I’ll be honest, this is far from the best winter I have had in the Wasatch.  Saying that, I still rather have a bad year in Utah than an epic winter in most places.  So what have I been doing with myself this winter? Lots of resort riding, lots of splitboarding and even some more surfing.  I am feeling lucky to still score pow and waves this winter.  Stay stoked!

The views from Snowbird Tram.

Dave Suhre enjoying the pow! Even in a bad winter we still get waist deep days!

Dave Suhre sends a cliff on Baldy at Snowbird.

Dave Suhre enjoys the fresh at Snowbird. 

Devon King sends a method at Snowbird. 

Jesse Coss playing in the powder at Snowbird.

Jon Schofield rips some pow on his splitboard in Silver Fork.

Jon Schofield slashing in the sun on his splitboard in Silver Fork.

Jon Schofield rips some pow in LCC on his splitboard.

This is me ripping powder at Snowbird!

Me again, not too bad for a 40 year old! Snowboarding keeps you young!

My wife Melanie enjoys the fresh snow at Snowbird. I love that smile. Go team mom!

Full moon splitboard tour up at Brighton.

Tony Madrid keeps an eye on the moose on a recent splitboard tour out of the Canyons.

Pete Wurster, owner of Unity Snowboards, enjoys a splitboard tour out of the Canyons.

My son finally is big enough to have a splitboard. Here he is on his way to the top of Patsy Marley via Grizzly Gulch.

My son Sam stands on top of Patsy Marley.

Just because it was his first tour on a splitboard, doesn’t mean he is a stranger to powder!

Sam quickly learns the benefits of splitboarding!

Jon and Quin head up for another lap in Silver Fork.

Yeah when it snows in Utah, it usually dumps!

February wasn’t all powder for me. I actually surfed as many days in California as I got on my board in Utah for the month!

Warm temps and offshore winds, what more could you ask for!

Take me back!!!!

Since winters no longer exist out in the Western U.S., I decided to head to California for some surf.

 

Scoring!!!!!

 

 

With all the epic waves, the pros were stacking footage for their latest videos or trying to score a cover shot!

If you look closely, you can see the surfer on the outside wave. Gives you a good idea of how big the swell was in some spots.

Can you spot the 3 surfers about to get crushed by this closeout bomb? “When the wave breaks here, don’t be there, or you are going to get drilled.”, says Turtle from the movie North Shore.

Only in SoCal!

Slashing!

Empty lefts.

Sunsets were not to shabby.

Seriously the waves were perfect!

 

I met the homie Lucas Robinson down at Woodward and he decided to road trip up the coast with me and my Brother-from-another-mother Adrian Martinez, and we eventually ended up in his hometown. After a summer of toddler sized bicycles, learning the native lingo, and living out of a tent and a Forester along the coast I found myself in a little blip on the map called Bellingham. Bham, as we affectionately call it, is a little town in the most northwest pocket of the country. As an east coaster originally, I was totally taken back by the compost bins in restaurants, Jerusalem cruisers on everyone’s feet, as well as the 81% overcast days per year. Certainly not the SoCal weather that you see in most BMX edits online, so you can imagine my surprise when I found a tight knit little scene of shredders who were down to make the most of the remaining summer, dodging rain spurts, drying spots with old clothes and towels, and dealing with the bipolar weather that makes the PNW so dreamy.

This edit we threw together I think really highlights the good vibes, friends, scene, and weather that we were able to squeeze out of the last ray’s of sunshine this summer blessed us with. I’d like to shoutout all the homies who were a part of this little project, and anyone who has showed us love around the way.

At first glance in Bellingham, one might not pick up on the subtle hints of a bmx scene. It’s pretty tucked away and could certainly be glanced over. However, the scene in Bellingham really seems to represent what bmx is after all the bullshit is dropped, trends come and go, high seats, low seats, pegs, brakes, riding street, dirt, and park; the list could go on forever. Though all the guys in the scene come from different backgrounds and like to ride different ways, we’re all united by the fact that we just want to be out on our bikes whenever we can, having a good time with the dudes.

