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
Summertastic Turns @ Telluride – Summer 2015 Now that Fall is here and the mountains are getting dusted with their first snowfall, I thought it would be the perfect time to recap our summer in Telluride. It was the summer of 2015 where the family spent a solid five weeks from mid-July to mid-August hiking, eating Baked in Telluride treats, summer camp enrolling, and of course, skiing. I began the journey by driving from San Francisco through Reno and onward to Ely via highway 50. From Ely it was an easy drive through Moab to Telluride and only managed to destroy one iPhone Casey Cane | October 12, 2015 1 Comment
Nothing But Spines in Whistler: Peter Wentz’s Spine POV Peter Wentz is a good buddy of mine from Squaw and Bariloche who is now the SnowBrains Whistler reporter. The kid can shred and knows where the good terrain in the Whistler area lives. Last winter, he got the chance at a few spectacular spine skiing days via motorsled and helicopter up in Whistler. This is what he saw. SnowBrains | October 10, 2015 0 Comments
World’s First Smart Helmet- The New Meaning of Connectivity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eC7ZrAkGl4 We live in a time where connectivity couldn’t be easier. We have smartphones, POV cameras, and bluetooth that allow us to document and share our lives in real time. The question- “What did you do today?” – is no longer needed because most of us already know. The engineers over at Forcite have created the world’s first smart helmet for […] SnowBrains | October 7, 2015 2 Comments
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
Backcountry
