Phyllis Stein

Since it hasn't snowed in a while, Daryl Treadway and I decided to push a little farther out there.. What we found was no pow, but we took it as a opportunity to train for the MEC gorb mountaineer olympics.

The hike up was noisy.. The face was cleaning itself and the wind was blowing. Even with a late departure, we got up pretty quick due to easy climbing snow (Aka shit descending snow)

Daryl gets in there, and finds a similar chalkboard to the one he uses in Math class.

I shot 50 pics of my glove, the inside of my backpack, and I got this one too.. 

The Phyllis Stein.

The military got this sick shot of us.

We said hi to this angry beast... It did not reply.

New Jersey

Jon Johnston invited me out to shred a hidden, but close gem. There was a half hour skin, but then it was straight up.  Classic Jon J shot, skis in tow, ghost holing his way up.

Jon wanted me to try out the soft boot version of these ascent plates. These things crush it out there, and make all other similar tools, seem like a joke.  If I am going to be gripped to the side of a mountain, I want my front points available, because conditions can change quickly. Billygoattech.com

More Jon.. Bit of a firm traverse over some exposure... A few ice climbing gems out there.

The snow got firm, and the travel go quick. When its that firm, every footstep counts.

The final punch got steep, but we charged it. We managed to dodge a small sluffalanche. It inspired us to move faster.

Jon cleaning out the drop in..

Jon offered me up firstys.. It was firm, but was soft enough to hold a edge..  With a couple spots holding a bit of soft snow.. 

Jon exiting the main part of the chute.. chalkboard.

view of the lower portion of the run..  This thing would be a party in pow.

New Jersey shoreline.  We hit the obvious line along shade/sun line

Birds Eye View

Sam Casavant getting after it....

While the growing season seems to be spent fully immersed in farm tasks, literally in the dirt, winter is usually about taking a step back and contemplating our little flower operation from the outside. Evaluating, re-assessing, analyzing, adjusting, planning, forecasting…
What a great excuse to go up above the valley and stare down at all those things that make our area what it is, our beloved home.
Mount-Currie is the perfect perch, staring down over 2000m above valley floor it is also the cause of countless hours of daydreaming, work-avoiding, jaw-dropping stares.
It was time for a gander up there…

To celebrate the new year, and our lack of disposable income, we went up there the old fashion, sweaty way. Real purists…

Sleeping over gave us the chance to explore and visit what lies hidden behind.

Livin’ la Pura Vida

Sightseeing…

We packed our picnic stuff on the last day and slugged it up one last time, leaving behind a frigid valley and a handful of great memories.

Time to stretch our necks and choose our way back down

Mt-Currie’s summits

Our way down and Pemberton valley below.

Small town, big dreams…

Going Closer

The sky dumped much pow... then it cleared and got windy.. Mie Yamashita and I looked at some closer zones to find the non wind effed pow.  It was crazy deep in the valley bottoms, and a bit buffed on the slopes, but still friendly.

Some shady shred gorb vision

MIe Yamashita looking at stuff

  Mie - "Is this the fiscal cliff?"

Yes it is.

 Mie- A Bit of Shady tree-boardn

Mie- spine slayn

Looks worse than it is... Mie perched like a haggard sub-alpine tree.

more Mie pow shredding.. zone stayed protected from the North windblast

Mt. Bourqueposito

 The new year gave us blue skies and stable boot deep snow.  I have been eyeballing this face for a long time... It was time to hit it.  I headed out with Johnny "foon" Chilton and Mie Yamashita. The lower portion of this post is a full on poach from Foon Skis blog.
Johnny calls this type of face a "Esposito", with a 77 percent chance its never been skied...Felt like a Raymond Bourque to me. Likely this thing has been tagged,  I just don't know anyone who has.

Mie Yamashita leads the way, as Johnny foon instagrams more mountains into his brain.. As this face really has no name, I explained it to mie as, "y know that face we never like skinning under"

Mie..

Some other stuff

Topping out...Nice wall in behind, but maybe don't go to the edge for a better look

Foon Skiing.. 

Yamashita inspiring MEC enthusiasts

13TH JAN 2013POSTED IN: FOON BLOG0

After starting the year with an amazing descent of one of North Americas biggest standing waves (Mt. Curries North Face 7500 vertical ft.) with the Pehota boys, I got a call from Joe Lax.

“My friend Mia and I are gonna try to hit this face between Mt. Cayoosh and 7 Mile Creek. You know it?”

“Oh yea, everybody’s been eyeing that face, what a great idea, thanks for the call.” I replied

The “Esposito”

A face like this is a classic example of what we call an “Esposito”. In the world of Coast Range Ski Mountaineering a really big, really steep, really remote face is often referred to as a “Gretzky”. This when your 99% sure it has not been skied before. (For the non hockey fans out there, Wayne Gretzky was the greatest player of all time and his # was 99). The face Joe and Mia had invited me to shred with them was fairly steep, pretty big (just shy of 2000 vert.) and while not remote, not right in the front country either.

Mia mid face on the Esposito

Although drooled over by many we could find no one who could confirm shredding it and the reality is that once the film crews show up later in the year this face is baked out from the sun. So we call it an “Esposito”. After another great canadian hockey player, Phil Esposito, who’s # was 77.

Joe leading up the face

Access was un-problematic, the day was beautiful and conditions stellar. This face receives a lot of sun and by February will probably lose it’s ability to produce pow. Super stoked to have been along, a perfect mission for the Foonlight.

Joe shredding “The Esposito”

“Snowboarder Joe”

Gorbachev Peak

Some Pre-new years action in the majestic Yeltsin range.

French Alpinist Insane Sam Casavant edges into the run he has coined "the vortex"   Johnny Foon looks on with disapproval.

Insane Sam is very lactose tolerant, as he loves shredding the milk.

We made the most of the mornings greybird, Johnny Foon gets in there.

But.. it eventually cracked for Johnny's birthday so we decided to do some runs not in the sun, but close to it.

I got to party like it was 1999 ..