Some pictures from Baker, Pow for everyone

Some panos from the top of Mt. Herman Beautiful day Vince during the last storm cycle Luke finding some pow during the storm Andy dropping into the north face of Herman Sam finding the white room The views were amazing. The Sam stamp of approval Charlie getting his on Herman Charlie and Matt halfway down The Avi crown zone we turned away from Some icy pillows had in commonwealth basin Been having a great time in the PNW! This is the place to be!

Alaska Heli Skiing: Dream Come True

Best friends Mark and Shun and I decided to rain on Sam's powder parade in Juneau in March and camped on his floore for a week of awesome heli, hut and lift skiing.

Sam warned me that It was super extreme bro bro brah brah in the heli community and that we shouldn't necessarily subscribe to this idea. So I brought a tu tu to keep things lighthearted.

 

Mark with the TUTU point

 Shun ate it on the first day after spending all season training for the trip by partying in LA and surfing. Oops, there goes his ski

 Just a couple hundred feet it went down and finally stopped

 The adrenalin was so full throttle that at the end of the day everyone was emotionally exhausted

 Dancing on top of the world

 We even got Kevin the guide in on the fun

 Some double chute action

 On a down day Sam showed his dominance of the Mendenhall glacier

 AWESOME TIME!!!!!!

 The day we got off the plane we headed straight for Eagle Crest ski area and hiked up to the large peak in the back. Flat light and swirling wind kept us on edge to drop into the main line off the peak until Shun got enough kahones and dropped in. Eagle Crest in the foreground and taken from the Dan Mohler cabin.

 We spent 3 days at the Dan Mohler Forest Service Cabin. Actually the steepest terrain we skied all week. Unreal cabin, situated a 45 minute hike from these spines that Sam is slaying in this picture

Sam gaining the ridge with Juneau in the background with spines and steep below to shred, you can tell by the double thumbs up

The second full day of heli shredding and Mark is full of joy on the way down

The awesome pilot pulled off an amazing tow-in with a couple of feet to spare on each side of the rotors on a cornice above this one, the Davies Creek Coliour. Shun got first dibs, What a lucky SOB!!

He is an ant and he is only halfway down!

Mark got the lucky tu tu again. Look at that grin

The pilot even wanted to get in on the tu tu action!

Nice little cornice drop with some cascading snow

As shun called it "the most eveil looking mountain ever"

The last day Sam, Marrisa and I spent relaxing at Eagle Crest in the sun.

 

What a trip, couldn't have asked for more.

 Thank you Sam and Marrisa for letting us crash on your floor and all the hospitality!

The Season So Far

Moving to Seattle has been a pretty lucky undertaking as far as the skiing is considered-the mountains are huge with easy access, the snowfall is ridiculous (already 120"base) and I have been lucky enough to score some great days of skiing with good friends.
The terrain surrounding Alpental- Red Mountain

Snoqualmie Mountain-

Chris Loper shredding old powder

I went up to Leavenworth and met up with my friend Sergio who plays drums in this super rad band-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLkov0mH0k0
We went up to the local hill and helped his two two year olds learn how to ski.
Here is his mom letting Miles straightline-

The whole family out on the snow-

Despite NEVER wanting to stop for a picture, Chris gets the picture of the day. He might stop more after he sees this?!?

At the end of Monday's deep faceshots we went for a wallowing hike uphill

It did not stop snowing all night. We woke up Tuesday and Snoqualmie pass was closed and we "had to" ski 4 feet of powder with all 100 people who were up at the pass that day. Because we had to use our Avalungs to breath on every run we refused to stop and take pictures. But my van Greybird can illustrate how deep it was-

Disclaimer- I promised others i wouldnt disclose the location of this not hidden gem. However if you have looked at any ski magazines or seen any pictures of skiing in the last 100 years then you might know where this is.
So my friend Gregor hooked me up with some locals here and i owe him a lot for that due to this truly being a dream come true. Day one at gnarnia

this was all that you had to hike off the top of the lift

a little more sketchy than it looks, especially with the 50 foot fall to the left into nothingness

but then you got to this, a 1000m chute of sheer extreme powdery goodness

15sm felt like a lot deeper than that

Marco, the local guide for the day. Oh my god, I thought i was in love before but what did I know

Marco, story of the day-"man whats over there?"

