Help

On the home page, pick your zone or trailhead on the radio, or tap Use my location at the trailhead. The radio shows the zone's community channel and the privacy code to set.

The channel buttons under the radio show which zones share each channel.

The sign at the trailhead is the final word. If it differs from this site, trust the sign, and tell us on the Trailhead Check-in page.

Use the community channel for check-ins, hazards, "is anyone below" and emergencies. Keep it short. Talk inside your party on a group channel: any channel but the community channel.

Key the mic, pause, then talk. Your name first, then who you're calling. Use plain words, and catch your breath before you key up.

Call 911 when you have service. Community channels are not monitored by authorities.

With no cell service, make a distress call on the community channel and ask another group to call 911.

What to say on the radio ›

Dots are trailheads and huts. Tap a zone to highlight it.

Pinch, or use + and −, to zoom. If the map can't load, a plain drawing of the same zones shows instead.

Download the zones as GeoJSON or GPX and import them into CalTopo, Gaia or another map app. GeoJSON is the more detailed file, with zone colors. GPX suits GPS units and apps that don't read GeoJSON.

The printable map is four letter pages: all zones, north and south close-ups, and a table of every zone's channel and trailheads.

Zones can change between seasons, so download them again each winter.

Any FRS radio works with the program. The table compares four radios: how each hears two channels, its band, power, weight, hand mic and price.

A radio that hears two channels lets you listen to your group channel and the community channel at the same time. The Rocky Talkie Expedition Radio is GMRS and needs a license. The others need none.

Set the community channel on the trailhead sign, then privacy code 30 on that channel. Most radios call the code a "privacy code" or "sub-channel" in their menus.

Program your radio once at home. At the trailhead you then only switch channels. Another radio? Match the channel and privacy code. Its manual shows how.

Program your radio, step by step ›

A Trail Steward carries a radio where they already ski, hands out stickers, checks the signs and reports problems through the check-in page. No shifts, no home trailhead.

Tap Sign up as a Trail Steward. It opens an email to us with a few questions to fill in.

At the trailhead, open the check-in page, tick "Sign needs maintenance or is missing" and say what's wrong in your note.

Spare signs are held at sign depots in Truckee, Meyers and Tahoma. The program re-posts a missing or damaged sign from the nearest one.

Use ‹ and › to move between months. The list under the calendar shows the events in the two months on screen.

Dates depend on snow. Check again before you drive up.

Add your first name and email, then tap Sign up for season updates. We send one email to confirm. Nothing more comes until you confirm it.

Updates cover trailhead days, talks and zone changes, a few times a season. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Each backcountry zone around Lake Tahoe and Truckee has one community channel on the license-free FRS band. Skiers, riders and snowshoers in the same zone use it to share conditions, coordinate routes and call for help.

Tahoe Backcountry Ski Patrol runs the program.

The address may be mistyped, or from the old website. Most old addresses lead to their new page.

Pick one of the links on this page, or start from the home page to find your channel.

Check in here when you start a tour from a trailhead. The page shows your trailhead's radio channel, today's avalanche danger and the latest weather nearby.

Your check-in tells Tahoe Backcountry Radio which trailheads people use, what people hear on the radio, and which signs need fixing.

The list shows trailheads within 5 miles, nearest first. If your phone doesn't share its location, they're listed north to south.

Pick yours to see its sign: the zone, the channel and the privacy code to set on your radio. Outside every zone, use the area channel shown under the sign.

How to program your radio ›

The danger is rated at three elevations: above treeline (8,000′ and up), near treeline (7,000–8,000′) and below treeline (under 7,000′). The coloured bar gives the highest rating and what it means for travel.

Each avalanche problem shows where it is and how bad it could be. The rose is a compass: shaded slices are the slopes it affects, with the inner ring above treeline, the middle near and the outer below. Likelihood runs from unlikely to certain. Size runs from small to historic.

This comes from the Sierra Avalanche Center. Read the full forecast before you go. Avalanche forecast ›

Up high shows temperature, wind and gusts, and snow depth from stations near the crest above your trailhead. Down low shows snow depth and temperature from a station lower down.

Each reading says when it was taken and where it came from. A reading more than 3 hours old shows as "No recent reading", with the time of the last one.

Tick any radio use you heard or took part in, add anything you want us to know, and tap Send check-in. Every box is optional. Tick "Sign needs maintenance" if your trailhead's sign is damaged or missing.

The time is added for you. Your location goes with it only if your phone shares it.

Trail Stewards and patrollers: add your email to get credit for the visit.

Open this page once at home, with signal, and add it to your Home Screen. At the trailhead it opens without signal and shows the last conditions your phone saw.

A check-in sent without signal waits on your phone. It sends by itself the next time you open the page with signal, and never twice.

Set up for offline ›

This page collects the help from every page on this site, grouped by page. The round ? in the lower-right corner of each page opens just that page's topics.