tseeb
Well-known member
Friend and his son who stayed at cabin with me and I left a little too late, ~815, for the 18 mile drive to Sierra where I had not skied since before the Summer 2021 Caldor fire that started August 14, 2021 burned most of the trees in many parts of ski area. We did not hit traffic until approaching parking lot where we had 10-15 minutes delay and did not start skiing until 915.
We started with a lap on already busy high-speed Grandview and skied down ridge to black, ungroomed and narrow in places, Jackrabbit. I found a good exit through nearly untracked snow to Chute which like most of the mountain was very different from heavily wooded area I’d skied since early 1970’s that used to have many trees. Yellow circle marks distinctive tree I spotted to enter new chute between rocks that I skied twice later in day.
Next time on Grandview, we tried singles line from shorter line side, but had somewhat long wait due to young girls, including one that ducked rope to gett past us, who thought they could ride together from singles line. We next skied Eastabout which has narrow entry with many large boulders showing that usually get covered. We also skied off their backside where main lift with 750 vertical was not open, but you could ski to Short Stuff lift that returns you to the top of Nob Hill chair, Sierra’s highest lift when I first skied there. We looked at West Bowl, but could see long line and returned to Grandview. We skied slightly mellower and much wider Castle run and found the slow, very narrow and safety-bar-less parallel double Tahoe King had opened. While it’s slower, it also stops much less than Grandview, which is Sierra’s highest lift and services expert runs along with a long beginner run. Bill on Castle.
Bill and his son, Tony, with Pyramid Peak in background
Bill and his son Tony on exit from Castle
Bill had to leave so his son could get to work in the East Bay by 5 so they quit just before noon after another Jackrabbit run where I went further into untracked, then we again skied Chute from which we exited to race course so they could get closer to parking and I could take now lineless Nob Hill chair. I skied Upper and Lower Main Street finding excellent N-facing groomed snow next to race course.
Line built a little so next time up I skied towards West Bowl, dropping off Upper Sleigh Ride into Avalanche Bowl where I had a few steep, untracked turns. West Bowl chair line had almost disappeared so I rode it three times, first skiing Powderhorn going into burnt trees with some untracked along boundary,
then skiing Pyramid. Next time up I skied Clipper, one of the two West Bowl black runs, but without trees lining it, there were many alternates. West Bowl
I exited via always good Escape and Middle Sleigh Ride. Then I used singles line to ride high-speed Grandview twice. I first skied steep face under lift at top,
then traversed over to a new chute that is marked by some distinctive burnt trees at top. Next time up I skied Dynamite and a little different route through new chute that dropped me below entrance to lower Dynamite that I’d skied previous run. Top of Dynamite at right. Chute lookers left looks good, but may have been roped off.
My plan was to leave Sierra and eat my lunch on drive to Heavenly, but crowds had mostly gone down and lowest CA level at Heavenly is limited to Round-a-bout which is not fun with end of day crowds so I walked to my SUV and moved it closer to where I’d end day and had a 2 pm lunch.
After lunch, I rode slow Nob Hill chair twice, first skiing now open to public race course, then repeating Avalanche Bowl. Then I found lowest entry to West Bowl (Marmot) closed and had to cut back to open Beaver where I avoided thin spots found on previous time through there by going further left off. I skied groomed Bashful, then next time up tried Dogwood but didn’t like where it was going to end up and instead skied some lightly cut day-old powder at 315.
I quit at 3:30 with 24K according to my watch and quickly left to avoid possible end of day traffic getting onto US-50. But CHP was giving priority to traffic exiting Sierra, causing mile plus backup for those leaving Tahoe. My 18 mile drive to cabin took 30 min and all the local knowledge used to avoid holiday traffic on Pioneer Trail and Ski Run Blvd the previous three days was no longer needed.
We started with a lap on already busy high-speed Grandview and skied down ridge to black, ungroomed and narrow in places, Jackrabbit. I found a good exit through nearly untracked snow to Chute which like most of the mountain was very different from heavily wooded area I’d skied since early 1970’s that used to have many trees. Yellow circle marks distinctive tree I spotted to enter new chute between rocks that I skied twice later in day.
Next time on Grandview, we tried singles line from shorter line side, but had somewhat long wait due to young girls, including one that ducked rope to gett past us, who thought they could ride together from singles line. We next skied Eastabout which has narrow entry with many large boulders showing that usually get covered. We also skied off their backside where main lift with 750 vertical was not open, but you could ski to Short Stuff lift that returns you to the top of Nob Hill chair, Sierra’s highest lift when I first skied there. We looked at West Bowl, but could see long line and returned to Grandview. We skied slightly mellower and much wider Castle run and found the slow, very narrow and safety-bar-less parallel double Tahoe King had opened. While it’s slower, it also stops much less than Grandview, which is Sierra’s highest lift and services expert runs along with a long beginner run. Bill on Castle.
Bill and his son, Tony, with Pyramid Peak in background
Bill and his son Tony on exit from Castle
Bill had to leave so his son could get to work in the East Bay by 5 so they quit just before noon after another Jackrabbit run where I went further into untracked, then we again skied Chute from which we exited to race course so they could get closer to parking and I could take now lineless Nob Hill chair. I skied Upper and Lower Main Street finding excellent N-facing groomed snow next to race course.
then skiing Pyramid. Next time up I skied Clipper, one of the two West Bowl black runs, but without trees lining it, there were many alternates. West Bowl
I exited via always good Escape and Middle Sleigh Ride. Then I used singles line to ride high-speed Grandview twice. I first skied steep face under lift at top,
After lunch, I rode slow Nob Hill chair twice, first skiing now open to public race course, then repeating Avalanche Bowl. Then I found lowest entry to West Bowl (Marmot) closed and had to cut back to open Beaver where I avoided thin spots found on previous time through there by going further left off. I skied groomed Bashful, then next time up tried Dogwood but didn’t like where it was going to end up and instead skied some lightly cut day-old powder at 315.
