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.

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

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.

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.

Surfing photos from the O'Neill competition and more here.

Wharf Halloween

During the Halloween's afternoon, all the wharf restaurants and shops opened their doors and offered candies for the kids.

Benoit, with Isabelle's help, created and sew his costume, the pig cowboy fairy.

Estelle Jordan.

Dylan Dunn.

That must be Claire.

Halloween Trick or Treat

Benoit and Lucas visited the neighborhood for the traditional Halloween Trick or Treat.

Our Halloween decoration, pretty good, not like the lawn.

Lucas disguise was a classic among the classic; Scooby-doo.

Nice carving.

Bishop Road Trip Summer 2009

Bishop is one of the favorite destination for climbers with top notch bouldering, sport and trade climb.

We camped a few night during the summer and checked out the natural hot springs.

Lucas climbing that nice slaby 5.8 route.

Beautiful scenery can be seen off the high way 395.

Benoit and Lucas posing in front of old furniture that can be seen at the Train museum Bishop.

Natural hot spring with warn but not too warm water. Life is good.

Some more hot spring to warm to take a bath.

Benoit Soccer 4-1

Benoit's soccer team had not won a single game this season but that was before this game.

They played at night on a very large field which somehow suited their style. Benoit played quite amazing like his all team who defended like never before.

Time to pick up the shirt.

Benoit could not be stopped. Don't even try, it is hopeless.

Larger field is good since it stretches the lines and creates space.

They play for fun but winning adds to it.