Journeys›Photograph

Christmas Week Skiing from June Mountain to Tahoe

·June Mountain, California·#winter#california#tahoe#skiing#landscape
Snowy mountain range under a blue sky, with a wooden fence casting long shadows on the snow.

Christmas week skiing, starting at June Mountain. The place was nearly empty for the holiday — corduroy still intact halfway through the morning, whole groomers with nobody on them. From the top you can see out past the Minarets on one side and clear down to Mono Lake on the other, with a huge lenticular cloud stacked over the basin like something out of a weather textbook. Coverage was honest rather than great; plenty of brown showing on the lower faces, but the runs themselves held up fine.

Then north to Tahoe for the second half of the week, and it was a different mountain range entirely. Fresh snow loaded on every tree, so heavy the branches sagged, and the lake dead blue below it all. Skied the ridges with the water in view most of the day.

June is the sleeper of the two. Nobody talks about it, and half the reason to keep going back is exactly that.

A groomed ski slope between wooden fences and bare trees, leading to distant snow-covered mountains under a blue sky.A snowy mountain landscape with ski slopes, a dense pine forest, and snow-capped peaks under a blue sky.A snow-covered ski slope overlooks a vast valley, evergreen forests, distant mountains, and a large lake under a blue sky.A wide snowy ski slope leads into a dense pine forest, with snow-capped mountains and a blue sky above.Snow-covered mountains and forested rocky hills under a blue sky with thin white clouds.Tall, snow-covered trees in a forest, with bright sunlight filtering through branches and a clear blue sky.Vast snowy evergreen forest and a dark blue lake under a clear blue sky, with distant snow-capped mountains.Vast snowy mountain ski slope with pine trees, a clear blue sky, and a large lake with distant snow-capped mountains.

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