Touring around Donners Pass

[letsroll]

Looking for ski tours for Donners Pass. Found this web sight http://www.bobskiing.com/skiindex.htm but is seems more long tours and multi-day tours. Anything that is shorter and have options for newbies? Taking g-friend.

Edited January 4, 2007 by letsroll

[Winter]

A friend of mine just got back from Donner Pass after a NYE trip down there. The conditions sucked - not very good snow. Don't know what's happened since then.

 

Check out the Sierra Club hut at Donner Pass - there is lots of touring rights around there - I haven't been there, but apparently its pretty good when the snow is good. There's a Sierra Club lodge at the Pass and then a hut that's about a 3 hour skin in.

[beecher]

There is good easy touring in the area of Castle Peak right near Donner Summit. Park at the exit for Boreal ski area, walk under the freeway to the trailhead. You can access slopes of a variety of difficulties and aspects in this area. If you ski over the ridge and down into the next valley you will find the Peter Grubb hut, easily reachable in and out in a short day. You will have company on a weekend.

 

and... if you decide to take a longer drive:

 

There is easy touring just south of Homewood Resort, on the east edge of the lake (low altitude). You can park in the neighborhood just south of the resort and ski up through big beautiful trees very well spaced. There's not tons of vert available, but it's a great sheltered area for newbies & very easy touring. You can press your luck at dropping into Homewood and poaching a few free laps on the Ellis Chair. It's worth driving a few miles south to Tahoma and getting sandwiches on fresh bread at the little market there, on the east side of the street.

 

There is also excellent touring near Mt. Rose, which is NE of L.Tahoe and where you can park at a high elevation - a great area if it's on the warm side. All kinds of options here, including free vert with car shuttles, look at some maps and have a creative adventure.

 

A nice long day tour if conditions are right (springlike) is to ski from Sugar Bowl to Squaw, predominantly on a ridge. Not great if you just want to make turns, but it's a fun traverse and you get a great run dropping down near Squaw. You can buy single-ride lift tickets at Sugar Bowl to ease access. I think this is often split into a two-day affair, there is a hut roughly midway.

 

Between Truckee & Lake Tahoe, there is good skiing at Silver Peak. To get there drive south from Truckee towards Alpine Meadows & Squaw, I don't recall exactly where to park - inquire locally. You'll be skiing up the Pole Creek drainage. You have to ski up a graded road for a ways, so this will be a longer day than Castle if you want to get some turns in.

 

There's a great shop in Tahoe City to ask questions - called "the backcountry" or something like that.

[Kevin_Matlock]

Was just at Tahoe/squaw 2 weeks ago. Not much pow, and according to the squaw's snow history they usually get their stuff later in the season. Haven't been keeping tabs on their conditions since my trip, but I would expect "a couple, to a few feet" in a lot of places.

 

When we drove through Donner, the snow machines were working overtime to keep the runs open.

 

Have fun though!

[cj001f]

For Tahoe touring, check out theBackcountry's web guide:

http://www.thebackcountry.net/guidebook.php

The Sierra Club lodge is Clair Tappan - they also have several huts around the Tahoe area, check 'em out.

 

Tahoe got dumped on recently.