The snow kept coming down; storm days every day, and the lifts were crowded but it didn’t matter–things usually cleared out by the afternoon and the wind–plus dumping snow–made for free refills every run. This was a few weeks ago now, but it was the kind of storm where you feel like you might never see the sun and you don’t even care; it becomes funny that you’re in California. Finally, it was supposed to clear, and we went up to Granite Peak on a cloudy morning to wait for the sun to come out to hopefully do a bit of filming.
We didn’t mind the wait, as the company was excellent. Here’s Robin (friend, ripper, and member of the AMAZING Squaw Valley Ski Patrol), and my brother Arne, with Scott hamming it up in the background.
The sun was proving elusive, so we waited. Don’t let Arne fool you, he’s actually very excited here!!
A view like this makes the waiting extremely possible. Like nothing, actually! And then, finally, about three hours later, the sun begins to peek out:
Oh boy! Any second now…..
……….and now we’re partying in sunny Lake Tahoe! I had a week in Colorado following this storm, and now am back in snowy, cloudy California. Just the way I like it.
So, the other day at Squaw Valley, I had the privilege of skiing with my brother Arne, who also happens to be the recent champion of the Canadian stop of the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Here are some photos, courtesy of Adam Clark.
Arne and I, hiking while the East winds do their magic.
Checking out Gaffney’s-er-Mainline Pocket. How’s it look? Gee, I dunno. Looks alright. Hmm, what do you think? Turns out Arne felt like just sending most of it.
Here he is, hitting the Tremann air on Granite Peak–the GNAR points are high here, as you can see, for the low snow levels.
And, another air off of Granite Peak. Stomped, of course. Way to go, Arne! Congratulations!! You can see his helmet cam videos from his contest runs, as well as some photo and videos of my other brother Ralph, shredding in various locations at UnofficialSquaw.com. Who’s a proud sister?! :)
Started off the New Year right with a trip to northern Idaho with some friends from The North Face. We were fortunate enough to be able to try out lots of new TNF product in the perfect environment of Peak Adventures Cat Skiing–way out in the middle of nowhere, staying in a yurt, skiing pow and rolling around in the snow to really give the gear the best possible “test.”
Some photos here–and thanks to Steve and Terry and Ryan and Carrie and Scotty for the AMAZING trip. What a sweet thing they have going up there, I highly recommend checking it out! And, of course, thanks to The North Face for making it happen.
Getting there…the flight into Spokane was sweet. You can see Mount Rainier out in the distance, below and to the left of the setting sun.
Most of the fun on any trip is about the people you’re with; this crew did not disappoint. To name a few, here you can see Ian, Jim, Caleb, Sage, DCP, Matt, and Paxton. Also, the cat at Peak Adventures is a sweet van with a pop-top mounted on the snowcat tracks–cruising through the powder in style!
Zellers and Mark Carter, wondering which fresh pow they should attack.
Cozy inside the vancat!!
The van cruising by a fired up–and colorful!–crew. Can we do one more, please?
Here’s a sweet video from UnofficialSquaw.com that has a bunch of rippers, including my brother Arne and Ralph, tearing up Juneau earlier this year. And by that, I mean early December!!
Some friends and I made this the other day because Powder Magazine made the call to make a video saying “Vote for me for the 2010 Powder Video Awards,” and then my brother Ralph did the voiceover. Enjoy…and Merry Christmas!
just a super bad-ass picture of Lindsey Vonn en route to winning the Super G in Lake Louise a little while back–I just thought it was a rad photo, the symmetry of her gloves & everything–and how freaking FAST she looks. Congrats!
that I grew up in Washington and I love coffee so much? I think not. Here’s a series of the coffee stands one passes en route to Stevens Pass and Leavenworth–this is only a fraction of the ones we actually passed, because if I stopped to take a non-blurry photo of every single one, we never would have made it to Whistler at a decent hour. There’s even a place with a huge sign that says “Reptile Zoo!” right above slightly smaller signs that say “Espresso” and “Coffee.” Any rate, good morning & hope it’s snowing wherever you’re at & you’re enjoying a nice cup of coffee right now.
home! but fun to think back on a sweet road trip. a few more pictures from the NW & BC.
A little sun peeking through for us at Stevens Pass–Sage & I soaking it up on the lift. So great to run into Jim Jack (the legend himself), bummed we missed Chris Rudolph but we’ll get you next time, buddy! You can almost see the magical gnar forest in the background here–if you go to Stevens you should definitely ski that.
Giulia & I hiking at Blackcomb–their coverage in the alpine at the end of November was as good as I’ve seen it any April. Low light early season is so cool.
Giulia & I, returning home worked from an amazing day. The Tantalus is the first place I ever stayed in Whistler, on a family weekend in June when I was 16–and I still love staying there. It’s close, no stress, you can cook for yourself…plus there’s a pool. :)
you wouldn’t think so…but I just got home after an awesome road trip and a fun meeting in San Leandro for The North Face. All of their amazing athletes were there, from the runners to the climbers to the pure legends like Conrad Anker and Pete Athans. Here’s a video showing a bit of what goes down, by Renan Ozturk, who in addition to being a world class climber, is clearly a creative wizard!
After some amazing days in Washington at Crystal Mountain and Stevens Pass, and an absolutely awesome Thanksgiving celebration at my cousin Joanna’s house in Leavenworth, we’ve moved north–back to Whistler. We came chasing snow…and found sun. But there’s lots of snow on the ground already, and as usual it’s great to be here. My friend Giulia just flew in from Italy, as well, which is a total bonus!
The sun was proving elusive, so we waited. Don’t let Arne fool you, he’s actually very excited here!!
Oh boy! Any second now…..
……….and now we’re partying in sunny Lake Tahoe! I had a week in Colorado following this storm, and now am back in snowy, cloudy California. Just the way I like it.
