My Christmas was anything but happy in 2008. I lost a good friend of mine, Randy Davis. I still remember his excitement that morning as he called me from the Red Dog lift line. First chair! Randy was getting first chair. I myself was still sitting on the couch deciding if i should go skiing. I’m not sure why I didn’t meet up with Randy that morning. The day before I was the one calling him to meet up with me. He was a great friend and I will miss him so much. I don’t think I’ll ever meet a person like him again.

Please visit
www.riprandy.org

What’s a good backcountry trip with a few bad decisions and a couple of headlights? A day that ends up much longer than any us us could of anticipated. Me and the boys started off on the backside of Alpine Meadows for a little adventure out into the woods.

It was such a beautiful day. We left our cars around 8:30a.m.

It was a little colder than a typical Tahoe day so the snow stayed so nice and dry. It was freezing at the top. The weather was blowing in…

We made it to the top!

Oh yeah, did I mention I’m an idiot? I forgot my goggles. Not too big of a deal as long as the weather stays nice, ha ha…

we stopped for a little break and some cliff drops

At this point we noticed an area that some guys we saw earlier had hit up. It looked sooo nice. We decided to head back up and check it out. That was around noon.

Shit! Weather...

So I once again was the only skier. That meant I was breaking trail about halfway up the mountain. I was kind of on a mission. I got so far ahead of the boys I thought I had lost them for a minute there. We regrouped at the top of the ridge at 2:00 p.m. We still had a few more minutes to climb til we reached our destination. This was our first mistake. We should of sucked it up and just gone back to the car.

possibly, the last smile of the day

We reach the top around 2:30. At this point I’m starting to think this was a bad idea. We probably should of turned around. Although the area we hit up was amazing. I hope to go back there soon. With better time management in mind. We get to the bottom of the run around 3:30p.m. So lets see, it’s 3:30p.m. it took us about 3 and half hours to get from where we are to where we need to be. The storm had blown in and we were breaking trail by headlamp. Oh, thank god I had my headlamp.

We made it!

6:45 p.m. and we are out…

Before the Holidays hit I had some time to venture out into the backcountry with some friends. I started out in the Mt. Rose wilderness for some early season powder turns.

Ben checking out a little cliff drop

There wasn’t quite enough snow to be dropping cliffs. The boys learned that lesson the hard way. A few rocks on the take off and tree stumps to the back will make you think twice before one does something like that again.

skins are sooo much faster than snowshoes!

Me and the boys! We made it to the top...

Not too bad for a morning that started off by digging four women from Texas out of the snow bank. P.S. Perkins, we still need to do lunch!