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Best place to carve in Northern California


mennanov

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Hi!

 

I am an extreme carver who moved to Mountain View, CA 4 months ago and i'm looking for the best place to carve there.

 

My plan is to have training sessions almost every weekend coming on Fridays evening and leaving on Sundays evening, so i consider buying a season pass.

I have never carved in California before, so i need your advice on that topic.

 

The ideal place for me would have:

  1. good grooming, wide slopes, rigid snow (ice is ok)
  2. no crowds (the less the better)
  3. reasonable price for a ski pass and lodging (lodging can be really cheap, i don't care too much about it)

 

Thank you!

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Renat?!!

 

 

Yes! :)

 

Nice to see you there!!!

 

I know about the season passes at http://www.snow.com/epic-pass/passes.aspx, but i also may consider buying a season pass at http://skirose.com/season-passes/season-pass-options/ since it has no blackout days.

 

Can't decide which one is better... :(

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В полку прибыло)),

If you not planning to ride outside of CA, you may consider to buy this one. however EPICpass brings you a lot more opportunities to ride in three states! CA, UTAH and CO!! think about it!!

 

I know one russian guy, who carve too. He also lives in Mountain View!! He may give you more info then i have.

Sobolev Konstantin

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  • 1 month later...

The ideal place for me would have:

  1. good grooming, wide slopes, rigid snow (ice is ok)
  2. no crowds (the less the better)
  3. reasonable price for a ski pass and lodging (lodging can be really cheap, i don't care too much about it)

 

 

In Tahoe, Kirkwood is king when it comes to carving.  Most bay area carvers prefer Kirkwood because it has a good variety of intermediate and advanced carving runs that are relatively wide and have a nice consistent pitch.  Carving runs are Lower Zachary, Upper Zachary if you can carve steeps, most runs serviced by The Reut #11 such as Buckboard, Wagon Trail etc; Flying Carpet and Elevator Shaft.  Don't miss Buckboard and Flying Carpet.  Closest economical hotels would be Motel 6 in South Lake Tahoe, and Best Western in Jackson.  

 

Northstar has some good grooming and some great carving runs.  It's also wind-sheltered and a good bet on super windy days when upper Squaw, Alpine, and Kirkwood are on wind hold all day.  Ax Handle, Luggi's, Logger's Loop, Surprise; Challenger and Iron Horse.  On the weekends, Northstar is insanely crowded with gapers, jibbers, and families.  Parking sucks, you have to shuttle from your car.

 

Alpine & Squaw have a combo pass, and affordable accommodations can be found in Truckee, Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista.  I suggest VRBO / AirBNB rather than actual hotels.  Good carving at Squaw would be anything off Shirley Lake chair, sometimes Siberia Bowl before it gets bumped up, most stuff serviced by Gold Coast lift, and you gotta do the top to bottom mountain run a few times.  Dog Leg and Red Dog face can be nice.  And at Alpine Meadows, there's Alpine Bowl, Wolverine Bowl, Idiot's Delight, D8, any runs that pass by Yellow Chair.

 

A word about other people.  On a normal winter day, anywhere in Tahoe is going to be a zoo on the weekends.  You will think it's really uncrowded the first two or three runs, and then the family types with children and people who aren't serious enough to get their shit together and arrive half hour before the lifts start spinning start to trickle in around 9:45-10ish.  After 10, you'll be waiting in lift lines after every single run for 5-15 minutes.  If you are misfortunate enough to be at Northstar or Squaw on a weekend, you can spend a lifetime in the lift lines.  Kirkwood is nice because, though it does get a little impacted around 10AM, people then start to discover other parts of the mountain and between 10-12, people disperse out a little bit and the lift lines aren't so bad.

 

But really ... it's all about Kirkwood.

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  • 2 years later...
On 11/5/2015 at 10:34 PM, jishaq said:

 

In Tahoe, Kirkwood is king when it comes to carving.  Most bay area carvers prefer Kirkwood because it has a good variety of intermediate and advanced carving runs that are relatively wide and have a nice consistent pitch.  Carving runs are Lower Zachary, Upper Zachary if you can carve steeps, most runs serviced by The Reut #11 such as Buckboard, Wagon Trail etc; Flying Carpet and Elevator Shaft.  Don't miss Buckboard and Flying Carpet.  Closest economical hotels would be Motel 6 in South Lake Tahoe, and Best Western in Jackson.  

 

Northstar has some good grooming and some great carving runs.  It's also wind-sheltered and a good bet on super windy days when upper Squaw, Alpine, and Kirkwood are on wind hold all day.  Ax Handle, Luggi's, Logger's Loop, Surprise; Challenger and Iron Horse.  On the weekends, Northstar is insanely crowded with gapers, jibbers, and families.  Parking sucks, you have to shuttle from your car.

