Lake Tahoe Ice Caves

Last week my good buddies Greg Lindsey, George Hjelte, Cody Townsend, and Myself went out on a little mission to find the hidden Ice Caves of North Lake Tahoe. Greg had been showed them last summer & was our navigator for the afternoon. The rest of us had never been up to the caves before. Explaining how to get to these caves would not be possible. Greg our fearless leader had plenty of trouble finding them even after he had been to the caves several times before. So, anybody who reads this post and has the desire to explore the mysterious ice caves of Lake Tahoe, I would highly recommend finding somebody who has been to them before to show you the way.

As you can see from the pictures below these caves are a bit intimidating. Basically you crawl your way down narrow dark canals of slippery cold rock. We probably crawled our way down 150ft - 200ft of ice cave. I would not recommend this adventure to anybody who is slightly claustrophobic. We explored 3 or 4 different labyrinth style rooms carved out in the earth. We stumbled across another entrance to what seemed to be fairly unexplored territory. Unfortunately, we were running short on time due to the fact the several of us had to make it to work on time. We had a blast & I'm looking forward to heading back to the caves for some more exciting exploration.


Cody getting ready to take the plunge!


Getting cold & scary!


One of the Labyrinth style room carved out in the Caves. Notice the ice formed all over the rock walls.


An extended exposure deep in the cavity of the ice caves.


Our leader Greg Lindsey exiting the Ice Caves.

FROG LAKE MISSION WITH TRAVIS GANONG & DR. ROBB GAFFNEY

(View from ridge North of Donner Lake)

Recently, I got a chance to go out Sled Skiing with Dr. Robb Gaffney & Travis Ganong. Our goal was to sled out to frog lake and hope to ski something off Frog Cliff Peak. I've learned to to expect the worst and hope for the best when embarking on new adventures. I've found that by looking at missions with this approach you are able to think positively through out your journey.

We began our day just outside Truckee at the Donner interchange exit just off I-80 at Sunrise. Fog surrounded us in all direction which made figuring out were we needed to be a bit difficult. None of us had ever been back to Frog Lake in the winter, so finding the safest route up a mountain you had never been to was kind of sketchy. We new once we made it past the fog layer we would be able to successfully figure out our route. With careful and wise decision making we made it past the fog layer with relative ease.

(View of Frog Cliff "What we came to ski")

Once we made it to the top of the first ridge above the fog layer we got our first glimpse of Frog Cliff. Above the fog layer now we noticed that it was still very low tide out here as you can see from the picture above. Not only did this mean that skiing the face would be more difficult, but also getting to the frog lake zone by snowmobile was almost impossible. We decided that it would be best to leave our sleds behind and skin up to the 9,000ft Peak. Although the skin up proved to be rather difficult I was happy to ascend the mountain by foot. I enjoy the exercise and I find that hiking makes the mountain experience complete.

(Travis & Robb on top of Frog Cliff Peak Psyched!)

Standing on top of Frog Cliff Peak we new there was only one route down that was somewhat skiable. We skied the narrow couloir down in marginal snow. Although the condition were not ideal we still managed to find pockets of nice snow & we were successful descending the couloir in probably the lowest snow level it's ever been skied. The adventure was a success in my mind. We skied the peak we set out to ski, got first hand knowledge of a one of the more interesting backcountry zones in Tahoe, & we had a blast. I'm looking forward to returning to Frog Lake when the snow level is much higher.

(Travis Skiing Through The Crux of the Couloir)

(Dr. Gaffney Dropping In)

(Travis getting some in a mini golf zone we found near Frog Lake)

(Dr. Gaffney grabbing a little early season air time)

DECEMBER WINTER STORM CYCLE IN TAHOE

ROUND TOP MOUNTAIN

(Cody Townsend Skins up toward Round Top Mountain)

(JT Holmes Portrait)

(Early Season Black & White of Winnemucca Lake & Surrounding Mountains)

(Black & White Tree Carson Pass)

WINTER COMING IN HOT!

(Ullr & Koyuh Charging The Resort at Squaw Creek Golf Course)

(Window View Early Morning Pow)

(Rad Dog Powder Morning Line Up)

(Linker & Messing Red Dog Chair Lift Ride)

(Black & White Broken Arrow View)

(Gregger With Some Familiar Face In The Background)

(Jeff Wright Extra Bitch-en Pow Turn)

(Nate All Smiles After His First Pow Day at Squaw)

(Late Afternoon Skin)

(Early Evening Descent)

(Hopefully the Storms Keep Coming)

GREG LINDSEY SHREDS FULLY CHUBBED!

Greg Lindsey is another one of my favorite people to ski with. Gregger quietly assassinates Squallywood's terrain on a regular basis. Born and raised in Tahoe, Greg is a true California kid. You can count on Greg winning the race to fingers on a powder day even if he's 4 chairs back from the front.

(Greg sending waterfall on an early Silverado morning)

A go to route for Greg to win the fingers race goes a little something like this. A hard skate off the chair, from the patrol shack a straight line traverse to coleman's railroad. With no hesitation, he'll punch Coleman's railroad. Done right this gives you a straight shot to the start tree and generally gives you more than enough speed to pass several, if not all the skiers that got a head start on you. From here you can bet on Greg either going directly for main air or maybe the box chute. Either way it's almost a guarantee that he'll flash his line and stomp it clean. Once he arrives back at KT line Gregger will give you one of his classic lines. Most likely, he'll look at you stoked as can be an say "fully chubbed bro, fully chubbed".

