Togwotee with Tara

Togwotee with Tara
Sublette Pass and Two Ocean Mt. Area, Absaroka Range
January 27th, 2008

Tara makes the haul up towards Sublette Pass, Two Ocean Mountain in the background.

Spent an nice day with Tara, my step-sister, on Togwotee exlporing some new terrain and visiting some more familiar runs. The weather cooperated for a while, but it got pretty nasty in the afternoon. We snagged a couple of good runs before it got too bad though.

Tara making the haul, Lava Mt. in the background.

Hhmmm. Might have to put this one on the list- looks like it could go.

Tara revs her engine!

Burnt Pow! Smells better than burnt rubber. Ha!

Off to the races.

One of my lines.

Tara loving the whole snow shoe thing while climbing Two Ocean Mt.

Tara makes ready for the next ride.

"Cowabunga!" I believe, were her words.

Tara can really ride a board pretty good- probably better than me. It was fun to watch...

I got some turns in too...

Even face shots!

That's really a snowflake, not a big ol' grin. Double click on picture if you don't believe me- my teeth aren't that white. Ha!

Here's a grin!

Good stuff. I was pretty impressed with Tara too- looking forward to a bigger day in the backcountry with her soon. She was looking for kickers all day and talking about doing "tricks". I'd love to see a 360!

After riding with Tara all day, it was Tally's turn. When I got home, Tally took me for a ride...

Gustave Lake Run

Gustave Lake Run
Southern Wind River Mountains, Shoshone NF
January 26th, 2008

A look at Christina lake from the slope we were climbing.

I hadn't skied the run above Gustave lake for a few years, mostly because it didn't fill in much last year. It was looking pretty good on our way in today though, and since the winds and the drifts were pretty huge coming in, we didn't feel like wasting an hour trying to punch over the last big drift just before Christina Lake.

Chuck paves the way up.

Before getting too carried away we dug some quick pits to see what the snow was up to. We didn't see anything that looked that alarming- pretty stable really. Time to ride!

Chuck makes his first run.

A look back up the slope we just rode.

A profile of our tracks on our way up for some more.

Good stuff!

Shad series:

Weeehoo! Really great pow!

Karla skis a run (on her board):

Who says you can't free-heel on a snowboard?

A look up.

A look down on Gustave Lake and our tracks.

Another profile- more tracks! Those powder pillows were awsome- I hit everyone I could.

Shreaded pow.

Karla make ready for another run.

Chuck joins her.

Looking down, scoping out my line.

Chuck rides:

Go Chuck!

The Chuck Show.

Karla throws some turns in too!

Lots of these today.

Yeeehaaaa!

A little closer look.

The landing could've been better.

Gustave Mountain above Gustave lake.

Another fine powder day in the Southern Winds (seven runs/ 4000 vertical feet worth) comes to end.

West Angle Madness

West Angle Madness!
Togwotee Pass, Absaroka Range
January 21, 2008

A look at the Tetons from on top of West Angle Mountain.

A look across the Buffalo Fork Drainage from the top of West Angle Mountain.

Matt solar charging.

Kerry and Matt look for lines.

Looking down the ridge at Matt and Kerry, from where I unskinned. Cornice hucking terrain was plentiful!

Matt jumps for joy!

Alot...

Right on!

Kerry drops in for a run.

The hooded shreader tears it up!

What a way to start the day!

Good stuff!

Kerry goes for another run.

Mmmm, mmm good!

I had to try a few jumps for joy too.

Weeehooo!

Thank you Mr. King!

A Sasquatch sighting!

Matt climbs up for another.



Matt skis...

Kerry skis...

Looking back up at another great run.

One last look into the Buffalo Fork, before heading for the barn.


Kerry skis some more...

As does Matt...

Kerry skis for her life as a fierce, white wolf makes a run for her...

Well, maybe not that fierce.

The temperature never got much warmer that this all day. Other than that, it was an absolutely stellar day.

A bonus video- "Director's cut" you might say:

Sorry Matt, couldn't resist...


Tally loved it!

