Tahoe Snowkiting . Spots and advice please.

Winter snowkiting topics and locations.
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cedralpass
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Post by cedralpass » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:30 am

Leaving Flatstar on the 24th, I saw 2 kites out cruising Martis. Its always looked like a good spot to Kite. I would appreciate details here as well. Our house is right near Martis. Looks like you would need good coverage, as there are lots of hidden shrubs and stumps.

Also, what size kites are reccomended arround this area, North Lake / Truckee.

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Post by downhiller » Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:26 pm

I have a 2.5 meter kite, will that have enough pull for snow kiting?

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Post by bhsu24 » Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:51 am

will be up in south lake for new years. winds looking pretty good. any recommendations for places close to southlake for monday the 31st.
Bryan

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Post by Yoda » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:31 pm

will be up in south lake for new years. winds looking pretty good. any recommendations for places close to southlake for monday the 31st.
Today a few of us went up and scoped out all of the best spots in the SLT area (that we know of). All of the popular spots have good snow coverage for kiting right now. We found the best kiting today at a wide open meadow next to the Tahoe Keys Marina... wind was inconsistant though, so sessions were limited. With good wind, this could be a great snowkite spot! Grass Lake and Hope Valley were lookin' good, but the wind wasn't blowin' there. If the wind blows, all of the spots could be worth checkin' out. I'd recommend Grass Lake if it blows.

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Slawek
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Post by Slawek » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:57 pm

Since Dec 12 I had 6 days of good riding in SLT. Mainly We had best days on Grass Lake. Yesterday sadly I had crashed on west side of the lake busting my right knee. Snow is very deep (~6ft) with nice layer of crust on top. Still I could brake the crust on my snowboard while middle part of the lake was little icy. Friend of my was skiing and while still edging he wasn't leaving any tracks on this part of the lake. West side of the lake next to trees have few spots where there is only 3 inches of snow covering solid ice. That is where I failed, after jumping and landing I immediately was ejected with backloop in extra gust landing on my knee. We where riding for over 3 hours and wind was super steady 12-15.I would consider it my best snowkiting day in Tahoe even I did hurt myself.
Little tip for You guys; even if it doesn't look to windy from the street it is worth to walk to lake to check.We learned that there is at least 10mph on lake while it look like it's dead in parking lot.
See You there...

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Post by kuwabara » Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:41 pm

Slawek, I think I saw y'all out there on my way out to Kirkwood for a few afternoon laps with the lady. I kited in the morning in the meadow next to the Tahoe Keys. Very Gusty. Lots of waiting for the wind, then lots of getting overpowered and sliding downwind... but there was a good solid hour of kiting in there. Not a great day to catch much air since the snow was basically ice.

Do people go out on Caples Lake? That looked like a good place. Is the meadow next to the Keys always gusty because of the trees/hills? Anyway, hope your knee is better, and hope to see you out there sometime.

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Slawek
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Post by Slawek » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:15 pm

Caples Lake have nice opening, but under 1 ft of snow it is solid ice.I wouldn't recommend it for beginners. I don't know about medows as this place was good for me.Most locations have good and bad days.Mostly with winds above 20 You will get those crazy gusts in all SLT locations.

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Post by kuwabara » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:28 am

Cool, thanx for the beta. Appreciate any info at this point. Are you headed out on Sat? Looks like it'll be a good day. Sun looks a bit too much unless you are planning to fly your trainer kite...

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Post by kuwabara » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:33 am

And since threads are worthless w/o pics

Image

Also, it may be covered now, but there is a white pvc post sticking out of the middle of the field... definitely watch out for it.

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Post by Slawek » Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:15 pm


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