FINALLY: Tahoe gets a good dump

After three months of rain it finally arrived. On Tuesday night the snow gods had a party and decided to dump more than two feet of snow on the Tahoe basin. This wasn’t one of those sissy parties that died out around midnight. No, this thing went all-night and even into the next day.

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon it was blizzard conditions around the lake and local resorts were reporting as much as 28 inches of new snow within the last 24 hours, adding to a summit base depth of around 112 inches at most resorts. Unlike previous storms that have left behind heavy, wet Sierra cement this week’s blower dropped light, airy powder, the kind of stuff you would expect to see in Utah or Colorado.

Avalanche conditions in the region were moderate (sierraavalanchecenter.org) and backcountry travelers were coming out of the woodwork.

The resorts were ripe for the picking Thursday morning as patrollers around the basin worked to open as much terrain as possible. On the North end Squaw officials opened KT-22, Siberia and Granite Chief first thing Thursday morning and people were lining up in anticipation of the mid-morning Headwall opening. Alpine had Sherwood running and everything accessed from Ward Peak was open. Sugar Bowl had The ’58 and Nancy’s Couloir open Thursday morning, but the Palisades are closed until further notice.

On the South side Heavenly was reporting knee deep on both the California and Nevada sides. Kirkwood has a base of more than 200 inches and Cornice Express was delivering all the people who skipped work this morning to an epic day in the chutes.

If you’re not in Tahoe you should be. It turns out I didn’t jinx the winter by moving here and while making first tracks with Diamond Peak ski patrol Thursday morning I decided that this is it. This is why I’ve sacrificed high pay jobs in the city and blown off the idea of owning my house is suburbia. This is what it’s all about. Life doesn’t get much better than a bluebird powder day in Tahoe.