Sierra at Tahoe Conditions Report: Deepest I’ve ever skied

Ty Dayberry tele skiing through waist deep pow at Sierra at Tahoe.

Obviously, all of Lake Tahoe has been getting completely buried in snow this January.  In fact, these last few weeks have been the most consecutive pow days I think I’ve ever skied, period.  Not to mention Monday at Sierra at Tahoe which was the deepest pow day I have ever skied.

Before Monday I had never been to Sierra at Tahoe, but I decided to meet up with some tele friends that were skiing there.  I left my place at Squaw and drove through a wild blizzard on the east side of the lake all the way to south lake before passing out and waking up to three feet of new snow on the mountain.

On the drive to the mountain up highway 50, we saw small slough avalanches funneling through the cliffs above the road and ultimately depositing on the highway.  It was foreshadowing to just how much snow had collected overnight.

When we finally got to Sierra, the lift operations were stalled due to the shear amount of snow and related prep work it takes to open steep avy terrain like this to the public during such extreme loading of the snowpack.  There was talk of whether avy bowl would be open or not and what we might ski if it didnt open.  No one really knew what or when things would open, so we climbed into the back of tele Troy’s camper to make coffee and stay warm while we waited.

Lifts finally opened up at around 11am and it was incredible: waist deep and deeper in steep spots.  I was screaming like a freaking child all the way down our first run.  One of Sierra’s team athletes Ty Dayberry showed us around avalanche bowl and all the pillowy cliffs to hit near the bottom.  We had one hell of a time sending huge airs with absolutely no consequence.  I thought the Red dog trees at squaw were fun, but Sierras tree skiing is unrivaled.  It couldn’t have been a better day to be introduced to the terrain at Sierra. 

The first two and last clips in the following video are from Sierra on Monday: