A Week of Tahoe Backcountry

After not meeting any other Brit seasonaires since we've been here, it was a little bizarre when a group of Scots moved in next door to us. I mentioned that we'd been doing some backcountry riding and one of the guys was really keen to join us. He's quite an experienced mountaineer and it's been good to pick up some knowledge on being safe. As he's only here until the end of the month, he was keen on fitting in as many backcountry trips as possible in the time left. After the first trip up Tamarack Peak we got some another recruit to our team and today there were five of us who headed back up Tamarack to finish a great week of backcountry riding. 

Tamarack Peak - Monday 19th March 2007 

We set off fairly early for our first trip up Tamarack as there was some weather due to roll in that afternoon.

Craig skinning up Tamarack.

We made good time and got to the top in around 1h 15m. The ride down Galena Bowl was great as usual.

Craig was on his telemark skis but wished he brought his board as the snow was really nice and powdery.

At the bottom of Galena we had to hike back out to the ridge and headed back up towards the summit.

























The snow on the east face was a little slushier than in Galena but still good.

Twin Peaks - Thursday 22nd March 2007


After a great trip up Tamarack we started researching our next trip and decided on Twin Peaks. I'd seen it from the top of Lakeview at Alpine Meadows and was really excited about hitting it up. Liam joined us on his skis, Craig on teleskis and me on a rented splitboard.


At the bottom of Sherwood chair in Alpine Meadows with Twin Peaks in the background.





















It took me a little while to get to grips with skins, especially on the harder snow, but once I got going I was motoring. Me and Liam skinning up Sherwood bowl.

We took cover behind some rocks once we got to the ridge and had a short break.

There was some tempting terrain along the ridge but we had our sights firmly set on Twin Peaks.

The snow coverage along the ridge was a little sparse so we had to carry our boards for a lot of the way. There were plenty of great photo opportunites.





















After about six and a half hours we made the summit of one of the Twin Peaks, which was really hairy and litle more than a big pile of rocks.

The drop in between the two peaks looked awesome, but I let my head rule my heart and decided not to drop in there.

The snow at the top was quite windblown and hard but lower down it turned to great corn.

Me and Craig rode down and then waited for Liam who decided to drop in the chute between the peaks.

Once we got to the bottom we were a picked up some snowmobile tracks and had a two hour ski back out to the car.

It was an awesome nine hour trip and we were absolutely shattered by the time we got back to the car.




Mount Tallac - Saturday 24th March 2007


On Friday we headed down to South Lake and stopped off at the Mt Tallac trail head to check out snow coverage. It was a little bare but as Jeremy Jones (the one from 91 words) was gearing up at the bottom we decided to go for it the next day.


The snow coverage wasn't too bad but we did have to make a detour on the way up to avoid slogging through the bushes.

It took us around four and a half hours to reach the summit. This is Craig and Liam on the final ascent.

We met a few other guys on the route up who were a real good bunch. A few were from a local newspaper and took a few shots of me!

I was grinning from ear to ear at the summit after missing out on it on my last attempt.

The ride down was SUPERB. We spied a spot of untouched snow on the way up and headed off skiers right after riding down the north ramp.

Liam charging down the lower parts of Tallac. The snow at the bottom started to disappear quickly and we ended up having to hike out a little, but it wasn't too bad.

We weren't nearly as tired as after Twin Peaks and did the usual stop at Pete 'n' Peters for a pitcher of beer on the way home.




Tamarack Peak - Monday 26th March 2007


Today we had an even bigger team for a quick trip back up Tamarack.
(L-R ) Craig, Nichol, Liam, Roland and yours truly.

We got to the top with no problems and found a nice sheltered spot for lunch.

Nichol and myself eyeing up our lines down.

The snow was still fantastic down Galena. Nichol tearing it up!

Shortly after I took this I got covered in snow and Craig got called a cvnt!

Our token skier.





















We hiked back up Galena rode back down, stopping at a lip for a quick session. This is Roland half way through a 180.

I'm not much of a jumper but still had a couple of go's.

I couldn't believe it when Craig said he wanted to jump this rock but fair play, he pulled it off!

All in all a great week of backcountry riding and it's dumping outside right now so looking forward to a lot more to come. Got a big trip planned later this week which I'm really looking forward to, trip report on that one should be good!