recent skiing fun

The snow has stayed incredibly good and we even got 4 more feet through the past week. Here's a few little videos I put together from the past several days...

It doesn't get any better

Over the past week we have received around 8 feet of snow in Lake Tahoe. Not record breaking by any means, but we have had one of the best weeks of skiing ever! Not only did it snow 8 feet, but we've had consistently good skiing the whole time, and for the past couple of days we have enjoyed the most stable snowpack that I have ever seen. So stable that I can hardly believe it, yet I have tried to take full advantage of it. With thin cloud cover and consistent light snow for the past two days we have enjoyed all-time powder conditions on south facing terrain. Normally I avoid south faces after storms but this cycle has allowed us to enjoy powder conditions in places that I never thought possible. The Lake Tahoe backcountry has been going off, giving up some of the best conditions in history. Sure I've got sore toes, shin bang, whiplash, and a broken finger, but that's all water under the bridge. I'm not sure how many more of the best days of skiing of my life I can have, but it seems like everyday for the past week has been just that. I'm sure I can find a little room in the old memory bank to store a few more.....

Here's a couple clips from yesterday and today, two of the best days of skiing that I have ever had. These are a couple of the good runs I had, the really, really good ones are safely tucked away in my brain, they're just for me. And, by the way the song, so fresh so clean, is describing the snow, not me...

Lake Tahoe backcountry 1-24-10 from Jeremy Benson on Vimeo.

Inversion....

For the past several days the clouds have settled into the Lake Tahoe basin due to inverted temperatures. Thankfully it has been sunny in the mountains, making for incredible views like the ones we got today skiing on the South side of Jakes Peak. After we broke through the cloud layer the views got better and better. Here's my buddy Oscar enjoying the climb and the crazy sea of clouds where the lake usually is.

Since I rarely appear in photos on this blog here's a gratuitous shot of me at the top of Jakes with Emerald Bay and South lake Tahoe hidden in the clouds far below.

And again, I'm checking out the absolutely amazing view of the clouds up against Maggies Peaks and Mt. Tallac with the barren and dramatic peaks of Desolation Wilderness in the background.

And again in black and white, truly amazing views. Amazingly enough we were the only two people hiking around out there today, its too bad no one else got to enjoy the views and great skiing today.

With the warm temperatures and rain that we've had recently our snow has been vanishing at an alarming pace. This was very evident today on our descent. In the short video below you'll see how little snow there actually was. The snow that does remain on the south and east facing slopes in the backcountry is very good, however, and totally worth the effort. I even got to employ the good ol' fashioned technique of bush skiing and walking to connect the patches of snow.

South Jakes inversion corn 1/11/10 from Jeremy Benson on Vimeo.

Fortunately, there is significant snow in the forecast. Unfortunately for me, I'll be in Oregon attending design meetings for Columbia Sportswear. While I truly enjoy meeting and talking to the designers of my outerwear it will be hard to drag myself away from the powder...

South Jakes corn laps

Staying on the June-uary theme, today I headed down to Emerald Bay to do a little backcountry skiing in one of the most scenic places on earth. I had the entire South side of Jakes peak to myself for most of the day. South Jakes is one of my go-to spots for spring conditions when there is good enough coverage. The photo below is of the South side of Jakes peak with mediocre coverage from a couple of weeks ago.

Located about 18 miles from my house its a no-brainer to head down there for smooth 2,000 foot corn runs. From the car to the top takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half depending on the conditions. Today I took 2 runs, one on the south facing chute in the middle of the picture and one on the far lookers right skyline. It just so happens that I strapped on my GoPro POV cam for a few turns. Now please be aware that nothing extreme or gnarly occurs in this video, but the skiing was good and smooth, and look at the lake and emerald bay, at times it feels like you might fall into it.

January Corn skiing from Jeremy Benson on Vimeo.