Spoke Junkie

I love winter storms. Big winter storms - and we just got a couple didn’t we. I’m sure everyone has heard by now that we broke, no, smashed a December snowfall record that was set in 1970, over seventeen feet. Yeehaw! Plus, we broke the October through December record for…

A couple of weeks ago, I had just finished a nice long climb and had set my bike aside to scramble up on a little rock outcropping to enjoy the view. A few minutes later two hikers appear from the other direction. Obviously hot and tired but so happy to…

That’s it, spring has sprung, full force even though…yes some of us are still skiing. I do love working it to the last drop, and no frenzy, sort of the opposite end of the spectrum from those who are out there for the first turns of the season, although we…

One of my absolutely most favorite things on this planet is snow and of course being able to play in it and on it. Something about that magic white blanket and the storms that bring it that make you feel like a kid again, and I don’t mean some silly…

When is it going to snow? So, do you think we are headed into a good season? When will the resorts be fully open? Is the backcountry skiable yet? Well of course these questions are the normal thought process going through any snowbrains out there this time of year. This…

You swing a leg over your bike and ask: “Okay, so where am I going?” That seems like a pretty common question to me, we all do that, well, hopefully we have that worked out a little before actually swinging a leg over. There is another question though, which hopefully…

Three skins (left) needing reglue, (middle) good modern climbing skin, (right) a real animal skin, probably cow, from the 1920s. This is the day you have been planning for weeks to climb that peak and ski a line you have never tried before; friends have made it to the gathering…

How many times have you driven past those big sweeping curves on highway 50 between Twin Bridges and Camp Sacramento and wondered, “Hmm, it looks like there used to be something else in this area.”      I have for years, then one day an old ski buddy who lives in…

What, no big storms in sight? Well then, I’m just going to be a grumpy old fart and complain! How about this? The top ten things I hate most about the thing I love most (skiing). In no particular order. #1 The Powder day frenzy, as long as we are…

So you have your new super fat twin tip skis or that new board with rocker. You can ride switch all day long, throw down corked threes in the big pipe, you’ve dropped the cross on Mount Tallac, won a race or two during gay week and skied Powderhouse in…