Mt. Rose / Relay & Tamarack Peaks
Mt. Rose Highway (Hwy 431, NE of Tahoe) · near Incline Village / Truckee · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Backcountry Skiing
At a glance
- Vertical
- 2000
- Best season
- November–May · Early-season favorite (high trailhead), long season, corn into spring
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No permit. Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest (Mt. Rose Wilderness). Roadside parking at the Mt. Rose Highway summit — the high trailhead (~8,900ft) makes this an early-season and long-season favorite. Sno-Park may apply at some lots.
Worth knowing
- Gear you must bring
- Beacon · Probe · Shovel · Skins · Helmet · Navigation
- Gear worth bringing
- Airbag pack · Ski crampons · Ice axe (for Rose summit lines)
Guides, rentals and operators
- Guides
- Alpenglow Expeditions · Tahoe Mountain School
Backcountry Skiing detail
- Nickname
- The North Shore's Roadside Alpine
- Directions note
- Park at the Mt. Rose Summit trailhead on NV-431 (plowed)
- Ates
- challenging
- Tour types
- day-tour · ski-mountaineering
- Summit
- 10776
- Approach
- Short — roadside access from the Mt. Rose Highway summit (~8,900ft), one of the highest trailheads in Tahoe
- First timer with guide
- Yes
- Guide recommended
- Yes
- Avi zone
- Sierra Avalanche Center · sierraavalanchecenter.org
- Signature lines
- Tamarack Peak – Hourglass Bowl · Relay Peak steeps · Mt. Rose summit lines
- Intl tip
- The Mt. Rose zone is above Incline Village and 25 minutes from Reno — the most airport-accessible backcountry in Tahoe. It shares the mountain with the Mt. Rose ski resort (skiing guide). Incline Village and Truckee have gear and food; the high trailhead means it's often skiable when lower zones are bare.
The guide
The Mt. Rose Highway zone, on the northeastern rim of the Tahoe Basin, offers some of the most convenient roadside alpine backc…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mt. Rose / Relay & Tamarack Peaks — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.314, -119.917