Snowy Adventures, Santa Cruz, and Snow!

Hey good people!

(So first of all, you can check out adventuretalk.weebly.com for the short and sweet version of this blog post.)

So for a while, the most exciting thing happening in Tahoe was this...

Dogs...

Vs. Cats!

Because the mountain looked like this...

But at the end of January the clouds finally decided to be nice and Tahoe got some snow!

Look at all those snowflakes!

Ramagurd!

So we were all pretty stoked!

I was so stoked I decided to go up and enjoy it!

Aw...

Yeah!

Crushin Pow Pow with friends

So good!

Sadly that day did eventually come to an end...

And Tahoe was looking pretty good when it did...

I love this place!

And then February rolled around, and Tahoe was still feeling nice!

YAY!

And the Face opened! So Heavenly finally has expert runs again!

My kids were stoked too!

Eventually though I did decide to take a little trip...

To get away from the rainy-wetness..

And get more of this...

I had to do this...

Because how do you resist sticking your feet in this?

(I have no idea)

And then my other friend arrived, so we went to get one of these!

Sadly the burger wasn't the only thing that was in and out...

But I got it all fixed up, and then returned to this!

Let it snow!

The Chaos Ebbs

WORK

So I've been working quite a bit, which is why the blog posts have been few and far between.  I've had about 5 days off in the last 45 days, and in that time we've been running maximum capacity numbers (~20 person zip trips).  It's been exhausting, but I've also learned a lot, and I feel like I've become a better person because of it. 

The good news is that the busiest part of the season is now past us, and I'm almost done with my first year of work.  Like many things in life, seniority has its perks, and I'm getting close to starting to see some of those benefits!  Come this winter I'll be a second year instructor which is going to be awesome!

On The Horizon

South Dewey Lake

(Pic from Google)

At long last we're beginning to get some more free time, so there are a couple of challenges I'd like to conquer this season.  Among them are the mountains in the back of this picture here, the Deweys.  I'm also hoping to continue to get stronger in my climbing as well. 

And, of course, I'll be enjoying the weird and wonderful life that is living in Skagway.  

CLIC International Conference

In the more distant future, I'll be heading to Big Sky Montana for a wilderness medicine conference.  Still not really sure what adventures this will hold, but it'll almost definitely be interesting!

I'll be heading home to North Carolina for a bit after Montana, and then...

Then I really don't know what will happen.  It's all kind of up in the air, but the plan is to find a crag I can camp at and just climb and run around there for a few weeks. I also may end up traveling and visiting people. Hard to say at this point...

And come November 11th, I'll be heading back to South Lake Tahoe!

Love it. 

HEAVENLY

So my time in Heavenly is still a while away, but I'll be going back as a duel-certified returning coach.  This means I will have significantly more priority at the start of this season then I had last season, which is awesome!  I expect I'll be skiing a lot more this season (it's where consistent work is), but it's hard to know for sure at this point.  Either way it'll be awesome!

INFINITY AND BEYOND

And to those of you who are wondering what will be happening after this snow season, the plan is to keep guiding and instructing for a long while to come.  I don't know if I'll stay at the exact companies I'm at now for that entire time, but I definitely want to be a part of helping people feel alive in the great outdoors! 

You guys stay awesome!

Chris

Also, Touching the Void isn't happening.  God Bless You Mr. Rosewater is. Stay tuned for that review!

The Duel Cert

Before I even begin...

Thanks Pat!

The guy above cleared me to teach skiing midseason (which is unusual), and cleared me to take the Certification Exam this season.  Of course, he couldn't have done that if I wasn't at that level, but many other supervisors just told me to wait until next year, and without him I would have had to.

And now without further ado...

PICTURES!

So you may recall that when I got certified as a Snowboarding Instructor I took a 3 day test.  For my Ski Certification, there was actually another option available called an 'In-House Certification'.  

For this process you go to a series of ski-improvement clinics, and at the end, you take a one-day ski test with an instructor from another mountain...

Pictures from said-clinics.
(In this one, the girl on the right is pretending to teach the other coaches like they are four year olds)

Yes, that is a half pipe...
(And no, that was not a requirement, Thank God!)

Gondola has an awesome Magic Carpet...

(Learning area)

And what would a test be without some homework...

Delightful...

More homework

(Progressions for how to teach certain ski lessons)

In order to get more experience teaching Ski Lessons, I transfered for 6 days to Gondola (another ski school) to teach more skiing.
(Cal Kids didn't need me as a ski coach, Gondola desperately needed more people)

(Gondola comes out of the building on the left)

And after much studying and preparation...

THE BIG DAY!
(Now, to be honest, the big day was really our practice exam.  As luck would have it, I took a lot of pictures that day, which is what you just got done looking through.  

On the day of our practice exam we had another instructor trainer come in and do a 'mock exam'.  Turns out it was the real exam, and thanks to our excellent skiing, we all got checked off!)

(Below are the pictures from our "Real Exam")

Our morning meeting location

Because who cares if it's April?  COLD WEATHER!

The weather eventually came to its senses though...

The real purpose of our "Exam" was to prepare us for the next stage of our skiing career.  We did have to do mini-lessons (5 minutes instead of the usual 15), but really it was meant to prepare us for Level 2 Ski Clinics (the next step).

AND I PASSED!

WOOOOOOOOOO

Because I now have my Ski and Snowboarding Certification, I am now a Duel-Certified Instructor.  Shortened, that makes me a 

Duel-Cert!

Enjoy!
Chris

Random Tahoe Adventures

My Scenic Walk to Work

I don't know if you guys knew this, but I walked to work almost every single day of this season.

This is why.  It's SUCH a nice walk.

(also I really like walking)

So something pretty cool happened when walking to work this week...

It looked like Spring!

First incredibly scenic spring day of the season

Naturally I took lots of Pics

And I even took one of a house, just because it looked awesome.

And thus ends the spring walk-to-work pics...

(also, for any of you who might be worrying about the daaangerous walk to work, 95% of my walk I don't pass a single car, and the parts where I do are very safe)

Because the next day I woke up to find that it had DUMPED!-(snow) (Which, considering it's April, is pretty surprising)

On my walk to work, the next day, I took two similar pictures to see the contrast...

And there I was thinking Spring had finally come...

Not yet at least...

The Tahoe Comps

At the end of the year, Heavenly suddenly got really popular!

Because...

Huge Competitions Started Happening
Like every day...

First,

The Mogul-Freestyle Event!

Which is where people would do the moguls, then hit 30 foot jumps, then keep skiing moguls

Normal.

And then...

 Skiing Big Air Contest!

And an Awesome Jump Contest!

Close up on jumps

Just a normal triple backflip move.

And the 65 foot Shaun White jump!

Which sadly is all I got of this one...

And

The Gunbarrel 25

A contest where people do this 25 times in one day!

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for...

Mountain Nature Pics!

Lake Tahoe with some cloud cover...

And this one was really special.  A thermal inversion occurred and left us with really hot weather above 7000 feet, and really cold and wet weather below 7000.  Super cool.

Photo Cred goes to Mike's iPhone.  (I was on the Gondola at the time with 7 Spanish speaking kids...)

And this is the view of one of the scenic trails.  Lake of Tahoe on the left and the trail on the left.

Awesome View!

ANDDD 

Fresh Tracks! (aka I was the first person to snowboard this section)

Nothin Below!

And one more. 

Top of the Mountain Shot

Enjoy!
Chris