Tahoe West Shore Ridgeline
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Over the weekend of February 8th, Charlie flew in from Seattle and Ben from Chicago to see the Lake Tahoe backcountry scene. Although we had planned the trip months in advance, the timing was fortunate. After a very dry January, Tahoe started to get some snow at the end of January and into the start of February. As a result, we had reasonably good conditions.
We drove up Thursday morning and spent a somewhat underwhelming day at Palisades. We then drove to Meeks Bay where I was a member of a winter ski lease and spent the rest of the weekend along the west shore.
We were lucky to show up early to the ski lease and claim two singles for the three of us.
Jake’s Peak
On Friday, we joined Deirdre and Sam on Jake’s peak after an unsuccessful attempt to get the Prius up to the Rubicon parking lot. Despite donning chains the Prius was unable to make uphill progress through 4 inches of fresh snow on top of a bit of ice. So instead, we drove to Jake’s parking lot which is right on 89.
We skinned uphill as it snowed lightly. The avalanche risk for the day was considerable at all elevations. The two primary concerns were wind slab on top of the rain crust from a couple days prior and persistent slab. The only reports of the persistent slab sliding were from a cornice drop and snowmmobilers. All the same, as we skinned up towards the summit of Jake’s (the slope maxes at 31 or 32 degrees) we stopped to dig a pit. The snow on top of the rain layer did not seem especially consolidated or at risk of propagating too broadly. We decided to skin up towards the summit of the unnamed peak directly to the south of Jake’s.
A rest on the summit of Jake’s.
Once summiting we opted for the more conservative descent following our up-track, rather than skiing the more eastern exposure that in places is steeper than 35 degrees. On our first descent we skied by a guy who looked very familiar. “Are you Cody Townsend?” Ben asked. The man responded “That is my name” but did not stop to chat.
After a couple more laps, Charlie and Ben opted to ski back to the car while I went for one more with George and David.
George making a turn down the east face of Jake’s
It turns out that while I was skiing another lap, Ben and Charlie had been struggling to get the prius out of the parking lot. The parking lot was reasonably flat, so I was a little surprised. We eventually got the prius out with chains only to realize that the parking break had been engaged the whole time.
Parking lot shenanigans.
Rubicon Peak
And Ben making a turn down the northeast side of Rubicon.
On Saturday, we were joined by George and Quinn (and caught a ride in their AWD vehicles) to the Rubicon trailhead. The snow which had largely fallen on Thursday was starting to get tracked out, but we had a couple very nice runs on the east face of Rubicon. On the second lap we even skinned up the Peak 9269 which is surprisingly higher then Jakes, Hidden, or Rubicon.
Heel risers for the climb up peak 9026.
Connecting with Jackie and Friedman for our final lap on Rubicon.
Hidden Peak
On Sunday, we got an early start up towards Hidden Peak. I wanted to be back at the car by 9:30 to guarantee we could drop Ben off at SFO in time for his 4:50PM flight. We were skinning by 7:00 and made it to the summit by about 8:45. Compared to Jake’s and Rubicon, the lower altitudes of Hidden had very little coverage. On the climb up we skinned over logs and rocks, and on the ski down we took our skis off and walked the final 300 vertical feet.
On the drive back we stopped shortly at Bagel Works in Placerville and made it back on schedule with minimal traffic.