Tahoe Ski World

skiing in Lake Tahoe

Christmas skiing at Tahoe ski resorts

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Don’t expect Santa to be dropping off any white fluffy gifts this Christmas Eve in Lake Tahoe.

The snow was plentiful at Tahoe ski resorts a year ago for Santa and his friends at Diamond Peak ski resort.

The Christmas weather forecast and current conditions are not what skiers and snowboarders were hoping for this December when they envisioned a white Christmas. While it will be white at Tahoe ski resorts, the snow remains sparse.

Unlike the plentiful snow at Tahoe ski resorts a year ago, this year the Tahoe slopes have only modest early-season amounts of snow. Of the major Tahoe resorts, Northstar has the most snow with a 30-inch base, followed by Kirkwood (24) and both Palisades Tahoe and Heavenly with 12 inches.

All Tahoe ski resorts are relying heavily on snowmaking, which is only effective when the temperatures are cold. Every Tahoe ski resort is open for the holidays, but most have around half of their lifts or fewer available and the number of trails is even less. The forecast for snow is not promising until probably middle of next week.

HUGE SNOW TOTALS A YEAR AGO: Last Christmas time in Tahoe, ski resorts had already received their primary gift – considerable snow and terrific Christmas Day weather.

Many of Tahoe’s 13 ski resorts had accumulated between 134-181 inches of snow and were close to having 100 percent of lifts/trails open. The Sierra snowpack was a whopping 194 percent of normal for that time of year. Boreal had 181 inches heading into Christmas day and several other resorts – Sierra-at-Tahoe (167), Palisades Tahoe (163), Sugar Bowl (155), Mt. Rose (151) – had significant snow totals as well.

If you’ve looked at Tahoe ski resort slopes recently you’ve seen that it’s way short from the amount of snow a year ago.

Sugar Bowl had a nice crowd for its opening day on Dec. 1, but like all Tahoe ski resorts, it needs more snow.

“What a difference a year can make huh? Last year we had pretty much the whole mountain open by early December,” said Tom Fortune, COO for the Heavenly/Tahoe Region.

Heavenly is hoping to make snow soon and has hopes of opening the Stagecoach and Boulder chairs by Christmas.

“Stagecoach is a priority. We were just able to connect California and Nevada via the Skyline Trail and now we want to add another base area so when it gets cold, we’ll make that snow and hope to open that area,” said Heavenly spokesperson Cole Zimmerman.

WEATHER FORECAST: The next storm is expected to be colder than this week’s, which delivered mainly rain to the Sierra with some snow at higher elevations.

There could be somewhat balmy high temperatures Sunday (Christmas Eve) that may hit the low 50s. However, expect dramatic weather changes at Tahoe ski resorts, starting Monday (Dec. 26). The National Weather Service is predicting Ridgetop winds will begin increasing Monday with gusts possibly reaching 70 to 100 mph.

Despite lackluster conditions, expect the slopes to be crowded during the Christmas holidays at Tahoe ski resorts.

The NWS is anticipating snow levels starting at about 8,000 feet before dropping Tuesday evening. The service is forecasting by Wednesday night there’s a chance of 2 feet of snow along the Sierra crest above 9,000 feet and a foot along the crest above 7,000 feet.

TAHOE SKI RESORT LIFT/TRAIL STATUS (Dec. 23)