Ski - Powder Day at Northstar

Nancy getting some freshies, brah!

2/11/09 Wednesday

We finally got some snow in Tahoe, after a month and a half of nothing.

Chingus dives in.

We still haven’t gotten a huge dump, but the last few days produced enough snow to get back in the trees again.

Steve assessing the snow conditions.

Mark “Chingus” Standen came up with his buddy Steve from Reno. Steve hadn’t skied all year; he just lucked into coming here at the right time.

Chingus affirming Steve’s assessment.

We ended the day in an area we call “Pink Slip,” a slope of nicely spaced trees next to the Vista chairlift.

Nancy finds the snow agreeable.

The pitch follows a long ridgeline, so you can keep traversing out to get fresh tracks.

Seeing how much bark he can take off that tree.

It isn’t very steep, but it has lots of rollers and humps to pop off of, and enough obstacles to keep you focused.

Tele-Boy gets his turn.

Pink Slip doesn’t get much traffic, and it’s a lee slope, so the snow is usually as deep as anything else at Northstar.

Managing to hang for one more run.

If it were 2,000 feet long, it would be an epic run. However, it’s only a few hundred feet.

Finding a hump to pop over.

Es muy divertido, no?

Nice day, eh?

Sí, chica.

Ski - Powder Day with Nancy

Early morning fresh on the Boca run, off of Lookout Mountain.

2/09/09 Monday

The dark clouds that rolled in while we were skating yesterday produced a foot+ of powder overnight. It took us awhile to get to Northstar—the snowblower threw a shoe, along with a few other aggravating delays.

Hugging the trees to get some tracks.

We took a few runs on Backside, and by the time we got to Lookout it was fairly tracked out. Timing is everything on a powder day.

Boundaries are relative.

Some of the boundaries have been widened this year, and we widened them further by ducking the rope.

Unfortunately, we got caught on the pointy side of a rocky ridge and had to do some scraping and hiking to get back.

My skis have so many core shots that I don’t care if I hit a few solid objects. However, Nancy is on new powder boards, so she wasn’t too happy with the master navigator.

A few more turns on Boondocks.

One nice thing about Northstar is that there are so many trees to poke through that you can always find some fresh snow somewhere.

Skating - Prosser Reservoir

Bret getting body checked by Ryder.

2/08/09 Sunday

I've been ice skating during my lunch breaks at Northstar, so I wanted to try skating on Prosser Reservoir near our house.

Taking a lap across Prosser Reservoir.

It would have been better skating a couple of weeks ago, before our recent rain and snowfall, but the ice wasn't too bad.

I've never really skated before this year, and this was the first time I've skated on a lake.

Ryder, Nancy and Doja.

The dogs had a great time running around on the ice. They go crazy whenever we take them for a walk.

Nancy wobbling around in my skates.

Nancy forgot to bring her skates, but I talked her into trying mine, even though they're way too big. She hadn't skated since last winter.

Storm coming—we got a foot of snow that evening.

You can see by the bare banks of the reservoir how lousy our winter has been. However, a storm was coming in, the first in a series that will hopefully save our winter.