After nine winters living in Tahoe and skiing the backcountry I am always stoked to get out and do something new. Since I'm somewhat of a creature of habit there are way more things that I haven't done out there than things I have. I suppose that I tend to get into a groove with the places I ski, and I often find that I just do what is easier, or closer. This was not the case yesterday. A friend of Lynn and I suggested that we go ski Pyramid Peak in Desolation Wilderness. In the photograph above, Pyramid is on the left, Mt. Price is on the right, and Jack's peak is in the foreground, pictured from the summit of Dick's Peak. At 9,983 feet, Pyramid Peak is the highest point in the wilderness and one of the most aesthetic mountains in the region. We chose to access this peak from the closest main road, and we parked our car around 6,000 feet at the Horsetail Falls parking area off of Highway 50. The hike brings you up a southeast facing ridge to start and at that elevation the snow was a little thin... We had a bit of an interesting bushwack to start out our day.After ascending about 500 feet or so we were out of the thinly covered rocks and bushes and up onto a prominent ridge that would lead us all the way to the top of Pyramid Peak. While the summit isn't very close to where we parked getting there was quite straightforward and the navigation was simple, once you were out of the bushes. In the photo below Lynn approaches the Southeast side of Pyramid Peak about 3 hours into our hike...
After hanging out at the summit for a while we dropped in on our objective, the north face of Pyramid. Having only viewed this face from a distance I always thought that it was way longer and steeper than it actually was. The snow on the north side was still nice and powdery despite the unseasonably warm temperatures that we've had lately and the skiing was great. Here's a shot of the north side of Pyramid with good coverage, many seasons this doesn't fill in well enough to be able to ski it without walking over rocks...
After skiing the north side we traversed back around and skied a variety of terrain and snow conditions near the route that we came up. Coverage was great and the terrain interesting most of the way back down to the car. Things got a little spicy once we got back down below 6500 feet or so, but with some good route finding, a little bit of bush skiing, and some questionable creek crossings we made it out of there with no problems at all.

I've been skiing on next years Elan Olympus and Boomerang skis for the past three weeks or so. While they are similar to the current line-up of Elan skis there have been some subtle changes. Most notably is the graphic change on the Boomerang. The ski itself remains unchanged from last year's award winning design which many people, including myself, absolutely love. This ski is floaty with a waist of 120 mm, easy to turn in its 190 length due to the early rise tip and tail, and now it looks even cooler than it did. Not only has the topsheet graphic been updated, but the base graphic as well. This ski will also be available in two shorter lengths for those who may have been too small for the 190 length.

The summit series is new this year and is an updated version of the popular triple series from last year. One of my favorite skis of all time is the Elan 1010 which has been replaced this year by the new Olympus. The Olympus has the same exact dimensions as the 1010 but has a slightly lighter core and a slightly rockered tip. Both improvements have made an already awesome ski even better. The summit series also features a hole in the tip to accomodate a skin hook or to make a rescue litter while in the backcountry. If you choose not to use the tip hole for any reason the skis come with an insert that keeps it covered. At 110 mm underfoot this ski can do it all, and is my ski of choice on all but the deepest days, and all the time in the backcountry.

The current line up of Elan skis is the best they have ever produced, and next years skis are even better. The photo below is of me dropping into the backcountry white-out gnar on my new Olympus...

Here's a couple clips from yesterday and today, two of the best days of skiing that I have ever had. These are a couple of the good runs I had, the really, really good ones are safely tucked away in my brain, just for me. And, by the way the song, so fresh so clean, is describing the snow, not me...

The new taller heel riser is on the right, obviously. The difference is truly amazing, taking pressure and strain off my lower back and hips, making skinning uphill easier and more comfortable. Anyone who has felt that the heel risers were too short on their Dukes should get their hands on a set a.s.a.p.

Its been a few days since it has snowed in Lake Tahoe, and apparently we've already entered into a corn cycle, something I like to call "Insta-corn". Yesterday I headed to the south side of Jakes peak to see exactly what was going on with the snow in the backcountry and I was delighted to find excellent corn-like conditions, and no tracks anywhere. Today I returned with a few friends and bumped into Sierra legend Jim Zellers and the infamous Ralph Backstrom with a similar plan. Lucky for me I'd already gotten it good the day before, so I let my buddies go first. Not much had changed since yesterday and the runs were still pretty darn smooth, though really thin cover and a lot of wacky little rock chokes and whatnot.We skied a couple laps and found that the best snow was on south to east facing slopes, anything else is still in the transition phase and is pretty weird. Somehow I managed to put on my GoPro helmet cam for the first lap and it looked a little something like this....

Sorry that clip is 2 minutes long, but its a pretty long run. Nothing all that gnarly but lots of fun on smooth snow. I also made sure to shoot a few pictures while we were out, and unfortunately the scenery is just terrible.... Even hiking shots look cool with Emerald Bay in the background. Near the bottom:

And again a little closer to the top....

Ralph, having a good ol' time... with the rock garden above him.

And one more scenic. Its a beautiful place we live in, get out and enjoy it when you can.

Getting into the backcountry is easy as ever with tons of great skis that can handle a variety of conditions on the market. My ski of choice is the Elan 1010 which is the probably the best and most versatile ski that I've ever used. It can handle pretty much any condition and is a great width, at 110 mm's underfoot, for just about any day on the hill. Backcountry binding technology has also come a long way. The Marker Duke is a great example. For people who can't afford to have a dedicated backcountry setup the Duke provides the answer. With a DIN range up to 16 this binding can handle an inbounds thrashing and still hike around for days in the backcountry, truly the best of both worlds. Hopefully I'll see you out there.

I tested Mens Big Mountain skis today, and I tried 17 different pairs of skis down the same run every time to try them on a level playing field.  All the major manufacturers have their skis in the test, and I skied on some awesome boards by Elan, Dynastar, Rossignol, 4frnt, Line, Nordica, and Black diamond.  There's a ton of great new skis out there, and lucky me, I get to try them all.  Pretty much every ski that I skied today in super hardpack was 110 ish mm's in the waist, and super fun to ski even in the hard conditions.  Its pretty amazing how the new boards can rip in so many different conditions.  

Its going to dump in Tahoe, so keep your walkway shoveled, your car out of the ditch, and your tips up.  I'll be back on Friday to enjoy the feet of dumpage.  

Jeremy

Jeremy

Jeremy

Check this out. Brad Holmes creamed me with his Audi the other day when I just happened to be walking around with my skis in the street. It's cool though, because of my super-human powers I'm totally fine and ready for ski season. Think Snow.

---Jeremy