First-Person Ski Cam At Lake Tahoe

Had a chance to go on a father/son quest for snow out west in the Sierra last week. While this is year four of a horrible high pressure shelf off the coast, throwing the storms up and over the Sierra (and into the South Plains), thanks to the wide array of resorts and elevations around Lake Tahoe, we were able to find some freshies and terrain that was surprisingly, not half bad.

I'm a big fan of staying off the groomers as the crowds (ie Other People) freak me out. Therefore, I'd prefer to stay in trees or non-groomed areas. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of that to be found as you ran the real risk of finding a patch that led to a cliff and a nasty fall with little way to navigate around the danger. Therefore, we kept mostly to the groomers and bumps.

Thanks to my radio friend Max Volume our first stop was Mt. Rose, the closest resort to the Reno/Tahoe airport at only about 25 minutes. With the highest base elevation of any resort around Tahoe, and a recent storm that focused on Rose, the conditions were incredible- even in the Chutes which brag some of the steepest open terrain in the U.S. were open to all!

Our second stop was Squaw Valley. I was shocked to see the base with little to no snow, however Squaw is so massive that, with a few chair lifts and a decent knowledge of getting around the mountain, we were able to find plenty of upper elevation POW!

We wrapped up the week by hitting Sugar Bowl with my friend Matt Reardon, a professional big mountain skier for the Volkl brand and rock-star in his own right as singer/guitarist for his band Black Sunshine. Sugar Bowl is a locals gem often looked over by tourists for reasons I'll never quite understand. They have excellent terrain, high speed lifts, and always the shortest lift lines especially around a holiday like President's Day. Great trees, killer chutes and do-able cliff/rock formations (check out my friend Daron Rhalves' Bonzai tour video) along with some very fast groomers and bumps, Sugar Bowl has it all!