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A little delayed, but here are some pics from a trip last weekend to check out the early season Tahoe snow situation. Summary: it was fun, but we could use a few more good storms.

So anyway, after the first real storms of the season dumped a nice blanket of powder on Tahoe, we were unable to curb our enthusiasm with the likely reality of early season conditions. I headed out to Jake's with Buffy (liketoride), Storn (SanFrantastico), and Dave (wavy). We had no particular reason to believe the snow there was better than anywhere else, but it sounded good and was close.

Stoked to get out in the bc, finally!



Buffy breaks some trail. Interesting route selection.



Surprisingly decent snow coverage on the skin in, and nice views.





A couple natural log rides.



Halfway there, Dave takes a much-needed rejuvinating smoke break.



North bowl of Tallac, still looking kinda bony. Note the UFO just left of North bowl.



Sweet views from the top.



The turns were... good most of the time. There was a good amount of fresh pow, but the problem was that there was no base. So you'd make two or three sweet turns, start to get stoked, and then scrape a rock. Which kind of puts a damper on the stoke.

This also explains the lack of rad action shots in this TR.

Back at the halfway point we took a break, and noticed that a nearby tree was on fire. Huh?



Looked like it must have gotten hit by lightning in the storm, and the top was still smoldering. There were also some smoldering bits in the snow around the bottom of the tree, so I did my part to appease Smokey and peed on them.

Down below this section we found some pockets of really nice snow.





But there were still the rock scraping reality checks. Buffy decided that the best strategy was to embrace the rocks rather than fight them. So she tries a little boulder Smith grind.



It ends badly.



Here is the point at which Storn realizes that the REI pants with no belt loops are going to have to get returned.



One nice thing was that we were able to ride right back to the road.



All in all, it was a great early-season opener. Now bring on some more CA storms. I'm tired of reading about how good it is in the PNW.

Good stuff cali splitters!

Nice, thanks for the pics.

Coverage looks better than I would have guessed. That is such a beautiful spot.

Never seen this in winter bc, crazy...

Nice, thanks for the pics.

Coverage looks better than I would have guessed. That is such a beautiful spot.

Never seen this in winter bc, crazy...

Yeah - the tree was strange. It actually started flaming up as we watched it. The last storm was a few days before then and it must have been smoldering. Here are a few more pics from a really fun day & first BC turns of the season...









Buffy...


...excellent face plant!

About the tree, I drove up to Homewood last weekend with my girlfriend and noticed the forest service had put up some prescribed burn signs right around Jake's, so maybe that's why it was on fire, though I have no idea why they would climb to the top of a half broke tree and set it alight.
Here's a couple of my pics from the day, good time!

like2jib

JimW

SF

great TR, looks like fun. You Cali folks are gonna get pounded, be ready, I wish i was out there for this cylce!