On Saturday it was cold, snowing, and the light was flat, but I still managed to begrudgingly pull my hands out of my gloves, and fire off some video of backcountry skiing in the Mt Rose Wilderness Area.

Despite the fact that it did not make for very good video conditions, I am absolutely overjoyed to see some snow finally descending in the Lake Tahoe region. I am praying for more!

I would also like to give a shout out to the Mt Rose Ski Resort patroller who broke his leg doing avalanche control in the Chutes on Monday. I appreciate the work that he was doing and recognize that there are inherent dangers in this type of work.

I absolutely love the Chutes and it is the primary reason why I have a pass at Mt Rose. The ski patrollers do a great job of managing a notorious area and getting it open for people to safely enjoy.

Hopefully the team was able to learn from the situation and apply that knowledge to avoid similar situations in the future. However, it could be that it was simply unavoidable.

Here’s to a quick recovery.

This past week we received some snow, with much of it visibly sticking to the ground in the upper elevations around Lake Tahoe. Coupled with beautiful fall foliage and the smell of winter in the air, I am definitely getting the itch for some Sierra skiing.

This is a picture I took a couple of years ago doing some backcountry above Emerald Bay on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe.