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Vimeo, blogspot, facebook, g+, ... Its just too much for me to keep track of. I've realized with this blog that most of the time, I don't actually want to write anything. A set of photos or a video (along with some captions) tells the story and that's what I really want to share. So I'm abandoning the blog and simplifying things to just two sites. I'll continue using vimeo for video hosting, but I'm going to switch to posting photos and links to videos just on g+ (NOT facebook).

So circle me on g+.

I'm talking to you, Ryan and Tony.

First powder weekend - Jan 21 - 24

I got to ski Saturday through Tuesday and it exceeded all expectations. We had no base, and the storm only turned from rain to snow on Friday night at midnight. Even still, we were skiing off trail by Saturday morning all over the mountain at Alpine. Two more waves came through later and by Monday morning there was good coverage, even on the deck at the cabin.

Monday morning at the cabin.

Some of the results from the weekend.

I only took a couple photos and had the camera on for a single run at Alpine on Monday, so here it is:

December - Bare skiing in CA and tree skiing in VT

The blog is back!

It's January 18 and the mountains in CA are still bare: I wouldn't have thought it possible. In the dry December we had, I kept telling everyone that it would definitely snow by around New Years... this always happens where it doesn't snow for most of December and then it dumps at the end. I just ended up being about a month off.... We're finally getting snow (or maybe rain?) starting tomorrow:

(Even a little love for the Northeast as well?)

As with the past three ski seasons, Lauren and I made sure to start this one off on completely man-made snow at Squaw, December 10th:

If the horror stories I hear about Squaw crowds are true, this is the best parking space I'll get all season.

Completely bare valley.

I'd never skied Squaw before. It being a bigger "resort" than Kirkwood, I was hoping they would be a little better with snowmaking to get terrain open in a dry year like this. Not so much. Five or six weeks later, they still have about the same two runs open.

There was more pow skiing to be had in Vermont at Jay Peak, December 30th:


Of course this video isn't as good as this one which includes ICE!

It's hard to believe the ski season is only about six weeks away. About time to start getting the skis ready, and of course, watch some powder skiing from last season...



This is footage from March 17,19,21 and 26, 2011. I had to cut out a lot of decent powder skiing footage because it was getting repetitive. Here's hoping we have the same problem this season!

March Recap and Skiing in June

Well, the blog sort of trailed off in March. This was mainly because my shin injury, courtesy of a Heavenly cat track and my own Powder-mania, ended up being much longer lasting than I thought it would be. I was able to ski some, but I had to take it much easier than normal. So that ended up putting a damper on the skiing for much of March.

Still, we did get some good days in. March was an epic storm month, capping off a record-breaking season. I took a few pictures at the end of March, trying to capture just how much snow there was up at Kirkwood.

Patrol had to dig out under chair 10.

The same location in November versus March.

Here's some footage I posted in mid-March on vimeo but never blogged:



I think I have some more good footage from late March, but I think I'll save it to play with in the Fall when I'm getting excited for next season.

Finally, after not skiing in April or May at all, I got to do one last day on snow for the season, hiking Pyramid Peak on June 4. It was drizzling rain and bare at the start, a wet snowstorm at the top, and the skiing was admittedly less than spectacular. Still: skiing in June! I thought it was worth recording:



I think I ended up around 25 days for the season (not counting days like 3 runs at Heavenly, but counting backcountry days). Right around what I did the last two seasons. Hopefully I'll up that next season and also be able to get into the backcountry a little more.

Bottomless powder 2/16-18

The return to snow in Tahoe fulfilled everyone's wildest dreams, with approximately 12 feet of snow recorded at Kirkwood from Tuesday to Saturday.

After 6 powderless weeks Lauren and I were eager to get after it, so we headed up Tuesday night, planning to ski Wednesday to Friday. The snow started late Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning there was already a good foot plus on the ground in Meyers.

Wednesday morning.

We headed to Heavenly with Drew and Jason. On the third run I came up on a cat track too fast and tried to check my speed by leaning back (bad decision). I ended up landing hard on my tails on the flat and banging my shins and calves around in my boots. I spent the rest of the day icing them in the lodge, which gave me plenty of time to do a light edit of the helmet cam footage from the little bit of skiing that happened:



I ended up taking the next day off, but was able to ski a good part of the day Friday, taking it pretty easy on my shins.

Friday morning.

Chair 10 open Friday at Kirkwood: 8 feet new snow up top.

I got a couple good clips Friday, but I'll save those for another time. Perhaps next week when my legs will be fully recovered and ready for the next big storm.

Mount Tallac 2/12

Saturday, I finally tried out my AT setup on a real hike. Pascal recently got a set of new skis and suggested hiking Mount Tallac ("Tuh-LAK"), just outside South Lake Tahoe. At 9735 feet, Tallac is the highest peak on the Southwest shore of the Lake, making the hike about a 3200 foot elevation gain. Being that the last snowfall was maybe a foot on January 30th with it being generally sunny and warm ever since, we weren't expecting any great snow conditions. However, I figured the hike and view would be nice, and it would be good practice hiking with skins.

After a few tries finding the right trail head, and getting our gear in order, we started off around 10am. I quickly stripped down to a T-shirt, as the temperature at lake level was on its way past 50 degrees.

Pascal on his way up.

We ended up skiing this couloir, sticking to the North-facing aspects. The peak itself is hidden here, behind the prominent peak.

I learned pretty quickly that skins can be frustrating on steep terrain, or when snow sticks to them, or in particular, both of the above. I'm sure I'll enjoy encountering many different snow conditions that cause skins to work less well, but one of them seems to be a combination of wet and dry snow. The wet snow excellently prepares the skins to adhere to the drier snow, after which one slide backwards downhill. This is usually something I prefer to do without skins.

Taking a break and drying the skins out in the sun.

That said, most of the time they worked, and were of course indispensable where the snow was too deep to walk in. But, once we got onto a steep ridge line where the snow was firm enough to walk on, I found it much easier to simply hike with my skis on my back.

With the slow-moving sections, it took us about 5.5 hours to reach the summit. The view was great, as promised.

360 degrees. Click for bigger.

Pascal, chllin.

We started down around 4pm. Once we got down to treeline and the more North-facing aspects, the snow was shockingly good. "Powder" seems like a bit of a stretch, but it is probably the best word to describe it. Perhaps 12 day old powder but powder nonetheless. Venturing into the open center of the bowl, however, yielded a nice ice-scraping sound. The descent looked something like this (as always, click to vimeo for the HD version):



We've finally got new snow coming, starting on Tuesday with 3-5 feet forecast through Saturday. Looking forward to some legitimate powder.