Lake Run

With all that fresh snow on the Sierras, Paris and I took advantage of a bit of a break in the weather to punch in our first lake run of the season: over 2000 vertical feet of untracked pow from Donner Peak to the west end of Donner Lake. It was a magic morning as we climbed along the edge of Sugar Bowl’s boundary shortly after dropping Wild Man off to school for day two of his winter quarter, scattered clouds and views for miles as we climbed up the back of Donner Peak.

Skis on in the slot between the cliffs of Donner Peak – after Paris almost dropped one of his off the cliff – and it was all systems go for a thousand-or-so vertical feet of untracked powder with some incredible views of Donner Lake and the Sierras in the distance. There were a few windblown areas of crust but it was mostly boot-deep bliss all the way to the base of the climb to Trestles. Good times…

We slogged back up to the peak of Trestles, this time having to pound trail through the powder on the way up. We were hoofing it to make it back in time for Alice’s hair appointment and for me to do some work, very sweaty by the time we made it the peak, Paris’s hair looked like he’d just gotten out of the pool! The descent down Trestles was even better than from Donner Peak, pristine snow all the way down and the pillows in the boulder field just before we reached the creek at the west end of Donner Lake were phenomenal (although they did pucker me up a bit!). Like something straight from Rogers Pass. Tuesday morning’s don’t get much better…