Been a bit of a lack of blogging lately but back to it now.. Few new crew have rolled up to tahoe including Hyna and Rob, also pelley has finally made his way here and the last few days it has been DUMPING snow.. The first storm left about a foot of windblown stuff in the backcountry and with the weather looking kinda overcast we made the call to at least try and get some so headed to blackwoods and setup the first cat-track gap.. We ummed and ahhed over it for a while, Rob being the main campaigner and before we new it the thing was good to go.  Theres always issues with speed on these things and this one was no different!. What went down first hit was easily the gnarliest and scariest thing i’ve ever seen – Rob sent it about 60 foot past the landing and ended up buried in the landing! Eventually dug his face out, he was purple and coughing up blood but survived! Away on a trip now but will post a vid when we get back..

The cat-track gap..

Building and that..

Another jump we built a while back..

We’ve been hanging around Tahoe this past week going out sledding and what not – a good little storm came through kind of unexpectedly so we decided to head up Donner pass for a hike only to find that it was completely wind blown and shitty..  Gutted we didn’t go sledding that day we we’re up early to catch it good the following morning – luckily we stopped at Truckee Bagel because when we stopped we released the trailer had cracked and we we’re 5mins away from losing the whole thing along with the sleds on the highway!  A quick stop at truckee rents and a new trailer appeared we made it out there by midday and spent the rest of the day building a jump ready for the next morning..

VB contemplates the broken trailer.. check out the back almost touching the ground!

Jye and Mikey..

Ferret starts the hike

Vaughan’s been blogging too about the last few days.. Click image above to check it..

 Stumbled across this vid from my lil digi cam.. Completely forgot about this so pretty funny when I found it.. maybe you had to be there? Gona post it anyway, I gave him 100 rupees and Rob made him dance, make sure you wait for his final move though it’s all time.. Well worth the $3..

Been pretty full on in Tahoe since India, I arrived back to a foot of snow in the streets of Reno which is fairly rare so it was straight into some rails for 2 days before finally getting back home to truckee.  Since then we’ve had a few days out sledding, the snows good up top and we got a couple of things done, more snow expected on wednesday so we will be out there thursday for sure…

Charles scopes the zone..

Cat track gap at blackwoods – snow in the landing was rubbish but sessioned it anyway..

Lips right at the top there..

So two weeks have passed since I left Reno bound for India – I wrote a post as soon as we arrived on the crazy couple of days we had travelling to Gulmarg but there wasn’t a chance of it being uploaded once we got there – The internet was reliant on one computer at the hotel which was reliant on the incredibly short supply of electricity so it didn’t take long for me to bail the idea of blogging all together.  Hard to describe the last two weeks really so instead theres a bunch of photos below.  I will make a couple of web videos as well once I decipher all this footage and log it all.  All in all an epic trip, crazy experience and lots of riding – definetely recommend going there!!

First impressions – Delhi

Packed in the taxi – Shrinagar -> Gulmarg

This was the busiest corner in Gulmarg – Careful not to get hustled here!

Phase 2 of the Gondola finally opens in the final hours of the trip! A run without camera bags was the best decision yet..

The local bar at the hotel opens 6pm daily!

We played cricket in Shrinagar – India vs NZ drew quite the crowd from the streets!

House boat – Dal Lake

Suns out!

View from our house boat apltly named ‘Fiji’

A couple nights ago things got out of hand.. We built a few features  in the backyard including a jump barrel bonk thing amongst a couple of other creations – we got pretty boozey and sessioned it into the morning.  All feeling pretty drained the next day somehow we dragged ourselves out to a rail and got another shot for the movie.  Things are a little slow at the moment filming wise as there are a few minor injuries on the go. Should pick up soon though.

A carefully created snow couch. Equipped with drink holders..

Setting up..

Barrel feature here and then straight into a tree stall thing..

Donner Lake

Before

After!

Went up donner pass today, this place is epic so much stuff to do here and it’s all just off the side of the road – cliffs, cornices, jump spots whatever your into its here.  The snow was pretty good so we setup this cliff that Charles has hit before.. It was all good to go by about 2pm but first hit Charles chucked a 5, over-rotated and bounced about 10 foot taking the entire landing with him along with his beanie and goggles which are somewhere buried in there – yip it slid.. So that was that! Was stoked to get up there though on such a nice day.. check out the before and after shots above

The first episode of the season, take a look behind the scenes in a week in a funny old place called minnesota; minneapolis to be precise.  This ole city isn’t much to look at but for a crew shooting a snowboard movie it’s better than Vegas – Handrails a plenty and theres lots of snow.  We struggled here and there for spots but phone calls we’re made and on the whole looking back the trip was successful.  Obviously just the B shots here and lifestyle, saving the goods for the movie..

Watch and enjoy if you want..

Been snowmobile shopping lately and it’s turned out to be a bit of a task but we are getting through it – this is Jye’s new purchase, not a bad investment at 16 yrs old?! Can’t wait to get out amongst it once we filter through the dodgy dealers and yes there are a few I feel.. Mikey gets his tommorow and Jye in the weekend, mines in the mix and hopefully next week also.. Can’t wait to get out in the backcountry next week.

Check the beast!