Lake Tahoe is no stranger to late-starting winters. One of the reasons that local resorts have invested so heavily in expensive snowmaking systems is to improve the odds of lift-served skiing by the Thanksgiving holiday.
Last winter was about 90 percent of normal for precipitation for the Northern Sierra, but many portions of California and Nevada are currently suffering from moderate to severe drought conditions. Water managers are warning that it’s critical that this winter be wetter than normal to avoid even lower water levels next summer.
Forty-five years ago, the record setting winter of 1968-69 opened up with a few cold, Gulf of Alaska-bred storms, but the snow contained little moisture for the Tahoe-Truckee watershed. Meteorologists call storms that track along this north to south overland trajectory “inside sliders” because they don’t surge in out of the ocean with abundant moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Instead, inside sliders are often water-starved and bring light powder and cold continental air. By the middle of December 1968, Lake Tahoe ski resorts were open with a respectable 2 to 3 feet of packed powder.
For Tahoe skiers, the 3-foot base was nothing to get too excited about, but then the weather really fired up just in time for the Christmas-New Year’s holiday crowds. Blizzards and 100 mph winds tore into the region, ravaging skiers and residents alike. On the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, temperatures plummeted. Reno broke a 71-year-old record with a morning low of 3 degrees below zero. Carson City reported a bitter 18 below, which was exceeded by Truckee at minus 19 degrees. Snowfall was plentiful, but not extreme. Squaw Valley picked up a total of 105 inches during December 1968.
Despite the harsh weather conditions, skiers and snowmobilers surged into the mountains. The abundant snow encouraged winter sports enthusiasts to push the limits of their machine or skiing ability. Unfortunately, the thrills came with a cost. On Dec. 29, 1968, 60 people were admitted to the Truckee hospital for various injuries suffered while enjoying their high-speed sports.
That same week, 50 people were trapped on the Pioneer lift at Slide Mountain Ski Resort when gusty winds hooked a chair into a tower and bent the cable wheel. Night was approaching and temperatures falling fast as ski patrol crews worked quickly to rescue the stranded skiers. It was dark when the last shivering skier was belayed down by rope, an hour and a half after the accident.
The Sierra Storm King worked more magic throughout January and February. Snowfall totals soared to nearly 300 percent of normal as a powerful jet stream drove storm after storm into the mountains. A juicy impulse that hit on Jan. 13 hammered Soda Springs with 45 inches; 10 days later more than 70 inches fell in 48 hours. That second system piled 75 inches of fresh snow on the Mount Rose Ski Resort, setting Nevada’s all-time single-storm record. At Donner Pass, snow fell continuously for 11 days and added another 13.5 feet to the pack.
Heavy snow and avalanches snapped power lines and tore out transmission towers across the Sierra. The resulting power outages plunged residents of Lake Tahoe, Olympic Valley, Portola and Loyalton into a cold, ominous darkness. Sierra Pacific Power Co. was forced to fire up emergency generators in Portola to supply electricity to outlying areas.
By the end of January, ski areas were reporting impressive snow depths. Squaw Valley was struggling with 23 feet, Mount Rose had 25 feet, while the Boreal Ridge ski area near Donner Pass reported that it was buried under massive drifts 18 to 40 feet deep.
The towering snowpack made trans-Sierra high voltage lines a danger to unsuspecting over-snow travelers. In a warning to snowmobilers and cross-country skiers, Sierra Pacific Power Co. warned that some lines strung 20 to 30 feet high were so loaded with ice and snow they were now only 10 feet above the ground. Drifts near the summit nearly reached the power pole crossbars and strands of the potentially deadly wires were buried in the snowpack.
As winter storms kept pounding the region, the snow piled higher on the roofs of homes and buildings around Lake Tahoe. Building engineers sent out warnings and told residents to shovel the snow from their roofs to prevent collapse. Josephine Knepper was working at the South Lake Tahoe Legion Hall when she heard ominous strains emanating from the roof timbers. Suddenly, two-thirds of the flat-roofed building came crashing down. The collapse occurred two hours before a dance that was to draw about 500 young people.
The active storm pattern set several Nevada snowfall records that still stand. On Valentine’s Day, the Silver State’s 24-hour snowfall record was broken when 3 feet buried Daggett Pass near the Kingsbury Grade, east of Lake Tahoe. A total of 139 inches of snow fell on Daggett Pass in February 1969, and the maximum snow depth there reached 14.5 feet, both new state records.
Persistent storms and huge snow drifts as high as 40 feet closed the Mount Rose road (Route 431) for 37 days. The season total at Mt. Rose of more than 59 inches of precipitation (rain and melted snow combined) set a new record for Nevada’s wettest calendar year.
In California, the winter snowpack topped out near 100-inches deep in Tahoe City, but ski areas on Donner Summit boasted depths more than twice that. In February, the percentage of mean monthly snowfall in the Central Sierra reached nearly 1,000 percent of normal.
In March 1969, Squaw Valley hosted the World Cup tour’s final racing competitions of the season. Snow conditions were exceptionally good, but that didn’t help America’s star skiers Billy Kidd and Spider Sabich, who couldn’t break into the top ten of the European-dominated Men’s Overall World Cup rankings. On April 1, Squaw Valley ski resort reported about 30 feet of snow on the upper mountain and declared they would keep their lifts running until July 7.
The big storms of 1968-69 set plenty of weather records in Nevada and dumped 601 inches of snow at the Central Sierra Snow Lab just west of Donner Pass. The winter of ’69 ranks at the 13th snowiest since 1878. The amazing thing was that nearly all of the snow came after New Year’s Day.
Weather historian Mark McLaughlin is a nationally published author and professional speaker. His award-winning books are available at local stores or at thestormking.com. You may reach him at mark@thestormking.com. Check out Mark’s blog at tahoenuggets.com.
