Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Good Times in the NW

Video that pretty much summarizes the kind of winter we had in the good 'ol PNW

Friday, March 9, 2012

The Last 6 days at Alpental/Scummit Pass

Feb 25th @ Hyak:

The backside of that mountain is phlattttt but some white room incidences happened. We made our way over to Alpental once the crowds left and scored Snake Dance right when it opened. Lin!

Feb 28th @ Alpental:

Sessioned heavenly trees until nash gate opened. We set the bootpack and scored fresh tracks galore the rest of the day.

March 1st @ Alpental:

Twas so deep! I hiked kendall stump in the morning w/ some friends and rode some mellow pow in the old growth, then we made our way over to Alpy. Right when we got there they opened nash gate and it was silly how deep it was there. Waist Deep in places (that means 3ft!)

March 2nd @ Alpental:

Did one run in the BC on my way home for the weekend. Roxoff/Gun barrel area was relitively untracked and it was 4in of dry pow on top of 1ft of heavier pow. Interesting conditions that deserved a rainier to celebrate at the bottom before driving home.

March 6th @ Alpental:

There was a foot of insanely dry fresh snow, on top of lurking death cookies. The faster you rode the less likely you would hit the death layer. Extremely fun day with white room incidences scattered around throughout the day. Got first tracks down gun barrel and about pissed my pants from excitement. Here is a pic of the bottom of roxoff area:


Besides my binding breaking at the beginning of the day and waisting almost an hr to fix it, the 6th was doritos status.

March 8th @ Alpy/Silver Firs:


It was 48 degrees at noon. Forgot how fun it is to ride slush all day and drink beers w/ fellow bros. Got some corndogs and headed over to silver firs and rode at an irresponsible high rate of speed for a few hours and might of poached the jump line at central a few times too. Good times were had. 26 days so far this season and hopefully at least 20 more to go!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Alpental Shredtacular Trifecta (2/18-19, 2/23)

Rode Alpy Saturday, Sunday, and Today (thursday ze 23rd). So many cliff drops and white room incidences that my spine hurts.

Saturday was the sickter. Ran into my friend Garrett and rode pow w/ him and his crew all day. We sessioned the cliff-band in between felsen and snake dance most of the day. IT WAS DORITIOS! There was a foot of fresh when I showed up and by the time I left there was another 10inches of new snow. There was some uphill race going on which meant there were free cliff bars at the base, score! Took about 10 of those white chocolate and macadamia nut ones, so bomb. Also, there was NO ONE there for a Saturday. Check out this liftline:



Wut? Yeah hobviously everyone missed the memo. But everyone and their step-grandma showed up on Sunday. While leaving the pass I got trapped due to avalanche control. It was lame, so I ate a whole bag of sunchips and blasted some Pretty Lights.



Sunday was a very sad/weird day. Got to Alpental at 815 and there was already a huge line. There was a ton of fresh snow but the amount of people there was just insane. Armstrong didn't open till like 945 and I think that made everyone extremely restless.



I got only 5-6 runs by noon so Derrek and myself decided to go ride Hyak and shred their slackcountry. On our way to Hyak there were ambulances and fire trucks everywhere so we knew something bad had just happened. Saw people hiking up to the bottom of ESAD across the street from the condo's but didn't assume that's where the incident took place.

When we got to Hyak I got a call from my girlfriend saying someone had just died at Alpental from falling off of a cliff. FUCK! Such terrible news. It was weird to think we were all in the same liftline that morning, and someone died that was in that liftline. Heavy. While sessioning the slackcountry I got a call from my mom asking if I was at alpental OR stevens, because 3 people had just died at Stevens and 8 were missing. I couldn't believe it. Terrible, terrible, terrible news. Just took is easy for the rest of the day and just rode the mellow bowl just riders right OB at Hyak w/ Derrek.


Thursday aka today was the good! Got 4th chair up chair 1 and lapped the lower terrain till chair 2 opened. They basically didn't groom anything which means I was even getting pow turns at the bottom of the chair. Andrew and I mainly sessioned the cat-track area which was fun as always. Once chair 2 opened we hit the Rollen cliffs which are super small now! Confused. Then rode shot 6 once (cut too far low and ended up in an awesome chute leading into shot 6, super lucky I didn't get cliffed out), and breakover trees till Elevator opened at 140. Here's a pic of that lucky chute I found just riders right of shot 6.



I found out how to ride breakover as far left as possible to come out at the top bind-in area off of armstrong aka I could still make it back to chair 2. Yeeee! So many fun zones through there. With little cliffs and shit.



