The Last Hurrah

Gusto with the ultimate bruised heel remedy.

Hey all, thanks for stopping by, despite your better senses telling you not to.

Sorry this last trip update has taken its sweet time getting up, but there was jetlag, a niece's birthday, a puppy, and whatnot to contend with. Plus, it's taken this long to convince myself that the end of the trip actually happened how I remember it. See, after the last writings of super spring times and animal observations, it started snowing. And I mean serious snow, the kind of snow I hadn't seen since leaving Hokkaido two months earlier. By this time I'd lost all faith in winter proper, so I expected it to stop any minute.



Much to my (and everyone else in the house's) surprise, it kept up for two days - a real snow storm! Towards the end of the first day we shovelled the driveway of at least 12-14 inches of snow, only to wake up and have at least the same amount to move all over again. It really was a pleasure to be shoveling so much snow, because the whole time we were imagining how much had dropped up in the hills.



Once the snow stopped, the sun came out in real Tahoe fashion, so we bolted (at a civilised hour) up to Sugarbowl. Surprisingly the I-80 wasn't death-on-a-highway, so we were up there in pretty good time, the whole way frothing out at all the sights before us.

Have to love the storm-sun cycle in Tahoe. Tahoe pines pretending they're in B.C.

We were losing our shit at this point, clawing at the windows. Couldn't get there fast enough.

Thankfully for me, Tahoe remembered how to storm this winter.....well, spring.

Now this was one day that taking photos wasn't on the cards, the snow was just too good. Cans of Monster were guzzled, camera bags were ditched in the back of the car and we were into it. This was being called the storm of the season, so even the less snow-starved of the crew were stoking hard. It lived up to our expectations with knee-to-waist deep runs of Tahoe's finest. This was my first time riding Sugarbowl after a storm, and that place has some awesome terrain right there inbounds. We lapped the shit out of it, popping and spinning off everything we could find into soft, forgiving landings. Awesome day of riding, and it was snowing again as we left, promising another epic day ahead.

Kaska, wondering what aperture I'm using.

The ride home unfortunately wasn't so epic, as we pulled into the I-80 onramp to see a graveyard of semi-trailers scattered here and there all along the highway. We soon found the reason for this in the form of a solid ice layer covering the entire road. It was mellow though, we snaked between the trucks and joined the line of cars up ahead and sat there for a cool three hours!!! Luckily Liam found a neat little helicopter game on his iPhone that kept us amused for 7 minutes. Good times.

The next day we woke again to sunny skies and it was just Liam Kaska and I heading up, with Gusto joining us later on. We decided to cary Liam's small bag with us, just in case we got tired of all the soul slashes for fun. I was also keen to take the camera because, although most of you probably know Kaska for his extremely sexy lighting and pretty compositions, when he drops the camera bag, he drops cliffs with more style and coolness than most of Aus's up and comers (ooooh, controversial).

Kaska laying one down for all the days he's spent shooting fools.

We had another really fun day up there, shooting a few mellow turns and one cliff that Kaska styled out a few hits over. The crowds were non-existant, so we lapped again until lifts closed and legs were done.

Kaska hoping I took the lens cap off as he styles out his Indy.

All-in-all, Tahoe ended my trip the way everyone hopes to, going out on a shitload of fresh snow. The morning of my flight we tripped out to Donner Pass to scope out some cliffs that the boys hoped to get at during the coming good weather window. There's some serious fun to be had out there, looking forward to seeing what they came up with.

Cohen, Gus and Liam - work conference.

Want to go snowboarding?

Thanks heaps to all the Engler house crew for dealing with me for the week!! Great time.

Kaska stoked to be outside for a spin in his photog wheels.