Photo courtesy of MICHAEL SPEAKE Despite the lack of natural snow this year in the Lake Tahoe area, the ability to make man-made snow has kept ski buffs happy and the industry busy.
music in the park, psychedelic furs

Saved by man-made technology
Years ago a dry winter in Northern California might have posed a
major financial problem for the numerous ski resorts in the Lake
Tahoe area, but that’s not the case anymore
– especially for the major resorts that now have the luxury of
state-of-the-art snow-making machines to keep them up and
running.
Saved by man-made technology

Years ago a dry winter in Northern California might have posed a major financial problem for the numerous ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area, but that’s not the case anymore – especially for the major resorts that now have the luxury of state-of-the-art snow-making machines to keep them up and running.

In fact, although the natural snow fall this year thus far is the worst it has been in the last five years, it appears to be business-as-usual this winter season for resorts that rely heavily on the people from this area to make the trek up into the mountains to ski and snow board.

“We’ve had 100 inches of natural snow this year,” said Aimi Xistra-Rich, the communications coordinator for Heavenly Lake Tahoe. “Three years ago we had 400 inches of snow up here. But we are fortunate to have the largest snow-making system on the West Coast up here.”

Despite the lack of natural snow Heavenly currently has 29 chair lifts open and 62 trails that are being used. Even without much natural snowfall the cold air temperatures have allowed the area resorts to make snow all evening long, as well as during the day.

The machine at Heavenly cranks out the man-made stuff fast enough to cover an acre of ground with 3.5 feet of snow in just an hours time. The machines can also be set to make either the powdery stuff or the wetter snow that works best for the initial base filling.

About the only impact Mother Nature has had is on the heavily wooded or tree-lined areas. For that reason skiers at Heavenly as well as many of the other resorts in the Tahoe area are encouraged to stay on the ski trails and not divert to the wooded areas.

“We’ve been able to make quite a bit of snow this year,” Xistra-Rich said. “We’ve made snow 68 days this season so far and our snow team has put in 1,155 hours doing so. We’ve got great snow coverage up here considering the weather.”

Although the winter has been mild in terms of snowfall, it has been typical or even harsh in terms of cold weather. The national weather service is predicting a late season this year, similar to last year when the region was hit with upwards of 200 inches of snow during the months of March and April, which paved way for an extended spring ski season.

As long as the temperatures stay cold, Heavenly Valley has enough snowmaking capabilities to cover 70 percent of the resorts trails without a single natural inch of snowfall.

On the north side of the lake at Northstar Resort, they are experiencing a similar situation.

“We haven’t had a whole lot from Mother Nature this year, but we’re 50 percent covered with our snow-making ability,” said Northstar Communications Manager Jessica Vanpernis. “We also groom it every night to make it like packed powder.”

Currently at Northstar 78 of the resort’s 79 trails are open. The resort also has added a 9,000 square foot skating rink, which has attracted a lot of attention this season as well as a newly built village area, which includes areas to dine and shop.

In addition to Heavenly and Northstar, many of the bigger ski resorts have the ability to groom and make their own snow, including Sierra-at-Tahoe, Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows.

Lake Tahoe Ski Conditions/Information

Alpine Meadows

Base Snow Depth: 33″

Summit Snow Depth: 65″

Current Snow Conditions: Skier packed machine groomed runs.

Alpine Meadows Rd. (off Hwy. 89) P.O. Box 5279, Tahoe City, CA 96145

Office (530) 583-4232 24-Hr. Snowphone at (530) 581-8374.

Boreal Mountain Playground

Castle Peak exit off I-80, 3 miles west of Donner Lake

P.O. Box 39, Truckee, CA 96160

Current Conditions & Office: (530) 426-3666

Diamond Peak

1210 Ski Way, Incline Village, NV 89451

Conditions Phone: (775) 831-3211 Office Phone (775) 832-1177

Donner Ski Ranch

19320 Donner Pass Road, P.O. Box 66, Norden, CA 95724

Conditions Phone & Office: (530) 426-3635

Heavenly Lake Tahoe

P.O. Box 2180, Stateline,  NV 89449

Conditions Phone (800) 2-HEAVEN Office Phone (775) 586-7000

Homewood Mountain Resort

5145 West Lake Blvd., P.O. Box 165, Homewood, CA 96141

Conditions Phone (530) 525-2900 Office Phone (530) 525-2992

Kirkwood

Snow Stats (snow totals in inches)

Season Total Range: 81-92″ Base Depth: 52-70″

Surface Conditions: Machine Groomed Powder, Skier Packed Powder

51 Trails Open, 28 Trails Groomed

1501 Kirkwood Meadows Drive, P.O. Box 1, Kirkwood, CA 95646

Resort (209) 258-6000 Reservations (800) 967-7500

Sierra-at-Tahoe

1111 Sierra-at-Tahoe Road, Twin Bridges, CA 95735

Conditions Phone (530) 659-7475 Office Phone (530) 659-7453

Soda Springs

Base Depth: 40 – 60″

Primary Surface: Machine groomed, natural and manmade snow

Soda Springs (Norden Exit off I-80 on Baker Ranch Rd. and Old Hwy. 40)

P.O. Box 39, Truckee, CA 96160

Snow phone: (530) 426-1010 Information: (530) 426-3901

Squaw Valley

Base Depth: 60-70″ at higher elevations

Packed Powder, Groomed and Windblown Powder

Squaw Valley USA, P.O. Box 2007, Olympic Valley, CA 96146

Conditions Phone (888) SNOW 3-2-1 Office Phone (530) 583-6985

Sugar Bowl

Base: 34-54″, Machine-groomed, packed powder

Hwy 40 / Donner Pass Road off Hwy I-80, P.O. Box 5, Norden, CA 95724

Information (530) 426-9000, Snowphone (530) 426-1111

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A staff member wrote, edited or posted this article, which may include information provided by one or more third parties.

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