Whether it's truly El Nino or just snow dances paying off in spades, Lake Tahoe got hit hard by a snowstorm yesterday and today. It's a much needed boost, both in terms of the snow pack and general attitude, for it's a lot easier to get excited about winter and ski season when things are actually covered in snow.
Despite all the giddiness about powder snow, I didn't ski at the resorts today. Yes, there is 3 feet of new snow at the higher elevations, but there was a lot of bare dirt (and rocks) at the ski resorts before this storm, so I'd rather wait until there's a better payoff. And lower risk of hitting a rock and hurting my already decrepit self.
Instead, the dog and I explored our meadow, which just a few days ago was bare dirt in many places. I spent an hour breaking trail in light and pristine shin deep snow, then enjoyed the fruits of my labors and skied back on said track.
Heck, I was so blissed out by the new snow that I didn't even say anything rude to the lazy-ass chick who was walking in my ski track. Talk about her lucky day.
We're dog sitting for friends this week. Their lab, Otis, is about Soleil's age, but has pretty much submitted to her since they first met. When at our place, this translates into us regularly shooing Soleil off his enormous bed, as Otis won't get on it if she's on it (and it's so much more attractive to her than her relatively small bed). In many respects the two behave like a dysfunctional married couple, alternating who gets to play the role of curmudgeon.
Early winter at Lake Tahoe tends to result in recreational limbo. There’s not enough snow to ski beyond the few resort groomers, and there’s too much snow on the trails to mountain bike or hike.
So low-expectation explorations are required if one doesn't want to head to lower elevations for snow-free trails. On Sunday we headed out to Carson Pass, near Kirkwood, for some low-angle touring with the dog. We knew it would be rocky, but were a bit surprised by just how many were still visible. After negotiating the approach to Winnemucca Lake (usually much easier in deeper snow pack), we decided to attempt skinning up towards the saddle next to Round Top. Conditions were bare enough for us to quickly recognize the folly of that goal. So after a few hundred feet of up, we headed down. It was a nasty, brutish descent, with wind affected snow that didn’t do much to hide the rocks lurking underneath, and some ugly survival skill like turns on my part.
But it was a glorious day to be out, and it was nice to feel the rhythm of skinning again, even if it was mostly cross-country.
Because my life isn't full enough with work, teaching, playing and my feeble attempt at finding balance, I've started writing about telemark and backcountry skiing in the Lake Tahoe region for Examiner.com.
Check it out - and don't worry, I'll still be ranting about stupidity and posting photos of my latest culinary disaster here.
Ski season has finally started at Lake Tahoe, with the openings of Mt. Rose, Heavenly, Northstar-at-Tahoe and Squaw Valley this week. N and I actually had plans to head to Mammoth (which has been open since October), but his asymptomatic manflu reared up again, leaving him with no desire to move, much less drive 2+ hours to ski - especially after a snowstorm left the roads a bit messy, and the mountains with upwards of 6 inches of new snow.
Our older house had gifted us with a few surprises over the years, but nothing dramatic like rodent infestations or exploding pipes. [knock wood]
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
The weeks before ski season always leave me in an uncomfortable state of limbo. The days are too short - and cold - for any long mountain bike rides, and hiking requires more layers and planning. Add to that a stupid injury (mine), the start of a bad cold (N) and unusual arctic temps, and we realized our options were limited this weekend. In the end we headed to Fallen Leaf Lake, an area neither of us had been to recently.
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
While cynics may claim this is but a dusting, last night's storm brought a few inches of snow to our house at lake level, and the resorts are reporting up to 6 inches.
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