I hate to admit defeat, but I just couldn’t manage to write a proper essay or Tahoe Trail Guide article for this New Year’s newsletter.

With every intention, I had planned to put together something more substantial. But because of the warm weather last month, I invested a lot of time and effort into participating in the Christmas Bird Count week. And then that week dovetailed into the holiday season, which was filled with fun (but many!) social engagements and punctuated by intense rain and snowstorms. Then, on December 27th, we (finally!) officially opened Kirkwood XC so I’ve been back to full-time work ever since.

The Tahoe area had been pounded by additional days of snowstorms over the New Year’s holiday which was fantastic. But during one of those storms, myself and a few co-workers were effectively trapped at the xc ski center overnight. Basically, State Route 88 was closed from Carson Pass to the spur just west of Kirkwood Ski Resort. So we slept at the center that night. And my delayed return home thwarted some of my “weekend” plans (namely to write a new article).

Long story short, I’m full of excuses! Haha 🙂

But it’s all good because I’ve been making up for lost time. In fact, at this point in the season, I’ve logged about 23 days on skis with nearly 20 of them being consecutive days. During this time I’ve begun to prepare for the PSIA level 1 certification for Telemark skiing. The final assessment won’t be until April, but the initial one is next month. So, in addition to xc skiing, I’ve been logging downhill sessions in preparation for that assessment.

Ultimately, I want to become a better Telemark skier for my own sake. However, I also receive many inquiries regarding Telemark lessons. So I decided to start the certification process this season so that I can start teaching Tele lessons in-person and in videos (sooner rather than later). I do love being a student, after all, so going through these certification processes are actually really fun for me!

It’s been wonderful getting back into the cross-country swing of things. But now that we have plenty of snow on which to ski (and we’re no longer stuck in a hurry-up-and-wait phase), it’s like everything is moving along at 100mph! So, since Christmas, I’ve just been trying to adjust to this roller coaster ride. Thankfully, we’re now officially in the New Year and I have a consistent work schedule. So I’m finding rhythm and order in my life again.

I wish you and yours the best in this New Year 🙂

Since the weather was so favorable last month, I managed to get out and do quite a lot of birding during the first half of December. Part of that also had to do with the fact that I participated in the 2025 Christmas Bird Count (at Lake Tahoe). I try to help out every year, but when there’s snow, I’m usually working. That clearly wasn’t the case this time around, however!

If you want to read about my CBC experience, follow this link…

( https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/jaredmanninen/121107-christmas-bird-count-results-official-count-day-12-14-25 ).

Additionally, I published a YouTube short video (see below) about my CBC experience.

I also made another trip to the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge at the very beginning of December. I was alone this time, so all I did was drive around and photograph/film birds. It was super fun, and I saw some amazing birds. So, many of the following photos are from that overnight trip. But I also produced a video from that two-day excursion as well (Outdoor VLOG 88 below). The new camera that I’m using takes really amazing footage, so it was nice to have the opportunity to experiment with it.

Once the Christmas Bird Count was finished and the snow started to fall in earnest, though, I put birding on the backburner and started xc skiing.

With the lack of snow during November and December, I didn’t start working at the cross-country ski center until December 27th. Therefore, I wound up making a bunch of bird-related videos, as well as some that illustrate the progression of time based on the atmospheric conditions (around Christmas).

I had to stop making videos around New Year’s because I was overwhelmed with the full-time schedule and all of the snow (shoveling, driving, and skiing). But that’ll change now that I’m back to a predictable weekly rhythm 🙂