Wha'SUP

Video recap of a trip I took in early June to the Teva Mountain Games with my brothers. Super good time out there and definitely recommend joining the festivities at the games next year. Enjoy.

Back to Summer

Switching gears back into summer mode from that last post. Spent last weekend in Zion being a desert rat with a couple buddies. I'll let one of them do the talking, since they already did a good post on their channels, so click here for the full read or just enjoy the video below...

Torn

I've really been enjoying my summer over the past weeks. Been super nice to feel the heat again and get into some summer adventures. But there comes a time every season that is special for all skiers and that's teaser time. So far TGR, Level 1 and MSP have released their teasers and I hate to say it, but as much as I've been enjoying my summer, these teasers are definitely shifting my sights to the coming winter. Pumped to see what sort of content my friends and fellow skiers were able to accomplish and by the looks of it, they put in some real good work. Nice job boys! Here's to the next winter...

*update: go to www.skimovie.com to view MSP's latest offering...

Sur'calog '11

What Julia Child is to the kitchen, Adam is to snow photography and he's now decided to double up on his duties over the past couple seasons by shooting video while still pulling the trigger with the stills. Mr. vagabond photog champ himself, aka Adam Clark, made this edit at the beginning of this past season. I just stumbled across it again and thought since the snow won't leave Utah, I may as well start getting pumped for next season. Here's to you AC!

Three Seasons

Over the past eight or nine months I've slowly been stacking up some panoramic photos on my phone. The ol' iPhone isn't the most high quality medium for taking those types of shots, but it's been there in those moments when you can't quite fit all the beauty of your surroundings into one little frame. So, thanks to that little app, here's some snaps I want share from my travels over the past three seasons.
Enjoy...
Crater Lake, OR

Crater Lake sunset, OR

City skyline from Brooklyn Bridge, NY

City skyline from Central Park, NY

Utah Valley from Dry Canyon, UT

Wasatch Range from top of Days Fork, UT

Southern Wasatch Range, UT

Red Bull Cold Rush venue, Silverton, CO

Timpanogos from Guardsman Pass, UT

Zion Nat'l Park, UT

Zion Nat'l Park, UT

Alpine City from Lone Peak approach, UT

The Lone Peak Haul

Created this post for my friends over at Surface, but hey, it's my original content, so I'm going to use it here as well. I went for a nice long walk last week and here's my recap of the day adventure...

I've found myself running around the desert recently, so when my buddy Parker Cross gave me a ring to join a crew to climb Lone Peak, I thought it was a good time to get back in the saddle with my skis. Lone Peak is one of the more notorious mountains along the Wasatch Front and has a reputation for being one of the harder peaks to access. With a summit of 11,253' and all the various approaches being quite removed, there's a minimum required elevation gain of 5,500' no matter where you start your approach. We started in Alpine City at 3:00 am, at 5,700' elevation and approached Lone Peak from the south. The crew consisted of myself, Chris Coulter, Tony Pavlantos and Parker Cross behind the lens. Our first leg of the journey consisted of us trudging through the frozen, muddy foothills and working our way to a little glade called known as the 2nd Hamangog. The snow line was higher than expected and had to continue a little further to reach our first transition point. We calculated a gain of about 2,700' in elevation from the trail head before being able to swap from hike to tour mode. Not sure about the other guys, but the combo of skis, boots, skins, ice axe, crampons, harness, belay device, carabiners, webbing, shovel, probe, jacket, helmet, gloves, googles, food and water on my backpack had my pretty amped to be able to be at the transition to distribute that weight more evenly over my body. The touring at first was pretty mellow, following a BLM access road a little ways before making a left and heading up a ridge line for a more direct approach. Eventually the ridge line tapered and we dropped into a gully that looked like a fairly mellow climb. Coulter and Tony took the lead and I followed their trail. Drawing a straight line up the center seemed like the most obvious route, but it turned out to be much more grueling than expected. But with the sun rising and the end seeming deceivingly near, we powered through. After making our way through the crux and into a saddle, all that was left was a bit of a sidehill and one last mellow climb to the summit. Coulter and Tony arrived a bit earlier than myself and were concerned about the warming temps making our objective unsafe. So without our filmer in place and only a small window to be able to ride the NE couloir, we made a quick transition and decided to drop in. The line itself was a solid 2,000' vert and involved variable snow conditions, exposure, sluff management and all that sort of fun stuff. Coulter knew the line and has extensive experience in similar terrain so he dropped first and gave us some play by play beta of what to expect. I hadn't skied much in the past weeks and the haul up the mountain had my legs pretty spent only a few turns in, but I was pumped to be back in the mountains and was having a great time making my way down the couloir. The three of us linked back up at the bottom and kicked back for our first relaxing moment of the day, all pumped that we just tackled the NE couloir of Lone Peak. After a much needed break, we transitioned back into tour mode and started our ascent toward the exit saddle. As happy as I was to have just ridden the couloir, the 3,000' vertical descent back toward the valley was a highlight. The snow wasn't quite a spring corn or a hot pow, but it was super surfy and perfect for the ride out. We cruised down a ways, linked back up with Parker, took one last break to enjoy our surroundings and the top notch view, then headed back to our last transition point. The home stretch was brutal, but we eventually made it back to the cars and were all smiles. After a 2 am wake up, 10 hour adventure, big exposed riding and 13,000' + of traveled elevation, I'd say it was a pretty good day.