Bellingham isn’t SoCal, on average we get rain 168 days a year which pretty much chops your chances to ride in half. We have one skatepark to serve the city’s 80,000 people (which is overrun with lowlifes), a hidden trails scene tucked back in the woods, and though we have some good street spots you have to put in work for it. Bmx isn’t perfect, and it’s not meant to be. bmx is different. bmx is staring at a jump for 20 minutes trying to get your balls to descend from your stomach. Bmx is slamming your body into pavement one second and throwing yourself down the rail again a second later. Bmx comes in a lot of shapes, forms and sizes. From hundreds of riders swarming the streets of LA at the latest sponsored jam, to a couple homies riding the local cut between patches of rain, bmx is and always will be there. Sometimes you just gotta look for it.

More on the way this year as we plan to film a real project so if you’d like to spice up that feed with some hot fire or good laughs just holler at us on Instagram: @lcs_rbnsn & @vacuumssvck P.S.- Let us know what you think of the edit below in the comments. Love it or hate it speak up!! Deuces til next time!

Looking back at some footage from Mammoth last week. More coming up very soon! Up to 36″ expected over the Sierra Crest and it is ON.

Skier: Tim Feess
Camera: GoPro Hero 3+ Black, 1440/48 fps
Tunes: 1612 – VulfPeck

In California droughts are real. They happen. We are still in one of the longest in recent memory. As a skier, it’s hard to complain about lack of snow when much more is at stake when it comes to water supply.  Nevertheless, the last three snow seasons have been a disappointing whirlwind of high expectations and unfortunate outcomes. But winter always brings snow and when it comes, we rip. When it’s low-tide, we adapt. We get creative. We learn. When it snows 12″ of wet snow with 6″ of fresh on top for the first snowfall of the season?? We’re ready.

The Eastern Sierras got 12-18″ of snow above 9k this weekend. Not a ton by local standards BUT certainly enough for our first turns of the 2014-15 season. After a short skin up some familiar ridges (x4 laps) it was official…Winter is here. Now let’s PRAY FOR SNOW!

Ski/GoPro: Tim Feess(Gnarbox.com) & Ben Roman

Powder Hound: Sierra the dog

Tracks: Sam Smith ft. A$AP Rocky – I’m Not the Only One

Camera/Edit: GoPro HERO 3+ BLACK/GoPro Studios

Settings: 1440/48FPS

We’ve finally been blessed with some snow here in Tahoe. There’s snow on the ground at the end of March and I never expected dumps like we’ve had in the last few days. This particular clip is from last week on March 26th, the day after a solid foot fell on the slopes of Kirkwood Mountain Resort.
It’s definitely a favorite mountain of mine out here and when you can get a weekday pow dump, it’s some of the best riding I’ve been able to do.

Enjoy!

Nothing technical as far as editing or titling goes. Just a super fun day at Kirkwood, CA after 3″ of fresh snow in the morning opened up to a perfect bluebird day. The hike I did at Thimble Peak was the first one done there for the day.

It’s days like this in Tahoe that I’m very grateful I have been able to put together quite an adept camera kit for a trip like I’m on.

For those that don’t/may not/probably don’t care, I’m in Tahoe for the season. No work. Just play.

Truth be told I probably should have headed to Colorado, but the budget didn’t really allow for it and I really did land on my feet with the place we’ve got here in Tahoe.

Not much research was done into snowfalls – I just remember seeing photos of the place as a kid and always wanting to go.

That being said, I’m sure some of you are aware, we’ve not been the luckiest when it has come to snowfall. It’s days (and in our case weeks) like this that really test people’s patience for one, but I’ve also found it’s a test of character. On every lift there is someone complaining about the thin cover, the lack of snow fall, the constant stretch of bluebird days. How they are getting spring conditions through December. (We have, I’ve been rocking a hoodie, tee and no leg thermals for over a week now!)

