some of you know nacho, for those who don’t, this is him. a strapping 11 month old whippet-sheltie-aussie mix. very popular with the ladies
and this is sydney. sydney is cute
with a body to boot
it didn’t take long for them to hit it off
moonlit walks on the beach
dancing
they climbed mountains together
soft wet kisses that last three days
and a little humping in the snow
a perfect doggie date
😉
i got call the night before from brennan, who threw some options down on the table. He had never done jobs sister from heavenly so that was gonna be our choice for the day. after dropping one car at the top of high meadows we took off for stagecoach lodge. we don’t actually have privileges at heavenly so the discussion turned to turning around and marching up from high meadows. we knew it was a long day in a short time frame, but we both wanted to get our slog on, so up we went. brennan also has some words and pics on unofficialnetworks.com
around 8,000′ things got sticky in a miserable fashion. brennan not loving the slog right now
in fact, the glop was so bad we couldn’t wait to be marching up scree
brennan hadn’t had enough so he went for an extra walk down the ridgeline
i walked up too
the sun had left before we dropped in. brennan
i dropped through a mostly open bowl just off the peak
there was light at the end of the tunnel though
high angle (sorta) crust and low angle pow (sorta)
[vimeo]36683626[/vimeo]
the plan started in late december when i posted on tgr that i would be heading somewhere after new years eve to find solace in some recent snows. i heard from gimpy, franklezz, h-atlas and others. there was interest. it seemed like the best plan for success was with h-atlas. problem is, we had never met. so we would meet at kirkwood the Saturday before (we were leaving sunday, new years day). we never did meet, but spoke on the phone. she was leaning toward crystal, a trip i couldn’t make, but was going to check the weather when she got home from the wood. despite persistent pleas from her friends she heeded the noaa forecast which called for rain in washington so we made plans to head for bend to meet a friend of hers (someone else neither of us had met). long story short, monday we headed to dutch flat trailhead to see what tumalow mountain was all about. tumalow is across the street from mount bachelor and offers easy backcountry access, but rather short pitches even by tahoe standards. i’m guessing with a full snow pack it would be rather tame as well. we loved it though. our first run made the 8 hour drive worthwhile. and things would only get better from there.
meghan heads toward tumalow mountain, which is definitely holding some of tahoe’s snow
looking back at bachelor. the next day the top would open for the season
after a warm up run, meghan drops into something a little steeper.
and airs it out in the gut
before running it out into the untracked below
she made it look so fun i opted for the same
that right there is what powder snow sometimes looks like
then we ran into paul and ari.
the stoke factor went up a bit as did the gnar factor. ari let us know this rock we had been ogling was good to go
meghan is the california director for shejumps.org
this isn’t even why
ruh-roh. where’d she go
boom!
ari with the monster backflip
meghan gives it a go
but slightly under rotates this first try
she’s a gamer though so she climbed back up
this one was even less under rotated. so close. hey. where’s the gopro???
the day ends with a skin back to the top of tumalow and a long gentle untracked line back to the car. unfortunately i chose a long untracked line to a mile and a half from the car.
that night we hit the deschutes brewery restaurant for many beers and front row seats to the ducks victory.
the next morning we arrived to a desolate three creeks lake trailhead, dimming our hopes for a tow back to the tam mcarthur rim (5 miles away).
after two miles of skinning, not only did we get a tow, but we got a tow from the the guy running the yurts back here. we also scored a place to stay. the tam mcarthur rim is best accessed via these yurts operated by three sisters backcountry. seriously, check ’em out.
once on tam mcarthur ridge, we decided to head back towards broken top just to see what it was all about. here meghan skins toward the south sister
mounts jefferson and mount hood
middle and north sister
we ended up skiing from just under the summit of broken hand
looking back up.
broken top. everything out here was wind affected
or worse
meghan just about to top out on bald butte
summit pic
some options were sp-icier than others
then we had the 4+ mile jaunt back to the yurts
looking back. that’s bald butte on the far right with the prior days destination (tumalow mountain) on the far left.
sun’s glow on mt. hood
that’s jefferson. that’s hood. that’s adams
that’s powder
red skies at night
telie’s delight
shejumps in the dark too.
the nice thing about our yurts stay was the people….
and a keg of bend brewing co elk lake ipa.
and dinner
and breakfast
after dinner i wandered around outside enjoying the glow of the wine and the moon
the next it was on again. meghan drops in off the rim
and takes a nice line down
the rest of the day was spent on the playground, a fun north facing zone above the yurt
that’s right. meghan kelly teles. you can read more on her blog at, you guessed it meghankellyteles.com.
