The jumping family

One more time, we skied at Bear Valley. Benoit and Lucas are enjoying the terrain park with its nice features.

Benoit taking off.
Benoit shows good control in the air (for his age).

Nice board :)
Solid indy grab.



Lucas has no fear. He is showing some skills for a 4 years old.

Thomas on the slope. Thomas is Benoit's buddy. Daniel is Lucas' buddy and Thomas is Daniel's brother.

Lunch break at Planet Granite

During the lunch break, you find at the Planet Granite climbing gym the same climbers. Some of whom, I know for several years now.

Robert is probably the strongest of all who does not lack technical skills.


Robert resting and relaxing between tries.

Robert working the lower (and easier) moves on the white V8.

Robert sending the yellow tape V7. Next time, I'll make it (may be).

Eric working the yellow V7 route. It was time He moved away from V5.

Brian getting a bit confused in this blue V4 route. He did send it second go.

Brian working the overhanging V4 green tape. May be next week :)

Ken almost sending the white V2 route.

Richard working the crux of that nice V2 black route. Next time, He'll try switching his feet.

Bear Valley Photo

The photos were taken by the Bear Valley photographer team in the last few weeks.


Benoit and Christophe one the lift chair which brought us to the top of the resort. You cannot miss my board, a brand new Santa Cruz board.



Getting warmed up at the terrain park.

Benoit ready to take his class.

Lucas ready for his class.


Lucas in action.

Bear Valley snowboarding trip

After the huge storm in the Sierra, Bear Valley has received about 1.8 meters of fresh snow. Here are the photo from your ski weekend.

The lift chair will bring you to the top of the resort.


The terrain park with jump and grind.

Lucas and Claire unloading from the Cub lift chair.

Lucas and Benoit are testing the fresh snow while waiting for the grind teachers. Bear Valley offers free progression classes for young skiers and snowboarders willing to learn how to grind and jump.
Benoit and I were the only registered snowboarders and were lucky enough to have Dean (from Australia) as a teacher. Note: in fact Dean owns the terrain park and put all the jumps and grinds together.

Benoit 50-50.

Benoit 50-50 just by himself.

Life is good, Benoit did not even to have to take the lift chair.

Lucas 50-50 with Chris.

Lucas board slide.

Life is good take II.

Christophe learning board slide.

Christophe board slide the 6 meters box.

Planet Granite climbing

The weather looks more and more a winter weater with cold, wind and snow (on the mountains). We, therefore, settled for indoor climbing at Planet Granite in Santa Clara.

Their climbing gym is fantastic with bouldering, sport climb, crack climbing and moreover they are kids friendly.

Igor and I having a chat before climbing some hard routes.

Yellow tape route looked hard but was no so bad :)

Igor's son, Antony is Benoit and Lucas' buddy.

Benoit likes big holds on overhanging routes.

Lucas is the most natural climber of all. Only 4 but already quite agile.

Lucas scooting the holds before the final assault.

Going up is fun but going down is even more fun.

Benoit warming up in this not so easy route.

Claire is back climbing and She still does not like the sloper. It must run in the family.

Brian, Rob, Brit and I enjoying the global warming at Castle Rock

Brian and I met Rob and Brit at Indian Rock which is part of the Castle Rock state park early morning on Sunday. We first warmed up at the Nazi boulder which features nice slabish route. Soon after Rob and Brit joined us and we climbed new routes at Indian rock. The weather was so great that it felt we were in June or something.


Brian cruzing the slab, not like me since I spend too much time indoor climbing and my footwork is suffering.

Nice colors.

Rob sending a new route (at least it looks like) near Ash boulder. The top was quite challenging I should say because between the mud and the moss it was kind of hard to find the holds.

Brian looking for holds, just on his right though.

I was the last to send the route (definitively not my style but fun anyway). Thanks to Rob for taking the photo.

Brian is resting his fingers after that nice morning climb so He can finish his "small" house projects (thanks Andrea for letting "l'esclave de la vigne" going out climbing with us).

French Santa Claus

Isabelle came back from France with gifts from the French "pere Noel". The kids had fun opening the boxes and playing with the Meccano.

French Santa Claus was kind of late. He probably got stuck at the airport.

Benoit reads books now. French books are going to be even more fun.


Lucas is just checking... We never know, maybe Benoit is going to get some candy.

Lego, Meccano and you cannot go wrong.