A White (nearly) Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve, I'm listening to holiday music on the radio, and I've spent the last few evenings in front of the computer, sorting through this past weekend's pictures from snowy Big Bear! It almost feels like Christmas! =)

Nick and I ventured up to Big Bear, in the San Bernadino mountains, this past weekend for a little getaway with some good friends, good food, and good snow! Big Bear is a 3-hour drive from San Diego (North past Riverside and then up into the mountains) and is one of the closest snowboarding destinations. And though Nick has been there many times in the years we've lived here, this was our first time staying the whole weekend! (Nick has always just made it a very long single-day event) A few months ago, a coworker asked Nick if he had ever used the Marine cabins up at Big Bear ... to which Nick replied "Marine cabins?!" It's a group of 8 6-person A-frame cabins run by the Marines from Miramar, nestled on private land just steps from the slopes at Snow Summit. (here's ours:)



We reserved the cabin for last weekend months ago, not knowing whether there would be decent snow this early in the season - and then last week we got absolutely DUMPED on! There must have been 4 feet of snow up there. We got our first impressions of the enormity of the storm when we saw SUVs driving down the mountain on Friday afternoon with 3 feet of snow STILL stuck to the car roofs! Here are some shots of the snowy mountains from I-15:







Once we got into the mountains, the snow line was low enough that we needed chains for much of the drive. I loved seeing the snowy peaks emerge as we wound up the hillsides:













After checking into the cabin, Nick hit the slopes right away so he could get some night snowboarding in. Once Chip and Daryn arrived, Chip joined him over at Snow Summit, and shortly after their rosy-faced return the final couple, Kim and Jared, arrived. We made it an early night on Friday so Nick and Chip could hit the slopes first thing Saturday morning. The rest of us had a relaxing Saturday, reading, cooking, and enjoying the beautiful weather. I went out a few times and took some pictures:





















This was underneath the eaves of the cabin, where some icicle melt contributed to the "Banzai Pipeline" effect:


And we were teased relentlessly by a few Blue Jays who were very interested in the peanuts I tossed into the snowbank out front, but who never wanted to stick around long enough for me to get a good shot. Here are a few I got after MUCH patience and maybe even a few curse words.




(He was digging in the snow pile for those peanuts in that one - you can see the snow fly!)



The four of us wanted to go snowshoeing, but by the time we got our act together the only place up there that rents snowshoes was all rented out, so we headed back to the cabin, got some sleds, and trooped off to find a good sledding hill. The property that the Marine cabins are on is pristine and gorgeous (and will make a fantastic destination for snowshoeing in the future!) and we were pointed toward a hill that had a fairly well-tamped-down and defined sledding path. After an hour or so of climbing up and rocketing down, we began to formulate a plan to stage a 3-pronged snowball assault on Nick and Chip upon their return from the slopes. Once back at the cabin, we started stocking our snowball arsenal and preparing our shelters.

Daryn, gathering up some snowballs she had made:


Jared, chilling out in the snowdrift:


Jared and Daryn, stocking up one of the trenches:


Not wanting to leave any packable snow with which Nick and Chip could possibly make snowballs in a retaliatory strike, we made sure to tamp down all of the "good snow" areas. Here's Jared, in action:






Aside from the boys returning too early (it was still light out), the plan was successfully carried out as predicted. I even warned Daryn and Jared that Nick would probably charge me to get to my snowball stash ... and he sure did! It was a great time.

Sunday morning we wanted to get everyone out to the sledding hill for a few more runs (with Nick and Chip, this time) and I brought my camera and captured some pretty spectacular spills. We had done a good job of packing down that snow on Saturday, and it had a chance to really freeze overnight. By Sunday morning, it was lightning fast, and a big bump had appeared about 2/3 of the way down ... which means we were catching some AIR.

Nick's first run:




And another good run by Nick:





The hat probably requires some explanation ... while we were in New Orleans, it was unseasonably cold and Nick decided to try to find a hat in one of the tourist-tack shops on Bourbon Street. Even though it was only early December, one of them had this elf-ear hat on clearance, and it definitely did the trick! Nick has since gotten many compliments (or maybe just "comments") on it, and he even wore it on the slopes for a bit of Christmas cheer.

Anyway, Nick didn't have too many real wipeouts, but here was a great one:
(catching some air on the aforementioned bump)


(with a face full of snow, he still has a post-wipeout grin)


Here's one more picture that I just love:


Nick made sure to grab the camera from me so I could get up and do a few runs. I didn't do too many, mostly because that run was MUCH icier the second day and I managed to successfully damage myself (well, my ass, anyway). But it was so much fun and didn't really hurt until later ... and the pictures are hilarious!

On my first run, realizing that I was going fast


Hitting the bump:


And coming down on the edge of the sled:


That look pretty much said it all. Ouch. But adrenaline is a great thing, and all I could do was laugh breathlessly!


On my second run, I thought I would try to slow myself down a bit by putting my legs out ... well, it worked ... in a way.






While I think my wipeouts were pretty, um, awesome(?), Jared definitely had the most spectacular wipeouts. He also had the most. Period.




Another:




Let's just say there were a whole bunch just like that. I have them all posted on Flickr (click HERE), along with great shots of Daryn's, Kim's, and Chip's runs (Chip always had the best post-run facial expressions!!)

At the end of the sledding run, the boys all decided to be daredevils and come down the run together. Thankfully, no one was hurt!







On our way back down the mountain, much of the snow had melted and we were able to take our chains off at Big Bear Dam, which was a great point for me to get some shots of the partially frozen lake (the lake almost never freezes, so this was pretty cool!)