The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Sarah Marshal
An incredible video shows huge walls of snow surrounding a home in Lake Tahoe where scores of residents are snowed in – as the Golden State braces for two more storms imminently.
Miles Clark, an avid skier, was ‘shocked’ when he arrived at his friend’s Olympic Valley home last Thursday to housesit.
The house has huge snowbanks lining the front walk that are nearly twice as tall as Clark at eight to 10 feet. The only part of the property visible is the door and front wall, with densely packed snow hanging overhead and a precarious pathway carved out around the building.
These large snowpack walls are potentially life-threatening, as roofs can cave in and large chunks of snow may unexpectedly fall into the walkway.
‘I honestly was even too scared to remove it because I didn’t want to spend time even standing in that walkway,’ he told the San Francisco Gate. He said he began running through the walkway every time he had to leave the home as he feared another personal avalanche would happen and threaten his life.
Miles Clark, an avid skier, was ‘shocked’ when he arrived at his friend’s Olympic Valley home (pictured) in Lake Tahoe last Thursday to housesit
The house has huge snowbanks lining the front walk, nearly twice as tall as Clark standing at eight to 10 feet that loom all the way to the front door, where densely packed snow hangs overhead. The only part of the home that was visible is the door and front wall, as the sides of the home and the roof are covered in feet of snow
‘I knew we had gotten a lot of snow in Tahoe, but their situation is relatively unique,’ Miles told the SF Gate. ‘It really stacked up there, and they just ended up with snow on all sides.
‘We live for this,’ the founder of CEO a sports media company called SnowBrains, continued. ‘But then I started to feel some of the doom and gloom when part of the snow collapsed on the walkway. It would probably be fatal [if I had been standing there].’
The snow was cleared by the homeowners association the following day.
Clark is no stranger to the crazy amount of snow in the Tahoe area, having lived in the area for decades. The University of California, Berkeley alumni has seen the enormous snowfalls of 2006, 2011, 2017 and 2019, but said he’s never seen anything like this.
‘I’ve seen huge snow years, but something is weird about this one, maybe because all of the snow came in a small amount of time. All of the snow is stacked up on roofs. This is the most snow I’ve seen, especially on top of roofs. It’s incredible,’ he told the outlet.
One popular ski area is seeing a whole different landscape as the snow reaches so high, skiers can top the top of the lift, rendering it inoperable
Many homes are snowed in as feet of snow blocks them in
So much snow has been stacked on homes that some roofs are being to cave in
The snow is so high in some parts of California that it reached up to the top of the stop signs
He said the terrain is being killed by the sheer amount of snow. Even one popular ski area is seeing a whole different landscape as the white stuff reaches so high, skiers can top the top of the lift, rendering it inoperable.
Ski patrollers are working to clear the snow, but it’s a long process.
Despite being a ‘winter sports enthusiast,’ Clark took off for Utah on Tuesday because the ‘rain scared me off.’
The Golden State has been battered by a series of storms in recent weeks and is bracing for two more, which could bring snow fall of up to four feet in the Sierra Nevada and dump inches of rain.
The first storm is expected to hit on Sunday, affecting California, Oregon, and Washington.
It is forecast to bring two to three inches of rain in the valleys, while it could bring a few feet of snow to those in higher elevations.
Two more storms are expected to hit California again. The first is expect to hit Sunday and bring inches of rain and a few feet of snow, while the second one is expect to hit Tuesday and bring more snow
The Sierra Nevada could also see snow total hit up to four feet (pictured: Truckee, CA)
A Union Pacific train was covered in snow and ice earlier this month
Power outages are expected as the storms hit this coming week (pictured: Truckee, CA)
The second storm, expected to hit Tuesday and Wednesday, will be more severe.
Los Angeles could receive up to three inches of rain, according to Fox Weather, while San Diego could see one to two inches.
‘That’s where we have the flooding threat all the way up through LA, Bakersfield, Mariposa. It’s not an extreme threat, but even just a little bit is of concern because many of these communities and many of the homes still reeling from some of the devastation for this season,’ Fox Weather meteorologist Brigit Mahoney said.
The storms could bring the Sierra Nevada total snowfall to four feet.
Power outages are expected.
