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April 25, 2005

A Hike for Earth Day

Sunday, in celebration of Earth Day, I planned a big hike up Thomas Creek. I decided to attempt a higher elevation than my usual winter treks but ended up abandoning my Jeep ¾ of the way up the road because the snow was still incredibly deep. I found a deer trail and continued my assent on foot. On this beautiful Earth Day here in the Sierra Nevada, I intended to go hunting for the elusive ruby-colored Snow Plant.

These plants are amazing and belong to a unique group of plants that do not depend on chlorophyll or photosynthesis for food. They inhabit pine needle-covered floors of the forests and live on decaying organic matter. They miraculously emerge through the pine needles, appearing for a brief time – only when the soil has been moistened by melting snow and then warmed by the sun.

The snow was so deep on the Northern slopes (where my trail was) that I imagined it might be a month or so until any Snow Plants finally emerge. They look like plants from another world – they are bright red with scale-like leaves and flowers and look like they are made out of wax. They are somewhat rare along the trail, so it’s always remarkable when I finally stumble across one or more. They seem to grow in groups – like mushrooms do, forming a “fairly ring”. I will report back when I finally do find one – but it may be awhile.

I traveled through a beautiful meadow where I saw a lot of critter tracks coming out from the creek, before turning back and trekking home.

Posted by Artemisia at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

Hanging Up The Skis

On Sunday, the hubby and I went to Kirkwood for some final turns in the 04-05 ski season. It was actually a cold day with snow flurries, proving you never know what to expect during Spring skiing. The resort had received about four inches of snow from the most recent storm, so the conditions were better than expected, with dust on slush.

For the past few months, my hubby has been all about searching out cornices and jumping off of them. As I mentioned here before, I had a bad experience jumping off of a sizable cornice about three years ago, so I have refrained from following him to the cornice areas.

Yesterday was no different. At the top of Cornice Express, he found a few good ones to jump off of, then we headed over to The Wall, where he found even more cornices to entertain him. Each time, I'd ski down below the cornice and watch him jump off.

On our last chair ride up yesterday, we were discussing what run should be our grand finale for the season. To the right would be some challenging runs, but no cornices. To the left, the only way down is via a cornice.

"It's your call," he told me. And I thought about it...

As our skis touched the the ground at the top of the lift, I surprised him by saying, "let's go left!"

Shocked, he looked at me and said, "what?!"

"Left!" I shouted.

"All right!" He exclaimed, and we both started to ski towards the cornice areas.

What he didn't know was that the last time he jumped off a cornice on that run, I was checking out the cornice areas, and had spied a nice, managable cornice for me to try.

I skied right up to it, turned to him, and said, "I'm doing this for you!" I pushed off without hesitating, and continued to ski down the hill.

This was a big step for me, as I've been avoiding cornices like the plague for three years now. I also think that my 'cool factor' in my hubby's eyes was raised significantly yesterday, as I redeemed myself for constantly turning down his invitations to go off cornices with him.

And on that note, we will hang up our skis for another ski season. The 2004-2005 ski season was absolutely amazing. It was one of those years that people will be talking about for years to come. And yes, I'm proud to say that we skied in The Storm of 2005, where the mountains received about 9 feet of snow in one blow.

So, stay tuned as Adventure Grrl shifts gears to Spring and Summer sports... It's time to tune up the mountain bike, dust off the hiking shoes, and get that kayak ready. Barring any remarkable snow storms between now and May 1, that is.

Posted by AdventureGrrl at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

I'll Start Over Tomorrow

Friday I drove over to the South Fork of the American for the American River Festival. I showed up at the freestyle competition site to find that it was a wave instead of the hole that it was going to be for the competition. That was no problem though as it looked like a fun wave, so I went out for a session.

After about an hour of paddling I loaded up my gear and drove down to the River Store. They were having a big party for the event complete with a food, a movie premier and a pool clinic/demonstration, courtesy of myself.

After eating some great food and visiting with friends that I hadn’t seen in a while it was into the pool for me. I spent maybe 30 minutes going over different moves, explaining how I do them, giving tips, taking requests, and answering questions. It was a really great night and thanks to the River Store for that.

The next morning was the freestyle competition. I was up early as I always am on competition day. I went straight to the river and started practicing.

