Photo: Palisades Tahoe
Saturday, June 21 was officially the first day of summer, and anybody who’s been to Tahoe during the summer months knows it is as beautiful and awe-inspiring when the sun is out and the temperatures are high as it is in the dead of winter. A storm dumping snow on Palisades Tahoe to kick off the new season is not something many would expect though.
The storm was so unexpected, as a matter of fact, that a 46 kilometer race was scheduled for Saturday with hundreds of trail runners ready for the Broken Arrow Skyrace and TrailCon. There were 553 runners in total participating in the Broken Arrow event and just 163 of them were able to finish before the whole thing was shut down by the snowfall. The remaining athletes were evacuated off the mountain, according to a statement from Broken Arrow.
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On Sunday, Palisades Tahoe shared footage and images from the mountain. It looked like the start of winter all over again with significant snow cover. “The Sierra Nevada was doing Sierra Nevada things,” they said.
The same storm that brought snow to Palisades was deadly down below on Lake Tahoe. As many as six had been confirmed dead and two more still missing as of Monday after a boat carrying 10 passengers capsized. A surge on Saturday afternoon brought high winds and reported eight-foot waves that wrecked several boats. A video posted to social media showed the weather turning from sunny skies with developing high winds, to full storm conditions, and then back to summer weather all within the span of a few hours.
