How does Tahoe measure up?
 

Being from the Bay Area, I've been lucky to live within driving distance
of Tahoe. I've been told by a few people that Tahoe blue runs are
comparable to black runs in a lot of other places, but only having been to
Tahoe I don't really know. Anyone agree or disagree?

Class Account wrote:
Being from the Bay Area, I've been lucky to live within driving
distance
of Tahoe. I've been told by a few people that Tahoe blue runs are
comparable to black runs in a lot of other places, but only having
been to
Tahoe I don't really know. Anyone agree or disagree?

Runs are ranked based on the mountain... so a black run on the East
Coast of the US does tend to be only a blue run on the steeper
mountains of the West (including Tahoe). Tahoe runs tend to be wider,
which also tends to give them a lower ranking than a run of comparable
steepness that is narrower (East coast runs tend to be narrower).
Obstacles also increase the ranking of a run... run that have the
steepness of a blue, but with wide trees tends to be ranked as a black,
steep runs with very tight trees a double black. Other countries are
often even less conservative in their rankings, where an "expert"
marking really means "you better know what you are doing because we
don't care if you are stupidly overconfidant, crash and hurt yourself
because you can't sue us" =]

So yea, Tahoe mountains tend to be steeper than the East Coast
mountains... but it is not much different from most West Coast
mountains... with some mountains in Utah (Snowbird) and Wyoming
(Jackson Hole) have steeper stuff in general.