Sierra At Tahoe
Sunday 25 March 2007

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

After a very good night's sleep we were away from the hotel at 7:30am heading towards Sierra-at-Tahoe, a relatively small resort South of Lake Tahoe. We arrived just after 8am, almost the first to get there, but with time to get coffee before the lifts opened at 8:30.

08:05 The car park is almost deserted

Conditions were very similar to the previous day. The runs immediately above the resort centre were in shadow, so our first plan was to cross to the West Bowl area.

08:41 Chris on Grand View Express	08:42 Moguls under Grand View
08:42 Early morning sun on Dynamite	08:43 Some of the runs are rather worn
08:47 The top of Grand View Express	08:47 Chris ready to ski
09:04 Chris on the run across to West Bowl

West Bowl comprises a couple of lifts both going from and to the same places and a series of runs taking direct and less direct routes down the mountain. Most were groomed, including one of the runs marked black on the trail map (but really didn't justify that rating).

1. First run was Pyramid, a relatively gentle run almost as far away from the lift as you can get, Chris found a great place for a photograph, high above the start of the run.
2. Bashful was probably the best run, with a combination of snow conditions and a reasonable gradient
3. Horsetail was the black run. The top portion had been groomed "2nd shift" so was blocks of ice
4. Powderhorn was the longest way round and when we took it was beginning to get heavy.
5. Dogwood was the only run we took to the left of the lift. The top part was "2nd shift" groomed.
6. Bashful again
7. Pyramid again
8. Horsetail again .. by this time, the top section was in much better condition, the hard lumps having almost completely softened.

09:04 The top of West Bowl Express	09:05 Ski patrol hit at the top of West Bowl Express
09:05 Chris at the top of Upper Powderhorn	09:05 Upper Powderhorn
09:17 Chris at the top of Bashful	09:27 The top of Horsetail
09:27 Horsetail	09:38 The opposite side of the valley
09:39 Chris resting at the top of Upper Powderhorn	09:45 Lower Bashful under the lift
09:47 Moguls on Clipper	09:49 The top of Dogwood
09:49 Chris at the top of Dogwood	10:03 Chris at the top of Bashful
10:03 Chris skiing past on Bashful	10:03 The mountain tops above Bashful run
10;13 Chris above Upper Powderhorn	10:13 Chris above Upper Powderhorn
10:16 Chris on Pyramid	10:20 The Mardi Gras tree under West Bowl lift
10:22 The top of Clipper - still crispy	10:27 Approaching West Bowl Bar and BBQ for a break

The run out to the bottom was beginning to get really heavy. It was time for a break.

10:29 The BBQ getting ready for departure	10:30 The BBQ
10:47 Chris at the West Bowl Bar and BBQ	10:47 West Bowl
10:47 West Bowl	10:50 West Bowl
10:50 West Bowl	10:55 The bottom of Lower Bashful

After our break we did three more runs from West Bowl by which time conditions were getting very heavy and we crossed across to the Grand View area which had much less sun early in the morning.

11:04 Approaching the top of West Bowl Express	11:18 The top of West Bowl
11:31 The top of Horsetail	11:40 The top of Escape
11:40 The top of Escape	11:41 Chris on Escape
11:43 The top of Broadway

Once we got back to the base area, we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of queues for Grand View lift.

There was just one groomed run in this area. Castle is a steep slope that loses a lot of height very quickly and leads to a flat cat track. First time down, this caught us out and we had to pole for quite a distance. On subsequent runs we managed (just) to get enough speed to glide along the flat section without stopping. This was made more difficult by a slight uphill section at the bottom of Castle followed by a sharp 90 degree turn which took away a lot of speed.

The run then steepened out again, but the bottom section back to the lift was not steep and very heavy.

We did this run three times before stopping for lunch.

11:54 The top of Castle run	11:54 Chris at the top of Castle
12:07 The top of Grand View Express	12:23 Grand View Grill
12:23 Chris on Castle

After lunch we took two more runs down castle before deciding that enough was enough. Our first attempt to find the base failed, so we had one more run than we originally planned.

13:27 Nearing the top of Grand View Express	13:41 The top of Sugar N Spice
13:41 The top of Sugar N Spice	13:41 The top of Sugar N Spice
13:55 Moguls under Grand View Express	13:55 Rocks under Grand View Express
13:56 Under Grand View Express	13:57 Rocks at the top of Grand View
14:07 Lower Main Run

By the time we finished, we had knocked off more than 30,000 vertical feet, astonishing for two people who both failed to make the gym to prepare for the week.

14:18 Grand View Lift from the car park	14:18 Grand View Lift from the car park

Runs

Last updated: 26th March 2007