sierra meadows avie control

berthoud bc video

Bedding down in Thailand- night one.

got on the airplane on sunday may 3 and finally arrived in Bangkok around 130 at my hotel. 14 hours to korea then 5 more to bangkok, after taking 4 rounds of decopngestant coupled with tylenol pm to make me look like im not congested along with trying to sleep in super small airplane seats.....but im here, didnt get too ripped off on the cab over (i think?) and headed to get some noodles and water to bruch my teeth with to try to go to sleep.
i also just got made fun of by some little thai kids b/c i didnt know how to ask for interent pricing...doh!
much love
kris

a fallen hero.

Ive been having a hard time figuring out why shane's death has been in my head so strongly, and after hearing all of his friends and family speak this afternoon i feel much better. Shane was a hero to me, he gave the go ahead to be myself on skis and elsewhere. To not give a fuck, but not in a hurtful way. To laugh, smile, and enjoy it all to the fullest. I guess im so beat up by it despite the small amount of interactions with him because i really looked up to him and was so completly humbled and awed by the non chalantness of his path. He was stoked and moving forward. So inspiring. Thank you.

Team O's does tallac

Video from tallac last week.

Team o's does tallac from kris thomas on Vimeo.

rain into snow - hopefully.

lots of snow on the way.....if it ever turns from rain to snow.

skied a pair of volkl kuros today with kristo and glen from patagonia. lots of slushy pow shots and gluey cat tracks......still fun even though we were soaked!!!

hoping for a pile of snow on the driveway tomorrow, and not slush. Ill let you know.

p4p

oops - ive been busy

So..
I ve been busy. a lot.
Started out in the 2nd week of feb, doing demos for jamie and volkl hauling around tons of skis to alpine and mammoth....85 pairs to be exact.

Eating dinner with new and old friends in mammoth at sushi ray, celebrating the arrival of winter to the sierra and our chance to shred mammoth in between adjusting bindings....
from l to r: ingrid, adam, me, james, kristen, jamie, emily, shannon, ashley....fun times!

on the way home from mammoth we got to check out the big mountains that live just south of us in the eastern sierra, im ready to bag some cool descents!

skied with my cousin sandia at diamond peak, she is skiing really well and having tons of fun....got to see and hang with my grandma thomas and her husband sandy as well as shredding with the next gen of our sport!

self explanatory-----

so after a bunch of work- demos, teaching my butt off over presidents, and skiing with the fam, i get to go out and shred for me....i finally got some revenge on this line in the palisades at squaw named the chimey sweep. I crashed huge on it last spring and its been haunting me since.....but i got a chance to go and kill it...and succeded. View from the top. SCARY!

Later i went back with my ski buddies rylan and wook, and skied the tube on the palisades...it was fun!

Headed backcountry skiing tomorrow with a huge crew of friends....stoked! look for more soon!

big backcountry day - Eagle falls to Dick's peak and back!

Started out at Tahoe house at 630am, got some coffe and croissants, headed to the trailhead at eagle lake by 715am. After getting the crew together and ready to skin, we were on the trail by about 730. Crew members: Kris, Sean, Greg, Tim, and Mike the Desolation wilderness tour guide.

The plan is to start skiing over the eagle lake pass towards maggies peak, down into the basin, up to dicks peak, down north side of dicks, up janines ridge, down janines bowl, up maggies and back down to the car.....all in all probably around 5000 feet of elevation change, and lots of tired quads over 8-10 miles....


Here's Tim Dobbins - ASI guide - www.alpineskills.com


Greg Clark


The boys headed up the ridge to dicks about 6 hours after we started skinning.

Heres the shot for the parents, brand new dynafit setup and a view of the lake! life is goooood.


My first line on the new skis, probably around 35-40 at the steepest with wierd icy snow in the steep spot.....worked out pretty well.



A cool tree we stumbled upon, and me chillin in the shadow pow in my ski touring gear....pretty casual..


Hiking out in the dark over frozen steps on top of boulders, and skinning across eagle lake.


It was a long day, tiring, but totally awesome. Now i have a bunch of ideas of things to ski back there in a storm or two.

For a better idea of the terrain and more photos check out: http://www.thebackcountry.net/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1237 scroll to the bottom for the post about our adventure.

Cheers!

two videos. one message.

so ive decided that the boys i ski with are ridiculous....

so this is my new calling in life.

switch snowblade nose manuals. sick.

this week is great.

lots of pow skiing this week.....
skied in bounds at squaw on monday out at VIPs on granite with the boys, heres a little video from Tim at unofficialsquaw.com


Then headed out to shred with rylan, jimmy rebs, and pete bowers at squaw and got some sweet palisades lines, including a cool air that ive never done before on the skiers left side of the chimney...no photos or video though sorry!!!!

finally went sled skiing with some homeys in blackwood canyon yesterday, sweet snow, lots of sun and the boys killed a huge booter...hopefully some video and photos to come in the next day or so.......

i want more snow!!!!!!!

176 dyna bridge

So this is what a volkl bridge is supposed to look like.....






and this is what my new bridges look like, a cut off tail perfect for my new dynafit setup.....custom skis rule.

ill post photos tomorrow of my setup mounted,
dynafit ft10 bindings, garmont radium boots, volkl dynabridge 176....its gonna be sick.

other news:
lots of rain, not much snow, hopefully mounting up some skinny skis will make it dump snow.
much love!

im so famous!

see that guy making a pretty princess turn on the ticket stock? yep thats me....
pray for snow!

Tallac + Thomas Brothers = Totally Gnar.

This morning we buste dout of bed at 530am, and cruised to the west shore to go have a go at Mt Tallac. Rob is still in town, and he wanted to get out and see how backcountry skiing went for him in brand new boots.....

Mike Scwartz at The Backcountry was super kind and helped me set my brother up with a super nice setup, and all kinds of beta...

skinning up the road you used to be able to drive on, Spring Creek. This road has recently been closed to backcountry vehicle traffic due to the US forest service hating backcountry skiers....damn hippies dont spend any money!


MOving up towards sweat hill, and its already hot.


Sweat Hill, so long and so many switchbacks, yuck. But the views are awesome but Rob was starting to feel the pain of breaking in new boots.


Heres us almost to the summit saddle, but decided to head down just after this to avoid a bloody mess in Rob's boots.



Heres the shot for mom.



The ski down was breakable crust and variable to say the least, but we had a great time checking out beautiful lake tahoe, and watching each other narrowly avoid trees, stumps, rocks, and each other.

and the video of the fastest and smoothest skiing we found today.




We probably had too much fun skiing down the access road, as we arent even really allowed on it. Having such a fun time with my bro in town......pray for snow!

its been a while....dec recap!

ok,
so life gets crazy in tahoe around xmas....lots of snow




Lots of teaching squaw sessions, the raddest teen camp anywhere-
http://www.squaw.com/winter/squawsessions.html

From L to R: Max and Ben on Granite Chief, Loren on Garbage Chute, Lauren on Classic Chute!


Then My Baby Bro came to town and got new footbeds and boots for xmas....and we shredded squaw for a couple of days.....he showed up to boilerplate snow and just killed it.


Next....Mount Tallac.
peace and happiness for the new year!