Heya!

Looking for some awesome places in Tahoe area (or around North or South) for short overniter snowshoeing/backpacking trips. Any recommendations?

cheers!

Looking for some awesome places in Tahoe area (or around North or South) for short overniter snowshoeing/backpacking trips. Any recommendations?

Basically there's lots of places out of Castle Peak Exit on Interstate 80. I had some friends just going perhaps a half mile to the meadow off the road to Castle Pass, it's wind-sheltered and you can get wood for a campfire. Further along is Round Valley and Grubb Hut. You have Castle Peak and Basin Peak above you, awesome sights when you have snow on the trees. This is a Sno-Park, though, so you'd have to pay for two days to get one overnight ($10?).

We used to pack to Benson Hut along the Crest from Sugarbowl, traversing then to Squaw Valley. A nice 13 mile ski tour. There's more Sierra Club huts for overnights, and the rate is very low, although primitive for lodging.

Carson Pass is another Sno-Park, with access to both Meiss Meadows and Winnemucca Lake.

More still, but then there's sanitation issues. We either bagged it, burned it, or buried it (spring/summer) when there is dirt to be found. You have MLC SC busily polluting when they did that, but please do not be like them.

Nat -- Donner Summit or Carson Pass are obvious choices. You will need a sno-park permit for each vehicle of course.

There are also four backcountry ski huts in the Tahoe area operated by the Sierra Club -

http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/lodges/huts/grubb/

The Peter Grubb hut is not far from Donner Summit. Benson is located near the N face of Anderson Peak and not what you would call a short trip

From Carson Pass you just head south .. there are lots of nice destinations. Frog Lake and Winnemucca Lake are pleasant, or just stay in the trees.

Did someone leave the cages open at the parakeet store?

Lithium, be cautioned. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff, least people all listen to posters that have zilch ability and experience in bc snow country travel, or nearly so. Pity that a few need to assert themselves as knowledgeable, taking words from the far more astute in doing this.

Please don't follow the MLC SC lead in copying word for word, or nearly so. There are enough ripoffs let alone out-and-out piracy on the Net, given the way things are.

I agree, Castle is a GREAT area. You can chose to stay on the freeway side of the ridge for a short trip or cross the "pass" and drop down to Grubb for a great basin camp with terrific views. Scott

I hate to ask but Pete, what does MLC Sc mean ? The reason I hate to ask is that you seem a bit on the deffensive side lately and I am not in the mood to get blasted!

Thanx for the suggestions!

What does MLC SC stand for?

I have some experience with snow shelters and snow traveling

"M"other "L"ode "C"hapter - "S"ierra "C"lub

thanks for the clarification

Gotta a bunch of wagbags begging to be used

Unless you are training for Shasta or Whitney (or otherwise need training weight), wag bags aren't really necessary for those areas

Gotta a bunch of wagbags begging to be used

Very good that you have some concern for water quality and basic sanitation! There's so many users of that precious liquid, and we all have to drink from it. Other places do have them available, and you can voluntarily purchase them by some park backcountry offices.

As many will say, Earth Day everyday, and poop elsewhere than what is required is still in the watershed. Just wish more people about CA would clean up after their dogs, too, a major source of bad runoff. Let alone what you may step on in the dark, while enjoying a nighttime stroll, perhaps!

You might check with Sugarbowl management if they still disallow people to ride their lifts and venture south into the backcountry. From the top of Mt. Lincoln it's about 4 miles to Benson Hut, all up-and-down ridge, great for snowshoes, mostly, better with skis. That is the highest of the SC huts, with a fantastic stay possible. You'll see the high mountain sunrise and sunset, both from walking a few feet out the door, then you can get as toasty warm as you wish, they chop the wood and bring it up there. Great to also have a jacuzzi, maybe one day hydro powered or even solar powered. But then that would be undercutting the main SC lodge in Norden.

We had some interesting overnights there, once with a major storm blowing in. The leader refused to take the escape route (down out of the wind and off the ridge), so we followed by SC order and were led into I'd say 66+ mph winds. Almost zero visibility. I was well prepared, so stuck back with a skier dressed in jeans (cotton) and only a wool sweater. Her wet glasses blurred her vision, so she couldn't see what was ahead of her. I held back as long as I could, and figured that maybe in the clouds, she might have passed by. I went ahead to find the rest of the group, and that we then had a lost skier. The leader waited, cursing, and then figured to head back to find her. Luckily for us, she kept going ahead, and at the time she was found, figured that she had been abandoned and was on her own (as some MLC SC trips become). Another such set of poor leading and we finally arrived to Squaw Valley, with a skier going over a ten foot cliff, and no guidance for many, at all. At one point I was urged to go ahead, the wrong way! I know my way in the mountains, locally, but if I was really a fool as they seem to take me, I'd surely been dead or a news item.

Well, that was the end to that and those trips, although in other times, it's a nice fair weather ski. Other skiers have perished up there. A major problem is finding the hut. They'll ask you whether you know the way, no bluffing (as the MLC SC), because if you don't locate it properly, you'll be dead in a bad weather situation. Unless you are trained in building snow shelters. Similar with the other SC huts. They don't advertise them, and they usually are hidden somewhat (in the trees) to not detract from the scenery. Usually there are no signs to tell you where they are.

Navigation is a serious business in the snowy winter, and by what they'll do, a whole group of skiers will be led astray, and some may not survive. One leader deliberately did that regularly as a test, by him, so if you brought only lightweight gear, you learn winter survival the hard way. With the mentally debilitated people that run the scene now, except for PLBs and GPS, you'd easily have the worst Sierra disasters ever.

Guides first priority is clients safety! (cringing)

Interesting way of testing navigation.....quite dangerous......

Apologize, I learned navigation, wilderness survival, and guiding in a totally different manner...

Wagbags have always been with us on trips in sensitive areas, the exception is areas far from water sources and with good low porosity soils.

Whiteouts are always fun.....

again thanx for the suggestions and stories!

TheOrglingLlama wrote:

looks to me like he's pissed off from being shaken! .........I am partial to the Carson Pass area also, its beautiful, but then again its in my backyard