Conditions Report
Video from Saturday at Squaw Valley
First of all, I want to send a big Thank You out to the Squaw Valley Sk Patrol. They made this weekend awesome by opening up tons of terrain and giving skiers and riders exactly what they want. They gave us Mainline Pocket, Reverse Traverse (Headwall Face), the Funnel, Solitude, and Granite Chief making this weekend the best skiing I’ve had at Squaw since 2011.
Video of SnowBrains’ junior intern Parker Russell getting after it at Squaw this weekend
On Friday, Squaw opened up with 16″ of new snow. They had Gold Coast, Big Blue, Solitude, and Shirley Lake open right away. Siberia opened around noon. All the chairs had good snow and it was a great day. It was foggy up high and very cloudy with mostly low visibility. Siberia skied well right until the closing bell.
On Saturday, Squaw Patrol stoked us out with the first Reverse Traverse of the year (access to Headwall), the first Mainline Pocket of the year, the first Funnel of the year, and the first Solitude of the year. It was sunny and gorgeous out, the skiing was all time, guys were hucking their meat off the big airs of Mainline Pocket, people were throwing backflips off the wild low-tide terrain of Headwall, and the Squaw buzz was felt by all.
Unfortunately, the power went out at both Squaw and Alpine at 10:41am on Saturday and things didn’t get rolling again at Squaw until around 3pm.
“Late this morning (Saturday), our utility company, Liberty Energy, had difficulty providing energy to us. Consequently, our chairlift systems were without power for parts of the day.” – Andy Wirth, Squaw Valley CEO and President
On Sunday, Squaw Patrol stoked us out again by giving us Granite Chief at 1pm and it was a blast. The most feature-full Granite I’ve ever seen. There are simply boulders everywhere with snow on them making the terrain wild and fun. Be careful in there right now, though, it’s not the way you remember it. Skies were clear until about 1pm when clouds rolled in and it even snowed hard for a bit.
Overall, it was a stellar weekend at Squaw. Again, the most fun I’ve personally had at Squaw since 2011. Squaw is back!
(Oh, and we surfed the lake on Thursday and it was unreal: Surfing Lake Tahoe on Thursday)
Squaw Snow Totals:
Squaw Forecast:
PHOTO TOUR:
ALPINE MEADOWS PHOTO TOUR:
Wow, squaw, no facebook again, and your home page says 26f temps this morning, when NOAA remote mountain top sensors say 32f up top, 42f at base. Really, did your IT/mktg guy go for some early bc laps this morning.
‘Patrol Hold’ on your website yesterday for headwall 3-4 pm, that’s just downright entertaining, thanks for the chuckles.
Maybe just say, we’re not quite ready yet,,,,,please bear with us,,,, we try,,, hahahaha
Squaw’s FB page has been down for 2 days, finally, barely up.
Rode up shirley today, overheard employee spraying about how he’s head of mkting or something ridiculous, quietly mentioned to person sitting next to me how their FB page has been down, he flat out called mr mkting director out about it, “shouldn’t you be in the office fixing it or something,” big chuckles all round, reply was, were changing url. https://www.facebook.com/squawvalley
Thinking they are making a facebook do-over cause of all the negative crap they stirred up with their latest operations shenanigans from last weekend.
Reverse traverse was awesome tday, nbowl, nose, face, empty, no lines no crowds, smooth, filling in, ripping. Thanks everybody @ Squaw, everyone else went to Alpine cause of their own frustrations, I enjoyed immensely, keep turning people off and serious, super locals like myself will have the bliss to enjoy.
Happy, happy, holidays to everyone including Mr. Warm Regards, looking forward to skiing a different tahoe resort this weekend as Squaw will be a weekend mess as usual. Headwall perhaps, gettin r done on mtn run is huge, that line will be huge this weekend too,,,,,,,
Peace out.
ps I know who put those sweet fall line turns down the westie,, aka jmr, wink, wink…
is squaw awesome or what??
KIDDING,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Wow!
This is the type of report I want to see. I hope you are able to keep this original content flowing all season. Two thumbs up
Thanks Miles
They should all get awards at Squaw for getting stuff open.
Wait, isn’t that what a ski area’s supposed to do???
Actually, kind of atrocious opening considering how long it took to evac the line on Sibo sat. And Big Blue out of coolant for the aux engine during the power outage. c’mon, that’d be grounds for dismissal anywhere else. Upper lifts, what??
Mr. Warm Regards/CEO/Pres, Job Performance rating = continued epic flailing…
I’m calling for the dismissal or resignation by current CEO and Pres, pretty pathetic operations and you’re the man in charge??
Anyone who thinks this is an ok way to operate one of the premier lift served terrain resorts in N America should experience ops somewhere else and see how the pros do it. Seriously.
Quit being so patronizing and demand more. $70 mill spent?? For what??