Unofficial Rose

Empty chairs and great bluebird conditions at Rose this morning. Excellent skiing on packed pow and perfect groomers. Cold yes, but the sun was welcome and warming. On the Chuter lift by myself a couple days after Christmas and recalling how in the past there would been  heavy traffic, long lift lines, full parking lots, wall to wall people in the lodge and a billion people on the Rose side... made me compose the little ditty below... Song to the tune of "Where have all the Flowers Gone?" Where have all the Asians Gone that I'm usually passing Where have all the Asians Gone They never showed Where have all the Asians Gone Fuses not popping rice cookers Gone Is it the ticket price? I guess we'll never know Sven

Hope you get out on the boards this Christmas and enjoy Mother Nature's Christmas Pow. We sure did! Sven

According to updates Slide will run today as the repair was completed last night. Again, according to reports. Snow was deep and cold yesterday and just because the lifts don't run doesn't mean there isn't some turns to be earned out there. Plus, the dogs enjoy the pow as much as you do! Sven

If you thought you were going to catch some of that nice pow on the slide side tomorrow think again... the Zephyr lift suffered major damage to its Communication Line and is slated to be down at least the next two days. That puts a lot of skier pressure on the Rose side as it IS the holiday season. Could have been worse tho right? Could have happened on December 26, often the busiest day of the year! I will update as I find out more. Sven

5.7 Million Dollars. How can you go wrong? Sure at first glance you might think this 14 acres on the Mt. Rose Hwy is overpriced, but hey, Look What Else You Get! Besides the acreage you'll receive an "interesting" lodge with a VERY open floor plan full of antiques with floor to ceiling views on the West side of the building, a full bar, pool table, guest rooms and memorabilia like a 50 unit typewriter collection coupled with one of the world's largest Lunchbox Collections (including the rarest of finds... a Gilligan's Island lunchbox signed by Bob Denver himself. The lodge has a rich history of rock legends playing to big crowds including Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Grateful Dead and many others. But hey, Look What Else You Get: The grounds contain a large antique tractor collection as well as other industrial bric-a-brac that would earn any junk yard dog's envy. All told there are at minimum forty 18 wheeler truckloads of difficult ...

Starstruck at Rose... First I ride a chair with Jeremy Renner, next I cut down the West Ridge hunting for some low angle untracked pow and I see who appears to be John Bolton near the Mt. Rose Explosives cache complete with his iconic mustache caught redhanded poking around. From Flanders over at Channel 2 weather to the stylish Kristen Remington you just never know who you might ride a chair with at Mt. Rose. Of course if your skiing you only really have to be famous to yourself to have a really good time. The magic of skiing makes us all superstars, right? With all this early snow skiing is fantastic for this time of year. Still, there are rocks and thin coverage in spots. Heres hoping you will ski with a healthy balance between carefully and carefree. Regardless, get your turns in while you can before the onslaught begins in earnest next week! Sven

Greetings all, Its been a few days since my last post but life is hectic and busy sometimes. Have patience. Saturday there was zero to seven inches of powder depending on where you were. If you were where the seven was... skiing was excellent. If not, you'll get to know the mountain better over time. With strong SW winds snow piled up in the usual places and skiing was delicious Sat and Sun. Even today with very cold temps skiing was still good with great grooming and decent snow off-piste as well. Be mindful of thin coverage in The Chutes. There are places where rocks are peaking out like shark fins just waiting for your ski edge. Helmets are not a bad idea... The Inebriated Look Alike Santa Celebration came off well with lots of smiles and free spiked nog for participants... pretty nice of Rose to throw that in for sure. The sun is shinning early week and then back to Seattle weather later in the week apparently. I could do without that, quite honestly. The theme of this week...

