Lo.... The Snowman Commeth!

All it took was a drive down to the Bay Area, and Mother Nature decided to change her tune!  And I thought washing my car and giving away a few winter coats would cause the clouds to appear.  I'll have to leave Tahoe more often.

Click here to read the Tahoe Weather Geek's Weather Analysis

It's looking like a foot of snow by Wednesday night.

And if you can't remember what powder skiing looks like, check out this video created by Nat Fay.  He and I had helmet cams mounted on Feb 15th, which was the last day with significant fresh snow at Northstar.  It includes some good wipeouts and a few attempts to get some air.  In case you're curious, I'm wearing the blue coat with a horizontal white stripe mid-back, and my skis are red.  Yes,  I do wipe out in a pretty comical way, but at least it wasn't in uniform!

Northstar California Powder Day 15th Feb 2012 from Nathaniel Fay on Vimeo.

Video shot at Northstar California, Lake Tahoe, California, USA. Skiers are: Liane Fang, Jay Palace & Nat Fay.
Nat Fay was the principal editor of the video and the footage was shot with Jay's Go Pro and Nat's Contour Plus helmet cams.

What's it like to be a ski instructor? Funny photo and Video

Here's a viral image going around Facebook which shows what people think our lives are like and what they're really like.  I absolutely love it!

But, what I really do is have a ton of fun whether I'm teaching kids or adults.

If you want to find out what it's like, one way would be to take a lesson, even if you're already quite good.  We have a lesson called a "Rise & Shine" because it runs from the moment the lifts open at 8:30 to 9:30.  These lessons are great for upper level skiers who want to have their skiing assessed and get one or two things to work on to improve their skiing.

For a video taste, check out these two video clips of Bob Andres, a Rise and Shine client from earlier this week.  As I often do, I shot video during the lesson, and I'm sharing it here with Bob's permission so that he can see what he was working on, and show off how he's been ripping up our great groomers at Northstar this week.

Here's video two:

Another Ski Movie Trailer - Spies at Northstar!

Nat Fay is still visiting from Australia, and he continues to need to borrow my car.... so, he's continuing to help me craft some videos for some of the great kids I ski with, and their moms and dads.

This one ranks up there with the one of Mina, the snow-dancer, because it includes shots of both Olivia and Cole doing their own ski-dance, and in one clip, Mom is joining in.

Thanks, Nat, and great skiing, Cole & Olivia!

PS... It snowed 6 inches yesterday, and we expect another good hit of snow tonight.  Things are looking good for President's Week.  I've been booked up for a while, but have had one family give up three lesson blocks. If anyone wants to do some skiing, give me or the office a shout at 530-562-3848.  Available times are Tuesday afternoon (2/21) and all day on Friday, (2/24).

Cheers,

Jay

Kids ski, kids fall and my GoPro captures the moments

First... because everyone keeps asking.... Yes! We have tons of great snow at Northstar.  It's not last year, but it's better than any skiing I did as a kid in Vermont and New Hampshire.

And... the forecast is calling for 6-12 inches by end of day on Monday.

And... my GoPro has been getting a work-out during all the lessons we've got going on.

Thankfully, my friend and former NS Instructor, Nat Fay, is visiting from Australia, where he teaches video editing.

So, here's the movie trailer he helped make.... It stars two twins (A & Z) who will remain nameless here in this searchable text (by parental request and out of respect for a little wipe-out which might cause one of them some angst when she's old enough for a FaceBook account)

PS -  "A" did all of her own stunts, and most of them in only one take.
PPS -  No children were hurt during the making of this video.
PPPS - The views on this blog and in the video are my own personal thoughts.  In no way am I representing Northstar, Vail Resorts or the Northstar Ski School  (but the company loves helping families create memories like these, I'm sure!)

Mina Saves the Season!

A few weeks ago, we were worried the ski season would be a total loss, with no natural snow on the horizon and temperatures hovering too high for Northstar's snowmakers.

But after one small but special skier returned to Northstar after we thought we'd lost her to Squaw, things started looking up... check out this trailer for the movie documenting the miracle!