Sierra Buttes
Sierra City / Downieville · near Sierra City / Downieville · Gold Country & Central Valley
Backcountry Skiing
At a glance
- Vertical
- 2000
- Best season
- February–April · North-facing aspects hold snow well · Access via Gold Lake Road (may need snowshoes to trailhead in heavy years)
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Tahoe National Forest — no permit required for day use. Gold Lake Road provides winter access (may be unplowed above the lower Lakes Basin in heavy snow years — call the Tahoe National Forest Sierraville Ranger District before driving in).
Worth knowing
- Gear you must bring
- Beacon · Probe · Shovel · Skins · Crampons (summit access can be icy) · Helmet · Navigation — the summit area has complex terrain
- Gear worth bringing
- Ice axe · Airbag pack
Guides, rentals and operators
- Guides
- International Alpine Guides
Backcountry Skiing detail
- Nickname
- THE FIND — The MTB World's Best-Kept Ski Secret
- Directions note
- Winter access from Packer Lake Rd (plowing varies) — expect added road miles to the buttes
- Ates
- challenging
- Tour types
- day-tour · ski-mountaineering
- Summit
- 8591
- Approach
- 4–6 miles round trip from Sardine Lake / Lakes Basin area · ~2,000ft gain · Lower approach terrain moderate, upper approach steepens significantly
- First timer with guide
- No
- Guide recommended
- Yes
- Avi zone
- Sierra Avalanche Center · sierraavalanchecenter.org
- Signature lines
- Northwest Bowl from Summit · North Face Couloirs · Lakes Basin Tour
- Intl tip
- Sierra City, at the base of the Sierra Buttes approach road, is a genuine Gold Rush-era town on Highway 49 that has barely changed in appearance since the 1850s. The Kentucky Mine Museum (open seasonally) documents the quartz mining that shaped the northern Sierra foothills. Combine a Sierra Buttes ski day with a night in Downieville — the mountain biking scene's base town — for a complete North Sierra experience.
The guide
The mountain biking world knows Sierra Buttes as the dramatic geological backdrop to the Downieville Downhill — the jagged spir…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Sierra Buttes — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.5866, -120.6331