Sports
Open water swimming
The Sierra Open Water Swim Series — the clearest water you will ever race in.
Four swims across the season, from Tahoe City in July through to the Sand Harbor Sharkfest in September, plus the Donner Lake Alpine Swim in water that runs several degrees warmer than Tahoe.
Distances start at 500m, so a first open-water race is genuinely available here. Lake Tahoe runs low-to-mid sixties Fahrenheit through summer and Donner nearer seventy — both wetsuit-legal, both colder than a warm morning suggests. Get your face in before the gun.
4 on the calendar
Full season →- 11Jul
Tahoe City Swim
Tahoe City, CA
Open water in the clearest large lake in North America. Kayak and PWC cover the whole course.
- 2 miles
- 1 mile
- 500m
- 26Jul
Donner Lake Alpine Swim
Donner Lake, Truckee, CA
Warmer than Tahoe, still unmistakably alpine. The friendliest water of the swim series.
- 2 miles
- 1 mile
- 30Aug
Lake Tahoe Swim
Sugar Pine Point State Park, CA
The big one for swimmers. Open water in Tahoe itself, on the flagship weekend.
- 4 miles
- 2 miles
- 1 mile
- 19Sep
Sand Harbor Sharkfest Swim
Sand Harbor, NV
Turquoise shallows and granite boulders. The clearest water you will ever race in.
- 1.2 miles
- 0.5 miles