Conditions Report
Continuing South from McCall, the next stop on Visit Idaho‘s Gem Line was Tamarack Resort, Idaho, perched just above Lake Cascade. Alongside playful pistes and thrilling tree skiing, we would soon discover that Tamarack has easy access to amazing sidecountry terrain. We met up with our guides for the day at the base of the Tamarack Express lift and quickly headed for the Summit Express. We were skiing with Zander, from Tamarack’s marketing team, and Erik ‘Fish’ Fisher, former Olympic skier and Tamarack’s Sports School Director.
We headed directly for the sidecountry gate at the end of Canoe Ridge, and were greeted with the sight of wide open bowls full of minimally tracked powder, despite the fact that it had been five days since the last storm. Fish pointed out a series of bowls extending along the ridge away from the resort, each one steeper than the last, all easily accessible from the Summit Express, and most with the potential to make it back to the top or bottom of the Wildwood Express on the edge of the resort.
We reveled in the soft snow that filled the first bowl we dropped into, and continued down through a stand of widely spaced trees before finding ourselves at just above the top of the Wildwood Express. We cut through some of the in-bounds glades to return to the Tamarack Express and back up to the summit for another lap. We stayed in-bounds on this lap, dropping the small cornice onto the steep headwall of the aptly named “Adrenaline.”
After a few high speed groomer laps soaking in views of the Long Valley, we headed for the other sidecountry gate off of the Summit Express, venturing towards the site of the Rock Fire, which added 60 new skiable acres and two new named runs. We traversed past these new runs deep into the interior of the fire scar. The terrain here was completely reshaped by the fire, erasing vegetation and exposing boulders, cliffs, and subtle contours of the land. The skiing is fantastic, with wide open possibilities, if not a little spooky, as you weave in between scorched trunks of enormous trees.
We stopped for a delicious bowl of ramen with pork belly in the mid mountain lodge, now in its second season of operation. The sun provided enough warmth for us to sit outside on the deck, and though I would prefer subzero blizzard conditions in January, our lunch in the sun gave a taste of what a great lunch spot this mid-mountain deck is during sunny spring skiing days or summer mountain biking.
With our legs rested and our belly’s full, we headed back along the Canoe Ridge and out the sidecountry gate, a little further than our first lap in search of terrain sheltered from the sun. We linked a handful of delightful powder shots of varying pitches before finding ourselves in The Grove, a large stand of tamaracks next to the Wildwood Express. The snow had thickened in the midday sun, and my legs were screaming by the time we made it to the bottom. Fish, who had effortlessly skied The Grove faster than I ski on most groomers, had not even unzipped any of his layers.
We finished out the day with a couple of groomer laps off of the Summit Express, watching the mountains surrounding the Long Valley turn golden in the setting sun. The Tamarack Village has several different options to celebrate a great day of skiing with tasty food and beverages, and I opted for The Reserve, Tamarack’s flagship restaurant, which has been named the #1 Best Ski Restaurant by USA Today for the last three years. The condos available for overnight stays in the village are luxurious and offer a cozy place to recover from a wonderful day of skiing. Tamarack offers a striking combination of excellent ski terrain and elegant accommodations, giving it venerated status among Idaho’s ski resorts.
Thanks, Tamarack!
Those interested in skiing the Gem Line Idaho ski resorts should visit VisitIdaho.com.
Snowpack and Weather
24 hour New Snow: 0 inches
Base Depth: 40 inches
Season Snowfall: 103 inches
