Jolly Roger: No Snow Hurts Tahoe Ski Area

At The Jolly Roger Corner, you get a glimpse into Drake's oldest high school newspaper The Jolly Roger. These stories are written by Drake students, published in the Jolly Roger, and republished here with permission. Check out more articles, photos, reviews and insight into our local school at drakejr.com.

As Drake's Ski Week starts, the Jolly Roger looks at the ghost town that has been Tahoe so far this year. Are you heading there this week? Is it getting livelier?

BY LINCOLN RICHARDS

As you drive around the corner of Highway 89, the usually-bustling hub of the north shore, Tahoe City, is little more than a ghost town. The snow that usually coats the town is nowhere to be seen. If you have driven through Tahoe City this winter, you have surely seen the effects the lack of snow has had for the locals and the Lake’s economy.

After last year’s unusually good season, the weather has taken a turn for the worse because of the La Niña weather pattern drifting in from the Pacific Ocean. The La Niña weather pattern has forced all the snow that normally would have hit the mid-Pacific up to the Northwest, to the north of Lake Tahoe. Ski destinations in the northern states, such as Washington and Montana, are welcoming the abundance of extra snow and the skiers and snowboarders that followed the weather north.

Since 1902, there have only been eight years in which there was less snowfall than this year up until mid-January, according to the Western Regional Climate Center. Of these eight years, there were only four Decembers that saw no snow in Lake Tahoe.

Drake Senior Sarah Melbostad witnessed the snow drought firsthand in early December. “[I went up the] first week of Christmas break. I looked outside of my house and normally you can sled down the hill, [but this year] it was just ground. There’s not enough snow to even sled, which is the problem,” Melbostad said.

So far this ski season, Melbostad has only gone up to Tahoe once to check on her family’s cabin. “When I was up there it was 65 [degrees]. [If we went up again], I’d probably go hang out by the pool and play ping pong. Honestly there’s nothing to do [when there is no snow],” said Melbostad.

Melbostad is unaccustomed to travelling up the mountain so few times during the ski season. “[When there’s snow] I go up like every other weekend or so. I ski at Northstar and Sugar Bowl, [and] every once in a while, Squaw [Valley],” said Melbostad. “At Northstar, the backside isn’t open and they’re charging $80 for a one-day lift ticket. If it was half price, sure, I’d go,” she added.

Almost all of the cities and towns surrounding the Lake have been hurt by the lack of snow this season. Restaurants and even the shopping markets are nearly vacant as the ski crowd has not arrived.

When ski resorts would normally be flourishing in February, they instead have to lay-off their seasonal employees because of the devastation the weather has had on the Lake. Every week, the lack of snow raises concerns among the employees who count on snow to put food on their table.

The weather in Tahoe is surreal for this time of year. The lack of snow gives the illusion and feeling of summer. The only reminder of the season is the occasional ribbon of white, man-made snow stretching from the top of a mountain to the lake.

However, man-made snow fails to attract the skiers that usually pack into the Tahoe area this time of year. The normal congesting traffic that creeps all the way around the lake’s perimeter is virtually non-existent without the snow.

It’s no secret that some Tahoe locals have begun to think that winter may not even come this year. But luckily for them, a wave of storms came blowing across California two weeks into January. The storm system held warm, tropical water from Hawaii. While the storm did bring a few feet of snow in some areas, a good amount of the moisture released was rain because of the day temperatures at the lake.

While it was still not the storm anybody was hoping for, any snow is better than no snow and resorts have taken full advantage of this opportunity to open more of the lifts that are usually running at full throttle this time of year.

While some resorts such as Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows have over ten lifts now running, the rocky and barren peaks surrounding Lake Tahoe serve to remind everyone that this is one of the worst years for snow on record.