Fact Check: Was This Viral Snow Wall Photo Taken in Lake Tahoe?

Lake Tahoe is having a legendary winter, but not as legendary as this viral photo would have you think.

Posts circulating on social media show a group of people walking on a path between two walls of snow. The posts typically claim that the image was taken in Lake Tahoe, displaying massive walls and record snowpack. I’ve personally seen this photo shared at least a dozen times, each one claiming it to be Tahoe. However, the image is not recent and it certainly wasn’t taken in Lake Tahoe.

Here’s the photo I’m talking about:

If I had the time, I could probably find over 100 posts of this photo claiming to be Tahoe:

Lake Tahoe Snow Pack pic.twitter.com/6f3sJ5FPOz

— Roger Bird (@birdyroger2) March 16, 2023

The image has been circulating online for years and actually shows the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, a famous tourist attraction in Japan, which cuts through a mountainous region. This particular section of the route features a path carved out of snow during spring, resulting in snow walls almost 60 feet high.

Although parts of California did experience unusually heavy snowfall, with more than 30 feet of snow over the past two months, it certainly wasn’t that much. The snow walls are big in Tahoe right now, but not the size of these walls in Japan.

Let’s cheer for this snowy winter in Tahoe… and stop spreading misinformation.