I felt good in the hole and spent maybe 45 minutes total on the water before calling it good. Later in the morning Steven Wright and myself helped get things organized with a competitors meeting and a judges meeting. We then started the judging off making sure that everything was running according to plan, and it was.

Next it was competition time for me. My first ride in the hole was pretty much what I expected. I stuck most all of the moves that I wanted and probably had one of the highest scoring rides of the day. My second ride was completely terrible. From the second that I entered the hole nothing seemed to work and it seemed like time sped past me until my ride was over. I ended up 6th place which is the worst finish that I have had at any event in almost five years. This is not a position that I am used to and to be honest I am still trying to figure out what that means.

I believe that I will be more prepared in every aspect for my next competition. It isn’t time for me to panic after one placing that isn’t up to my standard, but it is time to get back to training hard on the water. After the competition was over everyone headed to a party in Coloma. I stayed out for a while and had a great time with old friends but called it a fairly early night as I didn’t really have anything to celebrate.

Sunday morning it was back down to the river to meet up with the forty people that had showed up for the Lotus Designs clinic. There was a women’s clinic headed up by Lisa Beckstead and then there was a guy’s clinic headed up by my self with help from Taylor Robertson and Macy Burnham. The clinic turned out to be a great time for everyone and after words we all went back to the River Store for pizza, drinks, and a raffle, courtesy of Lotus designs.

All in all it was a great weekend. I am glad to be home but am ready to get started on the river again tomorrow.

Posted by Jay Kincaid at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

Spring Skiing in the Sierras

This weekend was all about the Spring skiing... Getting in those last turns before hanging up the skis for the season.

We started the weekend off on Saturday at Sierra-at-Tahoe. It was close to 60 degrees on the slopes, and there were people skiing and boarding in shorts, t-shirts, and even two brave souls wearing only swim suits.

I wasn't nearly that brave... I am not sure it's bravery or just a cry for attention, as I'd be deathly afraid to fall if I was showing that much skin. Anyway, they had groomed most of the mountain -- really, all but two hills.

The groomers were fun. The snow was so slushy that you could practically go straight down the hill and not have to worry about speed. The moguls were also fun because it was ego snow, letting you carve turns on a dime.

On Sunday, we ventured to Squaw Valley USA with our sights set on the hot tub at high camp. It was much cooler on Sunday, and the wind had kicked up. We spent most of our time at the top of the mountain around the Granite Chief area. As the day wore on, the wind picked up, and it even caused a power outage at Squaw.

You'd think that a power outage would be really bad... When I hear that, I think of people stranded on lifts and gondolas. But in actuality, it caused about a 5 minute delay as they fired up the generators all across the mountain, and the lifts continued to turn.

However, the hot tub was still closed due to the power outage. They also shut the tram down, but were giving people rides down the mountain in snow cats. Hubby and I followed the snow cat for a few minutes, carving it up on the fresh corduroy, but the snow cat was too slow for us, so we passed it and shooshed our way down to the bottom of the mountain.

We enjoyed dinner at the Pizza & Pasta restaurant in the Squaw village, where they served up a 32 ounce beer for the hubby and a yummy brick oven baked pizza. It was a nice way to end the day.

Some of the area resorts closed this weekend, but Squaw is staying open until May 31, and Kirkwood and Heavenly are both staying open until May 1. Put on your hawaiian shirts, shorts, and sunscreen and go get in your last turns before it's too late!

Posted by AdventureGrrl at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

Home Sweet Home

Back from Mexico.

First thing this morning Lisa and I picked up my dog from the kennel.
Everything is good now in my world because I have my dog back. Later in the day I went kayaking in the Truckee River Whitewater Park. My neck felt great for the first time in months and it was alot of fun getting my balance and timing back. Now it is time to really get serious again as my first event of the season is this comming weekend.

I'll be ready!

Posted by Jay Kincaid at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2005

A Smile From the Snow Gods

This last weekend, the snow Gods finally smiled on me. For the past several weeks, there would be storms hitting on Monday or Tuesday, and by the time I could make it to the slopes on Saturday, the conditions were Springy again (icy in the morning, slushy in the afternoon).

But this past weekend, a storm came in on Friday and dumped about two feet of fresh powder at Kirkwood, so of course, I had to go check it out. It was probably the best snow I've ever seen in April. The cornices were extra big that day, so the hubby decided he had go to check out practically every cornice on the mountain.

