Breathing deeply

As i mentioned I am pushing hard to finish this month on par. So I didn’t call anyone and headed up solo to Balu. So many skin tracks in anydirection, sometimes its hard to choose. I headed up Ursus Minor, which is always fun and the headed down a new direction to set myself up for Video peak. The ridge ski descent was okay and was a great way to link up to Video. Heading up Video peak I was excited to go ski any aspect, but somehow I couldn’t resist the untracked north chute. Its been 7 years since I skied this line and it felt great to ease into it. Short but steep I would love to really shred this line under nice light. You could let her go and  just enjoy the speed. Today the light was flat so I skied slowly and enjoyed each turn.

Great times and then a loop back around and up 8812 for the third summit of the day. Good turns off the north side and then down Balu. I had hopes to ski up Grizzly but the day was waning and so were my energy levels.  11500 feet of good times.

Playing catch up

Needless to say Las Vegas was enjoyable. There is no place like Vegas, and it has to be seen to be appreciated.Good food, Cirque du Soleil and a total gamble of 11$. Pretty fun.

Due to lots of different reasons, January has not been a huge vertical month for me. First off, I had to get in shape to make big days easier. So that took awhile. Then I had to balance family with obsession and I was heading away from home for 10 days so needed to ensure I had some good kid time. And then I was at the Outdoor retail show and trying to squeeze in skiing around the show. So since I returned from Vegas I have been a little on the hunt. We got home at 7:30pm and by 9:30pm I was touring up our local hot spot. Digging deep and running fast I had 10 000 feet done in around 4.5 hours.Home by 2.15 am.

Then I awoke and had some skiing with my Dad and I met Aaron at 12pm to go in to the Slackcountry. We quickly headed up to the main summit and skied the NE face. When Scott Newsome and I first skied this on April 1 2001 it was the biggest line of my life and possibly one of the first “first descents” of my career. I was so excited and it was epic, I skied the green line and Newsome skied the red line. Today we skied the red line and it was fun. Good in some places and crusty in others.

We then skinned and boot packed up another 1000 foot chute and had some fun and then up and back into bounds for one more chute. Good times, all three lines were new for Aaron, which makes them even more fun.

I sought out some balance and played Dad for awhile and then headed out at 8.30pm to turn my day into another 10 000 feet. Today I skied with the kids; who are both improving daily and then toured 5300 feet at the fingers. Which was remarkably good. So I am catching back up and I should end this month at Par, or just under.

Wowed by the Wasatch

I arrived in Salt Lake knowing that it had not snowed in a long time and I was wondering what type of trip it was going to be. Lots of time spent at OR; but what would I get up to in the mountains around here. I have been here three times and never experienced the “utah” powder, I have stood on top of at least five of the summits but never had that deeeep powder experience. Till now.

I arrived late Sunday and woke up to 10 inches of new. Not too bad, it had blown into the north so I played up and off mt-Superior and skied the two north chutes, both decent but even deeper when I was on the fan. Fun skiing but I was still riding the crust. My watch ticked over, 5% done.

Tuesday was the first day anyone else skied the Stoke ski and it snowed 18 inches. We all shredded around Snowbird and had an awesome morning. So fun to see all these people having fun on my “signature” ski. I snuck away for an afternoon of ski, with Steve Romeo and than solo. Things were getting better.

The Or show began and I had to sneak out whenever I could. Each day it snowed 10-24 inches and I finally started to experience the Wasatch in its prime. Amazing. What is also amazing is the dawnpatrol around here. I was often at the parking lot around 6.30 and I would find 5-10 cars already there, with their occupants already gone. There is a very large and impressive backcountry ski culture here, I met lots of great people and enjoyed turns with some of them. Thanks a lot for those skin tracks.

So throughout the week it snowed and on my final run I jumped off the skin track and sunk up to my shoulders in the new snow that had fallen throughout the week.

It  was a hard place to leave, since it was only getting better. But I had a little date planned with Tracey. She left the kids in the capable hands of my father and has met me in Las Vegas. Kids educational fund in hand and we are off to the poker tables…