Sunshine Ridge 2-24-09

I took the day off today and thought I had picked a great ski day since it rained like crazy down here last night. I was hoping to go to Sugar Bowl or Squaw, but unfortunately the storm was very warm and windy so by the time I left the house, my expectations were low. I planned to go to Mt Rose Ski Resort, but when I got there (~9:00) the Quad lifts and Chuter were still not running due to wind. So I headed up to the Big Springs parking area since I knew Ed was heading out to Sunshine Ridge at 9:00. I met two split-boarders in the lot and we headed up to the ridge and took our first run together. While they set up their boards I went down a little bit and dug a pit. The snow was pretty uniform and I didn't find a layer in the pit wall, but when I did the shovel compression test it failed at 28 on two tests with a pretty clean shear (but didn't pop). We stuck to mellow, treed lines, but the snow was pretty worked by the wind everywhere we went. I caught Ed and two friends, Chris and Ranbir, and skied the next run with them. We looked at skiing Benoit's Chute, but decided to stay safe and stick with the mellower terrain. Although the snow wasn't great (interesting is what Treyson, my 8yo, calls it now) it was a fun morning. We had beautiful blue skies and it was a very social ski; quite different from my last time in the same area where I didn't see a single other person.

Another Early Morning, 2-21-09

It looks like a storm in coming in tonight so I wanted to get some BC skiing in today (Saturday). I had a problem though, Dina had plans with "the girls" starting at 11:00. Not really a problem; I just got up at 5:30 and loaded my gear and my partner (Yuki) in the truck for an early morning ski. After grabbing my usual bagel on the way we were skinning around 7:00. I initially parked at the maintenance station across the road and just below Sky Tavern, but got "shoo'ed" away by a guy in a big snowplow (I don't argue with snowplows) so we went up to the parking lot just past Mt Rose Ski area on the right (before Sunshine Knob). From there we skinned up Sunshine and skied three great powder(ish) runs on the north side. It's funny how one day you can feel like a stud and the next time out like a wimp. I was definitely the wimp today. I'm recovering from a GI bug ( I left a "deposit" to prove it) and it's amazing how much that can sap you. My legs just didn't have it on the climb. But it was really beautiful and I'm glad we got out there.

After getting home and eating lunch I had a little time to relax before heading back up to Mt Rose with all three boys where we skied with the Livingston boys while the moms were enjoying the warm afternoon downtown (biked there) on the "wine walk".

The only picture I took was of the mountain on the way up (batteries died):

The Glades - Valentine's Day 2009

More snow and more on the way! Joe, Pierre and I met at the Galena Starbucks at 7 (after I got my traditional bagel and cream cheese from Truckee Bagel). We dropped Pierre's car off at Galena Park (South Entrance) and then drove up the hill. We thought about starting from near Sky Tavern, but weren't sure where we could park without worrying about a ticket, so we went up to Big Springs. There was a LOT more snow than we anticipated, but there was a nice skin track already set, so we just followed it. We soon noticed that it was heading up to Sunshine Knob, not Hourglass as we had intended, but we decided to follow it and then ski down to Galena Creek from there. There were already a few tracks in Dean's Dive and we followed them down and then continued on to the creek. From Galena Creek we took about 30 minutes to work our way over to the ridge to start the climb up the Glades. We reached the top in 1 1/2 hours and were excited to for our run. We weren't disappointed. The skiing was superb! Good enough that we took advantage of our skin track and took a second run. We then traversed along the ridge to the run down to Galena Park, we could just barely make out the track set Thursday by Dick, Eric, Jeff and Hans. There was good snow most of the way down to the flats, but we had to be careful because it was on the rain crust and didn't bond well at all. Plus there are still a lot of obstacles that need more snow to be covered (I snagged a branch). We made it to the car just after 3:30 and rushed up to get Joe's car so he could get home in time to shower and change for the Tahoe Yacht Club Valentine Ball.

I tried something new with the helmet cam: setting it to automatically take a picture every five seconds. I've deleted a lot of the pictures, but here's a slideshow:


These videos may capture some of our fun. I had a problem with the housing, so there's a lot of wind noise (you may want to turn the volume down).

