Debacle For the Holidays

I'm at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Reno about to board my flight to Oakland - and finally on to Seattle.

My plan was to jump a much cheaper (free) flight from Travis AFB between Sacramento and San Francisco. That flight got canceled last night - just the icing on the cake for this trip. Despite my best efforts, everything from the time I first started working, turned into another ski-related story assignment failure.

Day one was relaxing after KC drove the entire trip from Olympia to Reno - via Bend, Ore. The second day brought heavy snow shile shooting KC Deane and 4bi9's Dave Eulerat at Northstar  with legendary outdoor photographer Bill Stevenson. My post-surgery knee kept me timid while dust on rocks coverage kept the athletes falling on themselves and risking it in December. Even though it was dumping - the snow just wasn't deep enough. At least Bill came away with some shots I can submit.

Luke, Andy, Mitch, Ben and other great friends from Reno took me out for drinks that night at Reno's Biggest Little City Club followed by a brief stop at 

My buddy Blake came down to Reno amidst the first storm Friday night to pick me up and head back to King's Beach and crash at his house for the night. Good plan. We got about another foot at lake level overnight and the snow took a break that morning to allow us to get to the mountain. That break, in reality, was incredibly short - so short it was more like a glimmer of sunshine for a few minutes. Then the snow resumed and continued to pound the mountains.

Best day of the year so far - and it's still only mid December. Not too shabby. I stepped it up a little too big sending it a bit more than 20 feet. Wasn't the wisest move, but I just wanted to feel out the new JJs - which are by far the best skis I've been on thus far. I missed hte ARGs a bit in the fresh pow, but for everything else it was JJ coming through - especially in the chop and crud. That skis just makes it happen!

I did one more day at Alpine w/ Luke, Andy, Ben and Mitch - which by the way are about the funnest doods you can roll anywhere w/. Partying my face off with them my second night in Reno was no exception to my previous statement. Unfortunately we split ways early on when I met up w/ Rory "The Reno Quake" Clements. Rory, Blake and I got after it for a while before that 20+footer started to catch up w/ my knee. I called it early and tended to the developing debacle of planning that became of my story at Kirkwood. We left the mountain w/ a 70-percent chance of things going close to what I intended.

Later that evening I realized the whole thing was going to implode aside from our lodging and one day's worth of passes. Rory, Blake and I hit up beers on the way to Kirkwood and ended up meeting up w/ Mandi-with-an-I. She's the girl from the Line Mothership ski. That's right - she's the one holding up the boombox. We hung out for a bit and drank a bunch of cheap beer before calling a night.

About four hours later I woke to the sounds of explosives ripping out snow in the zones we were supposed to ski. Being that the whole story imploded - I just skied around w/ Annie and Bill after his amazing photo shoot w/ KC in the permantly-closed Cirque. Despite the whole story falling through, we had an awesome time.

We all skipped skiing the last day and headed north to Truckee where I stayed the night w/ Bill and Annie in their new condo. What a beautiful place.

Just before bed I called to verify my flight status out of McChord. Good thing cause they canceled my flight and I had to purchase one out of Reno. Disaster averted and I was on  the plane the following morning.

Now I'm sorting through my notes and interviews to get something up on the skiing website. Only problem is that it's bedtime and I'm out of gas. Ugh. Maybe one story...