Shun, oh wait, look close and you might see marco down there somewhere

where's waldo? i mean shun

we came down the chute on the right. Enrico also showed Shun and I around gnarnia

What a great day on down skis!

thats me, shit is just a lot bigger here, i mean A LOT

Shun giviner

we met this snowboarder on the "hike", another local ripper

Do you see the smile on his face?

here is the chute right off the lift! it didnt involve a "hike"

marco ripping it up

the fashion around here was second to none, except maybe milan

I forget what this run was from, but oh my god was is it good

the yellow buys were out for powder

the chutes just kept on goin and going

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

photographer Enrico-can you tell he used to play volleyball? look at those legs

look at that powder

so i knew this place had unbelievable chutes, but add some powder on top and you might just get the best day of skiing of my life!

Enrico enjoying the conditions

and we were all enjoying the views

our tracks from the first run. you might want to buy a guide book if you ski here

the second run wasnt so bad either

ya this doesnt need a whole lot of explanation

so i knew this place had amazing chutes, but pillows too? who knew?

Enrico

it was totally rippable for maybe the first time this season

here the lift system looks a little different than america.

Marco on one of the very few safe zones on the whole mountain

the second day wasnt so bad either

boink land

shun boinking down to the valley floor, 1500m later

second run the second day and the visibility worsened, Thank god they were wearing yellow

hitchiking doesnt work so well when you got the hobo beard and your with three other freeskiers

we took a day off and went to innsbruck. side note on "the world is a village"-
Shun and I roll into Innsbruck and I contact Marius from powdergude-http://www.powderguide.com/powdermap/#33
He says he isnt skiing tomorrow but this guy Juho he knows is going up tomorrow so we should give him a call. I call him up and we meet Tuesday morning. Driving to the ski hill talking, we figure out that he used to date kaisa(who follows this blog), and is good friends with Ville (who i skied and drank a lot with last season in japan).
The world is a village!

so innsbruck delivered with powder

at times it almost got sunny

at other times it was just the white room

wheres waldo?

Juho the local ripper showing us the goods and also amazing hospitality. He invited Shun and I to stay at his place for a couple nights.

I cant wait to see the video from these days

not a super deep base but throughout this storm it got deeper

the twig, the skier

the powder was faceshot blower, reminded me of japan for a few seconds

thats my pole

good stuff to finish up this euro road trip

playful little pillows were abound

Juho

i couldnt even tell you whose pole that is

you can tell Shun's photo's. they are a step above

more goodness

Juho with his always perfect form

even on boinks around the mountain

I think because Shun is Japanese he gets more faceshots

I mean, come on

The next day we went to Pitztal Glacier. Some bigger terrain over on this side

Juho leading the way

And Kaisa-2nd country riding with you and it was great!

Down skis, you NEED to check these out

Kaisa straightlining

Juho

you dont have to go far to find the goods

the third day Juho took Shun and I up to Nochspitze ,sp?, for a tour

Juho had to ski down to his rolling tupperware that was halfway down the line. Funny scene to say the least

at the top the views were great

innsbruck was just a stones throw away

mountains everywhere

Juho dynafiting it up to the top. So jealous I think I am going to have to buy some for next season

Shun's roots coming through

wait, I have been spelling Gnar wrong all along.

shun showing off

the line and the skyline

I am pretty sure Kaisa had fun with her snowboard faceshots

Juho has a knack for finding all the drops

one more of Juho


Totally amazing trip. Packing up my stuff now and heading to Geneva tomorrow to get ready to fly. Thanks Europe for showing me a good time.