Category: Trips (Page 4 of 5)

If you look east from downtown Truckee you will see a cluster of mountains that comprise the Mt. Rose Wilderness.  With five peaks over 10,000 feet these are the tallest mountains in the North Tahoe Region.  If you gaze toward the southern tip of the range you will see a steep cirque that tops out at the summit of Relay Peak.  I always thought this looked like a great ski descent but was unsure of the accessibility.  This Saturday I decided to check it out with a few friends.  With in-bounds ski conditions deteriorating we figured a cool tour into new territory would be fun regardless of whether we found good snow.

We started from the parking area just above the snowpark on the Mt. Rose Highway and used the Relay Peak access road as our approach route.  This road is a veritable freeway for snow-machiners.  With a steady flow of traffic, this three and a half mile route does not feel like deep backcountry.  It is, however, one of the easiest skin approaches in Tahoe to good ski terrain at high altitude. If you are lucky enough to have a snow machine, this is the perfect place to use it on the approach and stash it before heading into the wilderness area to the west.  Taking slightly different routes, our party of five reconvened at the microwave towers on Relay Ridge.  From there we left snowmobile traffic behind and skinned up the ridge to the summit of Relay Peak proper.  The view from the top is amazing.  You can see Lake Tahoe to the south, the Carson Valley to the east and as far as Mt. Lassen to the north.

Photos by Grant Kaye & Justin Winter

I took a few steps below the summit to survey snow conditions in the cirque we hoped to ski and discovered a crust layer over depth hoar. Poor conditions on that aspect were not necessarily a bad thing as we started super late and would be flirting with darkness if we had to hike back up and out.  We spotted a very enticing northeast facing couloir on the ridgeline past the cirque that would make coming back for a double shot of both very tempting.

We descended the rock-strewn bowl that heads back to the highway.  Grant Kaye skied a steep line through the center of the rocks on good, edgeable snow.  The rest of us picked more gradual north-facing lines and were surprised to find dry powder.  We stuck to the shadowed portion of a gully that kept our skis on good snow for about 1,100 vertical feet before joining up with the access road.  Looking back we realized if we had followed the ridgline south of Relay Peak it would have lead us to a perfect northeast pitch with good snow.  Next time!

Relay Peak is a worthwhile adventure for Tahoe backcountry skiers.  It is especially attractive during lean snow years when lower elevation routes like Jake’s and Tallac are melted out at the bottom.  Although the snowmobile traffic on the approach is heavy, skier traffic in the motor vehicle prohibited wilderness to the west is very light.  This makes for a great combination of easy access and good snow in some of the slightly more intriguing and obscure ski terrain in the area. -Rob McCormick

A few friends and I rallied for a quick tour up Silver Peak in Squaw Valley on Sunday morning.  A nice skin track made for a fairly quick approach on the ridge to the lookers right of Silver Peak.  Once on the ridgeline we found fantastic cold powder on the northeast aspects and skied about 500 vertical feet of the good stuff.  We then skinned the ridgeline west to the summit of Silver Peak and descended the southeast facing slopes back into Squaw.  The conditions were slightly sun affected pow on top of a firm bottom layer…still quite manageable.  Perhaps the best thing about this tour is the phenomenal view of Squaw Valley.  You can see virtually all of the quality terrain at Squaw, not to mention the backside of Broken Arrow and a birds-eye view of Tram Face.  The vertical gain on this hike is 2,200 feet to the peak which is higher than both KT22 and High Camp. -Rob McCormick

Robb Gaffney with Squaw Valley in the background. Photo by Matt Berry.

Rob McCormick Skinning up Silver Peak. Photo by Robb Gaffney.

I was lucky enough to get on the reverse traverse just as it opened yesterday. The masses seemed to head elsewhere so I had the slot all to myself. Fresh, thigh-deep tracks all the way down!

I had my first ski day of the season yesterday at Squaw Valley and it was fantastic. I was surprised to hear that KT was running and even more surprised to hear that it was good. And when I took my first run down West Face I was blown away. Having a nine-week-old baby meant that I wasn’t able to join my friends on the fourth KT chair. But West Face was still great at 11 am when I dropped into it.  The snow was soft, light and dry – a special treat since I’ve learned to love Sierra Cement. West Face was a little bumped out, but the bumps were soft and skiable. Though the parking lot was nearly full, I had the run all to myself. I made my way to the upper mountain for laps in Shirley Bowl where the snow was also soft and dry and way smoother and less bumped out. The sky was clear and sunny and the temperature was warm enough to be comfortable, but cool enough not to bake the snow.

