in advance of the usual opening day.

Best conditions were on the Nevada side, with Orion and Big Dipper runs in excellent condition. And the crossover trail from California to Nevada was far better than usual at this time of the season.

There had to be a flaw, so after much discussion the three agreed that the California Trail back to the lodge from Nevada could have had a foot or more of snow, but that was carping for carping's sake.

One striking view was of the new gondola at Heavenly, stretching from Highway 50 (and the base is practically on Highway 50). It ends at a crest just above the six-seat detachable Tamarack chairlift, which opens the whole Nevada side to snowsporters. The gondola is due to open Dec. 21 and is the key to the development of South Lake Tahoe.

"It looks great," said Horeis, "but coming from Nevada I think I'll just take the quad chair at the Stagecoach base."

The three volunteered to spend Sunday sampling the conditions at Kirkwood Ski Resort, but management demurred.