I recently found out that Yzie, my 3 legged wonder dog and best friend, has cancer. I am dealing with a suite of emotions – anger, sadness, anxiety, conflict. I’m mostly sad that he might be in pain and not know why.
My best friend Yzie lounging at the beach last weekend (Photo by Lauren Lindley)
The options for treatment do not seem good. Please pray for him.
Hoping these prayer flags work.
Filed under Random rambling
There are a number of really cool and affordable or free avalanche awareness clinics coming up in Lake Tahoe that I’m looking forward to attending. Some of these are women’s only, but others are open to everyone and the price is right – FREE!
Friday, December 7th: Free Community Avalanche Seminar at Alpenglow Sports, 6:30 pm
Saturday, December 8th, 7am – 5pm: S.A.F.E. A.S. Women’s Only Clinic / Squaw Valley
Women’s Intro to Avalanche Safety and FUNdraiser Day, to benefit the High Fives Foundation. Locals Elyse Saugstad, Michelle Parker, Lel Tone, Sherry McConkey, Ingrid Backstrom, and Jackie Paaso are proud to present this one-day event at Squaw Valley that will raise snow safety and avalanche awareness in a comfortable, fun, and welcoming environment. All levels welcome. The price is $80 -includes lift ticket, lunch, and yoga (all money goes to charity). AMAZING DEAL! Limited to 30 so sign up now! For more information and to register go to: http://www.highfivesfoundation.org/index.php/events/2012-11-12-19-50-00
Also, if you’re not a female and still want to get involved with High Fives and become more educated on backcountry travel, check out their B.A.S.I.C.S. program launching this year.
Thursday, December 13th: Greg Hill Slideshow, 7pm, Squaw’s Olympic Village Lodge
FREE and raffle ticket sales benefit the Sierra Avalanche Center! Come hear the man who skied two million feet speak about his journey and the deadly slide on Manaslu this past fall.
Wednesday, January 9th: Avalanche Safety-The Human Factors
Alpenglow Sports, Tahoe City / 6:30-8:30pm
Megan Michelson will share her first hand experiences from last year’s Steven’s Pass avalanche where three people were killed. Megan wrote about this tragedy in this fall’s Outside Magazine. Read the article, Tunnel Vision on her website. Megan will lead a discussion about the human factors of avalanche safety, an ever-growing field of study. What is human nature when traveling in groups? How does group mentality contribute to or hinder safety? We’ll discuss some rules of thumb to follow. Enjoy wine, snacks, and door prizes as well as 20% off everything at Alpenglow Sports (excluding skis, boots, bindings, beacons, skins and poles).
Get educated and have fun all season long! Hope to see everyone there!
Filed under Backcountry Skiing, Fundraising, Random rambling, Skiing, Tahoe
In 2010, I met my sister in Colorado for some early season skiing and a SheJumps event at Woodward at Copper. The facility was literally my childhood dream come true. Indoor trampolines, foam pits, a skate park, and ramps with a fake snow surface to send it into foam pits. I asked the director that day if there were any plans to build one in Tahoe, secretly hoping I could convince them to build one in South Lake Tahoe and she casually mentioned a facility in the works at Boreal up on the North Shore. That facility was completed this summer and I immediately thought I should replicate the SheJumps Colorado annual fall Woodward Event. I got into touch with an energetic female coach there named Monica who works and attends school full time AND works weekends at Woodward Tahoe. She is truly dedicated to snowboarding and action sports. She was fired up enough about the idea to have a “Ladies Night” every Sunday and SheJumps could bring a crew out for the inaugural ski and snowboard session. So, plans were set for November 11th and about 6 of us showed up for 3 hours of sessioning trampolines, park skis and boards, and just generally getting air in a safe environment. I was hooked. I returned the following Wednesday and purchased a season pass. Then I went back last Sunday and sessioned the jumps for the first time with my friend and Kirkwood freeride teammate Will. And this added a whole new level to Woodward’s awesomeness. I went into the first session pretty much terrified of the “park skis” which are roller skis used to hit the ramps in the new Tahoe facility, but the fear went away after the first drop in and I threw back flips, under flips, and flat spins. I think flat spin is my new favorite trick, though I need a few more days on the ramps to really dial it in. I threw my first one trying to throw a Lincoln Loop, so it was totally by accident. But that’s what is so great about throwing tricks into spongy foam pits, it’s a great way to learn how your body will react to different movements without thrashing it in the process. I can’t wait to go back and hit the biggest ramp. Double backs? More style? The opportunities are endless. If only I were 12 years old and this facility was in South Lake (investors, contact me, I have some ideas). Until then, I’ll visit this indoor paradise once a week, enjoying the fun and progressing as much as possible.
