Beauty Beast

Our morning started very early..  For breakfast we ate avy chunder, and icy vertical bobsled tracks. Our first major wreck happened around 530 am.. It must have been a sign, telling us to  "call it a day" or "never give up."  Signs can be confusing.

Once we got on foot, things got a bit simpler. Mie Yamashita, attacks from the back.

Dave Basterrechea, for some reason was breaking trail.. I probably should have carried him on my back after the morning beating he took.

Its pretty special top of this peak..The north face starts to reveal itself

Spine heaven.. a bit leaner this year, so only one prominent spine truly goes the whole way. A spine that Daryl Treadway skied last year, wasn't happening this year.

The snow was cold and perfect.. It sloughed like crazy and thundered down the face.. Second year in a row, my gorb pro fucked up for some reason ( gorb operator error), so no shaky boring footage for you to look at.  If you like i could post the 15 minute clip of nothing, i recorded.. Its pretty sick.

Dave B gets in on the true north wall "the brain"

more dave b

Mie and Delaney shredded the lit up north east spines, with similar results of sweet pow and good times. A little bit of exposure.

Mie drops into the northside from the east.

The following photos were from last year on the same mountain, taken by awesome dude photographer , Brad Slack, for a article I wrote in Frequency TSJ. Going back this year really made me appreciate some of the images Brad captured on that trip..   a photo on the northeast spines

A gorb pro photo looking down the north east spines

Attack from the back uplift mofo party plan.  

Dropping into the North wall

I have been lucky over the years to have friends who carry cameras.. Some stories are hard to tell without visual aid.. 

It gets a bit steep.   Brad slack photo.

RIP Jack Hannan. We do our best to pay tribute to you, everytime we go into the mountains.

march 25

Another early morning, but also a race against the clouds, as the stink formation moved east. It made for a pretty nice sunrise though.

Delaney usually likes to instagram latte art, or his breakfast, but i somehow managed to make it onto the roster.  zayac instapoach

I had my eyes on this line, but a major cornice fall cleaned out the runout.  Its usually where you need to go fast, to dodge sluff.. so i backed down.. 

The next line down the ridge was the next obvious choice, and  it was looking good to go.  The rollover is spooky sweet. The snow got deep as i crested the edge, but it held. It was extreme.
Delaney Zayac photo.

post shred analysis

Delaney polishing the knob.. A bit more rocky than other years but still pretty damn fun.   

More D... 

Py Leblanc always charging

and stomping

We managed to squeak in round two in the sun.. D, enjoys the silky soft sensation that is skiing, the powder.

One of the realities of D's  line.. If it slid,you could end up stuffed in here.  Probably a woolly mammoth or sabertooth tager in there.

gorbs on film..

Barba-rapapapa

Not really mini-golf or the place to "test the waters". But snow was feeling good, so we headed up.

Of course the bluebird only lasted so long.. The first rollover cracked off, and made some noise when it came down.  It wasn't that surprising to see it go there.. We hugged the ridge down, and stayed out of trouble..  I got in there.  Johnny Foon photo

Despite the cleanout, the snow was pretty nice.  Johnny Foon photo.

The lower portion of the peak, had some sweet sun-lit cliffs, with an amazing landing zone.  Delaney Zayac photo.

I sessioned it three times.  Cliffs with steep landers are hard to find, sometimes. Mexican eagle takes flight.
Delaney Zayac photo.

Jason Schutz, super stoked on the timing of his visit!.. Testing out his 80 year old knee.

The clouds rolled in and out,  and the sun illuminated this face motivating delaney and I to hike up. The ridge was a bit gnarly with sugar snow and cornice on the opposite side.  It socked in while we were on top, but then a window appeared, so I went for it.  I kicked off a windslap on the top,  but as soon as the face opened I went for it with some speed. Johnny Foon photo.

It turned out to be pretty sweet, as I pinned it through the choke, hovering a good portion of rock and ice.  Apparently it ripped off behind me before the choke, but I didn't spend anytime looking back.  It was a super fun  line, and I called it a day after this one... Delaney, unfortunately dropped into his line, a super steep spine, in completely flat light, with suspect conditions.  Johnny Foon photo.

Mt Useless ( called that because the monster cornice line shuts down access) it almost looks like there is a way in this year.  Johnny Foon photo.

Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat Springs Colorado

some gorb-pro action

A strange morning, that started with a full on snowstorm, then hours later, the sun shone through to illuminate deep low density pow coating the glorious mountains.  Dropping into our first fun, the broad ridge felt loaded, and as such, the slope below pulled out, and made a impressive plume. It was spooky, but not the slope we were headed for.. It didn't really inspire confidence, though... East Facing slopes become trouble, this time of year.

Some clouds rumbling around.. surprisingly held off for the most part.

looking up

Looking Down with Daryl Treadway.. Hashtag# looking down # snow # hashtags are fucking stupid# #in the shit # # Reo speedwagon.

Reflection looked cool..  Thanks for standing so still Dave B.

aiiiii-ice

Day 2..  Different zone, snow had tightened up substantially.  Milky but enough light to make it fun.  I burrowed in again.

  This was a fun line...a Zayac instagram poach 

Spine Bubble World

Local Legend and Ski Builder Johnny Foon snapped a couple photos of me, from early march. We were humbled by all the destructive avalanches that had ravaged the area, during the mega storm, but we were happy to see the snow had tightened up on this tester run.

As we got confidence in the snow, I decided to poke into the bubble spine with Delaney.  We had to dig our way in, but what was on the other side, was pretty awesome, eh.

The light crapped out, just minutes after we dropped in, I was pretty happy with our timing

turning on powder snow is quite enjoyable

classic viewpoint