The last few months have been a parade of monster storms lining up to drop sweet sweet powder all over the Sierra. We've been doing our best to chase the storms and get in the mountains as much as possible but when you have a full time job at sea level it can be hard to get the goods. Fortunately last week more than just the storms lined up. Work was slowing down and the storms were building at the same rate. I decided to play hooky and take a few snow days. Inspired by Bernard's blog post to seize opportunities when they come I saw my window and decided to go for it.
Thursday morning I woke up at 4am and headed for the mountains. Got to the lifts early and sampled what was the first of many great powder days to come. The snow was about boot deep, nothing crazy but it was fun and there was nobody around. After my solo session at Kirkwood I drove north to meet up with Kevin, Yu, G-funk, B-Ral, and Patrick at Squaw. I Followed the boys around Squaw as the storm came in and covered the mountains like a down blanket. The boys found every feature within a thirty mile radius to huck off of and Funk also taught us the best way to ski fresh powder... First! Saturday I was back at Kirkwood with Sara, Paul, and Patrick skiing what was one of the best powder days of the season. It was solid knee to waist high cold and dry powder. One of those days when only the steepest of runs was doable. We found out later that after we got to Kirkwood the road in was closed behind us for a few hours. With short lift lines the normal powder day anxiety just wasn't there. Instead of racing around the mountain for first tracks everyone was hooting each other into the deepest lines. What a blast. By Sunday the few roads that were open had been shut down, there was no way to get to the resorts and the backcountry was a dangerous option we decided to skip.
Moral of the story? Take a day off, work will still be there when you get back. I promise.
Before I left the office I borrowed a
to play with. It's a fun little camera with a great slow motion feature. It actually "overcranks" shooting 60 frames per second instead of the standard 30. So when played back at 30 fps you get a true buttery smooth slow-mo just like the pro cameras, pretty amazing for a camera that only costs a few hundred bucks. I definitely learned a lot playing with it for the first time and a few shots came out OK, enjoy!Thursday morning I woke up at 4am and headed for the mountains. Got to the lifts early and sampled what was the first of many great powder days to come. The snow was about boot deep, nothing crazy but it was fun and there was nobody around. After my solo session at Kirkwood I drove north to meet up with Kevin, Yu, G-funk, B-Ral, and Patrick at Squaw. I Followed the boys around Squaw as the storm came in and covered the mountains like a down blanket. The boys found every feature within a thirty mile radius to huck off of and Funk also taught us the best way to ski fresh powder... First! Saturday I was back at Kirkwood with Sara, Paul, and Patrick skiing what was one of the best powder days of the season. It was solid knee to waist high cold and dry powder. One of those days when only the steepest of runs was doable. We found out later that after we got to Kirkwood the road in was closed behind us for a few hours. With short lift lines the normal powder day anxiety just wasn't there. Instead of racing around the mountain for first tracks everyone was hooting each other into the deepest lines. What a blast. By Sunday the few roads that were open had been shut down, there was no way to get to the resorts and the backcountry was a dangerous option we decided to skip.
Moral of the story? Take a day off, work will still be there when you get back. I promise.
Before I left the office I borrowed a
Snow Day from JonnyB on Vimeo.
twenty nine ski days and counting...
This post and video brought a tear to my eye. Incredible snow, turns, and folks. Way to get after it!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to April when you are back to make a few cameos!
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