 

Alpine & Squaw have a combo pass, and affordable accommodations can be found in Truckee, Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista.  I suggest VRBO / AirBNB rather than actual hotels.  Good carving at Squaw would be anything off Shirley Lake chair, sometimes Siberia Bowl before it gets bumped up, most stuff serviced by Gold Coast lift, and you gotta do the top to bottom mountain run a few times.  Dog Leg and Red Dog face can be nice.  And at Alpine Meadows, there's Alpine Bowl, Wolverine Bowl, Idiot's Delight, D8, any runs that pass by Yellow Chair.

 

A word about other people.  On a normal winter day, anywhere in Tahoe is going to be a zoo on the weekends.  You will think it's really uncrowded the first two or three runs, and then the family types with children and people who aren't serious enough to get their shit together and arrive half hour before the lifts start spinning start to trickle in around 9:45-10ish.  After 10, you'll be waiting in lift lines after every single run for 5-15 minutes.  If you are misfortunate enough to be at Northstar or Squaw on a weekend, you can spend a lifetime in the lift lines.  Kirkwood is nice because, though it does get a little impacted around 10AM, people then start to discover other parts of the mountain and between 10-12, people disperse out a little bit and the lift lines aren't so bad.

 

But really ... it's all about Kirkwood.

what about run/lift recommendations for non-extreme carvers?  I have Tahoe Local Epic Pass.  I'm kind of just getting back into snowboarding after a 15 year hiatus.  took the alpine board out two days at Park City and it was fun (but i need a lot of work).  Have soft booted at Heavenly a few times this year but have yet to make it anywhere else.  I remember having fun at Northstar.  Will likely only ride on weekdays.  In addition to the Epic Pass resorts, I will probably also hit Alpine.  Not that good at hard booting on steeper terrain, so prefer mellower slopes.

I have an old '01 Ultra Prime 64

Thanks in advance

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17 minutes ago, sunsetsailboards said:

what about run/lift recommendations for non-extreme carvers?  I have Tahoe Local Epic Pass.  I'm kind of just getting back into snowboarding after a 15 year hiatus.  took the alpine board out two days at Park City and it was fun (but i need a lot of work).  Have soft booted at Heavenly a few times this year but have yet to make it anywhere else.  I remember having fun at Northstar.  Will likely only ride on weekdays.  In addition to the Epic Pass resorts, I will probably also hit Alpine.  Not that good at hard booting on steeper terrain, so prefer mellower slopes.

I have an old '01 Ultra Prime 64

Thanks in advance

I've been carving in Tahoe for 3 seasons so far, i've tried Kirkwood, Heavenly, Northstar, Mt. Rose.

Out of these 4 Mt. Rose is an obvious winner for carving: the runs are wide and the lifts are super fast. It's not as packed as other resorts, relatively short lines at the lifts. I'd say it's a perfect place for carving.

Speaking of Epic pass resorts: it is Kirkwood. Not because it is really good, but because it is the best from the worst. Grooming in Kirkwood is the worst i've seen in my life, so be prepared. The lifts are somewhat 30-40 years old :) 

Northstar: flat runs (except for the Burnout one), too many kids, icy, very long lines at the lifts, parking sucks.

Heavenly: long lines, not so many interesting runs for carving, drunk casino weekend "skiers".

Mt. Rose has a special offer for Epic pass holders: $100 off the season pass. You can also buy a day pass and if you like it you can apply the price of a day pass to the price of a season pass. Oh, and if you buy it now the season pass works this and the next season too.

Edited by mennanov
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  • 2 weeks later...

My Rose is really good for carving, the resort is not huge, but you don't need a massive mountain if the runs are good; both sides have a variety of pitches and the runs running under the high speed chair from main lodge have a variety of widths from really wide (kit carson) to steep and a little banked to enjoy...not too many people and the standard of skiing tends to be quite ok too so don't have idiots running from behind into you.  The other side is also fun with a bunch of good carving runs too.

Close to Reno, quite high altitude as well, so it gets decent snow, there is some ok off piste stuff as well although needs snow for that.   Used to be some EC riders at Rose as well, first time i saw EC up close was in Rose.

Personally I really like the smaller resorts as long as the snow is good, each is only good for a day or so, but you can go through all of them over a season.  Alpine is my overall favourite mountain although not entirely sure it's the best for carving, it just happens to have a really nice variety of terrain similar to Squaw but back in the day fewer people and cheaper lift tickets (I doubt that is the case any more)

 

Edited by kipstar
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