Crater Lake, OR

Desperate Man Clings to California Oregon Summer.

Okay, okay, I've been doing some serious bragging about California lately (because it's the balls!). But, it looks like it's now time for me to suck it up and give some props to Oregon. I'm gonna come right out and say that Crater Lake is incredible. In the true sense of the word. It's actually difficult to believe that it's real. I was there in the end of September this year and I was high off its freaky electric blue water for a week.

Crater Lake and me, if you look hard

Crater Lake is the cleanest body of water on Earth and the deepest lake in America at 1,949 feet deep (the only one deeper than Tahoe). It has two islands: Wizard and Phantom Ship. Phantom Ship is an eerie island formed from an acient volcano that rose up before the big Mazama volcano collapsed and formed Crater Lake. Another amazing feature of the park is its endless forests. I've spent a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest and I've never seen such huge swaths of untouched forest.

Hell, there are even these crazy 100 foot high pumice pinnicles that formed when hot gases from fumaroles cemented the pumice and ash together before a river erroded away the remaining loose pumice and left the pinnincles standing there. The craziest part is that the pinnicles are hollow. "Boring, I know, but it's part of my life." Check the pic below.

Learn some stuff about Crater Lake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake

I spent a full day in the park, cricumnavigating the lake and cliff jumping into it. I'm not a dirty hippy, but I've got to admit that that water is special and it had me feeling ubelievably alive. I'm higly confident that you could bottle Crater Lake's waters and sell it at Phish concerts as a magical elixir for huge profit.

Phantom ship Island

Another view

Looking North

The Pinnicles of Crater Lake NP

Yet another view

DO NOT FEED THE CHIPMUNKS!!! But you almost have to! These guys were so aggressive they'd actually jump into your lap and rip food outta your hands. They pissed me off, but I also kinda loved 'em.

The California Delta

Desperate man clings to CA summer

Ever wonder what it's like to be drunk, rowdy, and sunburned? Have I gotta place for you.....

It's actually kinda crazy that no one knows about the California Delta. It's truly California's gem and one helluva good time. It doesn't matter what time of day or where in the delta you are, you can find glassy water for ripping on skis or flying on your wakeboard. You can also find hot girls having fun, drinking, and dancing provocatively with almost nothing on anywhere you go. I was just in the Delta yesterday and it was in the high 80s and the water was warm and glassy.

The California Delta is a tangle of waterways that starts at the confulence of the San Joaquin (from the south) and the Sacramento (from the north) and weaves it's way into the San Francisco Bay. The Delta has 1,000 miles of waterways and covers over 738,000 acres. The whole thing is a monsterous estuary that supports a ridiculous amout of life.

Delta Crawdad's are pissed off and burly

The Delta is home to 52 mammal species, 22 reptile and amphibian species, 225 bird species and 54 fish species.

The most common fish species are striped bass (can be more than 50 lbs), sturgeon (up to 1,798 lbs & 20 feet long!!), catfish, black bass, salmon and American shad. When I swim in the delta, I'm always thinking about those freaky prehistoric sturgeon.

Delta Waterskiing from miles clark on Vimeo.

When I'm at the Delta I love water skiing, swimming, kayaking, bird and animal watching, taking photos, drinking beer, and viciously chilling out. The place completely changes your state of mind and time slows down signifigantly. I have never been anywhere that has a much wildlife as our California Delta. River otters are by far my favorite critters there. They're just always having a blast.

Tule reeds

Learn more about the CA Delta at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Delta

Mt. Diablo and the CA Delta

Vicious chillin'

A little Perch from our crab trap

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Poaching God's Bath

Desperate man clings to California summer.


18 months of straight winter have left me desperate for everything summer. Cliff jumping, water skiing, swimming, baseball games, outdoor concerts, surfing, and bikinis is how I define summertime. In the next couple weeks I'll be posting how I was able to satisfy my dirty California summertime desires.

This place is called God's Bath and it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been anywhere. Pure California. I spent the day here with my buddy, 'The Foot', cliff jumping, snorkeling, swimming in the waterfalls, and drinking beer. The water was crystal clear and ice-fucking-cold. The highlight of the day was when we figured out that a hole next to the river was connected and that you could swim into the hole from the river under a granite bridge. Check out the video.

Here's some more photos:























Contemplation























The Foot, pops out of hte hole via the river























The Foot runs a muck.























Snorkel ready






















Yep, it's that gorgeous!

