down in a hole

Yesterday was Blackcomb's season opener.  I was riding more or less solo, greasing the line, and just trying to get as many runs in as possible.  The coverage is good, although it's still sharky. After a fairly successful morning, I decided to traverse out towards crystal and I ended on a mellow although a very shitty groomed run with pow on the side.  I milked the side of the run, came up onto a roll, that I knew was a bit of a rock garden. I assumed it was pillows over the edge.  I came to a stop, to have a look.
That was when I started sliding into the abyss. I slid on my back into a 3-4ft crack behind a cliff ( massive boulder) I landed on my feet, unscathed, ( bruised a bit).  At this point, a little stunned, I realized that I had fallen into 30-35 ft hole.  

I thought about climbing up the the way I fell down, which would have been very hard, and not possible with a snowboard.  I noticed some light, down towards my left so I crawled down , to investigate, and sure enough, it was a way out.  I actually laughed, because I was feeling pretty lucky at this point.  Anyways heads up out there.

WB season opener

Another season is here.  I hit up Creekside bright and early, and ingested a fair bit of second hand "ross's gold" while waiting patiently for the gondi to open.  All the usual suspects were in attendance.

 Day 1 - Dave B busting the goat path.

 It was lean, but surprisingly good.  Dave B samples the pow and emails at the same time.

Day 2 - It wasn't looking promising, with all the huge crowns on the peak, but she tightened up over night, and they opened the access road. I made some key passes in bootpack hammer mode, and managed to make it up the peak in the first wave. The west cirque entrance as good as it gets. It is amazing how beat it gets as the season goes on.

Filled in-ish.

It's a nice time of year when the alpine lifts are closed.  Even though no one was around, I couldn't help but have that hurried feeling, thinking I might get poached.  

Frogs hollow. Some sharks out there, but decent for November.

I left a bit of ptex up on the mountain. It's still low tide out there.
But, apparently there is 46 feet in the forecast.

All Quiet on the Northern Front

I wrote a short piece for local magazine, Mountain Life.  It somehow , evolved into a Pemberton backcountry battle log. Check out the digital version, or pick up a hard copy, exclusively at places where you can buy stuff, in the sea to sky corridor.

Dave Basterrechea making me shitloads of cash.

The Devil, the Angel and the Spearhead range

JD Hare, patagonia skier, and whiskey tahoe bro, shreds deep into the far corner of the Spearhead range. Chris Christie took some sweet shots and put together this little vid.
There is also a cool piece in the newest mountain life about the spearhead range, featuring hare, again.