Report from February 27, 2024

I woke up today and broke a 36-hour fast.

I was hungry.

After 4 days in a row of sunny backcountry skiing in Tahoe last week, we took yesterday off and just skied resort for a bit in cloudy, wildly windy weather.

It was supposed to snow yesterday, but it refused…

We decided to go try a new chute we’d never skied before today.

The Darkside…

The walk there was easy and while sauntering around, we could see that it hadn’t snowed hardly at all…

The wind had ravaged the place…

We figured that our chute wasn’t gonna hold the best snow on Earth but we were eager to learn a new zone.

The downclimb into the chute was simple.

The snow in the chute was a fiercely wind-scoured chalk.

“Neve,” I think they’d call it in Chamonix.

I was up first and I skittered my way down to the choke.

The choke was tighter and longer than anticipated.

I got into jump-turn mode and gave it my all.

17 jump turns through a tight, gorgeous, walled chute later I was out into the apron and into some crusty, wide-open snow.

My favorite turn is jump turn #4 where I jump over a rock and just completely fall over…

The snow wasn’t good in the apron but it was nice to have room to turn.

We had a ball out there and we can’t wait to come back when this thing is more filled in and softer.

Flashing this line would be pretty neat.

Thanks, California!

Photos