Storms have been raging on the surface of the sun, solar winds have been pummeling the earths magnetoshere with charged particles, and the visual phemomenon of the Aurora Borealis has been active. Seeing the Northern lights is a real treat and we took full advantage, got out the tripods and went misioning around town capturing photos. The night sky has been stunning, and the sky during the day has been blue.
On day two I headed up to the heli pad at 33 mile to get warmed up before my first day with TGR. I went out with rad crew of clients from Washington, and we were guided by a great guy named Cody who has worked with us on previous TGR trips. First run was DEEP, stable, blower snow for 2000 feet. I was blown away. we continued to shred the rest of the day banging out five run of 5000 vert of perfect pow. After our first run down aptly named “Indy 5000″ our guide Cody exclamied that in six years of guiding that run it was the best it had ever been.
the bay just in front of the motel
dock lights
the view from 33 mile crack o’ dawn
Mario world mayhem
Right outside of town here in Haines there is a rudimentary trail that blazes up the side of a cliff wall onto a small bluff. It climbs 800-1000 feet or so and leaves you with a fantastic view of town, the inlet, and the surrounding mountains. The trail is snow covered most of the way and a old boot pack that has firmed in the snow helps you gain access. Usually when we hike the trail is completely melted off and requires mellow rock climbing now and then, but the snow steps end up making it easier and faster. Coming back down is another matter. On the way down a combination of post holing and recklessly sliding is the preferred method. Along the way rock out cropings that have melted off are covered in brilliant green moss, lichen, ferns and icicles. After summiting I was casually taking pictures when I noticed several eagles circling right in front of me riding a thermal up higher and higher until they were tiny dots in the sky.
Today was day one in Haines, The weather was in and out a bit but cleared up in the afternoon, the crew got out, my lost baggage arrived, and I got more acclimated with Alaska.
Spring is nice, the temps start to get warmer, the grass is getting greener, the snow has melted at my house and skiing at the mountain feels like the beach. The only problem is that I’m not ready for winter to be over, it seems to roll by so fast. The solution… head north and purchase some more winter, one month more to be exact. For the next 4 weeks this motel room in Haines alaska will be my home. out the window snow covered peaks loom over the Lynn Canal and nearby a helicopter awaits.
flying into Juneau a fresh dusting of snow blankets the mountains.
A 30 min flight in a 4 seater bush plane transports us from Juneau to Haines with some amazing views along the way.
This peak is right off the water and looks mighty tasty!
Haines has quite a bit of snow still in town, in my previous trips the snow level has never been down this low.
Ski Salt lake, the marketing team behind the cottonwood canyon resorts, hosted a photo shootout this week. Several out of town photographers and a few locals all invited an athlete that they work with often, and then were paired up with a local athlete to shoot at all four of the cottonwood canyon resorts. The Photogs invited were Grant Gunderson, Hank De Vre, Tony Harrington, Damian Cromwell, Bryan Ralph, Jay Beyer, and Re Wikstrom. The goal was to shoot photos to compete for several catagories including best air, powder, big mountain, mountain lifestyle, and city lifestyle. On day one I was teamed Up with Bryan Ralph, a great guy from Nelson BC area, who I have worked with in the past. Our first day was slotted at Alta, it had just snowed about a foot or so and was blue bird, so naturally we headed out to Rocky Point, Wolvierine Cirque, and Grizzily gulch.
Chris Collins straight line in the cirque.
Chris finding a late light pow stash.
Day three I went to Brighton with Hank De Vre , there are tons of awsome trees, some dead, some look dead.
ink blot test: what do you see?
Day four I was with Grant Gunderson, and Bryce Philips, here is Bryce gettings some Utah cold smoke.
I am always fascinated by the way snow piles up in the mountains. Pow forms spines, pockets, drifts, and pillows. Snow all over the west has been piling up on trees, rocks and steeps forming tasty pillows and I have been lucky enough to shred a hand full of them. The thing that’s great about pillow lines is that, from the bottom looking up you find yourself thinking that you’ll just bounce down as many features as you can, and it all looks smooth and easy. From the the top, everything looks different. The type of terrain that best collects pillows is generally steep in nature but the pillows themselves are flat as a pancake. So from the top you start looking for ways to just barely tap down them to create as smooth a flow as possible.
A typical look down in pillow land over the shoulder of Kye Petersen.
Seth Morrison finding some tranny.
Creek crossing in the hunt for pillows, Photo Pete O’Brien
pillow madness! photo Pete O’brien
Photo Pete O’brien
Seth took these last three shots while we were in in the north cascades, this zone was super fun lots of line options and transfers.
