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.
Its that time again. Time to get everything one could possibly use while on a month long ski trip. Make a giant pile in the basement and some how manage to get it all crammed in just a few massive bags. My ski bag is wedged with several pairs of poles, a back pack, back country equipment, gloves, pants, a skate deck, a excersise ball, two pairs of skis, wax kits, and an assortment of odds and ends… yea as you may have guessed its a bit over weight. The remainder of my gear will be packed away in two bags, holding a large array of electronics, cords, accsesories, tools, cooking ware, and of course, some clothes.
the gear pile!
it all fit! …ski bag-70lbs, TNF red bag-43lbs, rossignol bag 56lbs, carry on 35lbs. = too much stuff!
Cody Barnhill and I headed up to Jackson for a couple of blue days, we hiked up the pass, scouted around, and found a few sweet zones. The following day we went up on sleds to access some of the goods. After a short tow, and a little double we were lapping a nice little apron of deep snow and utilized the steep tranny.
Harro, Cody, and I chilling in the bat cave top o’ the pass, Photo Harro.
just a bit of pow left but the tranny is good.
Cody sending a 360
Todd, a Dynastar rider met up with us and sent this nice air.
check out the lichen man,
It always feels worth it an hour later, but waking up for the early mission is usually hard. You find yourself wondering why your phone is making that weird ringing noise, trying to remember what you could possibly be doing this early in the morning. Then after a quick fire drill, your out the door and soon find yourself navigating the dark until sunrise cracks and you are deep in the mountains.
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.
We left Washington and headed home, stories from Utah had pow in the future so I was excited to get home. word was conditions weren’t great while I was gone but the skiing was great when I got to the mountian. I met wit Chris Collins and shredded at alta, untill a thunder storm bringing some heavy groplle snow with it shut down the lifts. It continued to dump and the next day it was sick again. The sun came out and we went out to Wolverine Cirque to shred a bit.
Lunch spot, middle of nowhere, Mt.
Wolverine
Jamie Pierre air one.
Jamie Pierre air two.
Just before leaving Washington we watched a total lunar eclipse on Feb 20th. This year I witnessed two total eclipses of the moon, one on the black rock desert in sept, and now, and every time I see it its an amazing visual event. We hung out outside for hours taking photos, shooting 16mm film, moving tripods around, getting all kinds of creative images of the night sky. 
Our Pad was an amazing house right in the hart of Mazama. The squiggles in the bottom of the shot is light from the flashlights that I used to light up the trees in the fore ground.
Todd, Kye and Seth watching the moon paint the sky.
The Crew, Photo Seth self portraits
Utah has been super deep this year so it was hard to leave, but stories from around the west reported epic years so I went for it, meeting up with Todd Jones from Teton Gravity Research. We loaded up the rig and blasted off meeting Seth and Kye on the road.
We have been having a blast here in Mazama WA riding at North Cascade heli. Seth, Kye and I have been sessioning for a week now and this been super fun. . We have hit a few coolies, some spines, tons of pillows, trees, and good pow. Super stoked on the terrain here and even though its been dumping, stormy and mostly gray we have flown every day and filmed a ton.
