at this point it’s no secret tahoe had a great january. im fact, in terms many locations saw record january snowfall, while many others saw record precipitation amounts. resorts saw over 25′ of snow in the first 24 days. we saw incredible avalanches and started some scary ones too. there were five days rated high on the avalanche scale and for the first time ever sierra avalanche center offerred up a completely black danger rose. We had some great days, but we also had quite a few down days. i think most would agree that the resorts were closed for weather more than any month in the past and i know the kids had more snow days than any month i’ve been here. enough of all that though let’s get to some pictures.
1/3 – waterhouse – this was the beginning of the condition known as #januburied.
we spent a lot of time here and at powderhouse during the month since it’s always got a pullout plowed and it’s the ‘safe’ alternative on high avy danger days. more on that later.
my last time skiing with ashley. i’ll miss her. follow her adventure with coalition snow at hutchski.com
1/7 – powderhouse on a high avy danger day. we kept it to low angle but the skiing was marginal. i was more worried about falling head first into the snow than i was of a slide
1/10
this was a high danger day and we got away with one. our first run was spectacular
jeremy
harold
then we got a little greedy and went a little higher. our decision making process took us up until we started to feel uncomfortable before dropping. i dropped in first and felt the snow tearing as i skied through it so i decided to cut left and stop to rethink. the left turn was basically a ski cut and started what i thought was a small slide a little above and behind me that i skied out of. looking back i realized it wasn’t a very deep slide, but much wider than i had thought. as i changed positions where i was standing another slide broke out about 15′ in front of me. we then skied down the slide path and realized it ran the entire length of the run and buried the skin track just above the highest flat shelf. fortunately there was only 1 other group there that day and they were out of harm’s way. here’s the report on sac and below is the video (which isn’t like an exciting avalanche video) maybe turn the volume down a bit i might even drop an f-bomb in there
support this site. go buy something
so after letting things settle for a few days of neverending shoveling i got a call from meghan asking about bearscratch the next day (1/13). when we got to the top things didn’t look good. what was supposed to be a sunny day ended up at the top in howling winds and an ice fog. the entrance didn’t look good but the trees we skinned up through did
meghan
hey that’s me just getting below the ice fog
dominique
afterward we were heading back to the south shore when we hit the traffic backed up all the way to cave rock from multiple head on accidents (also from the ice fog). we turned around to go hit the little christmas tree run above the ranger station on spooner summit. turns out it’s an old ski area that operated until the giant winter of 1952 closed it down. white hills ski area tahoe
1/16 – with the ice fog on the east shore we headed west across the lake to maggies. it was pretty much all time
me dropping in off the top
jeff finds a steep face
we live in a nice place
scotty runs from nacho
nacho is on my arse and whiskey waits below
we finished with a run to the lake shore
1/20 – powderhouse. this one turn from jeremy says it all
1/22 – then things got scary deep. that’s whiskey. the pile of snow in front of whiskey is nacho
1/23 – leaving the house going for a skin
laughing at whiskey trying to get out of the tree well (he could have done so easily behind him)
1/24 – things have settled a bit but were still too deep for the dogs unless i found a well used track. i checked around carson pass but the pullouts weren’t even plowed yet so i decided to see how the work was going and walked up there with the dogs. they won’t get the giant walls on both sides this year (yet) since they’re taking one side down with the dozer. by the way. they aren’t fans of you walking up the closed road.
so we headed to powderhouse and i skied down next to the skin track so they could run down it.
1/25 – now it was game on so we got a group together to hit the cross on mt. tallac. for some reason i had never skied this
harold
jeremy
in the throat
that’s me!
the snow up top was ok but on the heavy side. the fields underneath were glorious
seriously though. go buy something
1/27 – talking mountain
me and whiskey – picture by troy
picture of troy
1/28 – red lake peak with troy and the pups. nacho is stoked
our first run was mostly wind affected with some soft pow in the middle
then we hit the ice tube, which was a bit sun baked
to end the day we skinned up the east ridge to the top of the main gully which we dropped back to the car. troy drops the gut and takes the dogs with him
somehow whiskey gets back to me
looking back. there is a group of about 6 in the shadows that just put all those turns on the face too.
1/30 – stevens peak to luther pass. i’ve done this before and i thought with experience and a cell phone i could turn it into less of a slog. it was less of a slog but a slog nonetheless. jeremy had to work at 5 but we were getting an early start. then my car battery was dead, but we were still probably ok. maybe.
heading up under stevens. a month ago that bowl was filled with cliffs
high above the maddening clouds on the shoulder of stevens. we would drop from here to round lake via a secret passage
jeremy drops in above the couloir
closeup of the last pic. tioga don’t give a %$#& who’s skiing by.
the pups were all, ‘what’s taking so long?’
hey that’s me!
view from the lake
at a little less than two years old he’s finally pooped, but we still had the slog ahead
