The triple chair opened for the season today, which gave us access to some pretty great bowls and also the back-country gate at the top. Got up early to get in line and ended up on the fourth chair. Inbounds was great, no complaints but it seemed like a good day to head into the backcountry and check out the snowpack. This is our 3rd season meeting once a week for an out of bounds hike. Within 30 yards of the gate we knew it was gonna be fun.

Conditions couldn’t have been better and the pit we dug made the snowpack look bomber, at least where we were. Can’t wait for the next week.

Its been a great start to 2011/12 season. Friday started out with 10 inches of new snow. A bit wind blown but really fun. Found ourselves a little patch of pow and built a jump. My boys built an even bigger kicker off to the side that we ended up having fun on. Its great when you get to the point where your kids do the work for ya.

Been meaning to post some video on how to swap out subs with my trucks. Here’s a short bit with some riding on the new 145.

It dumped pretty good this week. Views from the shop made it hard to get anything done.

Jordan and Oliver stopped by which was reason enough to get out and ride a bit.

I guess if you hang out with Jordan you better be able to ride a snowskate on the box.

For me, backside wall rides never get old.

While we were riding the bus dropped off the kids and well it was hard to get a run in after that. I’ve raised a group of poachers.

Tieg off the roof.

Avery 50/50

Max bomb drop off the roof.

Product page is still unfinished even after I promised to have it ready. Been shipping out boards just as soon as I get them made but I hope to get some complete pics soon. The prices will raise just a bit for this season so if you order before I get my new product page up you will save!

Sorry about the lack of updates but this last month has been a whirlwind of big pow days, pressing decks and another epic road trip. After our last visit to the sawtooths I emailed Cory Smith at mtnapproach.com about his new approach skis that fold up small enough to fit in a pack.

Cory, who lives in Sun Valley and works at Smith Optics, checked out my post on the Sawtooths and extended an invite to come down for a few days of riding and filming at the Smith Optics private back country zone.  Well I may be busy with work and family stuff but a invite like this doesn’t come along very often and so I jumped at the chance. I got the ok to bring along a friend and Cole happened to be in the right place at the right time so he scored the second seat. Not sure what exactly was in store we loaded up the car and hit the road. All we knew was there would be another group of riders hitting some jumps and that me and Cole would be able to explore the zone and hopefully find some pow. We got into Smiley Creek late and found the bunkhouse, which was a really old two stories cabin that had been patched up just enough to keep the heat in. After introducing ourselves to the crew inside we found a spot on the floor to throw down our bags and go to sleep.

The next morning the crew was a little confused about what to do we us. We didn’t have our own sled and the snowcat with the crew cab wasn’t working. Luckily a few of the guys tandemed us up to the zone. Our first day was great, we were able to catch a couple of rides up the mountain from the crew and caught deep pow turns on the way down. They were all pretty busy scoping jumps and making sure they were ready if the sun peaked out so any rides we got we really appreciated. We even hiked a couple of laps too just cause the cat tracks were so easy to travel.  The next day we woke up to high winds and grey sky and every one in the bunkhouse was in no hurry to get going except us. Luckily we had left our skates at the yurt so they had to give us a ride up. Somehow it ended up just being Cole and I and two brand new sleds on loan from Ski-doo.

It was officially on!!! We rode non stop for the whole day, doing as many laps as we could. About half way through the day it even started dumping which really made it seem like we had stumbled upon a gold mine of opportunities.

All the terrain in this pic is part of the Smith Optics private reserve. With the help of the cat they have built tons of big hits into soft powder landings. All they needed was a little sunshine to make it all pay off.

The last morning brought blue skies and no extra sleds for us. This was okay seeing how our visit was pure luck in the first place and we were just thankful for the amazing two days we got. We packed up and headed home, stopping off briefly for a soak at a roadside hot springs. Big thanks goes out to Smith and Cory for letting us sneak in the back door of Prospecting Idaho, lets hope we can find a way to get back there next year.

The days leading up to the trip weren’t exactly showing promise and it wasn’t like the Sawtooths got dumped on while we were there, but  somehow we got lucky. Lets back up a bit first. This fall I sent out a bunch of emails to people who I thought might be into a backcountry powderskate trip outside of Stanley Idaho in the Sawtooth National Forest. We worked the calender around a bit until we found a weekend that fit everyone’s schedule then set the date, February 10-13. With the prediction of la nina it seemed we couldn’t go wrong and with the strong start of winter it felt like we were in the money. While many parts of the west were having great winters though, the central Idaho area wasn’t. There were reports of boiler plate slabs and depressed skies all over the sun valley/stanley area and it seemed like the trip might be a bust. I really had zero expectations and would have postponed if any of the original invitees would have pulled out.

