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Packing for a five week mission to the moonscape of Petersburg Alaska is a interesting task. It starts several weeks in advance in the form of Primary, secondary, and tertiary piles of equipment, gear, and comfort items. Books, magazines, computer, water colors, music, pens and pads, movies, and spare parts make up the entertainment and sanity pile. Avy gear, harness, radio, survival gear, helmet cams, batteries, cameras, protective pads, gloves, monoscope, Ripxx, and tools are part of the equipment list. Skis, backpack, boots and outerwear make up the standard gear list. All this packed into a ski bag, a duffel, and a backpack with a total weight of nearly 150 lbs. And really I am traveling light, most of the things in the tertiary pile got left behind or canceled out by a lighter counter part.  Non the less we are here, and all ready most everything has come into play.

I should have known. The call came in the form of a one sentence email, ” Jackson Monday, you in?”All season long Jeremy Jones and I had been talking about linking up for a mission and now was the time. I responded, and 24 hours later was on the road heading off on an unknown adventure.  Before leaving I managed to get some information about what I would need. Crampons and an ax? yep. Sleeping bag and a tent? yep. The will to survive? …yep.

Pulling into Jackson the nerves were firing still, what was I getting myself into? I had never been snow camping, Jackson is notoriously cold, and the Deeper crew were animals. Soon I found out our plan, the following AM we headed out early into the mountains, off to set up camp and scout our lines for the following day.

The terrain looked sweet, the Tetons are big and different aspects give way to all types of terrain, huge rocky Europe like peaks, steep pillow walls, massive chutes, faces are everywhere, and long pitches with perfect placed trees make skiing great.

At 3 AM we rose, had some warm drinks and loaded up our gear, and got on the trail by 4. An hour into the mission I realized that I was missing a valuable electronic, by avalanche beacon! I had no choice but to return to camp, winding my way down the heavily forested skin track in the dark. Four and a half hours later I was more than halfway up and saw the rest of the crew above in a critical assessment zone determining if we would be able to push on to the summit with the current conditions. After some big red flags we decided that stability was suspect and would return to some of the lower terrain that was more manageable. We shredded some mini golf pillow lines, and enjoyed the day staying out until sunset before heading back to camp. The Hi Pro Glow was cut short when we realized that fuel supplies where low and we went into conservation mode. trying to keep what little water we had from freezing.  we awoke to gray skies, and a few snow flakes so we packed up and headed back. afterwords I was incredibly tired, sore and worked, but it felt good, and the mission was a success, and fun. Over all an amazing experience and great part of the season.

Jeremy Jones finding some air

The terrain that North cascade Heli has to offer is so featured and fun, pillows are everywhere. After shooting some upper pillows I turned on the cam to capture this run down through the trees and pillows.

Contests are usually held in sub par conditions, or are freestyle events on hard pack, and are therefore usually unappealing.  There area few comps that have focused on powder instead, and these have a totally different feel and allow for leading edge skiing to take a forefront. The Red bull line catcher falls in this category.  This event was super cool, and truly mixed a big moutian venue with freestyle airs. Every run had big airs, creative lines, and massive tricks.  Candide Thovex one with a insane run that started with a big tail grab 720, into a 360, then a huge flat 3. Sean Pettit, and CR Johnson both threw down sick runs with big tricks thrown clean to round out the top three places.

I have been having a blast here, the pow has been sick, and every day has lead to a new adventure, from deep powder tree skiing, to sun lit big faces, to long pow filled coliours, tons of jumps, and good vibes between all the competitors here.

scoping the zone…

Sean Pettit airborn

stoked with Sven, on top of the hike

the view from above… sick kickers everywhere…