Hola La Niña!

This is out of order, but here's one of the final snow tests Josh conducted in the backcountry near Alpental. Notice the block of snow below him, which slid on what appeared to be a weaker hoar frost layer without breaking after Josh cut on the snow above. Not surprisingly, I-90's been closed twice in as many days due to avalanches.
When you see this at the parking lot, you know it's going to be good...
Josh Wozniak skinnin' up.
There's been a bit of snow here as of late.
A winter wonderland.
We didn't expect to see so much new snow so Josh dug a snow pit to analyze the conditions.
Here's the two feet of powder on top of a weak ice layer of hoar frost (running along the bottom of the picture).
A closer view of the poorly consolidated hoar frost layer responsible for us getting out of the backcountry.
A small avalanche in progress coming off the cliffs - great lunch time entertainment (from a distance).

We finished the afternoon at Alpental (the much safer resort alternative) amongst the frozen trees. Not too bad...

These photos are from Stevens Pass on Saturday. Conditions were pretty darn good with a lot of powder, from top to bottom. Definitely bringing me back to my SLC days. With the Saturday crowds out in force, the backcountry beckoned in the afternoon, and provided plenty of serious pow pow shots at the end of the day.

Life's good out here now.
Mitch with a self-inflicted powder cap in the power line hole.

Please stay out of the tree wells, Mitch...
George in the midst of some serious powder.
A nice arete with George leading the way.
George Iftner with my favorite backcountry bowl in the background.
The sun trying to break through.
And the sun finally came out on the last run. Good visibility, good times...

A good shot of Ann-Marie Nguyen
Mitch and Sangeun
Elise Ngo
Robert Durff
Morgan and Amy Koemm


Due to the closure of Mt. Baker over the MLK weekend (they got about 10 feet of snow in about 5 days or so), George and I did some limited backcountry snowboarding, which was short but sweet...

California in late December: nice.
The newly rebuilt (thanks for the info CJ) de Young museum. Definitely check it out if you're in the SF area.


SF in the fog, unfortunately.
Me.
My bro with Oscar.
Mary with Oscar and Cosmo


Some swanky-swank houses in the Presidio...


Ultra swank.


Christmas eve prep at my bro's place.
Christmas in downtown SF
A good shot of my brother and brother in law(?) Paul Piciocchi near Monterey.
A good shot taken by Paul Piciocchi.


My bro's property that he's fixing up in Temezcal in Oakland.