Snowy Sierra – Sierra at Tahoe, CA

The weather in Lake Tahoe can switch rapidly. One day it’ll be bare roads with spring like slushy conditions and a couple days later it’ll be dumping snow with a total winter appearance. I made sure that I was in Tahoe for Monday morning’s storm and heading to Sierra at Tahoe for the day.

Sierra at Tahoe is just down the highway from South Lake Tahoe. If the roads are dry, it can be pretty quick but today there was new snow and chain restrictions so it took a tad longer. Upon arriving, the snow was starting to pile up with huge snowflakes coming down and we were stoked! Ashley and I made it just in time to have Lauren join us for a day of shred.

The moment I knew it was going to be a good day is when I was riding to the chairlift with this much snow collecting on my board. The snow report was saying 6 inches but it definitely felt like more out on the mountain and the snow kept coming down. Thankfully Lauren was our tour guide for the day and immediately brought us to West Bowl for powder turns.

The latest storm delivered up the goods with light, fluffy powder to enjoy on the runs. Everyone riding and skiing had a dust trail from their turns throughout the day.

The best part about today was that it was a Monday. The mountain was ours to shred and rip it up. We got in so many powder laps, exploring around and just having fun playing in the new snow.

Around 1pm, it was time to head in for lunch and fuel up for the powder turns. Even by then, there were still goods to be enjoyed on the mountain. We stopped into the Baja Grill to refuel, eat up burritos and relax for a bit. While at lunch, we met John Rice the GM at Sierra at Tahoe and talked snowboarding and the ski resort industry with him.

After lunch, we headed up for a lap with John. It’s pretty impressive to see someone who runs the mountain, out on the mountain. I’ve worked at Steamboat and Mammoth where the top tier employees never get out on the mountain so for me to see the passion that John has for his mountain, enjoying the new snow, it was amazing. I wish more resorts had people running the show that actually skied/snowboarded the mountains they worked at. He also rips!

For the afternoon, we headed to the top of the mountain to explore the upper regions and check out where we could ride next. With the new snow, it still wasn’t ideal to ride the trees yet but staying on the runs was just fine. We pretty much lapped all day finding good powder turns to be enjoyed.

At the end of the day, it was time to check out the new Burton Snowboards Yoda’s Riglet Park at the base of the mountain. Burton and Sierra at Tahoe are offering a truly fun Star Wars experience on the snow complete with characters and a new approach to kids learning progression at a young age. There was a bit too much powder today for the park to be open but we walked around to check out the park anyway.

Inside the indoor Padawan Center was walls filled with Star Wars images, decked out in helmets and robotic jackets with tons of balance boards for kids to get their balance on. Lucky kids, when I learned how to snowboard I was pushed outside with a bunch of kids and hoping for the best. Now they get a full experience based around Star Wars.

Definitely one of my favorite days of this season. It was really good to get back on the snow with good friends, ride some light fluffy powder and just enjoy the new snow that fell in Tahoe. I’m hoping for a good day at Northstar tomorrow before I head into Reno so I can fly back to Seattle on Wednesday. It’s been a good California trip and glad I got to visit some awesome resorts during my time here.

 

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