Tahoe Donner

Today was supposed to be sunny, which means that instead of an all-out blizzard there were passing heavy snow showers which left us with three or four inches of snow by the end of the day. I headed out striding from Tahoe Donner XC (Tahoe Donner is this bizarre planned community, but has a very nice ski area on the edge) in the morning, skidding down to the Euer Valley (apparently great crust skiing when the sun has a chance to make crust skiing, map) and then up Crabtree Canyon to something that, in nicer weather, is apparently a lookout. Not today, although the sun peeked out at times. It was a long 800 foot climb up, but a nice ride down, and then another climb back for lunch. (All the pictures are from the morning; report from the afternoon continues below them.)

Here comes the sun …

… 20 minutes later: blizzard.

Yes, there is a lot of snow.

In the afternoon, I took out the skaters and went from the lodge up to Hawk's Peak at 7730 feet (a 1100 foot climb, although not completely all at once). I stopped at two huts, each of which has water, and crossed a ridge near the top in blowing snow, although I was lucky to get there in between two heavy snow showers, so I had a view down 1300 feet to the Euer Valley below. With a few inches of powder over a solid base, it was perfect for turns of the parallel and telemark variety. Then I crossed over and skied down the downhill slope to where we are staying. Not bad for April Fool's.