Skiing Archives

17 March 2007Season Over?
It's currently 60 degrees Farenheit in South Lake Tahoe. I really hope this doesn't mean that the NorCal ski season is all but over, but if this weather continues what little snow we had will melt off in a hurry...
02 March 2007Back in Tahoe
Snowed all week. Made record time. Took exactly three hours to get from Emeryville to Stateline and only another 10 minutes up to the cabin. This was a marked improvement over the hellish nightmare returning from Tahoe last weekend. Huge...
27 February 2007SIX FEET OF SNOW IN THE LAST 48 HOURS!
Holy Shit!!!!!! Heavenly is currently the epicenter of a series of winter storms. We received 72"-76" of fresh powder in the last 48 hours. We hear there's more on the way. It looks like winter will be in full effect...
27 February 2007On Top of the World!
In Whistler, courtesy of Mariah...
25 February 2007It's Howling
Currently we are expieriencing whiteout conditions with heavy snow and extremely high winds that have affected lift operations. More updates will follow throughout the day, and as weather conditions warrant. With another 12 inches of fresh, soft powder from...
24 February 2007Fucking Glorious Day
It was just a fantastic, albeit crowded, day at Heavenly. Got the to the lifts with Kristen around 8:30. Had to replace my lost season pass which took all of 3 minutes. Great customer service on the mountain. The mountain...
23 February 2007Headed Back to Heavenly
I was blacked out last weekend-It was President's Day-so no skiing, but I'm headed up again tonight for what should be two days of glorious skiing. After what has been a wretched snowless season, Heavenly finally got dumped on yesterday...
03 February 2007Saving My Melon
I finally broke down and bought myself a skiing helmet. I'd been wanting to get one for a long time, at least since I got back into skiing in 2004, and I've tried on dozens of them. But each one...
21 January 2007Ski Haus Redux
Last year I didn't have a ski house. I went up for several one day shots and crashed at a friend's place in North Lake. It was ok, but the end result was that I didn't ski much-6 days at...
25 December 2006Skiing on Christmas
Had to go up to Heavenly today if I was going to get a day in before the end of the year. I couldn't sleep. I maybe got 2 hours. I hit the road a little before 6. Arrived in...
26 November 2006No Snow, No Love
Heavely is open, barely. They claim on their site to have "the Most Terrain and the Best Coverage in Tahoe!". Maybe that's true, but if so, that's sad commentary on the state of the Noral Sierras. Heavenly has all of...
23 November 2006The Last Run of the Last Day, a Skiing Horror Story
I didn't write much about Whistler. I must have been in one of those phases. Of course, I have the pics from the trip up on Flickr. Here's how it went down. I flew up from SF. My buddy...
23 November 2006Ski Season is Here
Heavenly officially opened this morning which the ski season has started for me. Well, sort of. I don't know what condition the mountain is in, butad to if I had to guess, I'd say it must be fairly pathetic. According...
21 November 2006Ski House
Just plunked down the money for the ski house this season. It's a luxury condo on the Nevada side of Heavenly that I will share with 12 people. More details to come soon....
05 October 2006Damn, It's Snowing Already!
I've got my pass. It's paid for. Can't wait to get on the slopes again. It rained almost all day today, but I didn't realize it was cold l enough to snow in the Sierras until I got an email...
04 May 2006You Know the Skiing Was Good When You Come Home With Sunburnt Elbows
I've been lousy about updating the blog lately, and I'm sorry about that. Last weekend I went to North Lake Tahoe with my buddy Kristen. We left early Saturday morning. Didn't have much of plan of where to ski, but...
28 April 2006Tahoe Finale
The season at Heavenly is over but there are a handful of places still open for quality spring skiing. I'm heading up early tomorrow morning for one, maybe two days of sliding in the sun. When I get back I...
20 April 2006Whistler and Things
Sorry I haven't written much in the last week. I was skiing in Whistler. And while we did have access to the Internet in the condo, I didn't much feel like writing after flinging my body around the hill. There's...
