Nibbling the November Nectar @ Kirkwood – 11/16/15 After a few seasons of below normal snowfall and word of El Nino knocking on the front door of California, a few early season storms yielded over four feet of early November snow at Kirkwood thus allowing an early opening. Although I had prior commitments and could not make opening day, a local rider Chad Paeglow filled me in on the coverage skiing from the summit of Chair 6 on November 14th, 2015: The snow was pretty silky unless you hit rocks. Chamoix was money and in the best condition for so early in the season. It has around a 10 foot air out of the choke but had a smooth cushion in the landing. The area around Oops and Poops was still bony especially outside of the gullies. I ended up skiing mostly around Rabbits where I found plently of knee deep turns and even deeper on some landings. Conditions Report Casey Cane | November 18, 2015 4 Comments
Ridiculously Remarkable @ The Remarkables (New Zealand part I) Toward the end of August 2015, a father & son team made the easy journey (if you ride a plane that is) from San Francisco to the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Our plan was to ski the first 4 days between Coronet Peak and The Remarkables and to introduce my son not only to NZ skiing but also to my good ol’ kiwi mates. As with any ski trip, all you can do is hope and pray that the planets will align to provide epic skiing conditions. Luckily, for my son’s first visit, the snow gods granted us superb weather and skiing around the Queenstown area. Casey Cane | November 15, 2015 1 Comment
Terminating the Terrible Tahoe Season @ Carson Pass, CA Given the absolutely dismal year we had here in Northern California, I never would have guessed that the annual mid-June climb to ski around the Carson Pass area would have the snow to pull it off. Well, after above average snowfall for May 2015, Round Top Peak (10,381 ft) and the Sisters Peaks (10,153 ft) failed to disappoint. Backcountry Casey Cane | July 17, 2015 5 Comments
Clamoring for a New Couloir – Sonora Pass, CA For the duration of the month of May, a continuation of high altitude storms thankfully added to the historically shallow Sierra snowpack. With these storms dropping a foot here, a few inches there, another foot there, I realized the window of opportunity could possibly exist for a certain zone of chutes that I have been eyeing for many years. It’s in an area on Sonora Pass that few frequent as you have to boot directly up a choice of two couloirs, of which, cannot be accessed from above. After a week and a half of road closures among a constant study of the weather, it looked like our chance[…] Backcountry Casey Cane | June 26, 2015 2 Comments
Dreadful Drought You Say? Skiing Lines in May! @ Sonora Pass, CA Back in mid-May, the ski season refused to die in California despite the existence of an unprecedented drought…so the snow soldiers rolled on! The mountain highway passes (89, 4, 108, & 120) all opened in April because of the lack of snow. As a frequent ski tourer of said passes, the usual plan of attack is to get there right when they open as snow conditions generally deteriorate […] Backcountry Casey Cane | June 23, 2015 3 Comments
Spring Skiing with the Groms @ Mammoth A few weeks back in the early May, I packed the car full of gear, ipads, coloring books and snacks to take the kids on our annual Spring trip to Mammoth Mountain. In this crazy year of drought, Mammoth was the sole lift-served skiing left in California, so we had to get in those last groomer carves. To get to Mammoth, we took Sonora Pass (Hwy 108) which is an easy drive that provides epic visuals of nature. After a brief snowball fight at the top of the pass and a quick look at Leavitt Falls, we arrived at the Village at Mammoth in just over 5 hours from downtown San Francisco […] Casey Cane | June 11, 2015 0 Comments
Alphabet Training in Granite Canyon @ Jackson, WY In mid-March of 2015, as a weekend of debauchery for my cousin to send him off into the wonderful world of marriage, we headed to Jackson Hole for a few days of riding. It is no surprise that Tahoe has been utterly horrendous for skiing this season, so any skiing destination outside of California seemed like a dream. Of course, as luck would have it, we brought the Tahoe weather to Jackson Hole. The mountain was in almost 100% spring skiing mode with almost no signs of wintery snow anywhere. That’s where Granite Canyon came into play… I’ve been to Jackson many times in my lifetime[…] Casey Cane | June 5, 2015 3 Comments
Early March Radness…on Snow! @ Kirkwood With a few feet at the beginning of March, Kirkwood received a much needed refresher to keep the season on schedule. Other than a nasty ice layer on the steepest upper elevations, skiing was a blast on March 4th and 8th. Highlights include […] Conditions Report Casey Cane | March 20, 2015 1 Comment
Conditions Report
Backcountry
