Bear Valley Back Country Ski/Snowboard Trip

The 2009/2010 ski season came finally to an end late May with the last trip to Bear Valley. We started the weekend by getting the equipments (snow shoes, beacons...) to MAS at Bear Valley Village.

On Sunday not so early morning, we hiked up Super Cub, Spring Gap to the top of Porridge bowl, where the kids warmed up on the cornice.

We then, dropped Cliff Run to reach Mickey's meadow.

Since the snow was getting too wet on that side of the mountain, we made some fun runs from the top of Snoopy Dog hill.

The video was shot with an iPod nano and edited with Final Cup Pro. Enjoy.

Music from The National, Song England.

Santa Cruz Breakers U9 Soccer Tournament

Lucas played 4 games 8v8 with his team from the Breakers during the weekend. It was only the second time that they played 8v8. They won one game and lost 3 (2 of them by only one goal).

The dream team

By the end of the game, all the players come to thanks the referees.

Santa Cruz French Bakery

A few treats that I baked for the Breakers soccer tournament. The brioche Vendeenne is a specialty of the French west coast.

Brioche Vendeenne, Madeleines and walnut bread.

Bear Valley Back Country Trip - May 2010

For the last trip at Bear Valley, we hiked up to the top of the ski resort with snow shoes. It took us about 1 hour. Benoit and Lucas warmed up by jumping the cornice. We finished up the day by a few runs of Snoopy hill.


Lucas is getting ready. The snow shoe ended up too large for him, so he hiked up with his ski boots. Not a problem, since the snow was icy enough.

View to the Bear Valley lodge

Lucas off the cornice. They did not jump from the highest point because of the risk that the cornice will collapse!

Benoit "Flying" off the cornice.

Benoit can be seen on the top of the hill.

Full Rainbow Santa Cruz Bay

First time that I have ever seen a full rainbow over the Santa Cruz bay.

Sun rise over Cowell beach.

Santa Cruz Board Walk

Digital photography has been increasingly popular in the last decade or so. Nevertheless, the time has come, for me, to remove the dust from my 40 years old mom's camera and go shooting. It was quite an experience!

Possibly one of my best picture in a long time.

Lucas, Claire and Benoit posing in front of an old building.

Bay View Santa Cruz School

School Play ground

Santa Cruz West Side Sunrise Sunset

A few photos from the west side of Santa Cruz during the sunrise and sunset. Enjoy.






Who knows who got the best pictures? I bet I did :)

Santa Cruz In Hotel

Bear Valley Sledding

Bear Valley Village in background

Benoit Snowboarding at Bear Valley

Benoit has been snowboarding for a long time now. Check out those 2 videos, the first was shot during the nightwings events and the second by Austin Jones.





Check Benoit talking to the camera near the end of the movie.

Mikeys Meadow - Bear Valley Celebration

Bear Valley honored and celebrated Mike Young (Bear Valley sport director), who passed away just before the start of the season.

The celebration started with a mini park session with snowboard and ski instructors. Check Tyler Skivington under flip as well as Chris Johnson front flip.

Benoit decided to ski instead of snowboard and since he has skied at most a hand full of time in his life, it was epic.

The second part of the video shows the torchlight parade where skiers and snowboarder created a river of fire on Bear Valley slopes.
Finally, Sam Nilsen unveiled the Mikey's Meadow where all the instructors meet before the class.

Music is from MGMT, album Oracular Spectacular, song Kids.

Arnold Sunset

After a nice day at the slope at Bear Valley, we stopped at Arnold to get some foods. Just as we exited the market, I noticed the amazing colors and was thinking, "I wish I had my camera" but I did have my camera with me. So, I just rushed to the car, grabbed my camera and set the ND filter and adjust a few settings. Since the Arnold market is not the most sexy place on earth, I underexposed the picture so we could just barely see the car, and not overexposed the sky.

Check the double rainbow.