the five mile road out is almost all downhill and often has beers at the end. after that mcmenamins for a shower and soak was a no-brainer
here’s meghan’s video from the trip. mine is below
well we all try and paint a happy picture of it, but let’s face it, the snow is not. it just isn’t.
so what to do while your spending your christmas vacation in a snowless south lake tahoe? follow along and we’ll help as we can.
highway 88 hijinks – get thee to kirkwood. here you can ride the lifts, but if you decide not that’s okay too. bring the family (and the dog). some can hike, some can ride, some can hit the kicker onto the airbag from USAirbag (highly recommended). on the way back (no need to stay all day, the sun goes behind the ridge around 2:45) you can stop by caples lake and play on the ice (this is very dangerous. the ice could break. you could fall, and the ice could not break. use at your own risk, but have fun). the pictures (and video) below are added to give you the illusion that tahoe is still fun. don’t be fooled.
there is some hiking for turns to be had at kirkwood. it’s a lot of effort for marginal returns, but a good adventure nonetheless
buckle your helmet strap (the helmet cam get’s my landing here from behind in the 12/23 video)
seriously. it’s like jumping into a cloud. backflips
front flips
other flippy spinny things
did you remember your doggy. doggy’s love caples lake (the ice may not be there or safe when you read this!)
hope you rought your skates too, though it’s plenty fun without them
fun for the whole family
here’s a couple videos of some groomer, non-groomer, and airbag fun from the 21st and 23rd
for 37 years thousands of skiers would migrate to las vegas once a year. 2009 was the last year the snowsports industry association held their show in las vegas. we would return in 2011. this time in search of snow. it is a sad state of affairs in lake tahoe when you have to head to vegas for freshies, but that’s just what we did.
brennan and i hopped in the trusty subie at 5:30 pm on 12/13 and headed south. fast.
2 days after the last lunar eclipse for several years, the moon was still up to some tricks. as she rose there were strange moonbeams shooting up and down and she seemed to weave in and out of the clouds.
as we headed south we watched the geminid meteor shower give quite a show. almost got this one from our zero degree camp site.
we camped about 500 vertical feet above the uppermost joshua trees
wednesday we toured north loop trail off deer creek road. there was little to no base and this much snow
so we went skiing
and it was good
and it was pretty
thursday we decided to find some lines up lee canyon behind the dolomites campground and under mummy mountain. the first line offered not much in the way of pictures, and much in the way of rocks.
then we moved over to mummy mountain, which served up the best conditions of the trip, if not the year so far.
when i took my skis out of the car on wednesday, the back plate of my dukes fell off one ski. the holes were all shot and no more screws anyway. tried duct tape to hold it down but it would only last a couple turns. fortunately when the dukes are locked down there is force holding the back of the binding down. in powder this was enough.
and it was powder
brennan comes up a winner
the proof is in the puddin’
i’ll give ‘er a go
after our second lap on mummy mountain it was almost 3:00. we made a quick decision to hurry back up and try and get one more run in what should be fantastic lighting conditions. we were not disappointed
oh
hell
yes
our zone
mummy mountain. we were at the far left
here is a quick little video. nothing too exciting since we couldn’t really open it up or jump off anything
headed out early in the morn to shoot what was supposed to be the last total eclipse of the moon until 2014. from a thread on tetongravity.com i knew that it would be at 13 degrees above west and that i would need to be back about 1 mile for every thousand feet of mountain in front of me. the idea is to get the best part of the eclipse when it is closest to the horizon. i chose camp richardson because i could park real close and if i was wrong about the angle i could walk out the pier far enough to fix it. i think it worked out. there is almost a three thousand foot elevation change between camp rich and jakes, and camp rich is about three miles back.
having gotten some recent info that things were looking good at carson pass, and armed with a new pair of bros, toby and i headed up to round top at the crisp early hour of noon:30. we headed up towards the couloir and ran into two other like minded souls. they had already skied the lookers left shot (which was the one skied the previous day giving us our info) and they were headed back up to ski the center couloir. this left us the main coolie.
the guy holding his ski had gotten himself into a pinch by skinning up to where he thought he could switch over. as soon as he stepped out of his skis he started to slide on the 4 inches of snow covering last years ice. he started well above the legs you see in the top of the pic. i was all, “yay, ice”.
the two others headed straight up while we took off to the right out of view.
the texture just above toby is last years snow sticking out. it was not pleasant
after two good turns above, toby is in a somewhat controlled slide on the ice layer
finally back to snow
i went for a hike up a little side coolie which is in the movie while toby skinned back up the shoulder. it was pleasant while i waited
toby dropping the shoulder
and bringing it home with round top in the background
the movie
it was a fun day and it’s hard to believe that all the different options of round top have been tagged already this early. it bodes well i think.