However! While the runs are full of people who should NOT be on them, before you attack me about how pompous that sounds, take a minute to hear me out. I understand it’s holiday season and crowds can be frustrating (waiting in a 35 minute lift line at Northstar wasn’t fun) but I cannot understand families that bring their children, or groups of tourists who insist on embarking on intermediate and advanced terrain, not only when there is snow, but when there is a distinct lack of it, making things even more difficult when they are unable to dodge rocks, stumps etc. Pile-ups hurt people. That’s the part I don’t appreciate.

In any case, this is about stoke, at the end of the day. So back on track.

The camera kit has been a work in progress over the last few years once I made the switch from Nikon over to Canon. And it’s times like this when I can get to the very well maintained parks around the area and satisfy the trigger finger in me.

I love shooting snowboarding, I could sit in the parks and shoot ALL day and be just as happy as if I had ridden a couple of feet of powder. You can be out there all day and all it takes is one shot to make it all worthwhile.

That was the case at Northstar.

With huge crowds and ordinary cover, after a few runs with my brother and a couple of mates I decided to head down pinball to shoot the big jump line and make my way down to the jib features.

While I purchased my new camera a while before I made the trip over here, I hadn’t really had a decent time to play with the shutter speed capabilities of the EOS 1DX.

This skier, who’s name I am not aware of, made my day with this grabbed 900.

The shot was taken through the 8-15mm F4L Fisheye and put together on photoshop. I actually had to remove about 6 or 7 frames to make the sequence easier on the eye.

It’s stretches of weather like this that I really love getting out and making the absolute most of it and for me, that means lugging around many extra KGs (or pounds, for those north of the equator on a regular basis) of camera gear to get the right shot.

See, I don’t mind the sunny days. I can deal with the crowds as long as it’s just me getting to and from where I’m shooting, which is normally only a couple of runs a day. And when a rider or skier can come through a good sized booter and whip out something as impressive as this, I could shoot all day.

So thank you, unknown skier, and in return, I can share this with everyone.

Stoked!

Instagram: @grahamgee

Web: www.grahamgee.com

I used to love climbing mountains, well before I finally bought myself some backcountry ski gears… Yes, gears. Binders, skis, skins, and all the other life saving trinkets that are critical to being a responsible adventurer. I had been wanting to climb Mount Whitney for years and when the moment arrived that timing and friends could go, on a year of epic pow days, we left for the spring climb. Two of us had skis. 3 others had only snowshoes. Sad day for them.

Skiing has a place in my heart that in not different from the feel you get when you sit by a warm fire with drinks and friends. Being able to ski this mountain was like being doped up on a significant amount of contraband. While we had a long, dry approach and super heavy bags full of camp, food, crampons, skis, boots, ice axes, poles, and other necessary items, we soon hit the snow and so did our skis. With that, the skis moved with more speed and agility uphill than our snowshoeing buddies. Yes! Winning!

Anyhow, we all cruised up starting from 4,000 feet to camp at Upper Boy Scout lake 7,000 feet higher for camp. The top spot still loomed 3,500 feet higher.

There’s something about mountain ascents in the early hours of the day when all is dark except for the small trains of headlamps glowing heavenward. It reminded me that I was part of something bigger in life and yet, part of a small group of people who live for the moment.

We clipped crampons to ski boots because the snow was like Styrofoam and the angle like the side of a building, but skis were still along for the ride. We parked our skis and poles at 13,000 feet and continued up the coulior to the summit. We summitted about 11 am that day. And standing at the summit near the USGS post marker I realized one dream: a winter ascent and one that I would be able to ski down. The skiing was fast; snow was safe and I was skiing through perfect corn, riding through dreams and all the moments I live for.

Life, with all its constraints and useless blunderings, is the collective of all these moments and there is nothing better. It’s pow days and sick pow days, big mountain backcountry days, and base camps that keep my spirit alive. Go ski a big mountain.

If there’s one thing that I still cannot wrap my head around about Tahoe is how much is at your doorstep.

We took a trip today on advice from one of Joel’s buddies back home and as it was, I was recommended to the same places by a member of an online forum.

