If the various mountain ranges throughout North America could be
thought of as a group of adolescent kids, then the Sierras around Tahoe
would definitively be the late bloomer in the group. I’m not talking
about voice changes, hormones or acne, but snow. It seems like the last
three seasons Tahoe has been the last to get a good coating of snow,
and this season certainly has been no different. But just like puberty,
it has to happen at some point and the Sierras finally blossomed like a
nice white flower. Enough with the adolescent comparison, the fact of
the matter is that our wait for snow is finally over, the storms
started and like clock work so did the powder skiing.
This
season I have been spending a lot of time skiing with K.C. Deane and of
course when the snow fell we teamed up and went on a mission to get as
much of that as possible. K.C. is a good friend to have for powder
trips because he’s no rookie when it comes to finding good areas,
getting there, and staying safe. K.C. and I started our powder mission
with pillow lines on a photo shoot with Josh Anderson who was
collecting pictures for the “White Out Album”. Here are some pictures
from the pillow fest. We also returned to this same spot with
cinematographer extraordinaire Scotty Nickle to get some footage of the
fluffy white pillows for next Years DOS movie.
K.C. punishing the some unsuspecting pillows for the first line fo the trip.
I lost my pillow-line virginity and I don't regret it.
K.C. went on a pillow punishing mission.
I decided to back him up on his mission, team work is important.
K.C. almost looks like he's floating on clouds in the Tahoe sunshine.
The pillows kicked up so much snow that I lost myself, and so did the camera.
Luckily I remerged from the cloud and found myself on more pillows, the camera found me too.
K.C. riding the white wave off of a drop.
Yes it really was this deep.
It was just as deep if you skied backwards as K.C. demonstrates.
There was so much snow I even lost my face.
The
next trip out was with photographer Ben Meester. We got a few more
pictures on this trip, but due to the incredible amounts of deep snow
we were unable to even make it to our destination and had to settle for
more mellow places in the trees that are safer from avalanches. I did
get the change to try my old 1993 Yamaha Enticer 136 track out in the
deep snow. After being made fun of by legendary Alpine Meadows jump
builder Jonahs, the enticer was quick to retaliate by successfully
making it everywhere we went and then backing that up by ripping back
and forth through 4ft. of fresh blower snow in a sloped meadows.
Pictures or I didn’t happen, so here they are.
The Enticer emerges the victor after a trek through the bottomless meadow. Now who's laughing Jonahs?
Ben told me to ski by this tree so I did. Good call Ben, he GTS.
Then Ben told K.C. to do a pow slasher, I would say it turned into more of a shameless Moment plug.
Ben told me to do a slasher too to wrap up the session. Clearly I abided.
Because
there was so much snow at once onto of a layer of crust and then old
rot snow, the steeps where out of the question for the time being. We
decided to make the most of it and instead built a jump in a safe place
where K.C. and long time Squaw Rider Dave Grible could learn some
double flips. I wanted to learn one too, but my attempt proved less
successful and far more painful. K.C. and Dave on the other had wound
up stomping theirs after a hand full of attempts. I might take this
time to mention that Dave is at the ripe age of 33 and a true
inspiration that older guys rip just as hard. Here are some pictures
from the jump day.
The jump starts to take form.
K.C. ponders the mechanics of a double flip, from huck to stomp and everything in-between.
Sun silhouette, a sign that good things are coming.
After a good filming session I decided to wrap my session off by "supermaning" that jump.
K.C.
sealed the deal on his day switch a nice switch rodeo. Pretend he is on
Moments since he had to borrow my skis after ripping his binding out on
a double flip.
A quick edit of some of the jump session.
Courtesy of Newschoolers.com
Tahoe
is notorious for getting huge storms that leave massive amounts of snow
in a short period of time, but it is also notorious for following up
those storms with even more storms that produce nice warm temperatures
and rain. The predictability of this cycle never ceases to amaze me and
no longer had the snow started to settle for a big BC trip than it
started raining, and rain it did. It even rained at the highest
elevations. This combined with prolonged gusty winds has really put a
damper on the skiing for the last week. We’ve tried to preserver, but
getting much done in these conditions has proved to be a difficult
task, so I’ve spent the last few days taking care of some random tasks
like getting some nice new boots and tuning up my sled. The good news
is the weather looks to be making a turn for the colder, which means
more snow and snowing it already is!!!
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