Sierra at Tahoe Resort Official Blog

Jamie Anderson Visuals Episode 2

Jamie Anderson VISUALS EP. 2 | Tahoe-> from Martin Rubio on Vimeo.

X Prozac, Sub Nature

 

Sometimes we can all catch a case of the blues. It's human nature and life throws unexpected stresses at us every now and again. Next time you're feeling a down in the dumps skip the therapist and western remedies and head for the hills. There is an overwhelming healing quality wrapped up in the beauty that covers Sierra Resort.

There is nothing like a crisp blue powder day to lighten your spirits as the snow covered mountains radiate beauty. Its kind of like the way a roller coaster can force a smile now matter what your mood when you got on the ride. The sparkling air and snow covered scenery command a peaceful sensation more soothing than hot baths and chamomile.  If you just take the time to look around on days like these, you'll find yourself surrounded with shiny, heart warming goodness. It's like a big tight hug from your favorite friend.

Now, if you don't take the time to suck in the scenery, heart pumping adrenaline is another way to pop you back into the now. This approach forces a smile like a roller coaster too, but like a roller coaster where you pick and choose your turns, whips, flips and descents. Whooohoooo! If your slate is  only wiped clean for the duration of your run, shooshing down a mountian with snow hitting your cheeks is a sweet escape from the every day.

And let's face it, we can all use an intermittent reprieve from the norm.

Today the mountain is chicken soup for the soul. Try some.

Like Peas and Carrots, Sierra Resort and SPT

Did you ever meet someone you just liked right away, that you just clicked with? That's how we feel about SPT.

Terrain Park Takeover Tuesday: Presidents Day Powder Review

This past weekend Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort recived over 100" of snow. With that much snow the park crew let it pile up and is now hard at work resculpting and shaping our 6 parks. Get excited to see new features, bigger jumps and new lines.

While the park crew pushes snow though we've complied some images and videos of the past weekend. Enjoy and try not to drool.

Skier: Colby Albino, Photo: Terren Gomez

Photo: Terren Gomez

 

 

 This Is Where We Are... from humans on Vimeo.

 

Skier: Colby Albino, Photo: Terren Gomez

Rider: Ville Paumola, Photo: Mikko Huttunen

 

2.16.11 - 2.18.11 Sierra Storm from Steve Hemp on Vimeo

 

 

Blue Bird Slideshow - Feb 20, 2011

20,000 Leagues Under the Pow w/ SICK New Powder Edit from humans

How deep is deep?

One word, really DEEEEEP. I heard all this chatter from indoors that, and I quote, "It could be too deep". I say bullucks!  I popped out on the hill for a couple runs so I could see/ feel for myself. Armed with my powder board I made my way to the battle field, or at least that's what it looked like in the trees off of Castle. The untracked areas were littered with bodies of those brave souls who dared to venure outside of broken trail. Thank you.

They were wriggly moving bodies, of course, digging and squirming their way back to a vertical and upright position. I looked around and marveled at my fallen fellow soldiers, I learned I was not absolved from the appetite of the hungry depths that currently make up Sierra. Having to stop for human obstacles, I toppled over, on my back, head down hill in the pow. I had to unbury my lower extremities before I could begin my own wriggling, and then pull a ninja backwards somersault to get out. Man, is there a lot of snow out there! It worked brilliantly, ah ha ha ha! Alas, I escaped to make many a more bouncy smooshy, super soft, powder turns. 

My friend wasn't so lucky. If you've ever read the tale of Odysseus, you know he fought a battle against Poseidon and thrashed about in the sea for several years. Well there's a glimpse of her first run. Eventually, she too emerged, covered with snow to ride again.

True, off pist riding was a bit challenging, but NOT too deep and groomers were amazing. This is definitely the most snow I've seen at one time at Sierra and It was more fun than you can shake a stick, or a pair of sticks, at. As you can see despite the back-leg burn, energy and smiles were abound.

Storm totals are 80" plus with a season total of 428" and counting.

This Is Where We Are... from humans on Vimeo.

Priceless payoff: pain of learning to ride powder

Have you ever seen a turtle get turned on its back?

Well, this is the imagery that comes to mind when I think of someone riding in powder for the first time, especially in waist deep powder like we have now. When you're learning the ropes, one of the final stages of the learning progression and crescendo of enjoyment for the sport is learning to mash some pow.

