Saturday, January 29, 2011

January Thaw



After the wettest December on record for most of the Southern Sierra, January followed up with it's normal precipitation let-down. We're talking goose eggs for precipitation, nada, donuts, the little boy who cried zilch. On the plus side we have had some beautiful weather; sunny and 65 has been the norm for about 3 weeks now. With all the snowpack built up in December, we were getting some spring like conditions on the rivers - time to hit the water!

January? Really?


Last year in March we had our Hospital Rock for Desperate Souls low water adventures. Here we were two months earlier in the season with slightly higher flows and super nice weather. Geno, Dave and myself were all able to sneak away from other obligations on a Wednesday and enjoy a spectacular day trip into Sequoia National Park.



Geno descending the stair rapid


It was Dave's first trip down this classic run and we had to keep an eye out for any changes that resulted from the December foods; still we made good time on the river. Luckily there were no new hazards left by the high water, if anything some of the drops had actually cleaned up.




Geno Hanging it out on Table Rock



The flows were relatively low, measured at 178 cfs at the zero-to-sixty guage, but everything other than 420 rapid was still good to go and fun. Dave nailed pretty much everything on his first time down and Geno got the photo of the day on Table Rock.


Dave drops off the Table



Dave checks out Super Boof

After getting to the diversion we found that there was no diversion, so Zero-to-Sixty was pretty prime to go. After not getting to run it at all last year due to water level, I was excited to get on it again.

The Author enters Zero to Sixty


All in all it was another great day on the Kaweah, hard to believe that we still have two more months to go until April...









Sunday, January 2, 2011

Holiday Cheers



Winter weather has come early this year in Kernville. We are already measuring a little over 70% of the April 1 Snowpack in the Southern portion of the Sierra. In the middle of the month we were boating on high water; at the end of the month the snow levels dropped, so it was time to break out the skis. We got a couple of nice adventures in; one on Christmas Eve and another on New Year's Eve. We just wanted to share a couple of pictures celebrating the close of 2010 with good friends and an amazing place we are lucky enough to call home.


Rebecca and Rose getting ready for a Giant Adventure


Playing Reindeer Games with the General Sherman Tree in the background


The only way to travel




Lunch at Congressional Grove



Pass the Holiday Cheer Please!



Merry Christmas Rick!


Rebecca and Rick are both expecting?!




Unlike the trees themselves, seeing Giant sequoia's never gets old.



The End of Another Great Day in the Southern Sierra



Andrew and Mark Scouting the Ascent



20 Minutes into the 2+ hour Climb



Keji Finds a Better Route



The Definition of a Blue-Bird Day



Nearing the top of the Embry Bowl


Andrew Earning his Turns



Lindey Perfecting the Sitzmark





Some Icicles on a Limestone Formation



Self Portrait - I call this one "Happy"