snowboard

I have updated Tahoe Wiki to include the following tips:

• Winter driving in tahoe
• Deals and money saving tips for skiers & snowboarders including beginers
• Lodging

Those are things I've learned over the years of going to Tahoe. Enjoy.

Tags: snowboard tahoe wiki ski winter vacation driving saving tips

I went up to Diamond Peak expecting a blast to end my 2005-2006 snowboarding season last Sat.

OMG. I was truly disappointed. It's supposed to snow a bit the night before. But when I snowboarded in the morning, the surface was really icy and hard. I suspected it may have rained instead of snowing in Diamond Peak. The four black diamond runs except "Diamond Peak" were virtually un-skiable or un-snowboardable because they had too many icy bumps.

Things got a little bit better in the afternoon as the surface got a little bit soft after people skied on it in the morning.

Tags: snowboard tahoe diamondpeak

I went to snowboard in Alpine Meadow and Diamond Peak in Tahoe this past weekend. Wow! What a powder heaven Tahoe has become in March!

On Sat, I arrived at Alpine Meadow at 9:15 and waited for like half an hour to get in and park. Their parking lot got to be full on that day.

I liked accessing the mountain by Summit Six Chair lift, a high-speed chair that sits 6 people. I started my first couple runs off Alpine Bowl trail, which was groomed. Then I stayed on Sun Spot trail and other trails on the right side of the lift because these had much more powder, and I could just access them without "skating". These trails really didn't look like having so much deep powder until I was on them. They were un-groomed and had lots of big bumps.

Tags: snowboard tahoe diamondpeak alpinemeadow

I went up to Diamond Peak for a one day ski trip on Sat, leaving at around 5am, and arrived at 9am.

It was snowing heavily for a couple of days before Sat morning. I was hoping that I wouldn't get stuck on the road.

There's a checkpoint at AppleGate, but no one was there enforcing anything. But there's snow which meant the snow level was low.

There's chain control about 25 miles west of Sugar Bowl on HW 80. But it's not too bad because there's not a lot of traffic in the morning. I actually got to the exit to Sugar Bowl before 8am. Just how I wished I'd like Sugar Bowl more and not drive for an extra hour to get to Diamond Peak. There werere also lots of cars lining up to get to HW 89 from HW 80. Fortunately, I didn't need to take HW 89.

Tags: snowboard tahoe diamondpeak

I spent my last weekend in Tahoe. I went to snowboard in Homewood on Sat, and Alpine Meadow on Sun.

The conditions were kind of rough in both resorts until it snowed heavily in Alpine Meadow on Sun.

In Alpine, It was especially icy on the right side(facing downhill) off the Lakeview lift.

I saw a scaring accident in Alpine. when you get off the Summit Six chair lift and turn left, there's a little flat trail that leads to the access to Alpine Bowl. Along the way of the flat trail, there were poles and ropes that block off the access to the more steeper, and icier terrain.

Tags: snowboard tahoe homewood alpinemeadow

OMG! Take a look at this videos by guys at helmet camera central
It was powder heaven in Homewood, CA. Notice the beautiful Lake Tahoe on the way down?

I want that kind of helmet camera! The captured videos are much more stable than the ones captured by a hand-held camera.

Tags: snowboard tahoe homewood

I went to a company-sponsored one-day bus trip Kirkwood last Sat. Here's the trail map of Kirkwood.

It was snowing hard on the way. The bus had to be on chains.

In the morning, it was snow showering. My supposedly-water-proofed gloves and jacket got wet inside. The visibility was low as the lens of my goggle was covered by snow and rain. The left side (lift #4) of the mountain had pretty good powder though. But it takes a long time to get there though as one needs to transfer on two lifts.

During lunch time, it rained at the lobby level. But sun came out in the afternoon.

Tags: snowboard tahoe snowboarding kirkwood

Where should you go for skiing/snowboarding during Christmas in Lake Tahoe?

I won't go snowboarding during Christmas.

But I know a lot of people(including those flying across country to Reno) are going to Tahoe for skiing/snowboarding between now and New Year's day.

To make your visits worthwhile during the peak season, if I were you, I'd go to Kirkwood or Mt Rose because these two resorts are located at higher Elevation and has been getting some new (wet)snow.

The snow condition is especially bad this season around Tahoe, especially compared to the great condition in last season. Although it's rained a lot in the past few days in Bay Area(which usually means snow in Sierra), the temperature has been warm overall. It ended up raining in Sierra as well!

Tags: snowboard tahoe snowboarding skiing ski

I went up to Tahoe this past weekend for snowboarding after the recent storm in last week.

I went to Kirkwood on Sat. The condition in Kirkwood was excellent. But there's only one high speed lift operating!

I went to Heavenly on Sun. Its condition was good, but not as good as Kirkwood's. On the first run down on Neveda side, I got a bruised rib when I fell forward and landed my ribs on top of the wallet in my inner pocket.
It hurt quite a bit. I had a red cross memeber check my ribs on the mountain. He said it's just a bruise, and it's up to me whether to continue snowboarding.

Tags: snowboard tahoe snowboarding

In preparing for the up-coming ski season, I decided to wax my new 2004-2005 Burton Clash snowboard. It's a 1-year old new board that didn't have much factory wax left.

I found the follwoing tips online:

• Waxing Snowboards & Skis - It's easy!
• Snowboard Hot Waxing and Tuning
• Snowboard waxing with a heat gun

I was going to wax my board using a hair dryer instead of a heat gun. But my local Walgreen store had a cheap iron for $8. so I just bought one for the waxing job.

Tags: snowboard waxing snowboarding