Expect more Unofficial action from me in the future as well. Stoked to be an Unofficial reporter and look forward to dropping you unique content from the shredder’s eye about Squaw and way, way beyond.
The October 5th tempest that pounded the Sierra was epic – no exaggeration. Tahoe got rain but the Sierra south of Bridgeport got upwards of 6 feet in places. Jeremy Jones and I decided to start our winter on the Dana Plateau the day after the storm passed.
Not gonna lie. Booting up the two grand of unrideable, ankle biting talus to get into this coolie was gruesome and demoralizing. Both of us openly questioned what the fck we were doing. The sufferfest paid off though. We found about 2500 vertical of steep chalky insta-base. A one-storm wonder above Mono Lake.
First day claim on Dana Plateau – Oct. 7th.
Off to our first turns of the season.
We had to unbuckle and walk about 100 feet in the upper choke but the coolie was caked wall to wall for the most part.
Conditions were variable – some chalk, some corn, a bit of unconsolidated, but most importantly, deep enough to safely shred 2000 + feet of sweet Sierra steeps preposterously early in the winter.
Throughout late October and early November the Mt. Rose backcountry was holding the only rideable snow in Tahoe, a microscopic frozen base in a few protected bowls. Jones and I layed some exploratory tracks in the Hourglass chute on Oct. 23 after I thought I had scouted a clean runout. We both ended up cliffed out in a lower zone you can’t see from the top.fun nonetheless.
Couple weeks later Ryland Bell and I found a little fresher conditions on Rose. Still only the icy, meager base but we got some fun 500 foot dust on crust laps in.
The early season action has also been perfect timing for the birth of Jeremy’s new board company – Jones Snowboards. Jeremy has been test riding non-stop and pouring himself into every detail of the new board designs. The 10/11 lineup he has created will be a freerider’s dream quiver no doubt.more to come on that soon.
Having heard reports of a few wintery pockets deep enough to ride, we chased out to Carson Pass first week of December. The Thanksgiving week storm had freshened things up a bit but it was still thin. Jones had his eye on a coolie lookers left of the Crescent Moon so we went and checked out that first.
Ended up being a pretty nice chalky line, plenty steep for conditions and filled in just enough for wide jump turns and a few careful slashes.
We had good company at Carson that day, including this friendly animal, Jim Zellers. He broke trail like a wolverine to every line we rode.
And of course, wouldn’t be a day out with Jones without some dicey radness.