Skiers: Alex, Andrew & Nick
Date: Sunday, March 21st
Photos: Andrew (edited by Nick in Lightroom)
Synopsis: Alex, Andrew and I headed out Sunday to a higher elevation zone around Tahoe to try and take advantage of a couple of inches of fresh snow that fell over the weekend. Below 8,500 ft, the approach conditions are getting rough and involve quite a lot of patch to patch skinning and indirect routes. Up above 8,500 ft however, there is still good enough coverage for some good turns.
Posted in Backcountry Skiing, South Lake Tahoe | Leave a Comment »
Skiers: Pat, Alexis, Alex, Andrew, Jakob & Nick
Photos: Alex & Nick (as noted)
Synopsis: While we have received very little snow since early January, I have actually be having a great time in Tahoe out in the mountains. The days are getting longer, with great weather, great views and good friends. Below is a collection of photos from a number of days out in the Tahoe Basin backcountry (as well as some Big Basin shots thrown in). Intermixed with all of this has been a number of days at the resorts just ripping groomers with Sarah, which has been a lot of fun.
Posted in Backcountry Skiing, South Lake Tahoe | 5 Comments »
Locations: Trimmer Peak, Grouse Rock & Munchkins
Dates: Sunday, December 30th & Tuesday, January 1st
Skiers: Tony, Jason, Jon & Nick
Photos: Nick (unless otherwise noted, but with Nick’s camera)
Synopsis: It’s been a while since I posted a full TR, so figured now is as good as a time as any. Conditions around the Tahoe Basin have been great recently, with a dramatic change in snow amounts since December of last year. Although we do have some interesting things going on in our snowpack due to some deeply buried PWLs, which led to a pretty sizeable avalanche cycle just after Christmas. Therefore, we played it pretty conservative in the trees, with great skiing to be had!
Posted in Backcountry Skiing, North Lake Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe | 1 Comment »
Dates: Saturday, November 10 – Sunday, November, 11, 2012
Location: Alpine Meadows, CA
Skiers: Alex, Brandon, Jon, Marcus, Mike & Nick
Photos: Alex, Jon & Nick (as noted)
Synopsis: During late last week, another early season storm fell across the Tahoe Basin with extremely cold temps (by Tahoe standards) and light, dry snow. A group of us headed up to Alpine Meadows for a couple of days of backcountry touring. I note “backcountry” as Alpine Meadows is currently closed until the resort opens in December, and therefore the terrain and snowpack is uncontrolled from an avalanche perspective at this point.
Ultimately, we had a great time skiing in good conditions without much incident over the course of both days. Alpine Meadows must have had upwards of 100 people backcountry ski touring, boarding and snowshoeing around the mountain on both days. I have heard of similar reports from Kirkwood and Sugarbowl.
However, as I write this Trip Report, I do so with some sadness and an introspection about the fragility of life in general. As I found after this past weekend, at some point on Saturday (likely after we had left for the day) a young skier suffered a traumatic accident while telemark skiing at Alpine Meadows. She was telemark skiing for the first time, likely enjoying a beautiful day with her friends in the exact same fashion we were elsewhere on the mountain. I since learned that she suffered a crash while skiing (and wearing a helmet) and struck a rock buried in the snow relatively hard. Ultimately, due to the strong efforts of her companions and the Alpine Meadows Ski Patrol (who were on site conducting training at the base), a valiant effort was made to transport her via helicopter to emergency care. Unfortunately, she suffered critical injuries in the fall and she has since passed on.
Since I first heard about this, a stark reality struck me:
Posted in Backcountry Skiing, North Lake Tahoe | Leave a Comment »
Date: Sunday, November 4, 2012
Location: McNear’s Beach County Park & China Camp State Park, San Rafael, CA
Photos: Sarah
Synopsis: After participating in the 2012 Golden Gate Triathlon (Olympic Distance) this past January and completing a century ride with my father and step-mom in October, I had one additional triathlon scheduled for 2012: the Marin County Triathlon (Olympic Distance).
The Martin County Triathlon was a great race, and very well run. The Olympic Distance involved 1.5K swim in San Pablo Bay, followed by a 22 mile bike course through China Camp State Park and finishing with a 10K run along San Pablo Bay.
Posted in Triathlon | 2 Comments »
Skiers: Alex, Andrew & Nick
Date: Saturday, October 27, 2012
Location: Alpine Meadows, CA
Synopsis: Last week, the Tahoe basin was blessed with an early season storm that 2-3 feet of powder along the upper reaches of the Sierra Crest. Therefore, Alex, Andrew and I headed up to Alpine Meadows for some early season skinning and skiing. In the afternoon once the weather got too warm and the snow conditions too sticky, we got in some good practice on our avalanche rescue scenarios in a mock debris field we created near the base of the mountain. Generally, I tend to shy away from early season skiing in the backcountry as I get concerned about thin coverage and getting hurt. Alpine Meadows seemed like a good bet on both coverage and being familiar with the underlined terrain if we stayed closed to historically groomed areas. Although it was definitely pre-season conditions and AM is not yet open for about month – so we took it easy.
Posted in Backcountry Skiing, North Lake Tahoe | 4 Comments »
Dates: Friday, August 24 – Monday, September 3, 2012
Locations: Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Photos: Sarah & Nick
Synopsis: Last November, I recall sitting back on the porch of Sarah’s mother’s home and discussing cool trips we would like to go on. After some discussion, I mentioned that I really wanted to go back up to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. I had been to each as a very young kid with my parents (around age 10), but wanted to go back one day and fly fish, hike, kayak and generally see the terrain and wildlife. Sarah was immediately hooked on the idea, so we began planning the trip. This was Sarah’s first visit to to the area, and I could sense how excited she was becoming in the weeks leading up to the trip as I forwarded pictures from the area during the work week. We were both excited as we had a large number of activities planned, including white water kayaking, fly fishing, hiking and lake kayaking. I was secretly also very excited as I was planning on proposing to Sarah during our first night (suspense, suspense!).
Posted in Fly Fishing, Grand Teton National Park, Hiking, Yellowstone National Park | 2 Comments »
