Spoke Junkie

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…

I’m working with a young customer at the shop, he is asking if we can do a certain operation on his bike. We start to discuss what the problem is on his bike and whether or not we will have the parts we need to do the work. I need…

What do you suppose would have happened to us if all that rain (yeah remember the rain?) had been snow? Bliss or agony or probably both, you know; just a little agony for short periods while you are trying to get the snow from your driveway to the top of…

Well how beautiful and almost unexpected was that wintery end to January? And hopefully now February will start to act a bit more like winter, it doesn’t seem like too much to ask. But then if Mother Nature decides that the East Coast needs those storms more than we do…