After a good few days of learning, you think you've taken your lumps in the groomers punishing your little wrists with every catch of your body.  Your neck muscles were sore for a week from that time you caught your edge and smacked your head and thought, hey, I might need to invest in a helmet. And at long last, the swelling in your one bum cheek subsided  to finally match the other. You think you've got it. The fallen leaf has become something that only leaves do and you're picking up the speed down some runs, maybe even jumping a little. And then…dun dun dun,  dun-du-dun, dun-du-dun (think Darth Vader to get the tune) ...comes a powder day.

Your friend, who got you into the sport in the first place, is thrilled and can't wait. You, the seasoned rider you've become, think you're ready for it. It looks easy and fun, and you've got it figured out now. Assured by your professions of competency, your buddy agrees to go up with you. So you start off at the top of Grandview starting out towards Sugar and Spice and then with two whips of a tail, you're pal disappears into an abyss of trees.

And you follow.

  I don't know about you but, I got tired just watching.

An hour later......after rolling around in the snow, taxing every muscle in your body, and stuffing snow into every wrinkle of cloth and perhaps your body, you've swam out. You've discovered that falling is bad, um kay, and that trying to push yourself up like you've done on the groomers just doesn't work the same way here. Your friend tried to stop and help, while he/she stared at you with a fool's grin (note the laughter coming from the camera person), and kept saying things like 'just lean back'. From pure frustration you tell your friend to leave you, you'll make it down, or you're one of those who gets mad and grouchy. In any case, you've found powder to be a horse of a different color.

I'm here to tell you we were all there once and if the pain of snow against your skin, and the sting of the ego wasn't worth it, then people wouldn't quit their jobs to move to the mountains, or get up at 3:00am to get here to call in sick when they're almost here, to keep their jobs. Riding powder is an other worldly thrill that feels like what it might to slide across cumulous clouds. It is a veritable vortex of fameless glory filled with hoots and hollers to burn joyous memories in your brain for decades. It gives a sensation that  is ineffable (is not expressible in words) causes incessant giggles, makes men proudly wear beards of ice and keeps the masses coming back and back and back.

For all those who had one tough time in powder on a snowy day and signed off.... do it again. I guarantee it will be worth it.

Here is a little snippet of a success story:

 

Storm total is 38 inches and counting..it's dumping out there. Now's your chance!

Some helpful tips.

 

 

Pow on the way, to jib or not to jib...

With all this sunshine and sweet park action I have been shopping for a short, twin tip, flexy little jib board. But wait, now I hear the 4 foot plus pounder is header our way just in time for my days off.  What's the problem you may ask?  Well it's like this, I only have one pair of bindings. So, do I switch them out for some box/rainbow sliding or hold off for the pow... maybe someone will bring be a whole jib set up for Valentines Day. You decide here's some footage from both:

Jibbing:

Sierra GoPro Edit from luis rubio on Vimeo.

Powder:

I think I'll just have to do both, that's what they make those little ratchet tools for after all.

Start making your plans for all the snow love coming our way.

Check the NOAA forecast here http://ow.ly/3V0OA

Get Your Groom On

According to Dictionary.com Corduroy is defined as follows:

cor·du·roy

/ˈkɔrdəˌrɔɪ, ˌkɔrdəˈrɔɪ/  Show Spelled [kawr-duh-roi, kawr-duh-roi]   

– noun

1. a cotton-filling pile fabric with lengthwise cords or ridges.
2. corduroys, trousers made of this fabric.

Now to us, this terms means something different. It looks like a white version of the pants that make that zooot-zoot-zooot sound when you walk, still it's something so much more fun. On a daily basis 70% or more of our mountain is covered in it. Recently, I had the privilege of taking a CAT ride with the Grooming Supervisor at Sierra-at-Tahoe and it proved to be educational as well as really cool experience. It was interesting to be on the other side of the whole operation. Not unlike you, most days I'm just messing up those perfectly spaced ridges.

Sierra Resort with its well oiled grooming team, takes pain staking efforts to manicure it's slopes to the best of it's capacity on a daily basis. We are proud of the maintenance of our snow, making it all that it can be when high pressure pushes in and mother nature moonlights in other parts of the country.

