Many seem to have hung up their skis and thrown in the towel on this winter.  Those that have been out skiing know that conditions are not nearly as bad as the naysayers make it out to be.  There is no question that our fat skis have been gathering dust on their wax jobs, but in context of the lack of snow the skiing has been good. 

The difference between Tahoe winters and most other places in the world is that we have very long winters and tend to get large heavy storms that can make a winter in one fell swoop.  You never know when it will come.  Four seasons ago April was our biggest month, it was a powder almost every day.  Tahoe ski seasons’ have an uncanny way of always coming through.  When in doubt you can just look to the past. 

Many chalked off last season as a bust too.  One year and a couple weeks ago today we were recovering from one of the biggest rain events Tahoe has ever seen.  Over 8 inches of rain, in less than one week.  It literally drowned Tahoe at the end of the holiday season.  Snow levels only dipped down to 8000 feet on a couple of occasion, Mt Rose was the sole beneficiary of this and it still wasn’t much.  It was hard not to do the math and translate that rain into what could have been 7+ feet of snow.  It sure was sad.  The rain left higway 80 closed for several days due to mudslides.  The Truckee river threatened to swallow Tahoe and Reno alike.   Power outages lingered for days, leaving some on the west shore without even water for as long as a week.  This rain event happened in the midst of an already weak 2005/2006 winter.  The winter started out promising in late october and early november with a couple sizeable storms.  But it was followed with another smaller rain event that drenched the slopes over Thanksgiving weekend.