After a long dry Autumn, we have  snow.  It was a great thing to see it snowing right on the heals of a devastating mid-January wildfire in Reno that two of my sons were fighting. 

Although the economy would have been better with snow before now, it was a banner year for ice skating as the photo of Lower Echo Lake testifies (I took the other photo on the trails behind our house today).  I did enjoy the lack of snow by hiking and mountain biking as skiing on ribbons of man made snow began to feel a bit confining.   Hope you can come up and enjoy Winter in Tahoe at your favorite snow sport area very soon.

Image by RenoTahoe via Flickr

On mostly man made snow Heavenly Valley Ski Area is scheduled to be open this week, November 18.  Their hours and terrain are sure to be limited, but they will be open nonetheless.  Sierra-at-Tahoe is waiting for natural snow to open their resort and Kirkwood, which has 35-39 inches, has no opening date scheduled.   Here comes another winter, I wonder if it will be unending, bottomless powder skiing like last year.  I’ll let you know in the Spring.