14 April 2006Flying at Alpine
I was skiing down for one of the last run's of the day last Saturday at Alpine Meadow. I stopped to wait for the girls I was skiing with and I came across these two kids who had built a...
13 April 2006Speaking of Rain
It seems to be raining in Whistler. I just can't get away from it. Hopefully, if the forecast is right, it will just rain in the village and the snow will be dumping on the mountain because rain on the...
07 April 2006Headed up to Tahoe
It's raining here and it's been raining all week, so the skiing should be good tomorrow. I'm headed up to North Lake hopefully to ski some places I've never been to, Alpine and Sugar Bowl. I'm not driving, so I'm...
03 April 2006Perfect Corduroy
The reward for waking up at 7am and getting on the mountain when the lifts open. I wish I could ski this stuff all day every day....
03 April 2006Double Eject
Anyone who skis with me knows that I don't fall. It's not because I don't ski hard. I do. It's because I know my limits and I'm always (or almost always) in balance. But on Saturday morning, I had the...
30 March 2006Ski Weekend
My brother is coming into town tonight (he's on the red eye now from DC), and we're heading up to Tahoe for the weekend. It should be great. The snow's been falling all week with promise of more in the...
27 February 2006Homewood Bound
21 February 2006It's About Time
I finally got off my keister, headed up to Tahoe, picked up my Heavenly season pass (oops) and had a day of skiing. It was great but it was exhausting. For one thing, I was seriously out of shape. I...
01 May 2005The Season That Wouldn't Quit Finally Quits
It's really been the most amazing season. So much snow. More than anyone could have possibly hoped for. Just when it looked like the snowfall would come to an end, we'd get more. We even got 5 inches last night....
30 April 2005Freezing My Tuchus Off
The last weekend of the season should be a warm funfest basking in mid 50s blue sunny gloriously languid days of skiing. That wasn't how it worked out last year in Vail when we had ice storms and freezing winds...
29 April 2005Last Tahoe Weekend
Heading up to Tahoe for the last weekend of what has been a truly awesome season. I don't know how much skiing is going to happen, but there is definitely going to be a lot of drinking and foolishness. Should...
16 April 2005And the House Was Empty
Russell and I drove up to Tahoe in his "pig" of car, a circa 1980s Jeep Cherokee. We figured the house would be empty since no one other than us RSVP'd, but it was still a shock to arrive at...
10 April 2005You Couldn't Pay Me Enough
There's not enough money in the world to pay me to jump into Lake Tahoe when there's snow on the ground. But Hans only needed 10 bucks and whole lot of peer pressure to take a running leap off the...
09 April 2005More Snow: The Season That Wouldn't Die
At a time when most ski resorts in the northern hemisphere are winding down operations for the season, snow continues to dump on the Sierras, 14 inches in the last 24 at Heavenly to be exact. The season officially...
03 April 2005Springing Forward, Slowly
I was only half joking when I told a coworker I was going to Tahoe for the weekend, but I didn't think I would ski much. It turned out to be right on. I skied about two hours on Saturday...
28 March 2005Communing with the Faithless
I didn't ski much yesterday morning. I got to the mountain early and it was cold, nasty and windy. Normally this isn't a problem. I can tough it out. But I left after only a few runs. Here's why. It...
26 March 2005Yet Another Tahoe Weekend
I drove up to Tahoe with Russell in the afternoon on Friday. We cruised up. No snow. No rain. No traffic. It was a blessing after the nightmare of last week. When we got to the house, it was empty....
21 March 2005Big Time Spring Beatback
After the heat of last last weekend, I had thought winter was over, we bypassed spring and went right into summer. But Mother Nature is playing tricks with us this season. Right when the ski season looked done, she...
19 March 2005It's Snowing Baby!
Last night was the first Friday night I spent in my own bed since the first week of the year. I hung around town to see some friends, John & Betty Baboujon, who I haven't seen since before I moved...
14 March 2005Hot, Hot, Hot!
My forearms are sunburned. That should tell you everything you need to know about hot it was in Heavenly this weekend. Winter, for what it's worth, is essentially over. Snow is melting all over the place. I came down from...
