Tahoe Backcountry Report: Skiing in a Video Game… Digitized, Overly Smooth, Fake Texture Snow in Made-Up Terrain

Miles Clark | | Post Tag for Conditions ReportConditions Report

Report from December 20, 2021

The snow out there skied like a video game…

It looked digitized, overly smooth, fakely textured, made-up terrain.

It skied like… well, it’s skied weird as hell.

Spines. image: snowbrains

Chalky, powdery, smooth, predictable on right turns.

Breakable crust, catchy, hooky, scary on left turns.

The terrain was fantastical:  fake rock spires, seam-ripping spines, perfectly hewn planer faces, jagged, digitized edges, bizarre sastrugi patterns.

Racetrack. image: snowbrains

My mind bent as I skied through it all and tried not to gawk.

I could almost hear video game sounds as I skied.

The snow got worse as I got lower and started breaking and catching my skis.

Video Game Snow… image: snowbrains

The video game experience just got weirder and weirder until I was completely exhausted at the bottom.

Panting from the bad snow struggle at the bottom of the run I tried to explain it all to Fox.

I can’t wait to come back and ski these lines in good snow.

I’m calling this zone Video Game…

Lines and lake. image: snowbrains

Avalanche Forecast

image: sierra avalanche center, 12/20/21

Weather Forecast

image: noaa, 12/20/21

Photos

Texture and lake. image: snowbrains
Jagged skies. image: snowbrains
Sastrugi texture. image: snowbrains
Amazing lines. image: snowbrains
Long lines. image: snowbrains
Tree texture. image: snowbrains
Textures. image: snowbrains
Curved texture. image: snowbrains
Posted by Miles Clark |

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