Photos by: Chris Coulter, Parker Cross, Blake Nyman


Alpine City mid way up the approach.


Coulter and Tony working their way into the belly.


Tom's Thumb.


Entrance to the NE couloir.


Coulter and Tony post NE couloir.


Lunch break on our way back to the valley.


Summertime view of Lone Peak from the Salt Lake Valley.

Approach

Today's a good day. It's 2:36 am, so I'm not quite sure which day I'm referring to yet, but the newest offering from Nimbus Independent was just released. I don't have the most solid showing in this webisode, but you can't win 'em all. As always, super pumped to be a part of this crew and can't wait for the many adventures ahead.
So, sit back, kick your feet up and enjoy the next 39 minutes you spend with Nimbus. Thanks for checking in and hope you enjoy!

Red Bull Cold Rush

I've had my eye on this event ever since it's inception a few years back. It's always stood out as one of the most appealing contests in terms of participation, creativeness and, cliche but true, progressiveness. If unfamiliar with the Red Bull Cold Rush, pretty much what they do is take a handful of skiers, put them in a big mountain setting and have them ski the terrain, cliffs and jumps as well as possible. Then all the participants decide who they think skied it the best and to the victor go the spoils. Thanks to Daron Rahlves, Michael Spencer and few others, I was one of the lucky 14 to get an invite this year. This Sunday I'll be hopping in my car and motoring on over to Silverton, CO. I'll try to keep the updates coming next week throughout the event, so check back or head on over to the official Red Bull Cold Rush site to get all the nitty gritty.

http://www.redbullusa.com/coldrush

Yeehaw!

The Little Movie That Could

There have been talks of the Surface film, Walks of Life, floating around for a couple years now. I think a teaser was even made at some point a few years back. But, last fall I started getting little glimpses of the aloof final product from Surface's buddy, Paul Braunstein. After a few weeks of chatter around the Surface office, a premier was decidedly organized for the movie to be shown to the masses (a.k.a. whomever happened to be around one frosty night in SLC) and now after another few months of waiting (luckily 3 months is much easier to handle than 3 years), it's finally available to watch on the intertubes.

Good work Paul! And here's to hoping we don't have to wait another few years to see the next edition from Surface...

Enjoy!

Powder Panic

January in Utah was a little slow. Not many storms came through and the couple that did brought some warm temps and rain (something us skiers absolutely love in the middle of winter...). February has been more promising thus far. The nice rain-crust layer seems to be sinking beneath our feet and replaced by it's softer, gentler and more welcomed brother, powder.

So here's to powder's return. Thanks for coming back and please kick up your feet, have some nachos and stay awhile.