November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving turns on Elephants Back
Joe, Toby, Shawn
Toby and Buddy make dust on crust appear to be an epic pow day.
Another glancing blow from a storm left us with just enough new snow to go find a few turns out at Carson Pass. Carson and Rose are the only two passes at Tahoe high enough to hold any kind of base in this dry start to a winter. Well the turns were good where the base below was snow instead of earth. We met Shawn at the pass and all three of us (and Buddy) felt it was a worthy outing to Elephants Back with a car shuttle at Red Lake. And being it was Thanksgiving we needed to go get some exercise in an effort to minimize the guilt we would feel later for our gluttony of feasting and drinking.
At the pass it looked deceptively like winter.
But it was obviously still not winter.
Fortunately a new veil of snow lay on Elephants Back's slopes. The view north towards Desolation was rewarding too.
I skied what I hoped would be the most filled in line on the Elephant. It was really good actually!
Next was Toby and his dog Bud D.
Then Shawn.
Looking for a little love in the shade....
And he scores!
One more narcissist look at my tracks.
We hit several more little laps on the lower slopes....some better than others. We finished it with a cruise down the old Carson grade back to our waiting truck at Red Lake. Here's a reflection of Red Lake Peak in a half frozen Red Lake, looking Shasta like with a cloud cap of mystery.
Gobble, Gobble.