RIPLEY

Today we brought home our new dog--Ripley.  He is a Rhodesian Ridgeback, 11 weeks old, 26 pounds.  We love him.

Back of the Mountain - Outpost 14

Skied the backside of the mountain today--Outpost 14, chairs 13 & 14.  Great views of the Minarets and back country.  A really nice day.

Aggressive Ice

We've had ice daggers before...but not like this.  Fairly sinister looking...like they're being taunted by the window.  This would later avalanche off of the roof and bury the path below...after I had spent an hour digging it out.

SNOW...FINALLY.

It's been almost two months.  The driest December since the 1800's.  Skiing has been rough.  Finally had a couple of storms that rolled in this weekend.  Got hit Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Mountain is reporting 57 inches of new snow.  Totally stoked.  We definitely need more...but this is a welcome sight.

Skiing is gonna be really good tomorrow...is that the flu I feel coming on?  Or at least a 1/2 day flu?  Might have to schedule a doctor's appointment from 8am--to noon....cough, cough.

Pics are just from the snow this morning.  Woke up to a nice sight.  Been snowing off and on all day today.

Yosemite

Since we haven't had snow since before Thanksgiving--Tioga Pass, the road to Yosemite--has remained open. It's one of the few times that anyone can remember the pass being open in January.  Usually it's closed from October to early Summer--depending on the snow pack.  Everyone has been heading up to check it out--and ice skate on Tenaya Lake.  As one meteorologist put it--"we'll likely never see the pass open in January again in our lifetime."

So we crewed up and motivated on Jan 2.  Our friends Marc, Chris, Tina, and Crystalyn joined us.  While there wasn't much snow on the ground..it was pretty cool.  Made it down to the valley floor, had lunch at the Ahwahnee, went up to Glacier Point, and hiked down to the giant Sequoias in Mariposa Grove.  A good day...and a good way to start 2012.

More pics below--click "Read more"...

Night of Lights

The annual Night of Lights at Canyon Lodge.  It was cold and awesome.  Better fireworks than 4th of July.  Big crowd, great show.

Short video with some of the highlights:

Lots of Man Made Snow...

Today they opened Canyon and Eagle Lodges...despite not having any snow since November 20th.  They've been blowing the man made stuff for quite a while in order to get more runs/lifts open.  Pretty cruddy...we need some of the real stuff.

Since we live a stone's throw from Eagle, we decided to ski a few runs during lunch to celebrate the opening of Chair 15--Eagle Express.  Lunch quickly became three hours...luckily it was a slow work day.

Christy on Eagle Express--finally open.  We can now walk to the lifts!

Click below for more pics...