Frog Lake Backcountry Huts
Truckee / North Lake Tahoe · near Truckee · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Backcountry Skiing
At a glance
- Vertical
- 1200
- Best season
- January–April · Multi-day packages through Blackbird Guides
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Hut access through Blackbird Mountain Guides booking system. Private guided tours only for full hut experience. Day use of surrounding terrain requires no permit (Tahoe National Forest).
Worth knowing
- Gear you must bring
- Beacon · Probe · Shovel · Skins · Sleeping bag rated to 20°F (huts have heat but not hotel warmth) · Helmet · Layering system for variable conditions
- Gear worth bringing
- Airbag pack · Lightweight camp kitchen (huts have stoves and basic kitchen)
Guides, rentals and operators
- Guides
- Blackbird Mountain Guides — Frog Lake Huts Private Guiding
Backcountry Skiing detail
- Nickname
- California's Finest Hut-to-Hut System
- Directions note
- Access from the Donner Summit Sno-Park (Castle Peak exit) — Sno-Park permit required
- Ates
- challenging
- Tour types
- hut-to-hut · multi-day
- Summit
- 8200
- Approach
- Varies by route · Hut-to-hut tours: 3–8 miles/day between huts
- First timer with guide
- Yes
- Guide recommended
- Yes
- Avi zone
- Sierra Avalanche Center · sierraavalanchecenter.org
- Signature lines
- Morgan Hut Day Touring · Hut-to-Hut Traverse · Custom Objectives from Hut Base
- Intl tip
- Truckee's downtown is the best combination of mountain town character and genuine restaurant quality in the Tahoe area. The Frog Lake Hut system deposits you back in Truckee at the end of the tour — plan a proper celebration dinner at Jax at the Tracks or Pianeta before driving home.
The guide
Hut-to-hut skiing has defined the backcountry experience in Colorado, Europe, and Norway for a century. California's equivalent…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Frog Lake Backcountry Huts — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.28, -120.17