Lizet, fellow SheJumper and Woodward season pass holder with the branny
Rachel overcoming her fear of heights and sending it from the Woodward cliff.
I went out to Carson pass with a crew of splitboarders today. The wind kept us from our planned objective, but did not keep us from having fun!
Windbuff on Elephant’s Back – Photo by Justin Befu
Filed under Backcountry Skiing, Skiing, Tahoe
Heavenly Mountain Resort opened yesterday and Kirkwood Mountain Resort opens tomorrow meaning that ski season in Tahoe is officially on! A few of us have already been out in the backcountry and were treated to deep powder and fresh tracks as early as October. Here’s a shot of my buddy Stu from last weekend.
Stu getting in deep near Chair 10 at Kirkwood
The same exact day, a fatal tragedy occurred at Alpine Meadows. A young women struck a rock under the snow which then propelled her headfirst into some rocks. It seems everything was done right in an attempt to save her, but she died a few days later. It saddens me greatly to lose another skier in the mountains, especially a female skier who was getting after it early, but I’m going to keep skiing and learning in dedication to her and everyone else we’ve lost.
Speaking of learning, I just completed my WFR refresher yesterday, which leads me to this post. Pre-season prep for backcountry skiing…
1. Wax your skis, tighten your binding screws, check your skins, get your binding repair kit together. I use 22 Designs binding repair kit, but in general, zip ties, duct tape (better yet, gorilla tape), bailing wire, and ski straps are good to have for this.
2. If it’s been 5 years, get your beacon tested by sending it back to the manufacturer. If it hasn’t, conduct a range test with your friends by getting a bunch of beacons and standing the same distance apart and checking the reading in both transmit and receive.
3. Do a few practice sessions with your beacon and probe. Check out the latest probing and shoveling techniques. There has been debate about the 3 hole per step technique and concentric circles technique. The 3 hole per step method is seen as more methodical and easy to execute in high stress situations whereas the circles can be irregular. Whichever method you choose, be sure to be able to quickly assemble your probe and to get it fully into the snow at a perpendicular angle.
4. Refill or make your BC 1st Aid Kit. This is as important as having your avalanche gear in order. In mine, I keep meds (child’s tylenol, advil, aleve, benadryll, prescription pain meds if you can get them from a travel doc), ace bandage, bandaids, sterile 4 x 4s (3), roll of gauze, 3 triangle bandages, mole skin, moist toilettes, med tape, steri-strips, Sepp, skintight or neuskin. Many of these things come in small packets and are pretty easy to carry.
Traditional mountaineering 1st Aid Kit (traditionalmountaineering.org). Mine looks a little different.
5. Headlamp and extra batteries in each bag.
6. Practice building a sled with things you actually have in the BC. I carry 4 – 6 Voile ski straps and some cordelette (6mm x 4 m) on most day trips. Longer trips I might have a ski mountaineering rope (30m 8 mil rope) and some carabiners.
Remember to practice all year long. Bored at a party? Practice. Need something to do with your friend’s kids? Practice? Check and refill your 1st aid kit as necessary. Life-assist.com is a good source for supplies. Stay safe and get some this season!
Filed under Backcountry Skiing, Gear
I can’t wait for the full feature in 2013!
The Sierra Avalanche Center and SheJumps are teaming up to have a retro ski party that could just be the party of the year! The festivities start at 6pm on November 10th in the parking lot of the American Legion with a giant airbag, “The Funbag,” for patrons to jump into.
