Snow here to stay or warming up to melt away?

With the recent weather dipping cooler in the Southlands here in California, many of the higher altitude weather areas are fearing an increase in temperature again to melt away the snowfall that they have gotten. Although it snowed in Mammoth last week and even is snowing today, the extended weather forecast is predicting bright and sunny days til close to Thanksgiving. Of course, weather is highly unpredictable and anything can chance, but I fear, like many other years we may be opening the lifts too early in joy of an early snow and may end up closing down for a few weeks.

Picture from 11/9/15

With the recent purchase of Bear Mountain and Snow Valley by Mammoth, came along with it the addition of snow blowing machines and technology in Mammoth. For decades, Mammoth has primarily relied upon good winters to bring snow faring travelers to its destination, but as the years have grown warmer and winters have become drier, alternative snow making methods have been adopted. Most of California's resorts rely entirely if not mostly on this technology to create the snow we enjoy. Mammoth and Tahoe have been hesitant to implement this type of technology.  With the recent purchase of Bear's top snow resorts, they have begun to add this process to their trails.

Snow making at Big Bear

This has allowed us to create better coverage, throughout the season to battle our lack of rain. Will this be enough to bring us through the warm weather that's expected? Guess we will have to wait and see!! Bear Mountain has set opening day for Friday the 13th. Hope that's not an unlucky opening day!

Gingerbread Waffle Recipe

All this cold weather has me thinking about comfort food! My favorite comfort food has and will always be homemade waffles... Thought I'd share one of my festive recipes with you in order to brighten up the cold day with some holiday flavors.

Gingerbread Waffles -  I saw this featured on the food network a while back and fell in love! I have messed around with different toppings and they are all amazing, my favorite is a chocolate sauce and powdered sugar. Enjoy!

What you'll need:

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, plus some to butter the iron
Syrup, whipped cream or fresh fruits for topping, to pass at table

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar until fluffy, then beat in pumpkin, milk, molasses and melted butter. Stir the wet into dry until just moist. Do not overstir the waffle batter. Brush the iron with a little melted butter or non stick spray.

I like to sprinkle with powdered sugar and either use traditional maple syrup or if I really want to go all out I make my own chocolate sauce.

To make chocolate sauce: In a saucepan, combine water, 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla and 2 tablespoons butter; stir until smooth.

SNOW IS HERE!!

Well mother nature has surely heard California's prayers! This last week our mountain regions received a considerable amount of snow to kick off the snow season early and our valleys and deserts were blessed with a decent amount of rain as well. Of course, this is not a sure thing that we will be experiencing El Nino, we will have to wait and see what happens. Although, this is a good sign of what may be coming for the upcoming season!

Opening day for Mammoth Mountain November 5th, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the California resorts are proclaiming this the beginning of the best season in years since we have been suffering through a drought which has really affected our winter past times. Mammoth Mountain opened this morning a week early.

 Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe opened just a day earlier on November 4th. Many other resorts are being a little more conservative, ensuring that there is quality coverage for their opening day and seeing if they can get a more solid base before opening. In past years, an early opening can sometimes result in closing down for several weeks due to an unexpected heat wave. I believe all of California is (or at least should be) embracing our cold front and wet weather as we are expecting and hoping it to stay through the duration of the winter. 

Bear, Mountain High, Snow Valley, Snow Summit, June Mountain,Mount Baldi and many other resorts are holding off on announcing an opening date. We will all stay tuned and continue our rain/snow dances in the meantime!

2015 Ski Lake Tahoe Opening Dates
Mt. Rose – Ski Tahoe – November 4
Heavenly – November 20
Northstar California – November 20
Kirkwood – November 21
Squaw Valley – November 25
Alpine Meadows – December 11
Sierra-at-Tahoe – TBA
Sugar Bowl – TBA
Homewood – TBA 

Pilates

This Venn diagram does a nice job describing the overlap of benefits of Pilates and yoga and the distinct differences between the two forms of exercise.

So, in a previous post, I talked about yoga poses and integrating those into your pre and post snowboard routine. Since that post, a woman came into my life and started talking about her Pilates studio. As is most of my life, I found her banter serendipitous since I am looking for more ways to strengthen, lengthen and tone pre snowboard season. I took the jump and tried my first ever Pilates class on Saturday October 10^th. I left feeling as though I had found something my regimen had truly been missing. The sculpting of my muscles has just begun, but I am definitely feeling results as I hit the 2 week mark.

Pilates reformer classes have a wide variety of tools used throughout a workout in order to strengthen and lengthen.  They work in unison to give the participant a full body workout.

 Besides being a little lost during my first class, I felt immediately like I was going to glean amazing results from adding this to my weekly cardio and strength training routine. As I have decided to embark on a twice weekly commitment to Pilates in addition to my 10 mile running minimum and increasingly difficult weight training routine, I am excited to see the results as they come along. I decided to look a little deeper into the history of Pilates, the benefits and some 411 for anyone wishing to know more about the equipment and workout routine.

I have taken the below excerpt from  a website that gives an accurate detail of the creation and History of Pilates. The source is Pilatesology.

"Pilates is an amazing, complete, and corrective system of exercise, created by a man that George Balanchine called a ‘genius of the body:’ Joseph Pilates. A German immigrant, Joe came to the US in 1926 and settled in New York City with his partner Clara. There they ran his “Studio for Body Contrology” for 50 years until his death in 1967 at age 83. Clara continued teaching the method herself until she passed the method on to their long time student and protégé, Romana Kryzanowska.

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As a child, Joe turned to exercise and athletics to strengthen his body and overcome asthma and other ailments. Always seeking to widen his knowledge, he studied many forms of exercise, and was particularly influenced by the classical Greek ideal of a man who is balanced equally in body, mind, and spirit. Joe was an avid skier, diver, gymnast, and boxer. In his writings he notes observing the movements of animals to learn how to move properly.
Pilates was NOT created for dancers
Among many myths is the idea that Pilates was created for dancers. Rather, Joe created his method on his own body and for men during World War I while interned by the British as an “enemy alien” in a civilian camp due to his German citizenship.
In Joe & Clara’s New York City studio, you might find famous boxers working alongside businessmen, opera singers, injured war veterans and prima ballerinas. But Joe often disliked teaching dancers because they tend to distort his method by over-stretching their joints. Dancers flocked to his studio anyway when they discovered how effective it is at creating the balanced, powerful and lean physique that they need. Joe was a friend to many famous choreographers, including George Balanchine, who sent 14-year-old Romana Krzyanowska to him to heal an injured ankle. "

This reformer is standard when taking a class and comes with 5 springs attached to a moving platform. The 5 springs can be used either as one at a time, or in combination with others in order to increase difficulty and resistance. Resistance is key when using Pilates as an exercise.

Reformer springs – so the class I took is reformer focused and had a collection of springs. Some routines called for a red and a blue, some for two red and still others a blue and a silver. Amidst being lost to the color coding scheme and keeping up with the routine as it went I found this info out. The box I was working on used red as the strongest reformer spring, blue as a lighter spring and silver/white as the lightest spring. I wish I had known this earlier since I felt the resistance for my upper body was lacking. I plan to add weight accordingly to my subsequent routines in order to feel more results more rapidly.