California - Skiing the 4th of July Weekend - Sunday

Happy 4th of July!

I after returning from Canada I decided to go up to Mammoth Mountain for their last weekend of skiing for the season. I was originally planning to drive up Saturday so that I could ski Sunday and Monday, but I was still tired from my Canada trip so I decided to go to stay in LA on Saturday and then get up early Sunday morning and make the drive up to Mammoth. Sunday morning I was still moving a bit slowly and didn't get on the road until 5:30. But I still managed to get to Mammoth and hit the slopes by 11:00 for a couple hours of skiing.

It was amazing how much snow had melted since I was here two weeks ago. The bottom of the mountain was pretty much all melted with only small snow paths made by the snowcats to get to the lift. But once you got to the top of the mountain there was quite a bit of snow. There were two chairlifts and the gondola running.

July 4th and still skiing

There was lots of snow on top of the mountain, but getting to the bottom was a little trickier

I think this guy made a wrong turn and ran out snow

Bikinis and Bikes

This guy was having a good time

Lately I've been trying to shoot time lapse movies of the stars. So after skiing I decided to find a good location where I could camp out and set my camera up. I ended finding a spot in the mountains above Bishop that gave me a nice view of the Owens Valley, Bishop and the Sierra Nevada mountains.

My camp for the night

The stars above Bishop

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 7

It's Canada Day!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very good on the glacier for the last day of camp, it was raining and snowing with bad visibility. And even worse then weather was that my legs had turned into wet noodles, all of the skiing and mountain biking had finally caught up to me. So I skied for a little while, but decided that it was better to quit early before I hurt myself.

Jeff really enjoyed the air-bag

To get to the glacier at the top of the mountain where the ski camp terrain park is located was a bit work each day. We would have to take one chairlift, then walk about 100 feet to another chairlift. At the top of that chairlift we would get on a but that would drive us around the mountain to where we would get on a third chair lift to the top of the mountain. The whole process took about 45 minutes. But one of the cool things about riding the lower chairlifts was that we would almost always see bears and sometimes deer.

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 6

Day 6 of camp and an we had a couple of inches of fresh snow overnight. The snow cats were supposed to groom the camp's terrain park overnight, but there was some kind of problem that prevented that from happening. So the weather and the lack of grooming made it tough to do much in the park, so we did some runs on Seventh Heaven instead while the digger worked on getting the terrain park back into shape.

Me skiing in the fresh powder

Eventually the terrain park was in good enough shape to start hitting some jumps.

Jeff going for a grab

Me going for a grab

Jeff hitting the airbag

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 5

For some reason I have no photos from skiing for today, but I'm sure that we did something incredibly cool and gnarly. After skiing Jeff, Pinky and I hit the downhill mountain bike park again.

Me hitting a jump on Heart of Darkness

Pinky landing after a rock drop

Me hitting a small creek jump

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 4

Today is a break day at camp, so no skiing. That means we have a bit of a chance to rest and recover and to do some more downhill mountain biking. The weather was a little rainy, but it was not too bad. Jeff and I were joined by Stephanie, one of the camp councilors and a rockin' downhill mountain biker. She showed us around and gave us a few pointers.

Stephanie and Jeff

Me hitting one of the jumps on A-Line

It's me!

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 3

Day three at the momentum ski camp. One of the cool new features at camp this year is the giant air-bag like what stuntmen use when jumping off a building. The air-bag is placed behind a big jump so that skiers can hit the jump, try new tricks and land safely in the air-bag. It was a bit scary at first, but pretty fun.

Finally, a photo of me! Trying a 360 with a big grab into the air-bag

Sequence of Jeff trying the air-bag

Another day of skiing and another day of downhill mountain biking. Today we're joined by Pinky.

Pinky going over a rock drop on A-Line

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 2

Day two of ski camp and the digger were still working on the jumps, so it was mostly rails again.

Sequence of Jeff hitting the Up/Down rail

During the sumer, one of the things Whistler is known for is their downhill mountain bike park. Jeff and I start riding downhill mountain bikes a couple of years ago when we were at ski camp and every year we're spending more and more of the time we're not skiing in the bike park. We'll ski until early afternoon, then switch our ski gear for mountain biking gear and hit the bike park. Jeff's gotten so into downhill mountain biking that he's bought his own bike.

Jeff hitting one of the wall rides on Crank it Up

I like to try some of the local food when I travel and in Canada it was Poutine, french fries topped with cheese curd and then covered with gravy. It was good and not as scary was raw horse or fugu.

Poutine

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 1

I'm up in Whistler Canada attending the Momentum Freeride Ski Camp. I've come to Whistler during the summer for the last few years to attend one of the ski camps and always have a good time.

I'm rooming with Jeff again this year. He's sporting a new Kermit the Frog look for his ski outfit, so he's always easy to see on the hill.

Day one started with most of the jumps unfinished, so we spent most of the time working on riding rails.

Unfortunately, since I'm usually the one taking the pictures, I don't have a lot of photos of myself at camp.

Jeff hitting one of the rails.

Canada - The Offspring

While I was in Vancouver I went to see the band The Offspring play at the Vogue Theater.

Canada - Vancouver

I'm in Vancouver Canada for a couple of days before heading up to Whistler to attend the freeride ski camp that I've been going to for the last few years.

Los Angeles - Corpse Flower

I went to see that blooming Corpse Flower at the Huntington Library. Unfortunately the flower was already closing.

California - Glen Helen USGP

Los Angeles - New Apartment

I'm moving into a new apartment.

Singapore - Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Singapore - St. Andrew's Cathedral

Singapore - Night Safari

One problem that zoos have is that many animals are not active during the hottest part of the day when most of the visitors are there. The Singapore Zoo solved this problem by creating the world's first nocturnal zoo called Night Safari. It's a smaller zoo adjacent to the main Singapore Zoo, but it's only open at night when the animals are most active.

It was really interesting to see the animals move around at night. But it was also really difficult to take photos of the animals because flashes are not allowed.