Dobleve

We’ve had some spectacular snow this year in Granada in the Sierra Nevadas just 30 minutes away from downtown. The snow began in early November and hasn’t let up – quite a change from most years where it isn’t really skiable until January and even then it can be iffy.

Last week was a perfect combination of good snow and a sunny clear day, so I headed to the mountains with my friend Ryan, a solid telemark skier who loves to find untracked snow as much as I do. We had a fantastic weekday day with no crowds.

I’ve skied this mountain for the last 2 years and hadn’t ever been impressed – there hasn’t been much snow the last few years and going down groomers of man-made snow is not my idea of skiing; the last 2 years I only went skiing 4 times. For those of you that know me, I used to ski 35-40 days a year when I lived in Seattle, so I had lots of unexpected free time the last few winters. With real snow, the mountain is a completely different place, it has a good mix of steeps and off-piste slopes as well as a huge terrain to choose from. Definitely enough to keep you interested and coming back to discover new areas. This year I’ll be spending a lot more time on the mountain if the snow holds up!

Ryan and I found a great slope with hardly any tracks that we went down once to scope out; on our return trip there was a minor mishap. I jumped in and was having a great run through fresh snow; at the end of the run I hit some crusty snow and the nose of my board dove in and stuck, sending me for a nice fall. I wasn’t hurt (aside from my pride), but rolled over to find a little problem…

My trusty Flow binding split in half at the baseplate. I loved these bindings, unfortunately they don’t make them any more. Getting down the mountain was a bit of a challenge with just one working binding but it all worked out in the end. Anyone got a recommendation for a replacement binding?