november 9, 2011 update
(originally posted on unofficialalpine.com) -turns out there may have been a bit more in store as rumors of a JMA/KSL purchase of kirkwood have been circulating for a while. now they are starting to surface and the details are a bit sketchy, but here is the gist. the alpine/squaw merger may be toast due to problems clearing escrow. the announcement of a jma (alpine)/kirkwood merger is imminent. we’ll see how the pieces fall.
may 6, 2011
news is hittin’ the inter toobz that alpine meadows and kirkwood will are offering a combined pass this season. alpine already has it posted on their site. The unfiltered pass now includes unlimited skiing at alpine, and a full season pass at kirkwood with blackout dates around xmas, presidents day, and mlk day. for kirkwood passholders, you must have the premium pass in order to receive an alpine meadows pass. at this time, the kirkwood premium pass (which also includes special line privileges) is selling for $500 while the unfiltered pass is $699 (kirkwood’s web site has not updated since the news broke). there is no info on the alpine page about whether kirkwood’s premium pass will also include privileges at homewood and red mountain (alpine passes include these). presumably they will since alpine passholders are also getting benefits at durango mountain resort. all alpine passholders are able to upgrade their passes at a nominal fee. presumably kirkwood passholders will be able to do the same thing. up in the air is whether kirkwood network’s passholders will be able to upgrade.
I was able to have fun at both mountains this year.
kirkwood pow
alpine corn
edit:kirkwood has now updated everything and you need to pay an additional $200 over the price of the premium to have alpine meadows (and red lodge) included.
while these are great resorts, they are billing this as a reason not to buy an epic pass next season. i wouldn’t buy an epic pass either when you can get the tahoe pass which includes heavenly and northstar for only a little more than half ($359) the price of the pinewood pass.
stu has been on my ass for the last month about a whitney trip, which is an annual thing for him. given i’m unemployed until december i had run out of reasons not to go, plus it’s a beautiful challenging hike. the trail itself is typically easy, but it does get spicy this time of year. plus we were doing it as a day hike, which means 22 miles and 6,000’+ elevation change. not unpossible, but the days are short and the nights are cold and the trail has a lot of snow this year. my buddy greg decided to join us as well, never having been before. after picking up our permit we headed up the whitney portal to see what was up and talk to some exiting hikers about conditions. they all said traction devices were needed, advice that greg and i heeded.
lone pine creek at whitney portal
then we headed back down to the alabama hills, just off movie road to set up camp. the alabama hills, named after the css (confederate states ship) alabama, were the movie location for many movies including westerns such as ‘how the west was won’, as well as current flicks like ‘iron man’ and ‘transformers – revenge of the fallen’.
plus, they had a great view of our objective
that’s when things got subjective
what a sunset over whitney and the alabama hills
‘thumbs’ up!
night fell, as it tends to do
fast forward 6 hours to just below lone pine lake. the sky was getting lighter so i i took this handheld shot of mt irvine. stoked it came out at all
first morning’s light on whitney
stu and greg approach trail camp with mt. mcadie in the background
consultation lake with mt. mcadie in the background
mt. muir looking demure
it was wicked cold. this was our first hint of sun
there was a lot of snow. stu had to turn around at this point since he was w/o crampons. greg getting ready to tackle the cables section and the switchbacks
greg on the switchbacks with muir, the needles, and whitney in the background
on the backside with hitchcock lakes and mount hitchcock below
teh switchbacks
pretty country
no, we did not climb up this way
we climbed up this way
then we stood on the edge of big cliffs
or as close as we were comfortable with anyway
which wasn’t always that close
time to head back down
intersection with the john muir trail. john muir said people using the whitney main trail were ‘soft and succulent’. i never liked him
back down through the cables
and out past lone pine lak
just like last year, october 6th would be my first real powder day of the year. both years i skied on the 5th, but the turns were back seat and tentative. both years on the 6th we were able to turn the throttle up. this storm put down a great base layer for the first day, then dropped another 5″ of lighter cement on top. perfect way to start off
looking down my first run of the year (october 5th). this pic was taken with my cell phone, then uploaded to facebook from there, then downloaded onto my pc and reupload to here (couldn’t get the choose file box to open on my phone)
looking back up after two laps. the tree on the rocks in the center was the point of the last pic
further down i found some worry free turns. i skied it once, then skinned back up the track (lookers right) to ski it again.
back to the same secret location for day 2 (october 6th). a little video
funny how when it snows, you keep seeing familiar faces in different places
toby making some pow turns on october 6th, 2011
as i was leaving i had the feeling this october oasis wasn’t quite over. 1 more day to come