Part of what made the day so great, in addition the snow snow, was that I skiing with a rat-pack of six friends. My three-year old neighbor, Declan Mack, also had a breakthrough day. Free from his harness, he showboated down East Broadway, making turns, catching air and skiing backwards for the crowd.

The big news at Squaw, aside from the four and a half feet of new snow, is a new ticket checking system. The mountain has installed electronic pass readers at all of the lower mountain lifts. Now you don’t have hassle to take your pass out and show it. Just wear it inside your jacket, on the left side, and the machine will scan it and let you pass. The only thing they need to do now is extend those carrals to the lift entrace so you don’t have to worry about sitting on someone’s lap when six people try to get on the KT quad at the same time.

Here are some photos from Paige Brady’s backcountry ski trip to Mt. Rose last weekend. Paige is an intern at Type T Media. The Alaska native is a senior at UNR, former Nordic racer and ripping telemarker. She plans to ski at Squaw and travel to compete in the telemark freeskiing competitions this winter. Paige says the snow was deep in Coyote Bowl on Novemer 8th and 9th and she didn’t hit a single rock. Photos by Corky Still.

A few of us got out for our first ski of the season with a wonderful dawn patrol.  The  snow was better than I had anticipated and my bases are still intact.  We went up to East Bowl at the Rose Ski area, meeting one guy in the parking lot and two borders up top on our last run (they were boarding the other side). – David Fiore

While sweating through the August heat, choking on forest fire smoke and anticipating the first snowfall, I’ve been reporting on off-season activities like summer skiing, base jumping, golf and jeeping. Here’s a post by Rob McCormick about a modest off-road vehicle that bit off more than it could chew and discovered a local backcountry gem in the process.

Last weekend I decided to try a new off-road trail in my 1971 Land Cruiser.  I noticed an intriguing route on the map that starts just west of Cisco Grove at an OHV (off highway vehicle) staging area called Indian Springs.  The route is called the Fordyce Creek Jeep trail and travels northeast into the central part of Jackson Meadows.   The route looked especially enticing because it goes into the spectacular terrain that most people notice to the north of I-80 just after Emigrant Gap when traveling eastbound toward Truckee. Read more >>

Just finishing up our annual base jumping trip to Norway. Once again it was mind blowing. Traveling with base jumper friends JT Holmes and Cliff Ryder (yes that is his real name) and our Norwegian buddy Tom Erik Heimen. Norway is stunningly beautiful. I highly recommend a visit there sometime. We made 18 base jumps in 16 days and hiked up a total of around 16,000 meters. We only didn’t hike 2 days and that was due to needing to drive to the next town. Tons of fun charging up mountains with Norwegian base jumpers. They are all in very good shape. It is common to see old men and women 1,000 meters up in the mountains in places you would NEVER see Americans hiking let alone old ones. The Norwegians were always joking about the typical fat, lazy American. They decided that because their country is so rich they are going to take over The U.S. by buying McDonalds and then giving away free hamburgers all day every day and then watch us eat ourselves to death.

We did some very cool flights in Voss and in Stryn. One really great canyon flight and then ended the trip in the Romsdalen area where base jumping has some deep roots and a lot of history. Here we entered the World Base Race which is basically a wing suit speed flying competition to see who is the fastest flying human in the world. Very very cool and exciting competition. It is head to head, duel format heats. First guy across the vertical finish line wins and moves on to the next round. Amazingly I placed 2nd and won 1,000 Euros! So for 1 year I can claim to be the 2nd fastest flying human in the world!

JT and Cliff also entered and flew very well but everyone who weren’t flying Vampire suits didn’t stand a chance against them. The Vampire wing suit is incredibly fast. They were jumping the S-Fly Expert suit which is a very easy, fun and great suit for proximity flying. We stayed with some Norwegian friends in Romsdalen who’s kids became our cheering section and fan club. Very cute little girls! When we were in the town of Stryn we were able to rent a very cheap car from a friend of a  friend of a friend. Everyone said that it suited our loud American style.

It was another great trip and an incredible learning experience. Norway will be on the schedule for years to come now!

-Shane McConkey