The Sierra Viking

    I have not been skateboarding, so you are in for a history lesson.  Snowshoe Thompson helped carry mail over the snowy Sierras from the Sacramento valley to Nevada from 1856 to 1876.  He was the connection for the Atlantic states to California during the cold winter months.

  Sometimes carrying around 100 pounds, his huge homemade skis were 10 feet long, 25 lb. oak "snowshoes", as they were called in the Telemark region of Norway from whence he came.
 "Thompson always wore a Mackinaw jacket, a wide rimmed hat, and covered his face in charcoal to prevent snow blindness. He carried no blankets, but he did carry matches to start fires, and his bible. He snacked on dried sausage, jerked beef, crackers, and biscuits. When a storm kept him from proceeding he would find a flat rock, clear it of snow, and dance old Norwegian folk dances until it passed, then he would continue on his way." http://snowshoethompson.org/the-story/