One day at Tahoe: where to go???

[SWriverstone]

Hi All:

I'm going to have one day in the Lake Tahoe area (with a free place to stay in Incline Village—woohoo!) next week on Friday (maybe Saturday too—not sure). I've never been to Tahoe before so have no clue which of the seemingly countless resorts in that area offer the best carving runs? 

And in case my definition of "best carving runs" is different than others, I'll describe: 

My perpetual carving dream is what I experienced many years ago at SES in Aspen—Snowmass in particular: groomed slopes that went on forever, and (most importantly) many of the slopes were a quarter-mile wide! (So TONS of room to carve back and forth across the slope.) That's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my drift.

Oh, and no mobs with long lift lines, please. LOL (I know—probably not possible around Tahoe.)

So any advice or recommendations is much appreciated! (Best wide carving slopes, smallest mobs.) I'm willing to drive too. Though I'll be staying in North Tahoe, I don't mind getting up early and driving south if it's worth it.

Thanks!
Scott

PS - Are any of the little resorts worth going to? (Boreal, Diamond Peak, etc.) I ask because they're a lot cheaper. (I'm still kinda shocked at the $150-$160 lift ticket prices at the big places.)

[SWriverstone]

Here's what I hope to find somewhere at Tahoe, LOL  Alas, this video was shot at a resort in Japan—but it represents my IDEAL carving run. :-)

 

[jishaq]

I live in Tahoe.  I can tell you that you don't want to be anywhere near Squaw, Alpine, Northstar, Tahoe City, Kings Beach, or Truckee this coming weekend, because Squaw is hosting the FIS world cup.  Please heed my warning as a fellow carver and don't even bother going west of Incline Village:  The traffic and lift lines on normal weekends this winter has been legendary because we have a record-setting snowpack and everybody and their cousin wants a piece of it all weekend, every weekend; I can't even imagine how bad it will be this weekend.  Most locals I know, myself included, are heading out of town to avoid the chaos.  

Do drive up to the summit of mount rose to check out the insane snowpack at the summit.  

The resorts near Incline aren't really caving meccas -- if you want awesome carving, take the time to drive east around the lake to Kirkwood.  They've received almost 600 inches of snow in two months, so they have full coverage.  Fuck Heavenly and Sierra at Tahoe.  Kirkwood is doing IFSA Junior National this coming weekend so it might be a little busy, but probably this will be isolated to one part of the mountain.  Get there early.  Carve up Lower Zachary (upper if you dare) and Buckboard to start the morning, and then when it starts to get busy, ditch the crowds and head over to Flying Carpet and carve it up, and then finish the day on the backside on Elevator Shaft.