Bay Area Skiing TR: Mt. St. Helena, Napa County, 1-19

[Walter Sobchak]

Mt. St. Helena rises to 4300 feet above the town of Calistoga, about 75 miles north of San Francisco:



Napa County's Mr. Plow gets a rare day of work at the trailhead:



A lone skintrack to the right (laid down by jibmaster, who's skied this mountain before with better snow), plus various foot prints, mtb tracks, truck tracks:



It was wintry up top, but the snow wasn't very deep. North peak from near south peak:



South peak from near north peak:



Nice terrain off the north side, not enough snow:



Geysers chute (compare to jibmasters T-tips pics), not enough snow:



I "skied" this "run" under the power lines:



From the top:



I was able to link my first-ever Bay Area turns from south peak down to the fire road. Most turns were accompanied by a horrible scraping sound.



I kept my skis on down the fire road to about 3,000 feet. 80 percent of the time there was actually snow -- just not here:



All in all, a fun outing. It was nice to see the city and the bay, Mt. Tam, and the ocean with skis on. And to be home for dinner after a short drive with over half a tank of gas left.

[skier666]

NAPA REPRAZENT

[powstash]

a fine outing indeed

[Walter Sobchak]

I almost forgot the bonus fun on the way down ... as I approached the road from the the top of south peak I heard lots of shouting and laughter. When I turned the corner of the fire road I saw a guy in a Raiders jacket shouting "C'mon, do it!" -- a sure sign of impending injury and entertainment.



So the dude up top sits his ass on the saucer ....



And slams straight into the rock to his right and tumbles down the rest of the way. Go Raider Nation!

[freshies]

fackin' classic, the Raider Nation at play! Made me laugh hard....