Off Piste

I’m sure more than a few locals have their pet peeves when it comes to the local television’s newscasts and their talking heads. Talking heads who regularly fall victim to mispronunciations, delivery flubs, you name it.

Tell me I’m mistaken about this being the funkiest winter weather I’ve ever seen in my 32 years living here in poverty with a view. First there was that freaky early snow in October followed by the Polar Express a month later, a prolonged case of the inversion blues, rain with Bend living seeming like living in Eugene, and then fog that Londoners would be proud of.

Back when a good portion of my work called for long stays in New York City working in the editorial department of several publishing companies, I got to know the Manhattan hotel scene pretty well. Generally the publishers I worked for put me up in hotels that were once great but were quickly on their way to becoming fleabags.

The afternoon before starting my first long backcountry ski tour years ago in the mountains near Golden, British Columbia, I spent the entire afternoon with my fellow skiers and our guide playing find the buried avalanche transceiver. The exercise started with easy finds and worked its way up to more difficult locations involving extensive probing and digging.

2010 is here and with its arrival every pundit in American is making predictions as to what the new year holds. Not be outdone, I offer my fearless predictions based not on fact but on gut feel and hunches.

As 2009 comes to a close it’s time for a few personal observations about the year. First and foremost it was a remarkable year in that Bend seemed a much more livable place.

Thanks to the efforts of Kevin and Molly Grove, Brian Barry and Lee Stevenson, among others, last night skiers intent on maintaining the right to climb/skin Mount Bachelor had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with Mt. Bachelor, Inc president Dave Rathbun and representatives of the U.

If there was ever any doubt that Bend can host and be party to a great sports event, it was laid to rest on Sunday at the U.S.

The whining has begun. It's too cold.

One of the most persistent local myths (besides the old 300 days of sunshine a year one) is that the Central Oregon Cascades have “epic” powder snow conditions every winter. Let’s get real.