I, on the other hand, refrained due to a really bad experience on my first jump off of a sizable cornice. Hence, I served as his photographer. Unfortunately, none of my cornice-jumping pictures turned out, but I do have these pictures to offer you from 'The Wood', as locals refer to Kirkwood.

On my way to the chair lift, I walked past Kirkwood's ice rink. It obviously wasn't in service, but this picture demonstrates the amount of snow they received at the base of the mountain:

This is my hubby contemplating jumping off of a rock... He fell smack on his butt after jumping off the rock, and landed with a poof in the powder. He then smiled and said 'I want to do that again!'

And here he is hiking back up to jump off the rock again.

After a full day of skiing, we relaxed on the outdoor deck with a few beers. This adorable dog was sitting on a bench outside of the bar, and was the most popular male around. Talk about a chick magnet!

On Sunday, we ventured to Mt. Rose for one last stab at The Chutes. After one warm up run, the hubby and I did seven runs IN A ROW down the Chutes. Let me tell you -- my legs were DONE after that! Even though it was only three o-clock and the weather was perfect for Spring skiing, I had to do one last groomer and retreat to the bar, where I snapped this picture of the Chutes, my conquest:

If you haven't yet done The Chutes, you have one more weekend this year to try them, as Mt. Rose will be closing on April 17. As Warren Miller would say, if you don't do them now, you'll be a year older when you do.

Next weekend, we have plans to go to Squaw Valley USA and enjoy their hot tub at the top of the mountain after one more day of Spring skiing.

Posted by AdventureGrrl at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2005

Squaw and Alpine adventures

This last weekend was stellar. . .

My hubby and I had sort of a mini ski vacation right here at Lake Tahoe. It all started when some friends of ours let us borrow their "Gold Pass" for the weekend--this is a $2,000 ski pass good for most resorts in the Sierras and even better, fully transferable. So we knew we had to take advantage of the opportunity. Well, seeing as we still had to finish our taxes for next Thursday, we decided we should get business out of the way first. But no problem, we knew we could start off by night skiing at Squaw Valley on Saturday night. We had a great time. It turns out you actually had to ride the tram up for every run since there weren't any other lifts open, but while a bit of a pain, that actually made for some long runs. I think that no other lifts were open since it was the last night skiing night of the season. It's a great time to catch the rowdy, mostly unsober "last tram up for the last night of the night skiing season" crowd, which apparently is there to participate in an unofficial race after a few more drinks at the high camp bar. Mostly I just liked skiing at night--even though in reality it was light outside until quite late. The tram rides up are very pretty, are actually quite fun if you've never been on it before. I guess there are only two trams like it in the US--one here, and one at Snowbird in Utah. Some people pay just to ride up and take a look. There is also a great pool and jacuzzi at the top, as well as ice skating and restaurants.

That night we met up with some friends and stayed at their condo at Northstar. We had a good time with them, hung out for while then got up the next morning to go to Alpine Meadows! This was telegirl's dream--there are actually lots of other tele skiers there! I didn't feel alone any more! The main problem is that I'm still more of a backcountry girl and I'm really still learning to telemark ski--but seeing some great skiers was like putting a big carrot in front of me. Of course I still ski like a newborn baby, though of course my husband is starting to pick it up. To top it all off, there was this 14year old kid (who we found out tests skis for Couloir magazine) who had like two directional teleskis and he was tele skiing backwards--and much better than I was doing forwards!I can see why there are so many tele skiers there. Besides just the sort of culture of it all, there are lots of areas where skiers can hike into bowls that would otherwise be somewhat difficult to get to--some of which lead out of the resort and others which are completely within the ski area boundary. Anyhow the snow was good and it was a lot of fun.

Except the sunburn. . .

A special thanks to our friends for the Gold Pass this weekend!

Posted by tele girl at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2005

On Vacation

I am leaving for Mexico in a day so this will be my last post for two weeks, maybe. If I was to send you an update though it may go a little like this; I woke up today and went for a run on the beach, finished my morning workout, then spent the rest of my day sipping on a cocktail in the warm sun. Yes, I think it would probably be just like that.

By the time I get back to Reno I hope for warm weather and high water. See you soon.

Posted by Jay Kincaid at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)