Tahoe -Squaw/Alpine Meadows

[eric85]

I am heading out to San Francisco next week and plan on getting some boarding in. Which is the better spot? Alpine meadows is saying 100in base but I haven't heard much about it. Any advice would be great.

[kctahoe]

Alpine deffenetly has more coverage than squaw, but will see after this round of storms this weekend. I personally like alpine better. Unless you know the mountain at squaw you seem to spend more time on the lifts and traversing to get to where you wanna go, it's just so big.

[hellside]

Originally Posted by kctahoe

Unless you know the mountain at squaw you seem to spend more time on the lifts and traversing to get to where you wanna go, it's just so big.

I have the opposite view but I ride Squaw more. It will be obvious for a new comer, there are more traverses and often you will need to take your binding off at Alpine. If you look at the lifts, it is a long flat back to round house and summit chairs unless you lap only ABC or Scott, two slow chairs. If you go to back side, it is traverse. You want to go to places like south face, it is a traverse and you have to take your foot off binding. The only place at Squaw that I call a traverse is Gold Coast to Shirley and you never have to take your foot off binding.

At Squaw, you really only need to ride KT-22, Headwall and Red Dog (Gully and trees) but these are quite steep. You can get more verticals than any other lifts around the area in a single day. If you like technical terrain, both are about the same. Alpine actually is more interesting to me because there are more smaller features and more detail

[Kauila]

If you're in Tahoe more than one day, there's no reason not to ride both. Alpine/Squaw lift ticket is interchangeable, and there's a shuttle that goes between the two resorts, leaves every 30 minutes, according to the Squaw website.

[eric85]

Hows Heavenly compared to these spots? I've heard good things about it.

[jdang307]

Going up friday. Doing half friday, Sat and Sunday.
Not sure how I'm going to split the time yet. But either will be fun I'm sure.

any advice on good runs that aren't super steep? Stuff with a lot of small hits and features if possible? Got peeps with us that aren't that good yet but often times we all ride together.

[hellside]

Originally Posted by jdang307

Going up friday. Doing half friday, Sat and Sunday.
Not sure how I'm going to split the time yet. But either will be fun I'm sure.

any advice on good runs that aren't super steep? Stuff with a lot of small hits and features if possible? Got peeps with us that aren't that good yet but often times we all ride together.

You can start with Roundhouse at Alpine. It has what you are looking for. Just look under the chair while you are going up on the chair. Your friends don't have to ride the same trail you are riding but you can meet mid-way or back at the chair.

[jdang307]

Originally Posted by hellside

You can start with Roundhouse at Alpine. It has what you are looking for. Just look under the chair while you are going up on the chair. Your friends don't have to ride the same trail you are riding but you can meet mid-way or back at the chair.

Sounds good. One of these friends is my wife, but she's cool when I leave her to go search for stuff

Looking at Squaw's map. Wow! Is one day even enough for that resort? From what I can see, it seems squaw is bigger, but alpine looks to have more "character" so to speak.

[hellside]

Originally Posted by jdang307

Sounds good. One of these friends is my wife, but she's cool when I leave her to go search for stuff

Looking at Squaw's map. Wow! Is one day even enough for that resort? From what I can see, it seems squaw is bigger, but alpine looks to have more "character" so to speak.

You will notice Roundhouse groom trials are interspersed with off-piste. You can do a short shot off-piste with your wife together, if it is too much, she can quickly get back to groom trail. You have to scout the trail first before taking your wife with you. You can do something similar with Scott chair. Ride the groom trail first. The second time, you can ride Scott chute (this is right under the chair) and your friends can ride groom trail but you meet them at the chair. You can do night riding at Squaw Friday night.

[jdang307]

Roundhouse turned out to be a non-starter. Friday and Saturday the conditions were just ok (it got dumped on earlier but the freeze thaw bullshit had the snow icy or slushy on friday, it was better saturday though). The offpiste areas on Roundhouse were way too hard so I skipped it.

To boarder's left of the scott chair had to be one of my more favorite areas though. We actually went up hot wheels, tried to make it to lake view without skating (that failed, had to trek about 30 yards). At the top of lake view we cruised over to the scott chair, and I dropped in. I think it was called either scott ridge or chute that. It was pretty awesome with nice trails or short tree runs you could jump in and out of. Loved that area. Need to go back.

On Sunday it was cold, and somehow some way. all the snow on squaw turned soft. Don't ask me how ice turns into packed powder, but it did. It had the flour consistency. We all did not like squaw much on Friday, but on Sunday it was fucking great. With 3 days, and 6500 acres, I think we did about 30% of the two mountains, max. Of course half a day in the park will do that.

All in all, two great mountains. I like both, but give a slight edge to squaw but I really don't even want to do that. Alpine Meadows in between scott and lake view is one of my favorite areas. We have to come back, hopefully to some snow dumpage.