Friday morning was still glory up on Donner Summit, specifically at Sugar Bowl. Two feet or more had fallen from the disturbance that rolled through the Tahoe area mid-week, and thanks to a few Unofficial readers sharing some beta, Mt. Lincoln was the call on Friday for one more taste of early season fun.
Even during the wee-hours of Friday morning it was apparent solar radiation form a clear overnight sky, coupled with the morning rays of the sun might mean our powder dream had already expired with Thursday’s session. The bottom third of Mt. Judah was already crusty, but thankfully the top two-thirds held off with creamy smooth conditions. The views of our surrounding peaks were worth the trip alone. Case in point the cover photo of a small zone I know a bunch of you love and hit all the time, which looked incredible even with just a few feet, and the view of Donner Summit proper on our way up Old 40.
Donner Lake was looking pretty cool as well.
Our skin up Judah to Lincoln was as easy as it gets with a big fat skin track already in place.
The view of the hugely underrated terrain of the Sugar Bowl Palisades is always a fun zone to stare at and dream up possible lines.
Even Signal Peak to the west, siting at a lower elevation looked entirely skiable.
But truth be told I was a bit worried skinning up as the crust was widespread, even in sheltered north facing aspects. Thankfully about a third of the way up that all changed and conditions went back to creamy smooth.
Here’s a zoomed-out view of that face from the cover shot with Mt. Anderson in the background (a great ski on its own), also looking pretty skiable.
A view out to Castle Peak, one of the better proper North Shore backcountry hits that comes into play a bit earlier than a lot of other terrain in our greater zone.
When Jillian and I got to the top we took a few moments to gape at how sick everything looked, especially the Sierra Crest.Â
Olas and Nieve were foaming at the mouth to drop in,
but we had a skier and rider in front of us and took pleasure in watching them lay into a few amazing turns for early October. I’m putting a sequence of the snowboarder in here so you pay extra attention to the second shot I got of him.
Yeah, pretty sweet to slash a turn and go white-rrom in October. His skier buddy was on point as well,
and Jillian followed suit.
On the way out I got a nice shot of another crews work from the previous day,
and some tracks from Donner Ski Ranch I’m betting was our boy Eric’s.
What a great three day run for some early season turns in Tahoe! Â Anyone have any luck finding anything worthy this weekend?