Heard good reports although I was not able to make it up today since that four letter word got in the way "WORK". I am sure all those who were there had a stellar time. Nice to have them open so early in the season, right? The picture below is what it would have looked like probably... Sven

Word on the slopes is The Chutes are set to open today or tomorrow... or so they are saying. Conditions are fairly good for the most parts with some mixed conditions with breakable fog, wind or sun crust depending on where you are dropping. Be aware and ski with care. It is still early season and the rocks that were covered when the chutes closed down last year may not be covered by much now. Good luck! Sven

As you may have noticed there have been more than the usual groomer anomalies on Mt. Rose this season. Although easily avoidable for those high speed am runs with good visibility, the same cannot be said when there is fog, blowing snow or big crowds. My advice, slow it down in low vis when you can't see where you are going especially if its your first run down that particular run. Stay patient, I'm sure Dave will have his newbies in line soon. The reason Mt. Rose slopes are normally pool table smooth is that Dave Hahl is a perfectionist and I'm sure he has noticed the anomalies as much as we have. This photo was at the beginning of the KC Traverse at the bottom of Upper Northwest, an area that already sees its fair share of accidents due to terrain and the funneling effect on a corner. Sven

Not into porn? This title is snow porn actually... However in reality the conversation would have then taken a turn with... "I can't feel my toes" or "Shit, my gloves are soaked." Temps hovered from 31 to 34 today with "moist" powder falling off and on during the day. The wind was whipping out of the South precluding Zephyr spinning and relegating riders to the Rose side where I would say it was fairly busy for the conditions. Winds were in the 60mph plus range and I was definitely home before lunch. Although, on the bright side, skiing was pretty good, especially the first 3 or 4 runs before it was more mash potato consistency. In every skier's lexicon are the immortal words... "It didn't suck." And alas. It did not. Forecast remains on track for more and a little drier snow tonight into tomorrow morning with much mellower weather expected tomorrow afternoon with sunny days most of next week. That might be a good time to hit the ...

Once in awhile there is enough snow in early December to hike up and away and catch a glorious solo sunset and ski mountain glow pink into blue shadows and be thankful you were alive to witness such a soundless and serene experience. Today was such a day and venturing far from the madding crowd is usually a wonderful experience anyway, but throw in great early season coverage, a rising moon in a clear sky, fresh cold pow and the solar fireworks and it truly becomes extraordinary. With the exception of the top of Bruces and some other random spots all named runs are skiing well on true packed powder. The mountain was empty late afternoon today and it felt like my own private country club. It is snowing heavily tonight and its forecast to continue through Sunday morning so its time once again to get the big boards out. Get your pow on now as next week looks warmer and drier.  My only caveat, beware the wind and lift closures on Saturday. Winds are forecast in the 75 mph range over th...

Thankfully the Slide side will open tomorrow barring no weather or mechanical issues and we will once again be treated to open slopes and skiable terrain where we can escape the urban refugees from Cali somewhat. To me and the rest of the slide dogs out there, the slide side just seems like a whole different mountain. Slide offers so many more options to reach out and explore, to find secret-like tree runs that most folks pass up. I don't feel so hemmed in over there and funneled into literal "tourist traps" like the KC Traverse which is probably only second to Squaw's Mountain Run as "Most Dangerous Run" in the West. Slide lets you stretch your wings a bit, some BC gates to go get lost when its too crowded and places to ski where there are not folks surrounding you on all sides. Room to breath, to let your skis air out a little feel the wind begin to hold you back. Where it still feels like "Old Nevada" on stormy weekdays and you don't see any...

Temps at 7600 feet rose 10 degrees last night and are sitting just below freezing at 31 degrees. Rather than the light dry pow you were expecting today you may want to bring your squeegee... things are looking to get even wetter this afternoon according to NOAA as snow levels continue to rise. Look closely at the window view... yeppers, thats free water out there. A far cry from the last couple of weeks. Could Sierra Cement be in the forecast. Oh yes. Just keep repeating... its good for the base, its good for the base. Regardless have a great day! Sven