The Altenberg's Snowboard Odyssey

Whelp, my finger and arm are broken... But not before an excellent day of riding with Jon Kulpit. We shredded an ultimate blue bird powder day at Heavenly and the conditions were most excellent. At the end of day (we were literally headed back to the car which was parked on the California side) I ended up falling into a tree well and hitting a massive pine tree. It has been a very humbling experience, I was lucky to escape with minimal injuries and should be able to ride again soon. The major bummer is the fractured left radius and right middle finger leaves me feeling like Edward Scissorhands, which also makes it hard to type. So sorry for the lack of blog updating! The view on the traverse from the California side to the Nevada side Dipper Trees, Nevada Side Sarah and Sage stayed behind with Sarah Prins and her two boys, Ray and Ivan. I’m going to hand the reigns over to Sarah here so she can tell you all about it. She will also type a lot faster and get this b...

Yesterday I went snowmobiling with Sean Patrick (Sarah’s cousin who has lived in Mammoth Lakes for over 30 years). This is the view I had coming over Kingsbury pass. We met at Sonora Pass on the east side of the Sierra Nevada at 10am. Let me start by saying that convincing Sarah it was safe for me to go snowmobiling with Sean with over 100” of snowfall in the past 7 days was not easy. But after some deliberation, and a brief course on how to use an avalanche beacon, I headed out to Sonora Pass from South Lake Tahoe at 8am.     The road ends where they stopped plowing for winter, just past the Marine Corps Mountain Training Center. Sean was already there waiting for me when I arrived with the two machines we would be riding for the day. My whip was a 2015 RMK Pro 800 (the one closest in the picture). This is the most powerful and advanced snowmobile I have ever ridden, and boy was I excited and nervous at the same time. So much so, that I forgot to put my GoP...

Today we decided to take a day off from snowboarding/outdoor stuff and have a chill day. Got some yummy Indian food buffet (Sage loves naan! especially when its soaked in tikka masala sauce) and gawked at the icicles...I have never seen so many icicles! The most impressive icicles in our neighborhood Sage loves naan! We then drove up the eastern side of the lake up to Incline Village. There is so much snow on the roads that the 2 lane highway is almost too narrow at times! We decided to check out the Hyatt which is right along side the northeast shore of the Lake. We got some yummy adult beverages and enjoyed pretending like we were fancy hotel guests, haha! Mother-Son photoshoot! :) Nik is always able to tickle Sage and make him laugh The restaurant view...not too shabby!

We have decided to hang up our work hats, move out of our house, and live the mountain life for a few months until I (Sarah) start residency in Albuquerque, NM this July. We've talked about doing something like this for years and are so excited to actually be doing it! We hope to do a lot of snowboarding and soak up the natural beauty that the western half of our country has to offer! Step 1: move out of our house in Carlsbad, put stuff in storage, get rid of lot of stuff (we tried), and pack up our Subrina to the gills! This went relatively smoothly..phew!  Step 2: break up the drive to South Lake Tahoe by at least getting out of LA for the first leg of the trip. Now this is where our odyssey started to feel a little not so fun. Goal was to get to Ridgecrest and drive the rest of the way the next day. Well, factor in rush hour, LA traffic, POURING RAIN, and the beginning of a holiday weekend...this all made what should have be...