Burano

 Due to a booking error on my part we had an extra day in Venice so we took the opportunity to visit the island of Burano just north of Venice.

 The island is renown for the colorful buildings throughout the town.

 Yes, another leaning tower!

 We visited the Lace Museum dedicated to a past era in Burano when it was the center of lace making. A traditional floral lace.

 

 and a less traditional piece.

Sadly the art is dying. Learning the techniques takes years and, once proficient, each lace takes an incredible amount of time. All of the practitioners are quite old and no young are taking up the art.

After the museum we strolled some of the quieter neighborhoods on the island.

We arrived back in Venice via water bus at dusk.

We enjoyed a decent glass of wine and a somewhat forgetable meal.

The views were quite nice though!

Tomorrow we leave the city and go to the mountains!

Venizio

We are in Venice! A bit worse for wear after nearly a full day in transit we nevertheless rallied for a full day of sightseeing on this wondrous isle.

We stayed in a pleasant apartment in this quiet Dorsoduro neighborhood in western Venice.

We visited the breathtaking Guggenheim Museum.

The view from the museum across the Grand Canal.

The iconic San Marco square.

At almost every glance Venice is beautiful and enthralling.

 Pisa is not the only place in Italy with a leaning tower!

The City is checkered with picturesque smaller canals. Travel is limited to foot or boat. No cars, no motorcycles, no bicycles even! There is simply no room.

 Grand cathedrals abound.

 The bustling Grand Canal.

Venice is everything we hoped for and more!

Sardine Canyon

Yesterday I got a chance to ski with my friend Ann for the first time post recovery. She was keen to head south and I was happy to oblige.

We headed down to Independence and up the Onion Valley road which is impassable past the switchback where the dirt track to Sardine Canyon leaves. We parked there and headed in. 

Nice early morning light at the parking spot. Calm and pleasant. 

On the road to Sardine, the snow isn't continuous but is dry for only a couple of hundred yards. We elected to skin up the gorge amongst interesting avalanche debris. Easy travel!

A bit higher up the valley opens.

The snow here was wintery and wind packed. More easy travel but the wind picked up markedly.

Higher still the wind was cranking but tolerable. Ann was cruising!

Nice scenery below into the Owens Valley.

Looking up to the windswept summit of Kearsarge Peak

We made it up into the large basin near Sardine Lake. After enduring the wind and snow pellets we were happy to turn around and ski.

Skiing on the wind buff was good fun!

Lower we found nice powder skiing.  Me.

Ann

Almost down. The lowest slopes are transitioning to corn and skied well but likely would turn to mank when things warm up.

Happy to find decent skiing top to bottom! I very much enjoyed the stunningly beautiful scenery and great company. A wonderful culmination of my recuperation. On to the next adventure!!

Habeggars

With a small storm lingering in the Sierra I decided to visit the Habeggars glades. I was disappointed by the lack of new snow at the trailhead but enjoyed the calm and moody scene.

Looking south to more glades.

 
Once into the glades snow conditions improved with around 8" of new wet snow.

 Fun skiing here in the trees.

Views north to Mt Tom and the rising cloud deck.

In short order the clouds enveloped the area. Neat to watch. Not so great for visibility while skiing.

Nice outing.

Birch Creek

With the warm temps and bright sun I thought I'd head south and check on conditions at the low and mid elevations above Big Pine.

Birch Mountain

Mount Tinnemaha

Skinned up this little drainage and ended up on the skyline.

 Ghost bushes.

 Snow sculpture

My skis waited patiently while snacked at my high point.

These turns in the gully were good fun.

Not corn yet on the SE facing slopes in this area. Getting thick even at 10:30. Earlier would have been better. Sun softened windboard skied nicely and the well cooked snow low in the gully was decent too.

Happy to see good coverage here. Just a 15 minute walk to the snow! Should be good for a while barring a big heat wave.

South of Habeggars

My friend Anne dialed me up and wanted to tour. She was more inclined to ski soft winter snow than spring corn so we headed up to a zone that normally holds powder well.

Absolute bluebird day!

Didn't go much further than this as the wind had affected the snow up on the high ridges.

The open glades skied really well!

Good skiing here on last slope too.

It wasn't all peaches and cream however. Skiing in the trees was challenging with frozen tree bombs and a thin sun crust on all aspects off northerly. Still super fun though!

Back on Skis!

After a month of recovery from my strained calf I am back on skis! Fortunately I was able to cycle a lot, so I kept some semblance of fitness, but there's nothing like getting up in the mountains.

I took a couple of quick tours up Bishop Creek to check my calf and figure out the current conditions. First I hit the "mini-golf" zone in Aspendell.

Nice views at the top.

First run back was a good one! Soft snow over a soft base. Ego snow!

 My second run was decent too with nice snow in the shade here.

Yesterday I did a quick jaunt up Table Mountain. Looking over to Bishop Bowl early morning.

Headed over to a pretty line on the northeast side of the mountain.

Found a couple of inches of light snow over a firm, scratchy base in the upper half then some deeper soft snow on the north facing slopes lower down. Good if not great skiing.

Happy to be out again!