Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:50 pm
Hi guys and gals,
So despite the disappointing start to winter and the ski season I once again left ol' Banner Elk in December and ventured west to Tahoe. Its now April 25 and I've been coaching and skiing at Alpine Meadows for the past 120 days. If you were to compare this season to the last one.....Alpine Meadows received 852 inches of snowfall last season and 373 this season (so far)....so thats 479 inches of snow that did not fall. That's forty feet of snow!
With that being said, this season has meant fewer powder days, more snowmaking and more ice and thin coverage. The first two months were pretty brutal. Alpine and Squaw have limited snowmaking capabilities and the ponds would run out in two days. We only had a few runs open and it never snowed. Something was strangely familiar.....I destroyed two pairs of skis this season. I have never hit so many rocks. Core shots literally everyday. Here's some of my handy work after blowing out the sidewall and edge
I could keep going about how bad it was in the beginning but it was still better than most seasons for me and how on earth can you complain with sunsets like this....
Eventually Alpine got their stuff together and set up an amazing jump line. So here's the first video of some 360's in the park on February 9th 2012.[VIMEO]36527497[/VIMEO]
Seriously fun jumps. But coming up short sucks....and we are all dying for powder. There was one or two good days in February here's one.
[VIMEO]36968712[/VIMEO]
It keeps getting better right?? So we hope...onward to miracle March! Last March brought Tahoe 246 inches....this season around 160 inches...so still amazing considering we've had nothing all season. We doubled our base in March at Alpine Meadows and had some great powder days. One of best was hiking a few hundred feet up the West shore so here's the a vid of the first real storm in March made on my iphone btw.[VIMEO]37780757[/VIMEO]
Backflips into pow...why not?
The fun really never stops in Tahoe. I'll continue this thread as time allows. I've got more powder footage and kayaking to come. Hopefully this will bring some summer stoke to folks who didn't get to ski much in the east.
So despite the disappointing start to winter and the ski season I once again left ol' Banner Elk in December and ventured west to Tahoe. Its now April 25 and I've been coaching and skiing at Alpine Meadows for the past 120 days. If you were to compare this season to the last one.....Alpine Meadows received 852 inches of snowfall last season and 373 this season (so far)....so thats 479 inches of snow that did not fall. That's forty feet of snow!
With that being said, this season has meant fewer powder days, more snowmaking and more ice and thin coverage. The first two months were pretty brutal. Alpine and Squaw have limited snowmaking capabilities and the ponds would run out in two days. We only had a few runs open and it never snowed. Something was strangely familiar.....I destroyed two pairs of skis this season. I have never hit so many rocks. Core shots literally everyday. Here's some of my handy work after blowing out the sidewall and edge
I could keep going about how bad it was in the beginning but it was still better than most seasons for me and how on earth can you complain with sunsets like this....
Eventually Alpine got their stuff together and set up an amazing jump line. So here's the first video of some 360's in the park on February 9th 2012.[VIMEO]36527497[/VIMEO]
Seriously fun jumps. But coming up short sucks....and we are all dying for powder. There was one or two good days in February here's one.
[VIMEO]36968712[/VIMEO]
It keeps getting better right?? So we hope...onward to miracle March! Last March brought Tahoe 246 inches....this season around 160 inches...so still amazing considering we've had nothing all season. We doubled our base in March at Alpine Meadows and had some great powder days. One of best was hiking a few hundred feet up the West shore so here's the a vid of the first real storm in March made on my iphone btw.[VIMEO]37780757[/VIMEO]
Backflips into pow...why not?
The fun really never stops in Tahoe. I'll continue this thread as time allows. I've got more powder footage and kayaking to come. Hopefully this will bring some summer stoke to folks who didn't get to ski much in the east.