We finished off the day riding the terrain off of Elevator. We were riding just past snake dance right when they opened Elevator so we could not of timed it more perfectly. Cross only ski patrol tracks up top and it was white room after white room. After that run we had to call it a day because we had to be back to Ellensburg by 3pm.

Good timez

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Alpental Slackcountry Vid + Other Dayz (2/2, 2/4)



From the best day of the season thus far.

In other news, I rode at alpy on February 2nd and it looked like this in the backcountry:



We lapped the upper nash gate all day till about 2pm then went home. It was a solid day in the bc with andrew and brian. Looking at the forecast it will probably be the last powder day for awhile.

On Saturday the 4th I went to White Pass extremely hungover w/ my neighbor alex. Their park was open for the first time this season so pretty much all we did was lap the jump line all day. T'was fun. Then we saved a dogs life on our way home. The dog jumped out of the back of the truck that was in front of us and managed to survive. We put the dog in our car and rallied back to the truck that was infront of us. The poor dog was wimpering and most definitely confused/nervous. Here's a pic of the guy:



You should've saw the look on the guy's face when we returned his dog. We were driving in the passing lane and yelling at him and he thought we were just some dumbass college kids until he realized we had his dog in our car. Dumbass.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Alpental 1/26-27 and 1/31

Alpental on the 26th was one of those days you dream about all year. Fresh snow (lots of it), friends, and no crowds. Snow up top was insanely good, plus there was no one on the mountain. When Elevator opened a little after noon I was filled with joy. ] Took a dumb amount of video but I won't have any clips put together for a few more days. Got 1 picture at the end of the day right at the entrance of the elevator gate:



Alpental on the 27th was excellent as well. Had an Accounting test (93% ...oh word!), then mobbed up to Alpy with my buddy Derrick and hit the upper nash gate nonstop till close. Blue skies, no crowds, and all the pow to be punished. It was cold up there too aka good snow aka phuck yeah sofa king stoked. Didn't take any pictures but here is a screenshot from the last run of the day in that little gully by knoll 3:



Alpental on the 31st was an interesting day to say the least. The report was 2inches of snow in the last 48hrs, but I knew it was below freezing all of yesterday up on chair 2 and it was nuking rain on the pass. There had to be pow there, and the curiosity of Brian and I led to a true heavy pnw poohtater fest that was actually really fun. There was about a foot of fresh up top which was a great suprise. The best run of the day was Adrenaline+Cliff line sickter zone+Felsen, right in the early morning. Snow was heavy but very forgiving. Warmed up as the day went on and the upper nash gate opened at 1230. Scoped that out and uptop there was no viz, vertigo style. Once we got into the trees it was supah phun till at about 4000ft where everything was slid, everywhere. Avy debris galore. So painful on my poor legs. After that lap we called it a day, mainly cause it was getting way too heavy. When we left it was 40 degrees at the bottom. Here is a pic from Snake Dance around 1100am, so many tracks:




I'll have some vids up by the weekend most likely. January was awesome at Alpental, hopefully February will be the same.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Alpental Powdar Day 1/24/12

Day Numero 11. Showed up and there was NO ONE THERE. No liftlines and fresh snow that was relatively dry. Elevator Gate was open as soon as chair 2 started running so Andrew and myself cycled that for the first 2 hrs. It was the oppposite of turrrible. Check out ze liftline from today:



And here is the vid from today:

Monday, January 23, 2012

White Pass 1/19 and West 1/20

Days numero 9 and 10 of the season were the good. White Pass was INSANELY deep but it was really heavy pnw potato snow. That ski area needs some more steeps but they make up for lack of gnar by having no crowds at all. Rode the new terrain there (got first chair lol @ 845) and it is phlat for the most part but fun.



The drive back home on Thursday was terrible though. Nonstop insane snow all the way back to Ellensburg. Manastash Ridge was a ghost town because it was chains required/4wd. I had never seen it that bad.



Wildside at 4pm on Friday was the tits. Pretty dry snow, and there was pow everywhere. Once Wildside was tore up and the Beaver Lake gnar got boring then we made our way to 360 bowl and jumped off of things into darkness for a couple hrs. I love snowboarding. Here is a vid:

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

WSDOT COCK-BLOCK

Epic day of the century = denied. Snoqualmart Pass is closed. If I would've left a little sooner I could be riding neck deep pow with like 4 other diehards. Oh well. White Pass on Thursday? I think so...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Alpy 1/15/11 aka day #8 aka I'm slacking

Got 2nd tracks down knoll 1 #claim

Bottom of knoll 2...so many tracks


Overall a very fun day. This week is going to be the titz