Okay, okay, I know, everybody is saying that we have no snow and the skiing sucks. Really?

Sure the snow has been rock hard for weeks now and there still is no significant moisture insight, but in my humble opinion there are still some great turns to be had. I went out yesterday with a crew of old time rippers, J Mack, Matty Reardon and my partner Lynn Gibson to dust off the trigger finger and strengthen the legs before heading off to Alaska.

Nothing like carrying a 40lb pack to check your fitness level. We boarded KT and took in the classic California sun, riding the chair looking for somewhere that wasn’t bullet proof. Over the past weeks off-shaped moguls had erupted everywhere and were challenging at best to navigate in the icy conditions. We had delayed our outing until the end of the day with the hopes of finding some softer pockets of and semi smooth . We settled on Red Dog ridge and made our way out to Heidi’s rock where the sun had been hitting the longest.

It was all terrain and variable skiing through the rocks, trees, and Manzanita but boy was it fun. We even found some chalky winter duff in between icy slabs and made the most of our photo session ripping 5 laps in quick succession.

Sporting my 400 Nikkor lens and new D800 I was once again reminded that with the right attitude, competent talent and good creative perspective anything can happen.