Out of the office, will be back soon...

We are still alive and well, just been either too busy or too lazy to update stuff. So here are a few pics and synopsis of what has been going on around here...


2009-2010 winter has been a good one around the Kern River Valley. The normal El Nino pattern here is wet and warm; for some reason, the latest rendition of El Nino has been wet and cold. Normally we have to do most of our skiing above 8000 feet, but this year's low elevation snowline has opened up some new territory for us, namely Spirit Bowl.

Mike Breaking Trail to the top

Spirit Rock is a granite outcrop near the top of the Sherman Pass (at least the part that they plow in the winter) and has a nice north facing slope. Marc, Mike, Andrew, Rebecca and I got a chance to get on it one day with a nice fresh dump of snow.

Sorry Andrew, I didn't have any good pictures of you skiing, so this will have to do

A look at Spirit Bowl from the top - Spirit Rock is to the left

Mike with Spirit Rock in the Background

All in all it was a super day; good sn0w, good folks, good workout...

Marc shredding his spirit

One of the more entertaining aspects of this ski is the exit across a creek and up the hill back to the car. Some folks decide to ditch their skis and jump across, others tried to make a snow bridge.

Um... how did you get across?

"Back in Canada we simply walk on water" - Marc Vernon

We all eventually made it across with varying levels of sucess and skinned our way back to the car. Who says Kernville is best enjoyed in the Summer!

Cedar Creek Ride

With an extended period of nice weather in Kernville, we decided to hit up a high elevation ride one more time before winter. It was a beautiful day for late November; mid 70's in Kernville and 65 + in the high country - Cedar Creek was the destination.

We had a nice crew; Rebecca, Dave, Allison, Chris, Andrew and myself. We started at Sherman pass overlook and rode up over the snow, downed logs and rocks to get to Sherman Peak. The views were spectacular! After a brief snack (we had just started our ride) we descended into corral meadow (broken chain) and then down the Durwood drainage (flat tire) to the Rincon trail (another flat tire). From there we took an extremely exposed mining trail down to the four-mile trail (plunge over the edge, luckily everything ended up OK), afterward we rode out along the river (another flat tire for good measure). A nice night with friends at the brewery finished it off. All in all a spectacular ride with an amazing array of terrain and challenges. Enjoy some of the pictures from the day!