Thankfully no one did and the van was loaded and departed from Sandpoint with Eric, Cole, Jordan and Katie.

Its about a 9 Hrs drive from my place so Thursday was dedicated to the highway. We had people coming from Logan Ut, Boise Id, southern California and Hood River for a total of ten powderskater/surfers and one telemarker.

Here’s a shot of the available quivers for the weekend. With the questionable snow people bought all their options.

Early Friday morning we got the sleds warmed up and a short recon from the cabin, which is located on Fisher Creek.  I had the topos for the area and had explored in the summer but had no idea what it had to offer with respect to powderskating. There had been a pretty big fire about 3 summers ago so my hope was that the tree riding or better yet, snag riding would be fun.

A short sled ride from the cabin put us in a great location for exploring.

The snow was looking soft and the higher we got the better it got.

After the first few runs our below average expectations evaporated. The snow was great and we had three days to do as much damage as we could.

On our last day we spent the first part of the morning riding each others’ boards on this really fun cornice. In the background you can see the bowls that we spent most of our time in.

Jeff built a jump with no run in right off the bat, then had people fling him at it. He stuck it and ripped turns to the bottom.

Jeremy was next with a shovit.

There were plenty of boards to choose from.

We rode hard the whole trip and it was amazing. The sun wasn’t even supposed to be shining on Sunday so all of it felt like a gift.

It was hard to take but the weekend had to come to an end sometime.

We had the cameras rolling quite a bit, and Jeremy is a pro so I expect to see some great action photos from this trip. Lets just say a certain picture triggered remotely by the rider (Jeremy) is most definitely a cover shot and will blow some minds.

I did some amateur video editing of the weekend for you all to enjoy. Its a download and plays on quicktime. Should only take a few minutes to load, just hit the red skate the sawtooths link here > Skate the Sawtooths

Alan called on Sunday with a plan to meet up with Jordan and ride Kooteay pass on Wednesday. At first I thought I was too busy to go, but then the reality of the opportunity came into focus and a plan was made, kinda. As timing would have it a call from Brandon about wanting to ride his new Boyd Hill powderskate got him an invite. Combine that with my new 145’s first run and Alan on his new 36″ chiller top deck and this trip was turning into a testing expedition.

The quiver in question.

Out of the dirty parking lot and into the soft fluffy back country in five minutes.

First ten feet of the warm up run and Alan is in the air.

Brandon‘s first run on his new powderskate

Find waldo

With our warm up out of the way its off to some real terrain.

We stayed and played in this bowl for the rest of the trip. Lots of pillow drops and with a bit of hiking steep untracked runs.

This an amazing zone with easy access and deep snow. Can’t wait to go back.

I feel like there hasn’t been many pictures of riding in the blog posts. So for this thursday update we are letting anything in starting with a shot of the beacon check. As of this Thursday, everyone has a beacon, probe and shovel and all hoping we never have to use them.

Eric‘s new beacon

view from the top

ollie north’s free of  charge

you must hike up if you want to go down again

there are always diviersion on the hike up

See that rock up in the left hand corner of this shot of Eric? there’s a picture of that later

there’s that old hiking again

and another reason to take a break from hiking

these were all makes. Both Eric and Cole felt like the snow was perfect for landing hits. Especially the kind of hits that pop you up.

The boot gets steep in a couple of areas, which means it gets steep on the way down too.

Since the snow was so perfect for landings, Eric felt like today was a good day to send this rock. This wasn’t a make, but its a nice picture.

Here’s a shot of a new sub I’m working on. Its 145 cm and as you can see by the sidecut this should be a good match.  The tails a bit wacky too if you haven’t already noticed but so far the test runs have been engaging. I know the camber looks crazy, I’m sure your wondering where I came up with that and all I can say is “who knows??”

Anyways check it out, let me know what you think in the comments section.

Got a pretty good hike in this morning and here’s the footage to prove it. Short and sweet at 1 min 29 sec. Click here > Jan powder day