Killebrew Canyon

If you look to the far left on the map, you'll see the Killebrew Canyon and Mott Canyon areas. This is where you want to be on a big powder day. It's a little tricky to find your way to the best terrain, so here it is. If you get off Sky chair on the California side, take the trail to the Nevada side. hang right at Milky way bowl, but stay high up on the right side of the bowl. You will see traverse tracks up here. Take the highest one. It will lead you to Gate 1 and 2 of Killebrew canyon. Gate 2 will lead you straight to Stateline chute. You will know this by seeing a tower of rock with a bronze plaque on it.

Ski straight down here and hang right a little. You will be in Stateline chute. This is about 40 degrees and maybe 50 degrees in the very top for about 3 turns. It's a traditional chute with rock on all sides. When you get down to the bottom, hang hard right and get up on the next ridge top. Here you can get another 20 turns on a 40 degree pitch if you follow the ridge to the end and hang a left into the bowl back toward the run out of Killebrew.

My favorite run in here is right next to Stateline called Ramerez, If you hang a little left from Stateline and stick tight to the rocks, you will come to a cascade of three rock drops each about 10 feet. On a powder day, these are unbelievable.

The third chute left from Mainline is another classic looking decent called Stateline. usually the top of it is chopped out from all the intermediates side slipping into the entrance, but is you hit it on a powder day, you can launch 20 feet into the chute and short turn into the bowl for another 30 turns.

Mott Canyon

Mott has one of my favorite runs of in Tahoe. It's called "over the falls." This is right of the "Y" and up the ridge line toward the "Promised Land" Just before you get to the top of the ridge, look left and you will see a sweet powder stash totally untracked maybe except for one or two at most. You will see a sign hanging from a rope which spans the whole chute at the top. It says "danger cliff area" This is the point of no return, once you start down this bad boy, you better be ready to launch 15 feet or so. Make sure you have a helmet on, and here's why. When you get 4 turns into the chute, it starts to close out. It gets narrow and comes to a small cliff. Now the cliff would be no big deal, but when you land, you have to thread the needle through two giant lodgepole pine trees which are 20 feet past the landing spot at about 20 feet apart. Just don't hook a tip and get thrown right or left.

After the landing you will open into a small clearing. here you can do a quick hip check or just turn a few times to slow down. From here you are immediately at the Mott lift.

Now if you are in Mott and the snow is hard ice, good luck skiing anything on the northern slope by the "Y." You're best bet is to go on the southern slope and ski the "Sun Bowl." This area threads between the rocks and has a respectable 35-40 degree pitch.

Ski Ways Bowl

This area is at 9 O'clock if you are standing in line at Sky chair. Look up and you will see a gladed area high up on the mountain. Here is how you get there. Go toward Nevada from the top of Sky Chair. When you get to the sign that says welcome to Nevada, look off the cattrack to your left. If you see tracks, you know its good enough to ski. The problem in here is that it's really rocky, so unless you see the tracks of the locals, don't bother. This area is one of the best kept secrets of the locals, but it still seems to get skied out by mid afternoon on powder days.

Raily's Bowl

This area is technically out of bounds, so I'm not going to tell you how to get there, but ...

The track in will lead one of two places. The closest is a 25-30 degree powder field of about 700 feet of vertical. It will lead you back toward Patsy's chair and is in bounds. Finding this place is remnicent of the disney movies where they were searching for Eldora and the lost city of gold. You look and search until you find a saddle on the ridge that ends up looking toward the open untracked powder runs. Here you can ski some steep 40-45 degree slopes totally untracked and end up back at the bottom of the resort near the lift.

Be careful in here it is not patrolled and prone to avalanches. Here is a clue. It is right next to an avalanche area. So if it has snowed a lot in the last few days don't go in there. You might end up like a skeleton just like in the movies. You know when the searchers for the lost city find the first unlucky person who tried to find the lost city but failed. Have someone with you who knows the area. And as always have your buddy and yourself wear avalanche beacons. If you get caught in here by the patrols, you're in for a loss of your ticket or pass and a fine by the sheriff.

Fire Break

This area is out of bounds, so don't go in here either. You get here by going left on the Nevada side. It will get thick right away, you just have to bushwack a bit to get through. Once you get here you will be able to ski down to the road if you hang a right after the main pitch. You don't want to get lost in here and believe me it is easy to lose your way in here. The bottom is swamp and you will be in trouble. If you do it right, you will come out on a side road of kingsbury grade. From here you can catch a cab.

North Bowl Trees

About half way down Olympic Run, hang left into the trees. You will probably see tracks going in. Hang along the edge near, but don't cross the boundary line. You will have open glade style skiing for about 1000 vertical feet, before hitting the bottom of the mountain on the Nevada side. This is an awesome area, but because it is fairly low on the mountain, it will be good only after a big powder day when the air temp is still cold. Otherwise, this area has been known to be super heavy Sierra Cement.

Kingsbury Grade/Gardnerville

From the Nevada Side you can make your way to Gardnerville on a 5000 foot vertical run of true bliss!. If the snow level goes all the way down to the valley floor, you can ski right to the bottom of Kingsbury grade. It's quite a treat. Last time I did it I was with the Ski School director and 5 of his supervisors not to mention the general manager too. At the bottom of the grade, we had the heavenly ski shuttle waiting to bring us back. It was the best powder run of that season. when we got to the bottom we found a staff ski instructor who had skied it on his own. The general manager and ski school director fired him on the spot. I always thought that a little lame as we were doing the same thing. But I guess if you have the power, you can make your own rules. This is one of the many reasons why we developed the anti-ski resort philosophy of SkiNow.net. We are private ski instructors working for ourselves in a network. We are sick of big business and want to offer personal service by working for ourselves. We don't play by the rules of big business. No Politics, No Favoritism, No Corporate BS, Just Skiing!

Be careful here. There was one guy who got lost here at the end of the day. When they found him the next morning, he was dead. He was so hypothermic that he thought the stream water felt warm and had laid down in the stream. The stream of course was freezing and he never got up. this is a big area, and easy to lose your way. It's 5000 feet of untracked vertical. I would be hard pressed to name a better untracked powder run in any helicopter skiing program world wide.

If you would like a tour of any secret powder stashes in the Sierra, we know them all. Email me for a guide service session!