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.

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.

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.

Bear Valley Back Flip Session

Matt Geenlee, Corey Sciotto, James Young and Shamus have step up their game with this back flip session on Blue Jay (Bear Valley). A fairly steep kicker was built the day before that video was shot. You'll see Matt, Corey, James and Shamus (snowboard) landing their first ever back flip (barrel roll).
The video also feature a "Bail" sequence with the 1 and 1/2 flip from Corey, the not quite a flip by James, 360 attempt by Lucas (7 years) and Benoit big air crash...

Bear Valley Opening Day 2009/2010

4 feet of powder for the opening day of the 2009/2010 season at Bear Valley. Jake Casey, Benoit Rouchy, Lucas Rouchy, Tyler Doyle, Lance Doyle, Matt Greenlee, Corey Sciotto, Travis Jeitz and others show their skills on natural and man made features. Not to be miss is the front flip tentative by Matt Greenlee during his warm up run.

Bear Valley Paint Ball at Chris Johnson Cabin

Bear Valley DEVO Pizza

Photo by Martin

For the last DEVO meeting of the year, the DEVO team snowboarded down the home run to Bear Valley village for a Pizza, drink and games.

From left to right: April, Benoit, Jessica, Austin, Jake, Tyler and in the background, you can guess, Jamie, Riley, Corey and Travis.

From left to right, Ziggy (former DEVO), Jake, Jeff, Ashley and Jessica.

Corey, Riley, Tyler and Jamie.

Katie, Lance, Tyler and Martin.

Tim, Vicky, Olivier, Tricia.

Cyd, Claire and Tim.

Jones family.

John, Martin and Charlotte.

Estelle, Charlotte and John Skiing at Bear Valley

John and Charlotte on the magic carpet.

Estelle working on her French fries.

Bear Valley Jump Session

Benoit, Lucas and I built a jump in the backside of Bear Valley. Benoit and Lucas tried a few 180 FS and BS.
Check the back flip tentative by Lucas :)

Benoit is Turning 9

Francois prepared that fancy cake for Benoit.

Christmas at Arnold (Bear Valley)

Yes, I know, Christmas has happened already a month ago. Better late than never, here are the pictures.

Lucas is warming up before Christmas.

iPods have been in fashion lately.

iPods can play musics, games and movies. Live is good.

Lego, Indiana Jones and Star Wars (classic).

Lucas at Bear Valley with Cody

At the beginning of the ski season, Lucas was part of Cody's group. The photo were taken by Sandy.

Lucas on Super Cub

Lucas on Tiger back side?

Bear Valley Devo Team

Benoit switch jump over the log.

Check out the new pictures from last weekend at Bear Valley here.

Bear Valley Ski Trip

Check out the new snowboarding pictures from our Bear Valley trip here.

Tamarack Bouldering

Tamarack bouldering can be found a few miles before Bear Valley village. A few weeks ago, I noticed that nice horizontal crack which was a bit high (15 feet). We came back prepared with a rope and a few slings, so we could set up an anchor.
The anchor was flaky but the kids managed to climb half of the route and the anchor did not blew off.

Rope and bouldering do not match too well! Trying to remember the anchor class 101.

Natural rest!

View from Bear Valley resort. The snow is on its way!

Bear Valley Bouldering

Bear Valley winter season is approaching fast. We meet at Bear Valley to discuss about the Devo Team. If the snow is on time, we will be on the slope for the first weekend of December.

On Saturday night, we spend the night at Murphys in. They must have taken that frog from Angel camp.

We are standing in front of our cabin in Arnold that we rent for the winter season.

Benoit and Lucas are ready :)

After the meeting, Robert and the kids had a fun bouldering session at Bear Valley. The weather was perfect with a temperature around 60 degree.

Benoit has a great crack climbing technique.

Lucas with his new hat.

Bear Valley Summer Time

Claire and I spend the 4 of July at Bear Valley . We visited Bear Valley Resort and Mosquito lake.

Nice stream north Mosquito lake.

A patch of snow left from the winter.

Mokelumne from Bear Valley.

Claire posing near Alpine Lake.