27 February 2005Before I Hucked My Meat Off the Cornice
06 February 2005Andrew at Heavenly
06 February 2005Heavenly
05 February 2005Ski Kirkwood
I finally succumbed to peer pressure from the rest of the house and headed off to Kirkwood instead of Heavenly. It was a good decision. Kirkwood is about 35 minutes up into the mountains south of South Lake Tahoe, so...
29 January 2005The Dead of Lake Tahoe
Saturday was a busy day on the mountain. The combination of new snow and warm weather drew folks from all over the place. It was so busy that I couldn't get over to the Nevada side because I didn't want...
24 January 2005That's Why They Call it Heavenly
Have you ever taken off in a plane on an overcast day. It's miserable on the ground. It's grey. It's cloudy. It's probably cold. The plane leaves the runway. It ascends through the clouds and emerges into brilliant sunlight. If...
20 January 2005Overheard on the Lift
Late in the afternoon on Sunday, I was going up single on Canyon Lift. The two guys to my right were talking about cholesterol drugs. Guy #1 was doing most of the talking. He was saying to Guy #2 that...
18 January 2005First Heavenly Weekend
It was good to finally get up to Heavenly for the weekend. The skiing was great. The weather was beautiful. The drive was manageable. The cats survived. Here's the recap:...
18 January 2005Overheard on the Lift
I was talking to this couple from Palo Alto on the lift Sunday afternoon. He was telling me they had a rough time this weekend. Their car broke down, so they rented a car to make the drive to Tahoe....
14 January 2005Off to Tahoe
I'm off to Tahoe tonight to finally break in my season ski pass at Heavenly. I was planning on going each of the past two weekends but for one reason or another (no skis, too much snow, roads closed, mom...
08 January 2005Snowed Out
I was planning on hitting the road to Tahoe and skiing this weekend, but so much snow is dumping in the Sierras (again) that the road is closed, even for all-wheel drive cars, like mine. It really blows becaue this...
31 December 2004No Skiing For Andrew
It's been raining here all week which means snow, snow and more snow in Tahoe. I don't know if it's any kind of record, but there has been more than 8 (EIGHT) feet of snow in the last couple of...
28 December 2004Ya Baby!
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RENO NV 342 AM PST TUE DEC 28 2004 HEAVY SNOW TO FALL IN THE SIERRA AND MUCH OF EASTERN CALIFORNIA LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY .TWO LOW PRESSURE SYSTEMS ARE EXPECTED...
26 October 2004Here It Comes
Tahoe Snow Report: SNOW LEVELS ARE EXPECTED TO START OUT AROUND 7000 FEET THIS MORNING...BEFORE DROPPING DOWN TO NEAR THE VALLEY FLOORS TUESDAY NIGHT. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED BELOW 7000 FEET ...WITH 1 TO...
25 October 2004Wax My Skis & Sharpen My Edges
Two good things happened to me this morning. The first is that I paid my Visa bill in full and longer have any credit card debt. The second is that I my Season Ski Pass for Heavenly is bought and...
19 October 2004It's Raining, It's Pouring
The rain has been coming down hard all night and all morning. People here in California have no clue how to drive in the wet, so it took me a half hour longer to get to work than usual. That's...
01 May 2004Uno de Mayo
I wanted to get out of the WC today and head up Heavenly where they have re-opened the mountain for the day to celebrate something. I don't know what. I really wanted to ski. I don't want my season to...
28 April 2004The Lofty Summits of A-Basin
SCALING THE EAST WALL PEAKS FOR EXTREME SKIING Arapahoe Basin has snow. A lot of it. But to call A-Basin a ski resort is an insult to other resorts. There's no town. There's no lodging. There's no mid-mountain chalet. There's...
26 April 2004Off to A-Basin
At 10780 feet, Arapahoe Basin is the highest ski resort in Colorado. Because of its base elevation, the resort gets more and better snow than any any place around these parts. It also tries to stay open until July 4th,...
