Mellow Tahoe Shred Grooves

I must be a magnet for winter storms that dump feet of snow, or the luckiest son-of-a bitch this side of the Mississippi. Probably the latter... You see, Tahoe hadn't gotten shit for snow before I came home to Reno for the holidays. The day I left CO, a Friday I believe, it had started snowing heavily in Tahoe with a lot more in the forecast. FUCK YEAH. You know, now that I think about it, I think the weather does follow me because CO had a some great early season storms, I get on a plane to Reno, it snows there. Oh and last year... holly shit. CO had an epic early season last year, again Tahoe not so epic, I get on a plane to come home and what happens? 14 feet... yes FEET, not inches, of snow shits from the sky over a 5 day period. I was only planning on staying in Reno for a week and a half or so but ended up staying for like a month, shoveling people's drive ways so I could buy lift tickets, and having about 5 waist deep pow days in a row. I'm getting blood flow just thinking about that... Coincidence? I think not!

Moral of the story, it snows where I go. If you want it to snow where you are, just buy me a plane ticket out there. Well, only if you live near some big mountains and want it to snow... In Utah, or Mt. Baker, or Whistler or something. None of that East "ice" coast shit.

Ok on to the shred!

So I get home and finally Tahoe gets some snow. Stoked. I was a little worried before I came home it wouldn't snow and I wouldn't be able to ride whilst in Reno. Like I said I got home on a Friday, on Saturday we were on the mountain. Pretty much everywhere in Tahoe is like 30-45 minutes away from Reno, so day trips are the norm around these parts. A few of my buddies have the Double Whammy pass, which is good at Northstar and Sierra at Tahoe, and Northstar is where we rode Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately for the people out in Tahoe, there's nothing like the Colorado or Epic pass. The double whammy is as good as it gets, as most resorts just offer a season pass to their mountain. Kind of lame if you ask me. There should be some kind of multi-mountain pass, especially with how close all the different resorts are. Vail resorts has it figured out I guess...

Northstar: 12/20/08 & 12/21/08

Anyway, like the title implies, these were two of the mellowest days of riding I've had in a long time. One of my good buddies was strapping on a snowboard for the first time, and I agreed to teach him how to shred. For some people, teaching someone else how to ride is pure torture, especially if you're doing it out of good nature and it's not your job. For me, it was only semi torturous. Riding half the day with only one foot strapped in is never fun but I remembered the people who took the time to teach me how to ride and how bummed they probably were watching me bust my ass all day and not being able to ride. Everyone has to start somewhere, and teaching yourself is not really an option. If it would have been a pow day, I would have told him to fuck off and learn another time, as there are no friends on powder days. Fortunately for him, it wasn't. It was, however, bluebird and super warm and the snow was soft and tasty.

My buddy bought a new board and it came with this free lift ticket voucher to Northstar so I was set.... Or so I thought. Turns out, after talking to about 4 different people at 4 different locations on the mountain, the voucher was only good for a learn to ride package and had to be redeemed online. Bull shit. I was not about to pay $80 for a lift ticket, so I did what any experienced veteran of getting shit for free would do... Clipped a ticket. I searched for about half an hour for the perfect victim, a father of two very small, unhappy, cold looking children, and dude was more than happy to let me swipe his lift ticket. Boo ya!

Snowboard: $400, Boots: $200, Outerwear: $300. Clipping a ticket and riding for free? EPIC.

Since I was teaching my buddy how to ride, it was slow going both days. So what did I do? Rode switch almost the whole time and got that shit dialed in. Still not on point with the quick turns it takes to ride through the trees, but just carving down the mountain felt super comfy switch. I was also spreading butter over the entire mountain, working on nollies, switch and fakie ollies, half cabs and switch b/s 1's off every lip I could find, I even got a couple small, sloppy cab 3's, bonking the slow signs, and doing lots of fast plants, which are really fun to do. There were a few pow staches I ripped regular through, cause who wants to blow it and wipe out and get stuck in the pow? Not me... I didn't get many photos of the weekend riding, I was just mellow groovin, and in teacher mode, but I did get a couple shots of just chillen.

Gnarstar


Groovin


My pupil Trevor and myself


Trev stoked to finally be shredding


Sick view of Lake Tahoe from the mountain


The ultimate leash


Driving back with 4 boards riding bitch. Not as bad as this though...

On the second day of riding at Northstar, I wasn't as lucky as I was the day before with ticket clipping. I was striking out left and right, and a couple other super secret methods of getting on the mountain for free failed, so it was either hike half way up to the lifts that don't scan or.... Houdini past the gondola liftie scanning tickets at the very bottom. Two days of riding, 0 dollars spent by me. Hey, when you literally don't have any money you do whatever it takes to shred.

Well, I was going to do one big ass post of all my days of Tahoe riding thus far, but that'll be way too long and I don't want to bore you. More to come soon, so stay tuned in. Dig it.