Come skiing out the back door at Clair Tappaan Lodge

The Sierra Club's Clair Tappaan Lodge, at Norden near Donner Summit, is strategically placed to access some excellent skiing. A wide variety of commercial ski areas are quite close, as well as a large choice of backcountry areas. These include just about any variety of skiing at about any level.

Some of my most pleasant memories are from times when I have skied out the `back door' and headed to the Lodge's trails and `backcountry'. The Tahoe Sierra winter provides an awesome view of nature, from the grandeur of a winter storm to the perfect days of sun and fresh white powder, when your biggest concern is sunburn. The Lodge maintains 12 km of groomed trails on 94 acres of Sierra Club forest adjacent to large areas of the Tahoe National Forest.

I'm probably too goal-oriented when I arrive for skiing in the winter, thinking of new wilderness routes to check out, runs at downhill areas, and lessons to take. Evenings around the fireplace are filled with descriptions of enticing trips and adventures. The frenetic life around the Bay Area follows me up to recreation. The cure for this is to simply step outside.

The Sierra in winter is beautiful and I don't have the talent to describe it in terms that do not sound like a cliché. The conditions can be anywhere on the weather map. You might have the trails almost all to yourself on a winter weekday or join in with others on weekends and holidays. When the backside lifts of the two adjacent downhill areas (Donner Ski Ranch and Boreal) are operating, you can often use these lifts to get to the frontside lift ticket booths, where you can get a ticket to spend the day, and then ski back to the lodge at the end of the day. I have also spent many hours practicing crosscountry and backcountry techniques on some favorite hills and gentle slopes to prepare for more challenging trips. I mainly enjoy the Sierra forest for observing and becoming part of the seasonal cycle in an area that I am learning about intimately.

The Sierra winter is harsh. The tale of how living things survive the winter has been wonderfully described in Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich. The book describes the East Coast, but similar strategies exist on this side of the country. The prospect for climate change adds interest to the appreciation of the forest. The climate of the Sierra Nevada has fluctuated substantially in both temperature and moisture over the past 1,000 years. Skiing through the forest, you begin to get an appreciation for how the trees and other biota evolved to adapt to these unique conditions. But can they can make it through human-induced climate changes, as they have apparently survived natural cycles?

The woodlands that I have skied through are largely a mixed fir/lodgepole-pine forest interspersed with some magnificent Jeffrey pine. The forest has come under great stress in the last 150 years, but is regenerating nicely in some areas, and we are trying to help it along in others. Winter is when it receives its moisture in the form of snow after a long, stressful dry summer that many predict will be longer and drier. One can feel the forest welcome and rejoice in its gift of water and hope it can get enough of it long enough to continue its survival and evolution.

WhatYouCanDo

Come visit! If you've never been to Clair Tappaan, you don't know what you've been missing. Bring your friends! Bring your family! For information, call (800) 679-6775 or see the lodge web page.

Joel Brody