25 April 2004Day at Breck
BRECKENRIDGE VIEWED FROM ARAPAHOE BASINThere was no one on the road when I made the 45 minute trip east down I-70 to Breckenridge at a 7:45am. I stopped in Frisco for a bagel and, because it was the second to...
24 April 2004No Idleness Today
I'm off this morning for a day of skiing at Breckenridge, about 45 minutes east of here. I've always wanted to ski at Breck. In fact, when I originally came out to Colorado I wanted to work there and was...
11 April 2004Air Oly
Today wasn't a busy day on the mountain, being Easter and all. So instead of shooting patrons, we spent a good chunk of the day taking shots of each other. I went out in the afternoon with my fellow...
10 April 2004Brian: Day Five (Vail)
On Brian's last day at Vail, I had to work, which sucked, because the mountain was gloriously covered in 9 inches of spanking new snow and I wanted to do nothing more than ski all over the place. Instead we...
09 April 2004Brian: Day Four (Vail)
Day four promised to be really good. Brian was starting to acclimate and adjust to his new equipment. We had a few inches of fresh snow on the mountain overnight despite heavy rains at 8000 feet. And I didn't...
09 April 2004Flying Through the Air With the Greatest of Ease (Sort Of)
08 April 2004Brian: Day Three (Vail)
On Day three, we headed back to Vail. Partly because the snow is better there than The Beav, but also because I had to work. I talked to Kurt in the morning and we agreed that I would only work...
07 April 2004Brian: Day Two (Beaver Creek)
On day two, I figured we'd head for Beaver Creek. It was probably going to be our only chance to visit "America's Grand Resort", plus it's right outside my doorstep. Shit, I can see the place out of the window...
06 April 2004Brian: Day One (Vail)
Day One got off to a rough start and ended just as bad. Brian, still jet-lagged, a bit out of skiing shape (he hadn't skied in over a year before coming to Vail), unaccustomed to the altitude, and on old...
17 March 2004I've Got a Rocket in My Pocket
I broke down last week and despite not having a place to stay in after the 20th (that's changed now, obviously), I bought a new pair of skis and a new pair of boots. The skis are something I've been...
25 February 2004Off to the Beaver
It's a lovely day in the Vail Valley. It's snowed a few inches last night and I'm off to Vail's neighboring ski resort, Beaver Creek, self-proclaimed as "America's Grand Resort." If being "Grand" means charging $4.25 for a Sobe at...
24 February 2004Skiing Idiots
Ski Patrol has a hard enough job without people acting like complete unconscious idiots on the slopes, but that's what I see every day. People fall over, that's going to happen, but all collisions are avoidable. People just need to...
24 February 2004Skiing Solo
Skiing is a great pleasure for me, but I'm growing weary of skiing by myself. For whatever reason, it has always been more pleasurable to ski with someone I know than to ski alone. Probably something about sharing the...
22 February 2004So This is What I Look Like
I've been skiing for years (since 1973) and not once during that time have I seen what I look like on the slopes, that is until earlier this week when my buddy Adam took a few shots of me...
15 February 2004The Beast
Yesterday, on Valentine's Day, I fell in love. With a pair of skis. Sales reps from Nordica, famous for their boots, were out demoing their latest skis. (for those not familiar with the sport, demoing skis is like test driving...
14 February 2004Could Be a Beautiful Day
It could possibly be a great day today because: A) The sun is shining B) It's the first day of a three day weekend C) It's the first day in a long time that I haven't had to run for...
08 February 2004The Dangers of Skiing
As I work on the mountain, I am constantly reminded of the dangers of my chosen sport. During the two hours that I shoot on Born Free, I usually see in the neighborhood of 3-5 people being ferried down...
05 February 2004The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Clothes On
There's really nothing like floating down the mountain in ribbons of soft, light, fresh powder. It's like flying. You can't see your skis. You can barely see ahead of you because so much snow is blasting all over the place....
28 January 2004To Ski or Not To Ski
Snow is lightly falling and it's close to zero outside, so it's tougher than you think to make the decision to ski or not to ski. The argument for is that it's my day off. I have a season pass,...