Storms deliver multiple feet of snow to Tahoe area ski resorts

Courtesy of Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows
Recent storms delivered several feet of snow to the Sierra Nevada, allowing for local ski resorts to open more terrain as the 2019-20 season gets underway.
Following this week and last week’s storms, Sugar Bowl Resort is reporting a season total of 69 inches of snow as of Thursday morning.
“The cold winter storms we received over the Thanksgiving holiday set us up well for an incredible opening day, and helped us offer awesome early season conditions to skiers and riders who came up to celebrate the holiday weekend,” said Jon Slaughter, executive director of marketing and sales at Sugar Bowl Resort, in a news release. “Based on the forecasts we’re seeing, it appears the storm door has opened, and there’s much more snow in the forecast. We anticipate this will allow our teams to get even more terrain open quickly offering top-to-bottom skiing.”
Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows has received more than 6 feet of snow thus far. Squaw Valley reported 84 inches of snow for a season total at its upper mountain.
“Our Squaw Valley mountain manager says that the upper mountain snowfall we received this week is substantial compared to what we usually have at this time of the season,” said Alex Spychalsky, public relations coordinator for Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, in an email. “While this means we now have the coverage needed to start to assess opening new terrain, the process of opening new lifts and trails has only just begun. It will take our operations teams a few days to access parts of the upper mountain and prepare new terrain for the public, work that includes avalanche control, establishing access and safety roads, and marking boundaries and obstacles.”
Alpine Meadows has received 78 inches of snow for a season total at its upper mountain. The resort recently opened its Treeline Cirque lift — its new $11 million, high-speed, detachable quad chairlift.
Northstar California Resort said it has received 85 inches of snow for the season, while another of the area’s Vail operated mountains, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, has the highest total of any of the area’s resorts with 108 inches of snow, thus far.
Tahoe Donner reported 36 inches of snow at its downhill area. On Donner Summit, Boreal Mountain California and its sister resort, Soda Springs, have each received 70 inches of snow for the season.
Around Lake Tahoe, Heavenly Mountain Resort said it has received 86 inches of snow, Homewood Mountain Resort, which opened to season pass holders on Thursday, and to the public today, has had 52 inches of snow fall at its summit this season, Sierra-at-Tahoe said it has received 98 inches of snow at its summit for the season, Diamond Peak has received 43 inches of snow for the season and Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe said has received 72 to 91 inches of snow.
Justin Scacco is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. Contact him at jscacco@sierrasun.com or 530-550-2643.
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