A huge part of the reason I decided to forfeit the ease of a job on a hill in Canada and not work here in the states was because I’d always wanted to come to Tahoe, ever since I saw photos of Heavenly overlooking the lake when I was a lot younger.

This place has not disappointed me yet.

The trip today was literally fifteen or twenty minutes from our apartment.

Fallen Leaf Lake is a little higher that Lake Tahoe. A 3 mile long, 1 mile wide body of water, 400ft deep at it’s deepest point. The homes that line the shoreline are nothing short of impressive and the views they share are second to none. A really cool little hidden gem not far off the 89.

From there, we went around to Emerald Bay. A fairly enclosed body on the South West side of Lake Tahoe. Home to Tahoe’s only island, Fannette Island.

The views to be had on the 89 as well as the walk down to the shoreline are full of colour. On the way back up to the top lookout point we saw the result of a lucky couple getting engaged and a few elderly people trying to operate their ipad while they were crying to try and get a picture. It seems like it’s quite a popular place to do such a thing.

We’ve been pretty lucky in the sense that the weather here has been perfect for this kind of thing and I’m really happy we’ve got to see what we have in this light. It would be nice to get some snow but we’re not too worried just yet. Heavenly doesn’t open up for about 10 days so we’re taking off to Salt Lake City and Denver for a bit of a road trip before a few buddies make their way down to ride with us.

Yours truly. The 16-35mm working wonders on my arm.

The last week had been a lot of fun. Adam made is way over to Tahoe from Vegas to come ride for a few days and we were able to get out to Emerald Bay for him to see a bit of the scenery as well. We hadn’t had much snow so decided to get around to Northstar, Heavenly and Kirkwood while he was here and at least get a taste of what they all had on offer. Northstar was the pick as they’d had a little bit of snow and had enough park features set up along with a couple of kickers to help get back into the swing of things as far as jumps go.

The night before Adam left we decided to head out for a few drinks and a bit of shuffleboard at Whiskey Dicks. A favorite bar here of Joel and mine. Shuffleboard was on the house as the coin slot was broken. That set the tone for the rest of the night.

We tucked in to a few drinks sitting at the bar and had plenty of laughs. It was really cool to have another guy around to share the laughs with. The jukebox was fed and there was plenty of talk about the riding, expected snowfall (a particular favorite topic for Joel, as he’s constantly monitoring the snow reports and updating us on the changes made to the predictions online).

Adam awoke the next morning at 5:15 am to get ready for his shuttle off to Reno. To say he was feeling worse for wear would probably be an understatement. It kinda sucked as far as his luck went that we didn’t get much in the way of snow. Especially given what began happening Friday evening…

The stars disappeared and the flakes slowly started falling. Soon after you could barely see a thing for the snow. We’re living at around 6000 ft. Tahoe Level. In the space of about an hour we saw between 1 and 2 inches of snow just where we were. Needless to say I was excited. Heading to bed though, I guess I kind of figured it to stop at some stage overnight.

Wrong.

We got hammered with snow.

Ranger Stacey @ 8pm Friday night.

I came out to our complex car park to find our truck buried in snow. The tray in the back was filled past level, there was well over a foot of snow stacked on top of the roof and snow had swallowed the whole area.

It was bedlam heading to the gondola this morning. Cars had skidded into the snow dumps in the middle of the road formed by the tireless ploughing efforts which no doubt continued all through the night.

The Carpark, Saturday Morning.

Heavenly recorded a total of 24″-30″. Kirkwood was the recipient of a massive 36″ fall overnight.

The riding was super fun, plowing through some super fun lines in some of the softest snow I’ve ever ridden definitely brought the smile out and has me really excited to get out and do it again.

My brother turns up in a little over a week and I’m super excited to head out and strap in to ride with him again – it’s been far too long!

Download on the Heavenly Gondola, overlooking South Lake.

]]> http://spreadstoke.com/snow/tahoe-winter-storm-2013-calm-before-the-storm/feed/ 0