Redemption

Remember all that stuff I wrote about in the last post about consolation and backing away and waiting 'til next year? Well, that changed.

Long story: After getting home Saturday and stewing for a while, I decided that the conditions in Sullivan Chute were indeed passable, and that the mental consequences of letting it go outweighed the possible physical consequences in the line itself. So I went back. And remembered the intervalometer, which works just fine when it's not sitting on my bed. And got there at a better time in the morning. And set up a different shot. And set my head straight.

Short story: Consolation? Fuck that. Drrrrrrropping!

Sunday:


Self portrait


The only reason anybody knows what it's called. The origin of this line is a mystery.

I'll admit to not riding it gracefully, as I had to weasel down around a couple big loose rocks before pointing it straight for the exit air. Even though I still went from Zero to Not Zero rather rapidly, that weaseling made the exit smaller and I knuckled on the bergschrund below the drop, which I was hoping to clear easily. To give a sense for the speed, my camera was firing once a second, and there's just this one frame that includes me riding... I don't want to be in the business of claiming the steepness without verifying it, but DAMN.

I think I'd like to go back when there's more snow.

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Consolation

Saturday did not go as planned.

I had grand aspirations to go ride a white whale of a line in the Mt. Rose backcountry, Sullivan Chute, and to architect a self portrait of me riding the line.

As I was setting up the shot high atop an adjacent crag, it all started to unravel when I discovered a HUGE flaw in the Canon intervalometer I'd purchased. This flaw is that it simply doesn't operate when I leave it at home.

Furthermore, the snow coverage in the prize line was unfavorable, as usual. It was close to going but I had a couple concerns about the technical and narrow crux. I did scope it from both top and bottom, and I came pretty close to pulling the trigger, but it was simply not the day.

Mitigating the first mistake by making friends with another group up there, I talked them into sticking around while I hiked to, scoped, and rode the zone in question, relying on them for their top-notch shutter-mashing skills with my camera set up on the tripod.

The only solution for the second problem was to ride a nearby and far less interesting line. As such, I've made a composite of some of the frames the semi-anonymous Craig (thanks dude!) fired off while I rode. You can see me scoping the elusive Sullivan Chute in the top left corner of the frame. Next year, I suppose...


Consolation Rock

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Greenery

Ethel and I blasted across the country last weekend to visit Riley and Erin in North Carolina. I was on full mercenary status, having packed a carry-on bag with 98% camera gear, 1% toiletries, and 1% machismo (gotta keep it real, yo). Riley had been unable to find anyone inside the 3000 mile mark who could tolerate him for a day of wedding photography, so off we went.

Apart from the wedding, we were able to spend some time in the dense woods, both for exercise and photos. The trees had recently re-greened, and the heat-o-meter was just barely bouncing off Stifling, which meant we had to take advantage of such fortuitous conditions.


They grow 'em big down South


Stumped


Reflecto I


Reflecto II


Local color

Riley and Erin also showed us around the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill nightlife a bit, introducing us to a few of the cool spots that're bound to be found in a college town of that size.

I'm still questioning the wisdom of voluntarily crossing the country twice in a weekend, but hey, we only get one ride on this roller coaster...

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Shameless Self-Promotion

Starting early next week and through May and June, I'll be showing several series of photos (and offering them for sale at modest prices) at The Hub, home of Reno's most awesome coffee.

All of the photos are ones that have been shown here before, like this one:


First Light in Dusy Basin

These are all well and good at 800 pixels wide on the screen, but I'm very happy with how they look printed big on nice paper. Drop by The Hub and see for yourself! May and June will have different photos, so this'll take more than one trip. :)

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Froth

Ethel's aunt Paula and cousin Ciara are in town from Ireland; we took them up to Tahoe yesterday for a looksee along the east and north shores and an early dinner at Garwoods in Carnelian Bay.

A reasonably moderate spring day in Reno translated into whipping winds and driving rain in the Tahoe Basin (snow, too, on the way home). Fortunately, the lake is freakin' gorgeous when it's gnarly out.







These photos are all from Kings Beach, where the approaching storm wave made for foreboding and scary skies.

We're off to North Carolina tomorrow to visit Riley. 'Til next time...

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Bearly There

I went to Bear Valley last weekend with the venerable Matt Theilen to help him photograph a wedding. I'll probably share a few photos of my own from the wedding festivities, but I thought I'd post a few from the trip there and back first.

In the meantime, check out Matt's blog post on the wedding here. The man does good work!

In the summertime, Bear Valley is a quick 2-hour jaunt from Reno over Ebbett's Pass, but that's unplowed in the winter. So five hours and a circumnavigation of the Sierra later...


West Fork of the Carson River near Hope Valley


Angels Camp watchdog


Mokelumne Hill hitchhiker

I had a great time over there and should have more to share shortly!

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Radio Silence

Life's whirlwind lulled just long enough to make me realize that I hadn't posted anything in a couple of weeks. We had quite the storm cycle roll through (15'+ in 2 weeks), and the ridiculous powder days we had managed to sneak by without any photo sessions.

We thought that summer had arrived, but a storm is approaching now and is due to drop a couple more feet in the mountains. In honor of winter's conspicuous return, I'll offer two photos from a snowy walkabout in downtown Reno a few storms back.


Snowy River I


Snowy River II

Hopefully this marks the end of this current "lazy" spell on my part.

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