Dawn(ish) Patrol - 2/12/09

We've gotten a few small storms recently and since I had the morning free, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to do a "Dawn Patrol". I met Hans, Eric, Dick and Jeff at the Galena Starbucks at 6:00 and after dropping Eric's car at Galena Cr Park we met at the north end of the Mt Rose parking lot. From there we crossed the road and dropped down to Galena Cr in about 5" of pretty nice powder on a soft base.

From Feb09

Eric took us up a nice route to the main face of the Glades and was we climbed higher we eventually joined another group's tracks.

From Feb09

From Feb09

We reached the top of the ridge, where we found Tim Farrar and his friend Rob who were heading up to the summit. It was glorious, but windy, so we didn't linger up there too long.

From Feb09

The skiing was about as good as it gets. Eight to twelve inches of really light powder on a soft base. It was the first time this season that I felt I could just let my skis fly. And I did! (gotta love those Insanes). I was in a bit of a hurry because I had to be back at work for an 11:00 meeting, so I dropped the 2,000 feet more quickly than usual in the backcountry and then quickly turned around and climbed up about 1500 feet for a second run. It as a tad challenging finding a good route down to the creek (we boot packed part of the way up), but I made it down there by ~9:50 and was back at the car, heading out by 10:15. I walked in to the office with a couple of minutes to spare!

(9:15pm) I just got this update from Dick:
"Eric made 5 runs today for over 10,000' getting out to his car about dark. The run down to Galena Creek was actually pretty good too." 10,000 feet in a day - a new goal!

Winter Wilderness Medicine - Lost Trail Lodge, February 6 - 8, 2009

This weekend was the fifth annual Winter Wilderness Medicine Conference and the third at Lost Trail Lodge. We lucked out big time with a little storming coming in Thursday and lasting in to Friday. There were nineteen of us (two canceled the night before) and I think everyone had a great time. We had six students who did a great job cooking and were STOKED for the skiing. Dave Sartoni, who teaches avy courses and guides for ASI and UNR, came to do our Saturday snow safety and extrication workshop. Most of us met at my house at 8:00 on Friday and we met Dave from Lost Trail at 9 to load the food and extra bags on his snowmobiles. We got in to the Lodge in time for lunch (soup, crackers, cheeses) and then Dave led a great beacon rescue session out in the meadow. After that, about half the group skied Friday afternoon, hitting the slopes to the SW of the Lodge. The snow was decent, but it was easy to hit the crust below the new snow. The slightest change in aspect to the south made huge difference. Friday evening we relaxed and socialized (enjoyed the wine we had hauled in).

Dan, Dave , Justin, me and two students (Mike and John) did a “dawn patrol” and skied the steep north aspect of the ridge in front of the lodge. We headed further up it than usual, trying to stay out of the snowcat’s area. It was great! Up top there was a good 7 - 10 inches of great powder. After breakfast, lectures and lunch, we all went out and hiked/skied up the Cat road about a mile. We then split in to three teams and built sleds and splints for our victims (who had to be hauled a distance). Every team did great. Then all the students and a few of the docs went up to the top of the ridge where we skied down the north side again. One of the students was a little winded, so we short-roped her with Yuki who had no problem helping her summit the ridge! We broke in to three groups and everyone found great snow and had huge smiles! Dan and I dropped in to a steep couloir (45’ish degrees), which was a blast. When we returned we had phenomenal appetizers, more talks and then a huge beef roast and apple and pear pudding with whipped cream. Nobody went hungry!

Sunday morning Dan, Dave and I got up with four students and skied another great run in the same area, finally under blue skies. I was on Justin’s skis (I had my “boundless”) and they rocked! We had a great breakfast, covered a couple more topics, I gave out first aid medicine kits, and then packed up and headed out as the skies clouded over again and the wind picked up. Yuki, how had been great the whole trip, helped again by pulling Dan and Karel each part way out - plus a sled!

A slideshow:

Some short videos:

Sled Building and Pulling:

Skiing under the clouds Saturday morning:

Skiing early Sunday morning: