Powder

Lack of posts is simply due to the shear quantity of powder that I've been skiing. 21 of the last 26 days, every single one of them has had at least some powder, including some extremely DEEP powder on Jake's Peak, Squaw Valley, and La Grave. Been in France for almost 2 weeks and La Grave hasn't only lived up to my trip in 2006 (the trip I've previously pointed to as the best skiing I've ever done) but easily exceeded it. This place is simply amazing. A few pics my friend Joe Puchek took of me.

La Vaute, one of the greatest ski runs in the world IMHO

Deep powder

More powder

and more powder

sometimes accessing the goods takes a little work

Sierra Storm Door About to Swing Wide Open!

Weather is looking mighty interesting for the next couple weeks!

2009/2010 Tahoe Ski Season Kickoff

In classic Tahoe fashion, ski season went from nothing to game on in basically 2 storms. Squaw Valley reported 78" in a week and went from a few trails open on man made snow to full on FUN!

As often happens, I didn't take many pictures. The skiing has been fantastic however, Red Dog, Squaw Creek, opening day on KT-22 last Monday, and even found powder still lurking up in Hourglass Bowl this weekend!

Let the shoveling begin!

Pacific Northwest Ski Tour

Home again after a great trip to Washington and Oregon. Skied 5 days, 3 new resorts (Mt Hood Meadows, Mt Baker, and Mt Bachelor), a great day at one of my favorites, Alpental, and was super impressed by the terrain at Crystal Mountain (I'd only been to Crystal once before and I wasn't worth of the terrain back then, plus I was still on straight, skinny skis). Also spent Thanksgiving with Mom, Sis, and Bro, caught up with friends in Seattle, Bellingham, and Bend, and ran into Glen Plake at Mt Bachelor.

Trip starts at Mt Hood Meadows, nice spring like day.

Blue hole riding up chair 2 at Alpental to the powder.

Self portrait with Mt Rainier from Crystal Mountain.

View from Mt Bachelor. South Sisters is on the to do list for this spring.

Mt Bachelor

Glen Plake and the Bar staff at Mt Bachelor.

Antarctica Photos

Home in Tahoe again, we need more snow! Gonna head up to the Pacific Northwest for Thanksgiving, lots of snow up there!

I've posted a few albums of photos from the Antarctica trip on Facebook:

Ski Photos
Wildlife Photos
Landscape Photos

Just left the last of the crew here at EZE in Buenos Aires and about to board my plane, hard to believe the trip is coming to an end!

A Few More Antarctica Ski Photos

Hanging around Ushuaia waiting for my flight out this afternoon, eating one last Argentinian Steak (yum!). Thought I'd post a few more photos:

My first Antarctica summit

Even weighing him down with a huge pack full of camera equipment, Andrew, Kip, and the Warren Miller crew couldn't keep up with Brennan, so he joined our group for a day :)

Dan Starr

Myself and Dan half way down our last run of the trip, an amazing couloir down to the ocean

Looking back at the couloir from the Zodiac

Back in Ushuaia

We're back in Ushuaia after a very "lake" like crossing of the Drake Passage which allowed copious amounts of alcohol to be consumed the last couple nights and enough time for us to head over to the Pacific Ocean and see the Cape Horn as we crossed back to the Atlantic. My favorite quote from yesterday morning:

Client: "Isn't there a certain distance you have to stay away from the Cape?"
Lori (expedition leader): "Yes, 12 miles"
Client: "How far are we now?"
Lori: "About 3 miles"

I'll be sorting through the 100s of pictures I took and creating a full trip report as time permits. All I can say is I'm speechless at just how amazing our trip was. The weather was perfect, the skiing was great, the friendships will last the rest of our lives. Doug Stoup and Karyn Stanley just pulled off something quite incredible, huge thanks to them and the Quark Expeditions and Clipper Adventurer staff for a true "trip if a lifetime!"

Antarctica Wildlife

It's tough to describe just how cool it is to interact with the wildlife on Antarctica. These animals have most likely never seen humans before, and for the most part couldn't care less about our presence.

If you look at the bigger version of this pic (click on it) you can make out the fin of a Minky Whale

Penguin Porn!

A few Antarctica Ski Shots

We're cruising across the Drake Passage now, our streak of amazing weather continues. The trip has been absolutely incredible. Here's a few ski shots from lucky Friday the 13th.

Sean Busby

Rather then follow the other groups straight up from our landing, we headed up the valley and spotted this couloir before anyone else did

Myself in the couloir, it's been skied by 4 people now!

A couple pictures from Antarctica

As often happens in "adventure travel," plans change due to the current circumstances. Yesterday a skier fell into a 35 foot cervasse and broke his leg. Thankfully, the guides were able to extract him and he's doing well now. We are heading up to King George's Island where the Chilean Military will be able to airlift him out (guess we're gonna find how well that rescue insurance works). Not sure the plans after that, there is hope we're gonna be able to get a short ski in this afternoon.

But for now, enjoy a few pics...

The mountain behind me on Anveres Island is about 7000' tall!

Penguins

Yesterday's ski objective

Fin Whales we saw on the second day of our crossing

It's a tough life for a seal!

Sunset last night

Skiing With Penguins

Please don't pinch me, because if this is a dream I don't ever want to wake up!

It's really impossible for me to put in words just how amazing the last two days have been, and my pictures could never do justice to the awesome beauty that is the 7th Continent. We've had beautiful weather the last two days and have had two wonderful days skiing on Antarctica. I've already taken a couple hundred photos but they simply do not do justice to just how amazing this place is. I wish I could stand on deck 24/7 because any time your inside you might be missing something amazing. Last night's sunset was incredible, it actually never really gets dark this far south but the sun does dip below the horizon. WOW!

