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…

The SToke

Apologies are in order. The blogging world is an interesting one and it requires inspiration and energy. I have always wanted to keep this blog unique and casual, something I do as it happens and never force the issue. Lately my life has been rather hectic and full and I have been skiing. Yet I have been skiing for myself, and not sharing my adventures. Not that there have not been any, just that I have kept them to myself. Secrets of sorts I guess.

But today we unveiled the STOKE ski, a Dynafit signature Greg Hill ski. Obviously its super exciting to have my own ski but more exciting was to witness people having a great time on this ski. Yesterday 10 odd people clipped in and had a great time skiing Snowbird on Dynafits newest ski. And today 50+ people tested them out at Snowbasin. They were Stoked. Forgive the over use of SToke, but let’s admit that Revelstoke is pretty damn awesome and that there is a lot of energy surrounding the adventures that happen in our mountains.

The ski is an all around ruler, it is 106 in the waist, 130 tip and 120 in the tail. Its light and powerful, made for climbing huge vertical and tearing up the descent. It weighs somewhere around 1500 grams and comes in 182, 173 and 164. Nothing huge for the big boys but something smaller for the women shredders out there.

I have to admit I have never dreamed of having a signature ski, but its pretty cool to have one. The birth of the ski happened on Mt-Blanc last year and has progressed to a limited release for this year.

Its pretty awesome.

I am in Utah right now and I have some more news I have to share but I will wait till the first video is ready. Yes, I will continue with my video making, I have simply pulled back to re-inspire and I will hopefully come back stronger than ever.

All for now, but I promise I will jump back into this and keep psyching people up and keeping the Backcountry Stoke alive.