Many people just don’t get it. They see us riding in the powder and ask why wouldn’t we just ride a snowboard. I’ve come up with the answer, footwear. I’m mean what other sport allows you to wear skate shoes in the backcountry?
It has not snowed for a week or so. Things are getting pretty tracked up but there are still lines and with the help of cold nights the hoar frost mimicks fresh snow.
We got in four laps in an area that was across from a spot we usually ride. The snow pack is pretty stable around here due to the lack of accumulation which makes it easy to explore new areas. There were lots of snow mounds to hit and Cole seems to be dialing in his landings.
Here’s a little lesson in video production, always make sure your lens is clean. I mean it may be the shot of the century but if you’ve got a dirty lens, well its just take a bit of the shine off. The other thing that is helpful is to shoot in the sun, not the shade. In fact after Cole hit this jump and we were hiking back up the entire field was lit up by the sun, oh well live and learn.
This is what the sky looked like as we prepared to take our first run of the day. That’s a sunsets folks. Granted we had one run down to shuttle all of our supplies to set up camp. But riding with two packs strapped in front and back hardly counts as an enjoyable ride.
The light was unreal and felt like a reward for the days almosts. Like almost turning back at the very beginning cause of snowmobile mechanicals or like Tim almost getting completely lost on his sled in super tight trees while trying to cut a switchback during the shuttle.
The entire run was about 1000 vertical with both tight and open trees, steep and mellow slope and light fluffy snow.
This video, shot the next morning, shows what the top 1/4 was like.
You know what’s funny about this shot? Eric doesn’t even snowboard, he’s a skier. I guess it helps that he skates, alot.
Cole snowboards, or at least he used to. I missed a great shot of him busting through some trees. I’m a shitty photographer cause I’m always watching them ride instead of getting the shot.
You remember the short teaser of Cole and Tim carving some turns? Well here’s a little pole cam vantage of the same line.
We spent Thursday and Friday in the back country. It was sick and I got lots of pics and video. I’m posting just a clip from the trip until YouTube gets its audio swap working again.
I kinda messed up this shot, I was down below them and wasn’t quite ready when they rolled up on me. I wished I would have stayed on Cole the whole time, he was hauling.
The fun thing about recycling is you don’t always get a choice on what graphic your going to use. I’m running out of Dragons and Helicopters so it’s time to pull out the models. This should give the gawkers something to stare at.
Morning wood camber with a tapered side cut, I’ll ride it tonight for its maiden voyage.
The Thursday rides are getting better and better. The snow is piling up and the backcountry is smoothing out. Yesterday we had four skaters pounding out the boot and we were able to get 7 laps in. The glade was untracked when we arrived first thing in the morning but by noon there were 28 deep trenches down her. I feel just a tinsy bit bad for cutting up all that powder… well not really.
I still haven’t gotten my video editing software working but here’s a 1 mn clip that came out pretty good. Everyone’s on snowskates, even the filmer(me). One of the guys, Tim, has only been snowskating one other time.
Every since the beginning of the season, Cole and I have made Thursday our hike day. There is nothing like the feeling of heading out of bounds away from the crowds and hacked up runs into some fresh untracked terrain. There was a pretty good dump on Tue (see previous post), and the winds hammered on Wed. You could see the wind gust tracks in the trees, certain areas were blown clean while others were all white. The feeling was to head in the direction of the all white areas. The first two runs were great, the third was horrid, almost to the point of wanting to call it a day. We didn’t though and went in search of one more gem to ride out on. The slope was pretty mellow, probably around 23-27 degrees but it was open and untracked and the powder was light and fast. I think a lot of skiers and boarders would consider it a bit boring, but on a powderskate it feels like the ultimate play wave and you just don’t want to stop.
I’m still having a bit of trouble with my video editing software but with a little luck sometimes clips come out ready to go so here’s another minute of turns.
Ok so for xmas Jill got me a GOPRO Hero HD helmet cam. It is very cool and we have shot some sick footage in tight trees with DEEP powder. The problem is the format, Mpeg4 is a bear to work with. For some reason both my Quicktime player and my AVS video editing software is very choppy. It sounds like others with this product are having the same problem. I’d love to post up some of yesterdays runs but as of right now I’m still waiting on customer support from both AVS and GOPRO. Because I’ve been taking the helmet cam lately I haven’t been shooting any stills, so this post is picture less, sorry. Hope to have something interesting to view soon. If not I’ll go out and take a picture of my new snow rake from Planet snowtools, the thing is absolutely amazing.
