Round Top Massif and Castle Peak Trees. Lake Tahoe, CA
Some fun early season turns the last two weekends! Last weekend we got out to Round Top off of Carson Pass just a little south of Lake Tahoe. The terrain in this area is more technical than anywhere else in the area and although nothing like the Eastern Sierra south of here, you still get a big mountain feel.
In this photo: A southwest facing couloir off of The Sister.
We took off from Reno at about 6am and were on snow by about 730am. We had a crew of six which was cool, everyone was stoked and the vibes were great. As Conor said, Bad Snow, Good Fun.
We only skied two descents this day, the first was a fun, 2,400vft run from just below the summit and down the south side of Round Tops most prominent peak. Then we skinned back up to the top of an unnamed peak between Kirkwood Ski Resort and Round Top. From here we skied our final descent, descending north towards Carson Pass, enjoying some crunchy turns before finally throwing the skins back on and heading out to the car.
In this photo: Conor Phelan skis a south facing gully off of the Round Top Massif.
The views and the people were great. We spent the entire day getting stoked on the terrain and the early season turns. For me it was the first day out in bigger terrain for the year and once we got above treeline, all those amazing feels returned. The crisp fresh air, the enormity of the rock, the crunching of the snow, the silence of the wilderness..yep, we're back! I like to think that I have always been grateful. Out of darkness comes light, its both cliche and true, and in some odd way, the accident has helped me see more light..and to be more grateful.
In this photo: The group hanging out on top Fourth of July Lake.
I was exceptionally grateful to be on skis this day.
Part 2
Today Matthew Zeman popped up to the top of I-80 Donner Summit and skinned out towards Castle Peak. I love this area, the trees are just amazing, the snow is always deep, and of course the area has lots of history. Everytime I am in this area I think about just how damn hard it must have been being the Donner Party trying to get horses and carriages over this terrain! Gnarly.
More than anything though, this area reminds me of the freedom I enjoyed hiking the PCT in 2015. This area was particularly awesome and being just about the half way point of the trail, I was starting to feel like a changed man by this time.
With this being said, it was only right that my first winter mission out towards Castle Peak be with no-one else but my thru-hiking buddy that just moved to Reno a few months ago. RAD.
We got out early enough, only one other set of skin tracks, and leisurely skinned up the Andesite ridge and onto the Castle Peak north ridge where we encountered strong southerly winds that were cross loading and depositing snow from this ridge over onto a nice west facing bowl with trees. Once we reach the top of north ridge we had a little snack and then got situated for the drop.
We decided we would keep it in the trees and ski straight along the fall-line all the way down to the meadow 1,000vft below. These were honestly some of the most fun trees I have skied in the Donner area and the snow was great! We encountered anywhere from 8-12" of fresh, dry, snow, and the stability was great. Even with the winds we saw few signs of unstable snow (unable to intentionally release fresh cornices and wind slabs).
Back to back great weekends in the backcountry. Yeah, I'm into this stuff, and grateful to be here!
In this photo: Standing atop Andesite Peak on the return from the Castle Trees.