The “Funbag” will be there! Huck yourself off scaffolding with a super soft landing!
Filed under Backcountry Skiing, Fundraising, Tahoe
November and I have a love-hate relationship. I usually get incredibly antsy about winter in a month where it usually snows enough to make it cold and icy on the mountain bike trials, but not enough to ski. This November weekend changed that relationship. In fact, the options were plentiful and almost equally enticing. The mountain biking was as good as it’s been all year. The temperature mid-day was perfect for climbing or hiking. And I even heard reports of powder skiing above 8000′, easily accessible near Carson Pass. While snow is always hard for me to turn down, I know winter is coming and so I opted to bask in the sunshine and hit the tacky dirt and warm rock. It turned out to be one of my favorite weekends in Tahoe in my least favorite month! I might have to revise those rankings.
Taylor taking in the view near the Van Sickle Trail
Taylor on the Van Sickle decent
Friends on the top of Castle Rock
Taylor at the end of her lead on Castle Rock
Juliana making some moves up Castle Rock – a 5.8 Sport Climb
The author near the top of the climb. Stellar views of Lake Tahoe await.
When I returned from the coast, it was snowing. My sister still had one more stop on her California tour and that was Tahoe – so we headed out for an easy backcountry tour to Elephants Back off Carson Pass when the storm broke.
Feels so great to be on skis in the mountains
The author ripping a few turns down Elephant’s Back (Photo by Nicole)
Nicole skiing below the Elephant’s Back prow.
Happy after making creamy October turns.
Surfing and skiing in the same week! AWESOME!
Filed under Backcountry Skiing, Skiing, Tahoe
Between August and mid-October I spent a lot of hours working on a stream restoration project in Lake Tahoe. The end of the field season was going to correspond almost perfectly with my sister’s trip to California for her work with the non-profit Impact edVentures, a surfing and service trip to Santa Barbara, CA. Well, that trip was called off, but she was still coming out to California to recruit students, so we made a plan to meet up in San Luis Obispo and do some surfing and general coast touring.
I was able to get off a few days early and so I decided to first rally down to the Eastern Sierras Wednesday morning and do some leaf peeping as well as mountain biking and hiking with my friend Tim. The weather was perfect and the colors were peaking. We did a super fun mountain bike ride along lower Rock Creek and a hike from Lundy Canyon up into the Lakes Basin in Yosemite National Park. It was a fabulous and relaxing start to the trip.
Lower Rock Creek aspen grove
Early morning light at Lundy Canyon camp
Hike into the High Sierra – Lakes Basin
Next I headed down to SLO to meet up with my sister and her friend at the Thursday night Farmers Market. I’d never been there and the town was pretty awesome – bustling after the Farmer’s market, there were cute stores and cool bars and restaurants everywhere. We went to bed pretty early so that we could explore town more via bike the next morning.
After grabbing breakfast at Sally Loo’s (AWESOME) and riding around town, we headed out to the coast to the local state park Montana de Oro and explored hidden surf spots and bluffs.
New friend Julie checking out Hazards surf spot.
Coastal bluffs at Montana de Oro
We grabbed some lunch at an amazing Thai place in Los Osos and Nicole and I headed to Pismo Beach to try our hand at surfing. Pismo was sunny and warm and the swell was good enough that we could stay away from better surfers and catch a mixture of big waves and beach break. We both got pummeled for about an hour, but had some good rides. I caught the biggest wave I’ve ever caught only to face plant off the board on the drop in! Surfing is always humbling and must take months to even become an intermediate! I have so much respect for good surfers and the ocean in general. After we were exhausted, we changed and took a walk on the Pismo pier and saw about 10 dolphins playing in the surf, a bunch of huge pelicans up close, and an incredible sunset. We liked this place and made plans to come back the next morning for another session.
The Pelicans of Pismo Pier
Sunset at Pismo Beach
Elephant seals near San Simeon – 500 of the 10,000 that were on the coast!
Big Sur classic shot at McWay Falls
Pfieffer Beach is so cool! Can’t believe I hadn’t been there!
Biomimicry at Pfeiffer Beach
Meghan Kelly Teles! 