Patagonian Summer - Long Lines POV
by Miles Clark

The Patagonian winter has finally come to a close here in Bariloche. The beginning of September brought us about 3 meters of snow in a week. It was kinda insane. No, it was really insane. I´ve never seen it snow anywhere as hard as I´ve seen it snow here. Snowflakes the size of golf balls falling at rates of many inches per hour for days. Mid storm avalanches that vaporized one refugio and left debris piles 10+ meters high in places. Screaming winds the plastered snow to the Lenga forests and their dripping mosses in ways and angles that I still don´t understand.

We harvested all that we could from the big snows and got some pretty vicious perma-smiles in the process. Not long after the storms stopped, the heat came and like that, it switched from full-on nuclear winter to warm easy going springtime. As soon as that pollen laden spring air hit my nostrils, I twitched and my brain automatically switched to summer mode. I am currently undergoing my quest to salvage the remnants of the California summer. I really need to surf. I´m dying to hit my favorite cliff diving spots in the foothills. And yes, there better still be some girls in bikinis at the lake!

Here is a short pov video that shows two of the longer backcountry lines that we´ve been skiing (before the storms). The first I call ´Little AK´ off the Zebra Chutes and the second is Tage Chute´s ´Staff Party´. After those two lines is just some fun pow skiing after the big storms.

Patagonia Summer - Crush A Lot from UnofficialSquaw on Vimeo.

Patagonian Summer - 141 Degrees SSE

Patagonian Summer - 141 Degrees SSE

This summer continues to be un-summer-like.....which is the point down here, I suppose. Yet, the relentless lack of girls in bikinis is beginning to take it's toll. Thank God the skiing has been good!

During the first two weeks of August a big high pressure system came in and sat over us for about a week. We used this opportunity to get deep into the backcountry. Two different groups head to refugio Frey (a backcountry hut here) and got after it for a few days each. The rest of us were doing long single day backcountry trips from the top of the ski resort everyday. The temps stayed cold and good snow was found on all the south and east facing aspects with 141 degrees SSE being the money spot. I'm now sorta obsessed with this number and constantly bust out my compass to test potential backcountry terrain against it.

We had some real fun and I got to ski my favorite line down here which I generically call 'Little AK', (in the video Pete Connley skis parts of it) even tho there really isn't too much little about it. That line already has me dreaming of an AK trip this April.

We are getting hammered with snow again right now and the forecast is showing a huge amount of snow, then very cold temps. We're lining up some bigger lines that those conditions would be money for. I'll keep ya posted.

Here's a video edit that Garret Russel put together for us of Session 2.

SASS Session 2 Ski Podcast - Summer Shredding in Bariloche, Argentina from Snow Sessions on Vimeo.

Patagonian Summer - pretty damn sweet

Miles Clark slaying Cerro Catedral during SASS Session 1 from Snow Sessions on Vimeo.

Bariloche, Argentina - The past three weeks down here with SASS have been pretty damn sweet. And by pretty damn sweet I mean that we’ve been ripping through old growth forest, hucking perfect granite cliffs, bushwhacking bamboo underbrush, getting twisted off backcountry booters, drinking free fernet & cokes, dominating rail jam comps (SASS took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place), and oh yeah…..skiing DEEP POW in the middle of summer! Crazy, right!? Wrong. I’m now realizing that I should have been doing this a long time ago.

The SASS crew has been down here since July 14th, and we’ve gotten a lot done: a week of avy, medical, and guide training, two weeks of ripping pow with the clients at Cerro Catedral, full-day backcountry missions, and we even have a team that is deep in the backcountry at Refugio Frey right now. Bariloche is having a stellar winter this year and we can't find any good reason to let it go to waste.

Skiing here everyday with James Heim has been pretty sweet. Trying to keep up with him has already affected my skiing for the better.

Patagonian Summer

SASS Session 1 Ski Podcast 2010 from Snow Sessions on Vimeo.

I've been down here in Bariloche, Argentina for two weeks now. In that time I've been fully reminded why I love this place so much. The people are cooler than we could ever hope to be in the US, the skiing is ridiculous, and the views are basically extraterrestrial.

During my first week here myself and two other guides were in charge of training all the SASS coaches in avalanche, medical, and guiding protocol. The training went well and once the campers came, we went through similar training with them as well. Since everyone has been dialed in, I've been able to ski what I want and push it a bit. The Patagonian winter has been helping us out a ton with about 6 inches of snow every couple days. Right now, we are getting our first big snow cycle and I'm super anxious to get up to the mountain and witness it's transformation. We already have a deeper snowpack than we ever did last year which sends my mind reeling into a fantasy world where un-doable cliffs and lines become commonplace reality.