Today, December 11th marked the second official day of the Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe opening their snow capped mountain for the season. Unfortunately since yesterday Mt. Rose Highway was closed, those dedicated to the shred life made it to the mountain anyways. They say taking a detour really wasn't that bad.
The long wait for snow to hit the ground has come to an end, while last week Mt. Rose had patches of dirt showing through their man made snow, today they continued to kick off their snowy season.
Mike Pierce, the Marketing Director of Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe says "We had to get a little bit more coverage before we could open the door, and now we're open and we're open for the season."
With so many eager mountain go-ers on the first day of opening, the mountain was hit with a flurry of guests.
Pierce tells us "Yesterday morning when we opened the Northwest chair to the top, we had over 300 people just waiting to go... so a lot of anticipation."
Charles Zaretsky, a Local Shredder says "We haven't gotten a whole lot of snow this year so I'm just thankful to be out here, yesterday was sick, today was a bit windy but it's still awesome to be out here."
Although they did have to close down their bigger lift that was popular yesterday, along with a wind advisory, as gusts came down from the summit.
Pierce explains "At the Summit we had some higher winds that prohibited the Northwest this afternoon, but again if you dressed for the weather you'll be alright."
Zaretsky adds "The wind kids of sucks, especially today when its closed, but Wizards still running, the lower lift."
The Wizard lift did in fact yield it's magic, lifting people into the snowy sky and to their shredding destination. And the mountain guests want even more snow to come around.
Zaretsky says "We get those big Tahoe storms we get every once in awhile, it'll be sick... some good powder days."
Pierce adds "They're talking feet, whenever we have that much moisture coming into the area, we know as high up as we are, we're positioned great."
Robert & Oliver Tracht (Father and Son) Season Pass Holders tell us "Hopefully this weekend another storms coming to open up more of the terrain and keep this place going."
Even with Mt. Rose Highway being closed, forcing guests to take some detours, NDOT worked with Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe to keep the roads from Incline to Slide Road open. So who ever wanted to come up to the mountain still could.
Pierce explains "They knew it was a repair that had to take place really quick, and especially before this big snow hit, I'm sure Q&D wanted to take care of that before there was too much snow on the ground."
But the detours through Carson or Truckee that most took didn't deter them from reaching the mountain or a fun day.
Robert & Oliver Tracht tell us "We went up through Carson and around and got here pretty timely."
Zaretsky mentions "I travel a lot so I'm pretty used to long drives, but it wasn't too bad."
Many people on the mountain were also grateful for Mt. Rose's website informing them of the road closure, making it so they didn't have to go all the up to the highway just to get turned around.
