First Snowfall Sends Thousands To Sierras For The Holiday

SIERRAS (CBS13) —The first snowfall of the season sent hundreds of thousands of folks to the Sierras this holiday.

"It's a nice way to start the holiday," said one man with a smile as he got on the ski lift at Boreal.

People packed the slopes trying to take advantage of that first Sierra snowfall on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Virginia Xu was skiing with her sister.

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"Well it's powdery and it's soft so when you fall you don't hurt yourself," said Xu.

"We got a nice white blanket and it's still coming down. We are going to have snow through the night and we are starting to expand terrain," said Tucker Norred with Boreal Ski Resort.

Dennis Ma and his family drove up from the Bay Area.

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"We started learning skiing and this is our first time hitting the slopes, " he said as he encouraged his youngest.

But getting to that fresh powder isn't easy this weekend. Chain controls were in effect at different times of the day and Caltrans reminded drivers to pack their patience and slow down.