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Ambrose at GreenStone Lake

One of the few but significant upsides to our snowless 2012 winter has been perhaps-unprecedented access to the interior Sierra in the dead of winter.

Sierra photographer Michael Ambrose recently made good use of Tioga Pass Road with a visit to Greenstone Lake, where he captured this shot of ice and lenticular clouds (more…)

Posted in photography | 1 Comment

2-4″ Possible

It’s something, at least…

Posted in Current Conditions | 2 Comments

Skiing With Kids: Introduction

I am trying to get my 2 1/2 year old daughter to the snow. That’s all I want right now: just get her to the snow. We’ve successfully crossed the parking lot, bought lift tickets, and gotten her ski boots on, but we’re bogging down now, because she can’t walk in ski boots. She’s flopping helplessly in a mud puddle, one glove already lost. Behind us, my overloaded wife is already suggesting we abort the mission (more…)

Posted in kids | 3 Comments

TPR Open?

Is Tioga Pass Road really open? Really? I can’t believe it. I can not believe it. January 14, 2012, and SR 120 is showing “NO RESTRICTIONS” through the heart of the central Sierra? As a likely event this is probably right up there with me posting photos of myself skiing down the hill on Federal Avenue alongside my West LA apartment building (as in, Hell freezing over ) (more…)

Posted in Current Conditions | 2 Comments

Dahlgren Sno Comp

Alpaca is the secret ingredient in Dahlgren’s new sock lineup, including the Sno Comp, a sheer, cushionless ski sock that uses a fairly complicated Merino/Alpaca/Synthetic blend.

For the curious, Alpacas are those not-quite Llamas found in South America. Alpaca wool is said to be lanolin-free, less irritating than regular wool, and thus (perhaps) a better choice for people who (more…)

Posted in Gear | 0 Comments

Resolutions

Somewhere in my twenties I realized I would never be able to repay all that my dad had given me. I don’t just mean money; I mean all the ways he was there for my brother and me.

I talked about that with my dad one day, and he told me his philosophy on the matter: he expected me to repay him by giving no less than the same effort to my own (future) children (more…)

Posted in Musings | 2 Comments

Black Diamond Warrant

I’m going to coin a new term to try to capture the essence of Black Diamond’s Warrant, part of the revamped 2012 Black Diamond ski lineup: let’s call it ‘de-specialized’.

The Warrant replaces the highly-regarded but aging Kilowatt, a ski known for its versatility. Like the Kilowatt, the new Warrant is also a generalist, but it adds a surprising degree of hard-snow capability (more…)

Posted in Gear | 0 Comments

A Bony New Year

Well, the good news is I’ve found a place where heavy snow is falling, but the bad news is that it’s Hillroth Mountain in Skyrim. Here in Flagstaff I suppose we should be happy that the Arizona Snowbowl is at least open, but paying full price for a ticket to wreck your skis does make me a bit grinchy (memo to resort: drop the price or offer a voucher or something). I’ve been riding my ancient Atomic R11′s, which I swore I’d never ski again, and honestly things are so bare (more…)

Posted in Current Conditions | 3 Comments

The Muir Disconnect

Seen from nearly any angle, Mount Muir’s East Buttress would seem to be self-evidently unskiable.

And then, from atop Thor Peak last April, Dave Braun and I saw what appeared to be a continuous thread of snow connecting the mountain’s south shoulder to the base of the buttress (more…)

Posted in video | 8 Comments

A (Virtual) White Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family from ours!

For those of you who don’t see snow out your windows, here’s a little virtual window for you to look out: an mp4 file of Colorado snowflakes. Beware, it is a large (90MB) file. Right-click and save, then set Windows Media Player to loop, and voila. Snow out your window. Enjoy!

Posted in Musings | 0 Comments

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