Central California

[~mikey b]

gonna get better

[~mikey b]

great day at DR with GiBo and his son

dude was skiing in his 20 year old tele boots that are falling apart

he’s got a hell of a great kid

[hopelesslyadolescent]

mikey b lives!

[~mikey b]

oh I’m alive

just not posting much these days

[GiBo]

great day at DR with GiBo and his son

dude was skiing in his 20 year old tele boots that are falling apart

he’s got a hell of a great kid

Thanks for hanging out Mike. You're a ski God to the boy. Wish we could have skied with big O too.

It was an interesting day skiing 20 plus year old Ener-g's with the bellows completely separated from the toe and the soles separated from both heals! Working on getting something to replace them.

[~mikey b]

5 & 5

after / before work uppies

[~mikey b]

some good changes at Bear Valley

the old Patrol Director was fired - so there will be a lot less of this



the best person for the job turned it down because he just wants to patrol not be a year round manager

the new PD is a long time patroller who will be really good for the patrol and for the ski area - he’s an awesome guy

shit will get done - Griz will get open more consistently -

Koala chair replacement is moving along nicely - new chair will turn when the old one couldn’t due to winds

I’m really excited to see what the new owners can do there - the place has never really lived up to its potential

[hopelesslyadolescent]

Drove by the resort after hiking on the PCT yesterday. All the new Koala towers are up and looking good. Excited about the coming season and beyond. We gonna see you down here this season, Mike?

[_SLY_]

some good changes at Bear Valley

Great news.

I feel like I've missed Grizz the last half-dozen times I've gone up there; seemingly without good reason. Always plenty of grumbling from other patrol folk and lifties that thought it should be open.

[~mikey b]

I’m sure I’ll hit BV and DR at some point


I only skied Sonora Pass a couple times last Spring and Summer after I moved - never went up Hwy 4 at all



and I don’t think I skied BV even once last Winter - that fucking drive

[~mikey b]

hey I want to give a shout-out to the guys in the sport shop at Dodge Ridge

when I was a patroller (for 12 years) they always took great care of me and my family with all of our weird tele, AT, and race gear

Booby Mackey is still the main shop boy, and Tyler and Ethan have continued to kill it

DR is really the only place in the Central Sierra where you can find good equipment and top notch service

they sell a few skis and boots that would work for sidecountry and touring, and they can order you anything in their dealers’ lines

they don’t sell AT bindings but they can order stuff for you

they can do AT and telemark mounts - when I moved to Truckee I gave the boys my Jigarex with a bunch of plates for bindings they didn’t have jigs for

if you wanted them to mount something for a binding they don’t have, they’d probably do it for free if you brought in and gave them the Jigarex plate for it

if you’re a Cali Pass skier you should go check em out

[Shred Baron]

Funny that Booby is still there. I taught snowboarding with him like 20 years ago. I lived down on Oakdale and would stay with his family on the weekends. Fuck now even I feel old, and I’m not that old.

[~mikey b]

Owen representing the Cali Pass

look for him working the DR terrain park crew this season

[parkmeister]

Dodge Ridge - Christmas Day 2024

[~mikey b]

fkna!

[GiBo]

Nice!

[skysos]

There was a chairlift fall at Bear Valley yesterday that resulted in a helicopter ambulance flight. It was on the Polar Express chair just after loading. Looked like maybe a 12' fall, so I was surprised it resulted in serious injuries. The length of the fall was extended a little by the fact that they fell directly into the creek bed which was completely covered but a little deeper than the surrounding terrain.

Don't know anything about the cause but there were tons of people that couldn't seem to count to 4 yesterday.

We were stuck at the bottom in a massive crowd for about 30 minutes. Patrol did a great job and assisted in lift line control after the chair got restarted.

Parking was completely full when we left at noon. A constant stream of people were coming in and being turned around.

The drive up from Arnold featured a long-ish wait for emergency vehicles clearing 2 pickups that went off the road on black ice between Arnold and Dorrington about 1/4 mile apart from each other.

I have a couple of suggestions for BV management:

#1: Plan your lift installations better. The new Koala quad chair is sitting there with only half the chairs on it. The rope was installed 2 month ago. I'm sure a load test and inspection still needs to be done even after the chairs are all installed so it's probably going to be several weeks before it runs.

#2: Run the Pooh Bear chair weekends and holidays. This is a no-brainer. It's just sitting there doing nothing on days when there are massive lines on the 2 main chairs.

I don't want to harsh too hard on BV because I've had some great days this year and we usually ski right on the lifts. Hopefully the holiday experience is an outlier. The December 14th storm skiing day was fantastic with endless powder runs on the entire front side.

[~mikey b]

heading to BV and DR midweek

[bobz]

I heard Twain Harte got a few inches out of this weekend's storm-let, but Dodge further up the hill somehow got zilch.

[~mikey b]

they’re sacrificing snocats at China Peak to make it snow I guess

[frorider]

D’oh

[~mikey b]

BV patrol was working hard down in Grizz today - they’ll be back at it early tomorrow, but upper mountain might be its own challenge

[bobz]

It was good to get back to Pear Lake for the first time in years… Sunny & warm, with fine spring snow (for a few hours until early afternoon anyway).














Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bobz]

Sonora Pass opens this coming Thursday.

[~mikey b]

https://youtu.be/swUT5RJN_dE?feature=shared
OB on the Y