Greg is easily one of the best skiers at Squaw today. He's another one of the many silent assassins that shreds Squaw for nothing more than the thrill and stoke of all the greatness Squaw Valley USA has to offer. He grew up skiing with Cody Townsend, George Hjelte, & Kyle O'neal. These guys know Squaw like the back of their hands. Growing up chasing around Shane McConkey, JT Holmes, Kent Kreitler, Scott Gaffney, & Robb Gaffney teaches you how to shred.

So if your ever out at Squaw look for Greg. He's hard to miss, as an official member of team tie die you might find him wearing his tie die hoody. He also likes to sport the purple people eater Salomon one piece. Whatever attire you find him in let him know if your having a good day. And if you are, make sure you let him know that your "fully chubbed". He'll be psyched.

(Dawn Patrol back side of Squaw. Check out munchkins in the background)

(Punching the Lounge Chair pioneered and named by Greg Lindsey)

(Surfing Pow on an epic powder morning)

(One of the cleanest 35 ft 360's off a cliff you'll ever see. Stomped the shit out of it)

Mt. Rose Bronco Chute Goodness!

Yesterday, George Hjelte and myself made the 4:15am wake up call in hopes to find some late season pow in a zone called the Bronco Chutes.  We arrived at the Mt. Rose snowmobile staging area at 5:45am, hopped on my sled and proceeded to Canadian double in the dark up to the Mt. Rose relay towers. We left the snowmobile behind and headed out on foot to a zone that would not disappoint.  The air was crisp, the views pristine, & the snow was blower.  In other words we were psyched!  Lets just say the rest of the day was super fun! We worked hard and only scraped the surface of the possibilities of the vast options the Bronco Chutes has to offer.

George Hjelte getting pitted!

Blower Pow in April, What?

Mushroom Rock Tracks

Butt Puckered Fun!

After several failed attempts at skiing this secret little zone yesterday we finally got it in relatively good snow conditions.  My buddy Adam Ruscitto and I sledded out to this zone that I stumbled across this past summer while mountain biking.  The face is steep and scary!  The pitch ranges from 45 - 50 degrees and the upper 100ft or so was wind hammered and bulletproof.  Once we made it past the ice section the snow was soft and edge able.  The conditions were definitely not ideal, but they were good enough.  It was a memorable day and I even got to hand the camera over to Adam to take photos of me.

The Face and the damage!

Me getting a little air time!

Surfing Sluff!

Adam Getting through the ice and making a nice turn!

Adam pointing through the wave spine!

Timy Dutton Wins The Kirkwood Freeskiing Competition!

Local Squaw Valley kid Timy Dutton wins his first ever big mountain freeskiing competition in a decisive way. I've watched Timy progress as a skier for the 8 years that I've been skiing Squaw and he is definitely on top of his game right now. Look for him to continue to make a name for himself in the ever changing ski industry. Keep up the solid work Timy. So stoked for you buddy!

Timy logging some air time in the Ruby's

Watch Timy Make the first day of the Cirque Venue look Easy!

Skiing 101, How to not stick a really easy cliff!

So a couple of weeks ago I rented a 500mm lens in hopes that I would be able to shoot the Freeride World Tour Tram Face Competition. Unfortunately, the organization made in what my opinion was a bad judgement call and decided to not hold the competition even though the condition were almost as good as they get on the Tram Face.

Since the lens cost me a good bit of money I decided to try and post up around Squaw and capture some of the shredding that happens around Squaw on a regular basis. To my surprise I I captured quite a bit of piss poor skiing in really good conditions. The 3 photos below are the worst of the worst. We call this kid the Sniper! I don't know his name, but I've seen him around Squaw and I don't really like him. He seems to think he is one of the best skiers at Squaw and he's definitely not. He talks too much and needs to learn how to land his airs on his feet. It was actually rewarding for me to catch this bozo totally flailing off an easy 10ft air.

Sniper Backseat and getting ready to roll the windows frantically up and down!

Sniper thinking to himself oh shit I suck!

Wow just all over the place!

Sorry for the negative post, but I kind of found it funny and fitting because this kid really is a true D-Bag.

Squallywood Clinic March 7th 2009

So yesterday was truly epic and memorable.  My day started early, I mean really early.  Myself and two others successfully made a dawn patrol ski descent that had been calling out to me for many years.  After three days of shooting photos and watching my friends and others enjoying one glorious powder day after the other, I finally had to put down the camera for a run that I will never forget!

Once our dawn patrol mission was complete I was fortunate enough to get a 7:30am tram load up to Squaw Valley USA's Silverado Zone.  Silverado had been closed to the public since receiving 6-8ft of fresh powder.  So you can imagine the condition were pretty darn pristine and I was able to capture some great images of Kyle Oneal, Greg Lyndsey, & Mike Wilson.

The rest of my day was spent with Robb Gaffney & the Squallywood Clinic crew.  We couldn't have been blessed with a more perfect day to hold the clinic.  This year we had three skiers in the clinic named Jim Sloves ("the veteran"), Tom Hicks, and Bill Brougher.  Dwayne Kubischta our very talented Cinematographer shot video of the days events and I captured still shots.  We even got a guest appearance from Mike Wilson who wowed us with 2 monster back flips off cliffs.  The clinic was a great success once again and I'd really like to thank the crew for the memories

Look very closely!

Gregger getting whitewater!

Kyle getting ready to stomp!

Mike Wilson doing what he does!

Squallywood Clinic 2009 Slideshow