We (my co-worker and I) were out to Sacramento for business, but took the opportunity to ski Tahoe the weekend before. We both flew out from Raleigh, NC on Friday night, and I was the last to get to Sac, at 10:30pm. We left the airport by 11 or so. By midnight, Rob was falling asleep at the wheel (it was 3am to us). But, not me!! I was so psyched that I was wide awake, and I drove the last half, to the Tahoe Biltmore (decent, cheap casino hotel) about 20 min from Squaw. We hit the hay around 2am, but even though it was like 5am to me, it took me another .5 hours or so to fall asleep, I was so excited.
We had decided to get a 2-day pass at Squaw because they're so big (over 4000 acres). So, the next morning we headed out to find Rob some rentals, but all of the shops had LONG lines, so he ended up renting on the access road, for @ $30 (shaped skis). We finally got to the resort around 10:30. A drag, but I was still so psyched, it didn't really matter!
We headed up Red Dog first - the easiest lift to get to. The terrain looked incredible (and they were calling this lift a blue chair!). A lot of steeps in the trees under the chair, but it turned out that most of it was closed due to the bad ice resulting from the thaw-freeze cycle they were in. We skied down a warmup blue and at the end, down some small bumps and headed over to KT22. We took the pic of KT22 from the blue run off of Red Dog.
From the top of KT22, we took another blue run down, as we weren't sure if we were ready for the steeps yet, then headed back up. When we got to the top, we decided to ski the first run, under the chair - the area just to the left of the KT22 peak. It had a good 10' drop to some real steep terrain. Since we had only 2 warmups so far, we didn't do the jump, but did ski it. The snow was great (frozen granular), and I was loving it...until we got 1/2 way down and it turned to crunchy-top-icy snow. That was such a bad experience, we left KT22 for the rest of the mountain. We took the Gondola up the center of the resort and I was almost crying about all of the great terrain I was seeing on KT22 that was closed due to the ice :( .
We got to the plateau and headed straight to the Headwall lift, and took it to the top. The run right to the right/under the lift was pretty steep so I skied that. It was a good shot down, but pretty short. Decided to check out what was available from the Broken Arrow lift, and this is where we found the run pictured here. It was a really fun slope with a 3-5 foot drop at the top, and really nice soft snow that was forming into small bumps. It was really too steep to become a real bump run, but that's what I like. I like to be challenged by the steepness, not the snow conditions. That was a GREAT run, but I was feeling frustrated that I was skiing so bad. (A few years ago, a friend told me that ideally one should ski in bare feet. Your boot should fit that good. Well, from that point on, I skied only in one pair of socks, thinking that I'd have better control of the skis. Well...DUHHHH! If the boot doesn't fit right and is too loose, WEAR MORE SOCKS! I can't believe I was so dumb, but I had skied for a few years thinking I was doing it right. Anyway, at Killington last year, remembering my Squaw experience, I wore 2 pair of socks and some foam in my boots, and WHAT A DIFFERENCE IT MADE! OK, enough embarassing stories about me...)
After that run, we skied the runout blue down to the base then took the gondola back up and headed over to Gold Coast for lunch. On the gondola ride up, we rode with some guy who had a season pass, so I asked him why Squaw only with so many resorts. The 40 or so, graying hair, ponytailed with a beard guy looked at me and said in a stoned voice "it's the terrain, maaan". I took that as a pretty big endorsement for the place.
We ate out on the patio as it was a really nice day - the sun was out but it was still pretty cold but not windy. After lunch, and feeling quite frustrated by the conditions, we headed over to Granite Chief on the Emigrant lift.
On the lift ride up, my fingers got REALLY COLD. I couldn't believe it - hadn't been an issue before then, but I was in REAL pain as we finished the lift ride. I told Rob that I was going to ski off the windy ridge before re-tightening my boots. My fingers didn't feel like they had needles through them, they felt like they had been hit with a hammer! This was because they sweat so much when I ski and weren't warmed up yet after lunch...oh well - OUCH!
We skied down into the saddle below Granite Chief and down to the lift. The snow conditions were an INCREDIBLE surprise - frozen granular. Excellent compared to the front of the mountain. Granite Chief didn't get any sun, and it is the highest peak at Squaw, so I think the elevation kept the snow from melting. We skied Granite Chief the rest of the day. From the lift and to the left (after unboarding), there were 5-20 foot cornices at the start of the run, or you could ski around them and enter the bumps below in a less dramatic fashion. I really wanted to jump a 10' cornice, but wimped out because the landing area was so steep and bumped up big. I wasn't thrilled about a high speed wipeout in the bumps. Maybe if there had been some powder to soften the impact...I don't know. All I know is that I did wimp out. I hate that...get up to the edge, hang your tips over into the air and get scared. DARN!!
The bumps were SWEET and the terrain called for exploring. We skied about 3 or 4 runs, skiing the bumps first, then heading off to the left and searching out fun stuff in the trees. There was one area we would end up at that had a 50' or so extreme steep slope. Because it was so short is wasn't real intimidating, but VERY steep. It was about 6-7 bumps to the bottom, and a real test in form and speed control. My kind of bump run! The bottom emptied out into a gulley where it got kind of congested, but I usually took the initiative and skied it when it freed up, and stayed to the left and up a little when overtaking someone, and while that eliminated some bumps from the run, I had fun skiing up the sides then back down.
Granite Chief was a real blast, and I'm sure that there was much more terrain we didn't explore. One such place was to the extreme left (as you're looking up the lift) - a really steep pitch off of a peak that you access (I guess) when skiing over to Granite Chief from the Emigrant lift. Another area was to the right of the lift (as you ride up). Seemed to be a hike-to area with rocks and cliffs. That area was closed though, and I'm not sure if we were in the mood to hike anyway.
We rode Granite Chief until the lift closed, then did a couple of night runs on the intermediate Mountain Run, taking the gondola back up. This is where I lost my goggles - must have left them on the gondola. Luckily, it wasn't snowing, so no big deal.
That night, we tried to eat at the "Bridgetender"(?) - in Tahoe City and just south of the dam on the left. The place was packed, and we decided not to wait the 2 hrs for a table, so we headed back to the casino. Had prime rib dinners for $7.50 each and a couple of beers. Then off to the slots. I'm not really into gambling, so I risked a whole $5 and played .25 slots until it ran out, then played around with $1 on the nickel slots. Rob won $10 (at which point I would have quit) and proceeded to loose it back, plus another $5 or so. It was pretty late, and we were both tired from the previous night's drive and day of skiing, so we went back and sacked out.
The next day, we started skiing around 10am, started on the KT22 lift and skied a warm up through the saddle and down, then over to the gondola. We pretty much stayed either on Broken Arrow or Granite Chief most of the day. We did sample other areas, like the Silverado area. It was so icy that it seemed kind of dangerous to be skiing GROOMED runs. While skiing down to the lift, on a trail, I wondered if my skis would slip out from under me while carving turns, and if I fell - if I'd be able to slow down before hitting the trees. We didn't venture off trail because of the ice, but thought it looked pretty good in better conditions.
For the first time ever, I was disappointed after a couple of days of skiing. It was kind of wierd...of course I had fun, but had expected much more from Squaw. Another thing that had me wondering if this is such a great place is the run length. Seemed KT22 was the only (black diamond) lift that served much more than 1200' vert. But, still, there was so much terrain that I couldn't get to, I'll withhold judgement...(insert Arnold voice here) I'LL BE BACK!
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