Cody Townsend’s Fifty+ – Tahoe Megastorm, Skiing The Biggest Storm of the Year
Mountainwatch | Video
In this episode for Cody Townsend’s new series, Fifty +, Cody and friends score some deep, deep, powder in the backcountry near his home in Tahoe, California. Tahoe and the surrounding Sierra mountains are renowned for copping huge amounts to snow over a short period. Storms moving in out of the north pacific draw up a heap of moisture and dump it as snow when it hits the mountains.
Earlier this year a huge storm hit the Sierras at the start of March and dropped 96ins over a four-day period from March 1st– 4th. That is 2.4 metres, a massive total even by Tahoe standards and at the peak of the storm the wind at the top of Palisades Tahoe hit 190mph, just over 305km/hr which is category five wind strength in a cyclone!
That is radical, and the volume of snow and cyclonic winds created quite a few variables and avalanche danger that had to taken into consideration when planning where to ski. It was a day to head for the trees and familiar low-angle slopes in the nearby backcountry, the very cold temps turning on snow that was as deep and dry as it gets. Amazing and, as you will see, a day to remember.
From the producers.
“After a record-breaking winter in 2023, it seemed unlikely that another storm would match the fury and power of the epic winter before. Yet in late February, a storm that was forecasted to potentially be the biggest in Sierra history hit the Lake Tahoe region. In this episode, Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, Travis Ganong and Marie-Michelle Gagnon ski through three days of blizzards in the trees of the Tahoe Backcountry. Beyond the powder glut, the episode takes the viewer a little into the process of how one navigates, assesses and skis safely through such big storms.”
Cody’s new project is the Fifty+ (Plus) where he and a variety if guests will climb and ski a bunch of backcountry lines and mountains, each episode answering the question – “Is it a Classic, or not?” Stay up top date the thefiftyplus.pro
