The first installment of my personal webisode series, The White Room. It was a fun, but less than optimal winter in Tahoe this season. Episode 1 is a testament to the perseverance and positive attitude that can turn a bad winter into a good one. A big thanks to everyone that helped make this happen, especially my sponsors (Praxis Skis, Shred Ready Helmets, Janky Films). Enjoy!

This video was shot at Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Alta, Jackson Hole, Teton Pass, Donner Pass, and the North Tahoe backcountry.

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!

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

Today I spent the day shooting at the jump line at Heavenly on the Ante Up park. A perfect bluebird day and arguably the most stunning view I’ve ever had the pleasure of shooting in my life while on a ski hill.

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 http://spreadstoke.com/lifestyle/reno-proves-righteous/ http://spreadstoke.com/lifestyle/reno-proves-righteous/#comments Sun, 08 Dec 2013 23:29:32 +0000 http://spreadstoke.com/?p=862 Everything so far with regards to planning for this trip has gone absolutely seamlessly. It’s almost as if Joel and I are waiting for something to go absolutely HORRIBLY wrong. It’s a good thing, we had a great trip over from Sydney right through to San Francisco where we met the couple that we have leased the apartment off for the season. Two super nice people who have done a lot to make this apartment so comfortable to live in. They’re the same people who have let us use their truck for the season, which has proved to be such a help, especially on a day like today. Our trip to Reno. Before we left I’d arranged a supply of beer from PBR. Today, we went to pick it up. 20 cartons of 24 16oz (473ml) cans. 480 cans of beer.  227 Litres. We drove out to Reno in our truck, a 2001 Ford Ranger XLT. Aptly named ‘Ranger Stacey’. The drives around here are absolutely stunning. The mountains drop off on the North Eastern side of Lake Tahoe and the decline opens up to the dry desert area of Carson City, Nevada. A perfect day for a great road trip. This was also the first time I had properly been able to give my filter set a good go and see some results I’m reasonably happy with. I’ve got more coming and really looking forward to having those for this trip. I’d also like to thank everyone for the birthday love from back home. They’re a day ahead and the flood of messages and well wishes from friends and family was really nice to come home to see. None more so, than the message I received from my girlfriend. So cheers to free beers! G]]>

Everything so far with regards to planning for this trip has gone absolutely seamlessly. It’s almost as if Joel and I are waiting for something to go absolutely HORRIBLY wrong.

It’s a good thing, we had a great trip over from Sydney right through to San Francisco where we met the couple that we have leased the apartment off for the season. Two super nice people who have done a lot to make this apartment so comfortable to live in. They’re the same people who have let us use their truck for the season, which has proved to be such a help, especially on a day like today. Our trip to Reno.

Before we left I’d arranged a supply of beer from PBR. Today, we went to pick it up. 20 cartons of 24 16oz (473ml) cans.

480 cans of beer.  227 Litres.

We drove out to Reno in our truck, a 2001 Ford Ranger XLT. Aptly named ‘Ranger Stacey’. The drives around here are absolutely stunning. The mountains drop off on the North Eastern side of Lake Tahoe and the decline opens up to the dry desert area of Carson City, Nevada. A perfect day for a great road trip.

This was also the first time I had properly been able to give my filter set a good go and see some results I’m reasonably happy with. I’ve got more coming and really looking forward to having those for this trip.

I’d also like to thank everyone for the birthday love from back home. They’re a day ahead and the flood of messages and well wishes from friends and family was really nice to come home to see. None more so, than the message I received from my girlfriend.

So cheers to free beers!

G

Hey everyone I hope that you all had a fun and adventurous summer, though the time has come when you put away your  flip flops and snorkel, and get ready for winter.  Yesterday everyone in Tahoe woke up to a winter wonderland!  The snow was making the trees droop, covering all the cars and sidewalks.  Making all of the locals excited myself included.  I could not stop smiling, my face hurts today from the per-ma-grin I had all day.

Some Friends and I all had the same idea to dust off our snowboards and head out to a new bridge that was built this summer.  It was a great feeling to be first to snowboard on this freshly built slightly “c” shaped bridge.  With the help of a ten foot Banshee Bungee we were all able to have enough speed to dial in some tricks.

We had some luck yesterday since Photographer Katie Doner decided to take her dog for a walk in the same meadow.  She rushed back to her house to get her camera.  Due to Katie’s professional eye we ended  up with some great shots to remember the 1st day of winter.  In addition you have to ollie about three feet to reach to rail, this took three to four friends to pull the banshee far enough to enable the rider to have enough speed.  Needless to say it was quite a workout.  All in all Yesterday was the perfect way to  get out and really take advantage of the new snow in Tahoe.

I had a lot of fun riding with: Mark Gama, Lytle Boyd, Jon Wilson, Paul Ceo of Platform, Kevin and Jess.  Also a HUGE shout out to Photographer Katie Doner.  Check her out: http://www.katiedonerphotography.com