Got on the road yesterday morning with two great skiers – Kyle Cota & Alan Ashbaugh – and headed south to Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe, CA.

When we arrived, we changed our plan and decided to head down to Tallac.  We suspected elevation would be our friend today after big warming yesterday afternoon in Tahoe.

We summited 9,723′ Mt. Tallac at 1pm.

We saw a skier triggered avalanche from yesterday that ran 800′ and injured a skier.

“A skier triggered avalanche was reported at the trailhead of Mt. Tallac this afternoon.  The avalanche occurred in The Cross, a steep couloir off of the main summit of Mt. Tallac.  The avalanche occurred at 12:30pm.  The main entrance into the Cross had been skied by approximately 8 people at around 11am with some minor loose wet activity observed.  At 12:30pm, a group of 2 skiers went to the top to descend the skiers left entrance, on an east aspect.  As the first skier made several turns into the slope, the slope released a slab avalanche.  The skier was carried approximately 800′ downslope past trees and over rocks with the avalanche debris continuing to run downslope further. Injuries were reported with a broken ski and lost equipment.” – Sierra Avalanche Center, yesterday

We decided to ski a neat couloir called “Baby Cham”.  Baby Cham is reportedly 50-55º steep throughout the entire chute.

The snow down to the entrance of Baby Cham was hard/bad/crusty.

The snow in Baby Cham was powder and damn fun.

Below Baby Cham, the snow was frozen hard with chunks.

We cut over and sidestepped to another chute that held marginal snow.

Below the chute we were in the trees and the snow was dreamy.  Corn, but not corn – hot pow I suppose.  It was perfect.

We skied a neat cornice ridge thinger all the way down to the flats and it was so fun.

The weather was on and off filtered sun, windy up high, relatively warm.

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