SierraDescents | 2014
May 30, 2014
The Vertigo Machine
It is unlike any other chairlift I know of, and it scares the hell out of me every time I ride it. I'm talking of course about Mammoth Mountain's wonderful Chair 23, that aging (more)
May 28, 2014
Memorial Day
For me, the 2013-2014 winter began and now ends with Mammoth: a Thanksgiving opening and a Memorial Day close. Yes, in terms of snowfall, this year ranks easily among the most (more)
May 17, 2014
The Agonies of Digital Media
For those of you with not a bit of digital data in any form, I envy you. You must be out there, somewhere, perhaps as part of some primitive tribe living deep within an (more)
May 16, 2014
Not Another Heat Wave…
Yes, it's another Southern California heat wave, which means it's time to check in with my living room thermometer: a lovely 93.2°F as of 5:50pm yesterday. Heat waves are not (more)
May 6, 2014
Steep Skiing: The Unweight
Three years I've been obsessing about steep technique. Three years of drought. It strikes me now that the irony is, having finally found the steep turn I've been looking for all (more)
April 30, 2014
The Vipec’s Viability
In the immortal words of Lee Lau, NEVER TRUST A FIRST GENERATION TOURING BINDING YOU MORONS. I found myself admiring the clarity of Lee's admonition as I was pondering the (more)
April 20, 2014
Hangman’s June 2011
Going through old photos here, and this shot of Hangman's Hollow at Mammoth Mountain just floors me. This photo was taken June 12, 2011, and that entire cliff band along the (more)
April 18, 2014
Kabookie vs. Bonafide
Short answer: I prefer the Kabookie. I've played around with both skis for over a year now, and for my body weight (about 145lbs), I'm just not seeing much benefit from the (more)
April 10, 2014
Tecnica Mach1
New for the upcoming 2014-2015 season is Tecnica's Mach1, which employs what Tecnica calls a paradigm shift in ski boot construction: designing "from the inside out." By this, (more)
April 8, 2014
Steep Skiing: The Downhill Ski
When things go wrong with steep skiing technique, the space-constrained uphill ski always seems to be the instigator. Who hasn't felt their uphill ski catch at the worst possible (more)
April 7, 2014
The Wildcard Winter
The long lens came out repeatedly as I drove up and down Highway 395 this past weekend. Some snow fell up there last week—you may not have heard. Sue calls it "The most (more)
March 26, 2014
Steep Technique: Uphill Ski Strategy I
I continue to focus on management of the uphill ski as the key to unlocking the secrets of steep skiing technique. Those of you who follow my site know this has become something (more)
March 24, 2014
Bare Mountain
Perhaps I go too far in comparing yesterday at Bear Mountain's "Access Express" chair to a Hieronymus Bosch nightmare, but if you're worried about what the endgame for Southern (more)
March 18, 2014
Snow Summit: Top to Bottom
It's been far too long since we've had a new edition of my critically-acclaimed top-to-bottom video series. True, you generally need snow to make skiing videos. But snow or no (more)
March 14, 2014
GoPro Hero3+
GoPro's Hero3+ is one of those vexingly-horizontal iterations that make it almost impossible to know whether it's worth it to upgrade. Still, GoPro is making a number of claims (more)
