Location: Silver Peak, CA
Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009
Skiers: Colin & Nick
Photographer: Nick
Weather: Clear skies, intermittent clouds, temps from 15-30
Avalanche Conditions: LOW, with pockets of MODERATE on N-NE aspects over 37 degrees (from the Sierra Avalanche Center). Our observations while skiing indicated a strong snow pack. No serious sluffing or visible signs of slabbing. N-NE aspects did have a slight rain crust about 6 inches down (from overnight rain on Jan 1st) with powder on top (from Jan 2nd storm). S aspects had pockets of sun crust on the top by mid day.
Colin on the skin up:
Skinning ridge line. Silver Peak summit is in upper left:
Nick skinning ridge, Lake Tahoe in distance:
Upper 1/4 of the NE bowl. The first patch above the pocket of trees was hard wind-crust. After that was boot-top, untouched powder for the bottom 3/4s.
Random descent of upper portion of NE bowl. There were about 10-12 skiers spread over the peak in different areas:
Colin still working up. Due to the first tour of the year, our pace is what I would classify as “leisurely.” Actually, we got three laps in, the first in the NE bowl and the second 2 in the N trees on the opposite side of the summit. Had we gone up a perfectly good skin track after the first lap (rather than attempting to break in a “short cut” – total backfire), we would have probably gotten 4 laps in.
Colin on the summit:
Nick on the summit. After skin energy quickly wore off, it got cold quick…
Lake Tahoe from the summit, Squaw village down in bottom right. Although we weren’t at Squaw, and I am sure “Epicness” ensued there, but just a hunch we had better snow, more of it, and MUCH less people:
Nick on the initial portion of the NE bowl, still in wind crust land (for about 5 more feet…..):
Colin – dropping the knee:
Colin’s tracks down into the gully…. $$$ snow – Super fun:
After the first lap, we switched gears into glade skiing on the N face. Snow was amazing in there. Completely untouched runs of boot top+ powder. Super chalky as this area never gets the sun. Albeit the storms of Christmas Week, I think both Colin and I agreed that this was the best snow we had gotten in Tahoe so far this season.
Colin making his way through the trees:
After a quick confirmation we both remembered headlamps (more on that later), up we went for the 3rd (and best) lap. We moved further to the N-NW into trees that were completely untouched any way you went.
Nick at the upper pitch prior to the tree line, light fading out:
Sweetness… (wish there was better light for this pic):
Colin working the pow in the trees:
The final tree run was about 15 minutes top to bottom at the river gully. Last bit of light:
Free Lessons:
1. Always bring headlamps.
2. When leaving and you are presented the choice of skinning up and out of a perfectly good road or trying to navigate a frozen creek drainage, go with the skin/road combo. In the words of that knight protecting the grail in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, we “chose poorly.” Working through rocks, fallen trees, frozen moguls and holes into the river via headlamp with virtually nothing left in the tank is a bit of an adventure…. Nevertheless, the Blue Moons in the parking lot tasted a little better after that ordeal.
Sierra Trip Reports 
I saw that you are skiing on Gotamas. What bindings did you put on them. And how much do they weigh?
I am debating between the Gotamas and the Katanas with Dynafits. I owned both, I like the Katana better in the resort, but the Gotamas might be adequate and lighter??
At that time I was skiing 183 Gotamas with Fritsche Freeride Plus bindings (and skiing them with Garmont Endorphin boots). I used them as both an inbounds and touring quiver of one. I thought the Goats were a fun ski and relatively light. However, I replaced the setup with 180 Black Diamond Verdicts with Dynafit Vertical STs (and skiing them with Garmont Radium boots). Lost considerable weight by going from FFR+ to Dynafits (and they tour much better). The BD Verdicts running length is as long as the 183 Goats, and marginally lighter.