Category Archives: Skiing

Saturday was a glorious bluebird day in the Sierra and so we wanted to get out and ski some BC.  I was interested in skiing some of the lift-assisted “sidecountry” at Kirkwood and I was pumped that my friend Brian was also game to check it out.  After a few runs to warm up the legs, we headed out to Thunder Bowl.

Brian with Thunder Bowl in the background.  Only a few sets of tracks!

The snow was so good in Thunder Bowl that we almost went back, but we opted for a run out in Emigrant Basin instead since Brian had never skied it.  California chutes is a Kirkwood classic sidecountry run and since the snow was feeling good on most aspects, it seemed like a great time to hit it.  The snow was a little more variable than Thunder Bowl and there were a lot more people out there but it was still super fun!  Probably the best snow I’ve skied that thing in!

The prominent chute is Cali Chute as viewed from Vista:

I was nerding it up with my GoPro and backpack on the lift but I got some great footage.

Here are some cool photos from the final day of the Alpine Meadows Comp (photo credit to Sylas Wright of the Sierra Sun)…

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Also, the snow is really good in Tahoe right now.  Yesterday I had one of my top 5 days this year at Kirkwood.  The snow was perfect “hero snow” and the crowds were light!  I skied 14 runs before I took off to get to work for a 2pm conference call.  I forgot my GoPro, so no footage from yesterday.  This morning I skied Jake’s and the snow was even better than yesterday!  More on that later.

Going into this comp, I just wanted to ski aggressively and choose hard lines.  On Day 1, I got a little wily after my first air and had to adjust my line and so it wasn’t as hard as I hoped.  I ended up tied for 6th going into Day 2 on the Buttress at Alpine Meadows.

A few of us inspected the venue on Saturday and found it to be quite rocky up top.  I chose an entrance that would definitely require a lot of jump turns and “billygoating” – not really known to be my strength, but it would look cool if I made it through.  Well… on my first turn into the thing, I clipped a rock and went tumbling.  Then my slough came and buried me!  I tumbled over a few rocks, but luckily I was unhurt.  I’m sure it looked scary from below.  I got up as fast as I could and started skiing, but the adrenaline was uncontrollable and I fell a few more times.  AHH!  Nightmare run.  Trying to redeem myself, I took and stomped a 20 foot air at the bottom of the venue.  And skied through the finish line covered in snow.  I have GoPro footage, but snow is covering the lens…so it is not really worthy of watching.

Here is a highlight video of the comp. Look for me at 2:12 with blue jacket and yellow pants:

Well, I learned a lot.

1) I am not a smart competitor in these big mountain comps.  I want to ski something hard and if I crash… oh well.

2) I need to work on telemark jump turns.

3) I can land most airs, but need to work on speed control.

Hopefully I can get all these things dialed by next year.  Thanks to everyone who came out and watched and tried to cheer me up afterwards!

Here is a photo of the final air that my friend Jenay took.

This is hilarious!

Next time!

Holy holiday crowds in Tahoe batmen and women!  It was a beautiful, cold (by Tahoe standards) day and we wanted to get some more powder – since 4 days in a row is not enough.  We did some car shuttle laps on the pass in the AM and then headed to Kirkwood since the fabled steeps of Thunder Saddle were to open and had not opened since before the California mega-storm that dropped over 8 ft of snow in 4 days.  Oh man, big mistake skiing at a resort on a bluebird holiday weekend in California!  There were so many people that we had to hike a mile in from the road… plus my legs were shot from the previous 4 days.  Still, we managed to get 5 amazing runs in and jump off some stuff. 

It is hard to be annoyed when you get to ski most days with the likes of these characters:

Some antics at Kirkwood today.

Ahhhh Yeah! Hahahahahaha!

Here is a quick video to show off my new GoPro Chest mount… maybe not the best idea for knee droppers like myself.  This is a run down “The Face” at Heavenly – our storm day hill.  1800′ perfect pitch – it’s a leg burner.