So, penguins smell pretty bad, but they're so damn cute. Seals seem to have pretty good life, spending most of their time lieing out in the sun. The mountains are HUGE, I'm looking out the window at a mountain that rises 9000'+ feet from the ocean. The 100 or so skiers on this trip could spend the rest of our lives skiing down here and not even scratch the surface.

It's really quite awe inspiring!

I can see Antarctica!!!

Finally, about 62 hours after leaving Ushuaia, woke up this morning to see Antarctica off in the distance. It's more amazing then I could have imagined! The crossing has been interesting to say the least, we've definitely had some "shake" along the way. I haven't felt that bad, but Saturday I could only spend an hour or two up and about before I'd need to lie down again and I wasn't able to keep any food down (I'd feel fine until I try to eat something). Yesterday was much better, ate lunch and dinner and didn't feel that bad at all, even when they pulled in the stabilizers to speed us up. We've had a strong head wind most of the crossing so it's been a bit slower then expected and we're looking for somewhere out of the wind so we can get on shore and ski today (we're on to plan E according to the last announcement).

Internet is expensive, but I'll try to get a picture our two up once I've got something worthy of $1 a megabyte.

We have left port in Ushuaia and are heading down the Beagle!!! Antarctica here we come!

Sitting and Waiting - Final Drake Passage Update

Well, this is very familiar, sitting in the lobby at the Albatros Hotel in Ushuaia waiting to embark. Loading time is set for 3, I've got to run to the grocery store for some snack food and wine, but other then that, ready to go!

Final Drake Passage updates. Looking pretty good, not flat, but reasonable. I'll be putting on the patch on once we get on the ship!

Next update should be from Antarctica!

The Gangs All Here

The trip "officially" started today with our ski groups meeting for some "on snow" time followed by a big dinner tonight, but it's really been going on ever since I stepped out of customs in Buenos Aires and started running into folks from last year's trip. I'm really excited about my ski group. Our guide is Dan Starr from Jackson, WY and our group is myself, in the infamous mono skier Lee "Dooby" from Tahoe, Sean Busby from Utah, and Josh from Denver. Dan is new this year, the rest of us were all on the trip last year and we all seem to be a great match, similar motivation and desires. Today we headed up to the Martial Glacier to practice some roped traveling, glacier rescue, self arrest, and beacon searches.

The skiing on the Glacier has been great too, I headed up yesterday to make some first "real" turns of the year (Boreal WROD just doesn't quite count), a little fresh snow on a nice carvable base.

The energy here is amazing, it's hard to believe, but I'm gonna say even better then last year. Ushuaia is starting to feel like my second home, it's great to see all the people who have returned, and the new additions are fitting right in.

We board the boat tomorrow at 3, so I'll make one more update and then we're off!

BTW, the Drake is still looking "reasonable" if maybe not "lake" like for our crossing :)

Drake Passage Forecasts

Started running into folks from the trip at the Buenos Aires airport and a bunch of us were on the same flight to Ushuaia yesterday. Yes, the Drake Passage forecast is a big topic of conversation! Kevin Quinn seems to think we're going to have 50 foot waves, my sources aren't quite that bad, but looks like we could be in store for some rough seas!

BTW, I've been pulling these forecasts from a great site, PassageWeather.com. Maps and weather, two thing I love!

If things go as planned, we should be leaving the afternoon of the 6th and heading up the Beagle Channel. Sometime that night we hit the Drake Passage, cross the Drake on the 7th and 8th, and reach Deception Island the afternoon of the eight. So, here's the forecasts right now:

In Ushuaia

After a great weekend in the Bay Area I made it to Ushuaia this evening. I'll post more when I get my computer on the net, I need some sleep now!

Latest wave forecasts looking more like the shake then the lake!!

Antarctica Ski Cruise 2009 Itinerary

Just a few more things to pack, including my white tuxedo for the "White Party on Antarctica," which is gonna have a tough time living up to last year's Halloween party!

Here's our plan for the trip, of course in any adventure travel flexibility is key:

2009 Itinerary

November 5, 2009 to November 17, 2009.

Day 1: Arrive in Ushuaia, Argentina. Welcome dinner and orientation. Overnight in Ushuaia.

Day 2: Board the Clipper Adventurer and set sail down the Beagle Channel.

Day 3-4: Cross the Drake Passage. Sperm, fin, and humpback whales, along with skies of seabirds will accompany our journey. Arrive at Deception Island’s volcanic crater on the afternoon of Day 4 for a hike.

Day 5: Ski and trekking objectives at Neko Harbour. Zodiac cruises, penguin rookeries, hiking.

Day 6: Ski and trekking objectives at Anvers and Wienke Islands. Port Lockroy scientific base and museum. Visit gentoo and adelie penguin habitat.

Day 7: Ronge Island/Mt. Britannia. Visit Penguin rookery at Georges Point.

Day 8: Ski and trekking objectives in Paradise Bay. Zodiac Excursions. Visit penguin rookery and Almirante Brown Station.

Day 9: Lemaire Channel/ Mt. Scott/ Mt. Demaria/Mt. Mill ski descents. Visit the Ukrainian Vernadsky scientific station. Killer whale and leopard seal sightings.

Day 10: New ski descents and nature cruises in Crystal Sound; begin journey north in the evening.

Day 11-12: Sail Drake Passage; pass the dramatic cliffs of Cape Horn.

Day 13: Disembark Clipper Adventurer in Ushuaia, Argentina.

*Flexibility is a must for all Antarctic travel. This program is subject to change throughout the journey depending on ice, weather and local conditions.

And the wave forecast now reaches out to our first day (although we should be spending most of day one in the Beagle Channel and hit the Drake Passage on the 7th):