January 15, 2005
Mt. Tallac - Getting Firsts in the Cross
Joe, Del
Looking down towards Fallen Leaf Lake from within the belly of the Cross - the most infamous backcountry line on the South Shore
With 6 day old baby Nora at home with Jodi and the girls, I knew my day in the backcountry was going to have to be short. Huge storms had pounded Tahoe less than a week ago, leaving a monster base in the mountains. After the storms broke, the classic Tahoe high pressure parked over us, allowing the sun to mold the deep snow into a solid, yet still soft, mega base. I felt conditions would be perfect to attempt one of Tallac's most wild lines; Babycham. I rallied Del to join me for a dawn patrol start at 6:30 AM. With my stomach full of nerves with the thought of attempting an exposed line such as Babycham, I headed out with Del into the dark, clear and warm skies.
Del at the bottom of sweat hill with the dawn lit peak above The ascent ridge was sunny and hot 
We were the first one's onto the well traveled (and slick) skin track. We were surprised to see relatively few tracks covering the popular northern flanks of Tallac. We topped out the ridge at the base of North Bowl, and made a detour towards the Right Arm of the Cross to get an eyeful of Babycham:
The twisting rock lined chute is unique in that it steepens and narrows to the crux at very bottom of the line. Although it was a tough decision to abort the descent, a few factors played a roll. #1 - There was not as much snow coverage as pictures I had seen of others skiing the line, #2 - the snow surface was indicating some breakable crust, and #3 (and not as important) - we could see Zero tracks exiting the Cross behind the cliff to looker's left of Babycham.......and first tracks down the Cross wasn't a bad alternative. So I shelved my desires to ski the line and promised to come back again in better conditions (click here to see the conclusion of the Babycham quest). We continued on to the summit.
The unmatched views from the top of Tallac: 
The air was warm and pleasant on top of the "great one". We could see a few others skinning along the skin track at the bottom of North Bowl, but we stood alone on the summit in the morning light. We peered into the Cross where our suspicions were confirmed......untouched, no tracks, nada. I have never seen the Cross untracked before. The line stares all of South Lake Tahoe in the face all winter long, and attracts lots of folks to come ski it's rock lined walls. The Washoe Indian legends about the lake drying up if the Cross ever loses all of it's snow provides a bit of mystique as well. It seems half of the local business logos have a blue lake in the foreground and a mountain with the cross in the background. It is a right of passage in the south shore, and rightfully so. It is a steep and exceptional chute carved between two monster cliff faces. It offers a few alternate entries when conditions permit. We realized it was still January 15th when we looked across at the elevator shaft entry, which was still a few big storms away from being skiable.
After stomping, ski cutting, poking and prodding; we deemed the Cross good to go. Del snapped some pictures as I dropped into the traditional wide open entry slope to skier's left of the chute:
The snow was a soft, but dense, windpack. It was perfect for steep skiing with only a minimal amount of sluff control necessary. Del's turn:
Elevator Shaft entry - heavy on cornice, light on coverage
(possibly the steepest line I've ever skied): Del - steep enough to to see the bases:
A hard right above the big trees brings you into the belly of the Cross. The snow changed from windpack to 6" - 12" of consolidated powder over old, but large, slide debris.
We uncovered some large yawning cracks in the chute and could make out plenty of remnants from a Big slide that must have occurred in the middle of the last storm. All was safe on this day, so we whooped it up as we laid down firsts in the Cross.
Del:
Me:
We found all sorts of varying snow conditions on the apron and the lower slopes; some pockets of light dry powder, breakable crust, consolidated porn, and plenty of mank. It was all fun though, all 3,300 vertical feet of it. Sweat Hill trees were fun and fast as always. It was a great day out with one of the very first friends I made when we moved to SLT in 1996 - Del LaMountain.....I mean LaFountain.
And we were done. I hurried home in time to take the girls to their swim meet in Gardnerville......to live to be granted another hall pass to ski another day!
Click below to see other Tallac trip reports:
Skiing Corn on the South Ramp of Tallac - 12/11/04