You may also be pleased to know that our snow is all natural - no implants, no preservatives!  This may come as surprise to those who perceive California as an ever sunny dominion, or those who have ridden in southern California. If you have, you may have seen signs like this around.

The sign says" Man-made snow is real snow. It's just man made." Although the sign's assertion may be true (is it?) lucky us, we just don't need it. On average we get 480 inches of snow a season so, you can imagine just how much snow we get on an above average year.

I'm sure you've heard the saying to not eat yellow snow, well it doesn't give the best ride either. If you've ever seen the man made stuff you know it has a yellowy tinge to it - eeewwww!

Snow from ma-nature has sharper edges than artificial snow. The rounder edges of manmade snow make it clump together and make a harder surface; it kind of has the consistency of shaved ice. There's no beating the kind that comes from the clouds. The sharp edges of a natural flake create an organic aeration that make it fluffier and more edgable than manmade, even after its been churned  and replaced. Oh yeah, and it's white.

Even when it's not a jaw dropping, face-hurt-from-smiling powder day at Sierra, our hill is still a heck of a ride. We take the time, staff, and care to make sure of it. Every day 30 plus of our 46 trails get churned and or rebuilt by our grooming staff that works around the clock, save when we are skiing/riding it. That grooming includes the up-keep of 5 parks and a Superpipe.  I also discovered that often our smaller parks are recreated over night due to the amount of traffic they get during the day, like the one on Upper Snowshoe. We invest 90 man hours a day grooming the mountain and another 30 - 40 hours on our parks. Yes, every day and it's all for your snow sliding enjoyment.

We also invest in the state of the art equipment to get the job done with a fleet of Bison and Bison X CATs and one giant, the best in snow grooming technology, known as the Beast.

So what does "grooming" do to the snow? It does quite a bit as CATs steadily and methodically crawl the slopes through the night. The blade in the front of the CAT pushes and replaces all the bumps, humps and wrinkles made throughout the day by skiers and snowboarders. Next, the snow is caught by the tiller that churns the snow aerating and softening it. This process breaks down chunky and harder bits and then lays it back down. Then there is a "conforming" bar. Yuck I hate that word, let's just call it a packing bar. That's what it does, it gently packs the churned snow so it has an even level and consistency across the hill.  And last, attached to the back end of the CAT are combs. It is the combs that lay the grooves we have affectionately come to know as "fresh corduroy". All of these functions go on with each pass of the CAT and most of our runs get this mountain massage multiple times before we call it done.

Some interesting tid bits:

• Grooming Supervisor, Quint Ross, is a professional Jouster (not a requirement of the job) in the summer months and runs the Camp Richardson Corral on Emerald Bay Rd.
• Corduroy is designed in ridges for a reason. The ridges optimize runs for speed in addition to smoothing the terrain. Since the snow is grooved, only half is making contact with the base of your ski or snowboard ergo,  less surface contact equals less friction and faster speeds.
• Cats are extremely warm and comfortable and many have some nice sound systems. These guys and gals are out on the hill all night long so, they need some good heat and beats.
• 1 Bison X CAT weighs just under 9 tons and winches steep black diamond runs like Castle from trees. Trees strong like ox,  or in this case dinosaur!
• The Bison CAT combination of engine performance and weight ratio results in the both excellent climbing and downhill steering control in the most challenging snow conditions.
• Most moguls you find on the slopes are created by the turns made by snowboarders and skiers when they're shredding. They can be created by groomers but most of the time moguls are only made with CATs for competitions.
  

See more images in  A CAT's LIfe Gallery.

 

A Rose by Any Other Name...

Today was looking pretty  fun so I asked our facebook fans how many ways they could use shred in a word like shredtastic and shredalicious. 

Our on-line community rocks! I  just asked our "fans" the one little favor
and take a look at the response.



Helloooo genius. Now I have a veritable shred thesaurus but wait,  there's more....

Dear Brandon,

It makes no sense to fear the inevitable, embrace it.

And den....

All shreditions - BINGO another one! - have serious validity and make for an amazing synonym entry in the Urban Dictionary however,  Mr. West has delivered my personal favorite. An X-treme Mary Poppins would be proud.  Thanks for the contributions, I'm stoked. Hmmmmmmmm, stoked?  Well, that's another post for another day.

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More comments keep funneling in.