December 11th, 2013 – January 4th, 2014

Locations: Kirkwood, Heavenly, and Northstar at Tahoe

Weather: Blue skies and Tahoe’s finest man-made snow

Riders: Slaythegnar, Holden, Parker, and Mrs. Slaythegnar

Photographers: Slaythegnar

POV VIDEO N/A – did you read the weather report?

Music: Sun And Bass Podcast #19 – Clarity

Java Porn: Best Starbucks photo EVER!

Synopsis:

All of us who ski Tahoe are aware of our snow situation. WE NEED A CLASSIC SIERRA CEMENT SNOWATHON!

Well, at least we have something…right? I was finally able to head up to Kirkwood on December 11th and get the legs burning. I was actually pleasantly surprised to find some quality skiing.

It didn’t change much at all through the holidays and the new year…however, cold temps allowed the resorts with snowmaking to get a ton of piste open. Kirkwood even had some decent off-piste beyond Chair 6 and Chair 11!

Slalom skis on the groomed, rock skis off…a too familiar situation during these times.

TIME FOR GROOMERS AND GOGGLE TANS!…

December 11th, 2013 – Kirkwood Chairs 5 and 11

At least it looks better than last December eh?…

I don’t know if its me, but I’m excited for these laps…

Haven’t been on these Moment Tahoe’s since September…

Rolling up Chair 5, the snow was looking fast…

Maybe next weekend for Upper Zachary?

In the meantime, the lift line of Solitude was looking delicious for carved turns…

Hmmmm…am I the only guy here?

Fun times testing out the turn radius differences between the Moment Deathwish and Tahoe

Clean carves…on fat skis, heh

Lower Lookout Janek’s coverage skied surprisingly well…

Some POV on Lookout Janek…

Wagon Wheel and the Sisters need a bit more of the white stuff…

More natural snow terrain on Short Spoke under Chair 11…

Buckboard was fantastic!

I followed this shadow the whole way down…

Early afternoon under Norms in Conestoga with some weed whacking…

Shotgun was about as far as you could go…

I spy a straightline…

And some pow in the trees…

Some fun in the chop…ACTUALLY FELT LIKE REAL SKIING!!

Chair 7 looking ready to go for the little ones…

Carson Spur looking sad…

December 14th, 2013

Breakfast in the car…oh yeah!

Let’s try the longer skis today eh? Ok, we’ll bring both.

Pretty sure we got first tracks on Timber Creek for the season…

We had fun on the mini park…

Park laps…

Healthy lunches for extreme skiers…

Coverage was good on Chair 1…

Dad was able to explore a few laps of Chair 6…

The ridge to Jims…snowless

Patrol doing their best to make a trail over to Olympic…THANKS ISSAC!

Mmmmm…bring those sharp edges!

Actually found a little pow and fun in Oops & Poops!

Sunset on the Delta…

December 20th-21st, 2013

Looking more like a winter morning in South Lake Tahoe…

Cool crisp morning…

Mt. Tallac with a coat of white!

Our father/son mission began with Heavenly on Stagecoach…proper skis in tow

The piste skiing in Nevada was fantastic!

Olympic provided the best turns in my humble opinion

Carving the white…

Orions was nice and wide open…

We headed over to check out Sky Express, and sessioned a corduroy California Trail…

Lake view EXTREME!

That night we repaired the sticks…

‘I’m going to go so fast tomorrow’…

The next day we headed to Kirkwood through Carson Pass…

Caples Lake and Round Top frozen in silence…waiting for snow.

My partner in crime…

Outlaw delivering carvetastic conditions…

Found some bumps under Chair 11. Other than Buckboard, Chair 11 was all ungroomed and skiing with natural snow cover…

WE EVEN SAW SANTA!

Headed back to the city before heading to Oahu for Xmas…

December 22nd-29th, 2013

The Mokes…Lanikai

Hiking up the Pillbox…

Who doesn’t like exercise with a view?…

Who left the 2 year old alone in the Pacific?

Not very crowded…

Hucking practice in Hawaii…

Good bye Oahu…headed back to Tahoe!

*** LAST DAY OF THE YEAR IS THE PERFECT TIME TO HAVE YOUR PHONE FREAK OUT AND LOSE ALL YOUR PICS — OF COURSE THE DAY BEFORE YOUR PLANNED BACKUP! HOWEVER, I DID MANAGE TO GATHER SOME INSTAGRAM SHOTS AND ORIGINALS I SENT TO PEOPLE VIA TEXT ***


December 31st, 2013 to January 4th, 2014

Back in Tahoe and throwing icebergs…

Always nice to hang by the lake when its still and silent…and then to disturb it

Who brought the music?

1st Day of 2014 and Parker is ready!

Daddy takes an early season lap through Chamoix (mandatory air then slamming on the brakes)

2 year old straightline…

WE ABSOLUTELY SLAYED CHAIR 1!!!

Super cute family photo…

5 year old snowcross…

And he only rolled it once!

The next day at Heavenly, the Mrs carves up some fun on Comet run corduroy…

It hasn’t really snowed and its already January…but the views are still spectacular

Lets drive to Northstar…Emerald Bay looking stunning

Jump searching among snowmaking hoses…

Railing Drifter at Northstar…they have a massive snowmaking operation and they sure have been using it…

Roller city…

And one more day back at Kirkwood…Timber Creek still holding on with natural snow…for now.

Chair 1 tucking…really?

Our favorite run was definitely lapping Buckboard and hitting the jumps around the snowmaking…

This kid must be my son…

One more lap dad!

Back in SF, practicing cliffs drops in Hayes Valley…

COME ON ULLR!…