This is just going to be a brief post, about some struggles that were very real.  The type of struggles that typically only happen to privileged people, with access to gear and vehicles, who live in snowy places.  So pardon any perceived whininess in the following story, which is about some #firstworldproblems and about some #sagebrushshre...

Date and Location:

December 15th, 2018. 

Southern Snake Range -West Shoulder of Mt. Washington

Snow and conditions:

Snow starting around 6500 ft. on north-ish facing aspects only.  Snow depth of around 6-8 inches down low, and 1-2 feet at higher elevations. Depth did not increase dramatically with elevation, suggesting that most of the snow wa...

Location:

Summit Chutes, directly west of Mt. Rose Summit along the east ridge of Tamarack Peak.

Snow Cover:

Decent (2-4 feet).  Windloading has deepened some locations, and scoured others.  New snow of 3-5 inches has hidden obstacles such as rocks and stumps.  We skied with caution, and still tagged a few hazards.  Snow coverage looked alrig...

And just like that it snowed in the Sierras.  A lot!  The 2018-19 Ski season is on.

Mammoth looked like it was getting pounded from the first round of storms last week, and they had more open -so we decided to give it a go.  Drove down Saturday morning amidst the storm, fighting our way through a very snowy 395.  There were a couple cr...

After a return from Japan (land of the ever-deepening powder), I was slightly unimpressed by the dismal conditions in Tahoe.  This was both a blessing and a curse, as I felt uninspired to go skiing, but was substantially less distracted from getting work done.  Nonetheless, my spell of hard work was quickly broken by Presidents Day, and th...

I went out to the Desatoya Mountains, for a quick hike and scout of current NV conditions.  The Desatoyas are located in the western portion of central Nevada, just east of highway 50, and about an hour east of Fallon.  They are a fairly typical NV mountain range, with lots of sagebrush, cows, rolling terrain, and a couple tall peaks.  The...

Ed Note: published date is Dec. 15, but the actual skiing happened between the 9th and 13th.

Part 1: Bloody Couloir Blueballs

After finishing my masters thesis and successfully defending, I needed a little break from the city.  Dan was also finishing up a few tough weeks of work, and was persuasive enough to convince me (ok it didn't take mu...