Trip updates are at the bottom of the page.
Alaska is one of my favorite places to ski as it has so much variety and such wild terrain. It has three different snowpacks, high peaks, rugged mountains, huge ice fields, traverses, rivers, wildlife and everything in-between. I go there for the skiing, but often times the actual turns are secondary to the sense of exploration and adventure that Alaska provides. Good skiing conditions are just icing on the cake. Continue reading ‘Wrangell-Saint Elias & Revelations’
Establishing rappel anchors on a ski descent is a labor of love and an art form. On a first descent, you may have no idea what the route will require, so you bring along a selection of nuts, slings, cams & pitons and hope for the best. Most skiing lines which require a rappel aren’t worth repeating, but occasionally a few of them become classics and see a lot of traffic. When this happens, the original half-assed anchors are often added to in an attempt to beef them up which eventually leads to the Ski Mountaineering version of a Super Fund site – a pile of unsafe garbage that nobody really wants to clean up. Continue reading ‘Bolted Rap Anchors for Skiing’
Published on
March 30, 2010 in
02 Gear.
Here is a blow-by-blow description of my cook kit. I’ve developed this over many years and it is definitely geared towards melting lots of snow and cooking simple meals which don’t require simmering. Continue reading ‘My Cook Kit’
This was my second trip out to the Ruby Mountains in Nevada and it made me wonder why I don’t get out there more often. It is about a 3.5 hour drive from SLC and the range itself is quite a bit like the Wasatch, except I think it has more steep skiing potential. Like the Wasatch, the Rubies are a desert mountain range, so light, dry snow is the norm and there seems to be quite a bit of it.
The Rubies are located just outside of Elko, Nevada, which started life as a railroad town, then turned to ranching and mining. Perhaps because of the ranching, Elko has a strong Basque culture (sheep herders) which is reflected in the many Basque restaurants that specialize in “family style” dining, a euphemism for more meat than you could possibly eat. The Ruby Mountains were named after the garnets that were found in the area. Continue reading ‘Ruby Mountains, NV Trip Report’
UPDATE! Due to the short notice on this trip, the price has been reduced to $6,750. The dates are April 19-25th.
This sounds too good to be true – a week long steep skiing camp in the greatest mountains on earth, the Wrangell-Saint Elias range. This is being put together by Eli Potter of Alaska Wild Alpine and will be based out of the Ultima Thule Lodge where we will be flying with Paul Claus in his Turbine Otter. In conjunction with Eli and the Ultima Thule crew, I’ll be guiding for the entire outing and space is limited to a small group. Continue reading ‘Wrangell-Saint Elias Steep Camp’
This trip to Beijing reminded me of my first “business trip” in the outdoor industry about 18 years ago. We were going on a ski testing outing to Mammoth, and since we were staying in a hotel, I didn’t bring anything but clothes. Once we got there and all six of us moved into the room with a single bed, it became apparent why almost everyone else brought pads and sleeping bag – so they didn’t have to share a bed with Mike, Jordy or Stan. At breakfast the next day, I had a bagel with cream cheese that was so stale I could only take one bite out of it before setting it down to be thrown away. About an hour later, I was surprised to see the CEO of the company pull a very familiar looking bagel out of his pocket which had a single distinct bite taken out of it and proceed to mack it down. It was corporate dirtbaggery at its finest.
The outdoor industry has grown up quite a bit since then, but I’m still in a pleasant state of shock after spending three nights in a corner suite at the Beijing Hilton. The room was almost bigger than my house and featured a free-standing sculpted tub with a waterproof TV, a suite “control panel” next to the bed, complimentary rubber duckies, a meeting lounge, work desk, assortment of beauty supplies, monogrammed robes and of course, 30-40 pillows on the bed. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to spend the night in a tent again. ;)
The trip involved one day of work and two days of sightseeing. Beijing is not known as a ski town so I knew almost nothing about it. It turned out to be quite a bit colder than I imagined (Beijing is about the same latitude as Salt Lake City) and the cultural aspects were beyond anything I had ever seen before. Of all the historic places we visited, The Great Wall and the Forbidden City gave the most impressive account of what China was like during the Ming Dynasties.
The Great Wall was erected as a northern boundary to China as a defense against the Mongols who were invading across the plains to the north. Any one-mile section of it is overwhelmingly impressive, but when you see it stretching out in both directions, as far as the eye can see, over ridgetops, valleys and rugged mountain terrain, it really brings home how powerful and frightening the invading armies must have been. It is some serious defense. Continue reading ‘Beijing Trip Report’
Due to the strange snowpack we have this year in the Wasatch, I’ve been skiing new, although not necessarily exciting, terrain. I have yet to dig a pit as almost every time I go out I’ve felt collapsing, seen natural slides, triggered avalanches with ski cuts or dropped cornices, and/or seen shooting cracks. Between that and reading the UAC report, it is obvious that the unusual storm patterns have created unusual avalanche conditions and it is best to be patient. People have been getting away with skiing some steep, north-facing lines (generally The Goods in the Wasatch), but I’m still leery of them. Continue reading ‘Low Angle Circuits’
It’s short, harsh, dangerous, leaves you dazed, your bases stoned, you’re likely to get burned, it smells like shit (mountain goat shit in this case) and is unrecommended, but it is also fun.
I’ve stood at the top of this couloir roughly five times over the last ten years and yesterday Courtney Phillips and I finally skied it, to use the term loosely. From the top, it looks like it could be either a hidden gem… or a fiasco. We brought a rope just in case. Continue reading ‘The Hash Pipe Couloir’
I first got into crossing streams with my skis on by accident when I was trying to cross over a slender snowbridge which collapsed and dumped me in the stream. I was mainly worried about scrapping up my bases and edges, but on the other-hand, my feet stayed dry and it was fairly secure, so now I do it intentionally. The rocks tend to have some river slime on them, so they are pretty easy on your edges and bases, especially if you just step and don’t slide on them. Continue reading ‘Creek Crossings’
Mai oui, The Big LePowSki is rolling into Salt Lake City Feb 25-27 to set up pins and knock’em down until they go click at Brighton. This is the second annual gathering of TBLP, and last year was a blast. The format is pretty simple – ski/ride & party, but not necessarily in that order. Starting on Thursday night with a Backcountry Film Festival, it then rolls on to a Friday night pre-registration at the BD retail store where you can mingle with the athletes/instructors. Noah Howell will be signing left buttock cheeks, Forrest Shearer gets the right and Julian Carr will be sticking back layouts off of the BD clocktower onto a flat cement landing.
The actual skiing action takes place on Saturday from 9am – 4pm at Brighton and features morning and afternoon clinics on just about anything to do with skiing, riding and the backcountry. I’ll be teaching clinics on steep skiing and backcountry terrain assessment, but if I wasn’t, I’d love to take a clinic on filming or park riding. The cost is $75 which includes a lift ticket, the clinics, lunch and a ticket to the Shoot Out Party that night at Club Elevate. Continue reading ‘The Big LePowSki ~ Feb 25-27, Brighton’