More Southern Wind River Powder

Southern Wind River Mountains
Christina Lake Area, Shohsone, NF
January 19th, 2008

Went looking for lines on the local hill again today.

Mmmm, mmm good!

Going up.

A look the other direction, towards Christina Lake.

A look at the lake again from near the top, right above a ripe cornice.

The bottom part of my first run. Really good stuff!

The top was fun too, not quite as deep though.

A profile of the first run.

I got a few more runs in. Just a few...

Taking break after a few runs. The weather was gorgeous!

Couldn't resist. Who could?

Looking down on same rock. Beautiful for hucking practice!

The day produced alot of turns.

Wow!

After six runs and near 3k of vertical, it was time to make the mile skin back to the machine for the 15 mile snow machine ride home.

The weather was going down a bit anyway.

A final look back.

Back on the lake, the Polaris awaits.

Another great day in the Winds!

Tally's First Couloir

Tally's First Couloir
South Pass
January 13th, 2007

The objective for the afternoon. Ski couloirs and huck cornices.

Not exactly flying solo for this adventure.

Tallulah decided to tag along.

Hmmm, looks like a Tally sized coulior to me.

A look up Tally's couloir.

A look down Tally's couloir.

Tally's Coolie Show

She likes it!

Bomber snowpack, blue bird day, a couloir conquered- what now? How about some cornice hucking?

"No, no daddy!"

Couldn't resist.

Pristine South Pass scralpin'!

Gotta few turns in after plopping off the cornice.

A look back at Tally's couloir.

Back at the truck.

Nothing but giggles and "Weees!" all the back to the truck. "Wanna do it again Tally?", I asked. She replied with "Yes! Moh! Moh! Yea!"

That's my girl!

A "Sick" Day in the Southern Winds

A "Sick" Day in the Southern Winds
Christina Lake Area, Shoshone NF
January uh... something, 2008

Our objective for the day- ride the heck of the powder in those north facing trees.

Some some avi activity on the way in on similar aspects. A good reason to stick to lower angle safe stuff today- that combined with the earth-quake size woomfs we got yesterday.

Pulling into Christina Lake. Totally stellar weather, much different than the day before.

Classic Southern Wind landscape.

Chuck and Karla make the hike up, made much easier by the previous day's work.

A look at Christina Lake from near where we'd drop our first lines for the day.

Karla skis it up!

My turn...

Oh yea! I felt better already.

Chuck's turn...

Chuck in real time.

Absolutely wonderful weather and terrific powder.

Karla drops in on another line.

Chuck follows.

Then me.

Shad practices a huck...

Awesome snow!

Sticking the landing, nose down. Ooops!

Poof! Talk about face shot.

It's all good. Great fun!

A look at one of Chuck's lines as we head up for more.

Alot of great tree skiing.

Magnifiscant day.

Chuck plops off a little steep.

Karla rockets off it!

Weeehooo!




The Karla Show

Got some more runs in on this patch. I stuck my last big huck for the day, and rode it out. It's the line running down the middle over the bigger rock. It was a super way to end the day.

Another blower day in the Southern Winds.

Wind River Powder

Wind River Powder
Christina Lake Area, Shoshone NF
January 6th, 2008

Goodness!

Following Chuck up the "B" trail into Christina Lake.

With over a foot of new snow on the ground more falling, I really didn't think we'd get much boarding in- I figured at best we'd find a little hill to play on maybe. Mostly because it's pretty tough to get the 30 miles back into the big stuff when conditions are like this. WIth the help of some folks ahead of us, we made it though.

Chuck skins up through some stellar pow. After some gigantic woomfing, and considering it was snowing about inch an hour- we decided to stay on low angle slopes in the trees. Couldn't see if you got out of the trees anyway.

The new Prior gets scores some Wind River fluff.

Weeeehooo!

Great stuff!

Shad launches.

Looking down some previous runs.

Chuck gets ready to shred it up.

Oh yea!

Madness!

A look at one of Chuck's lines live.

Beautiful!

After five runs it was time to get back to sleds.

Chuck heads for the barn, or his skidoo.

Nearly needed beacons to find our machines. Ha! Snowed about another 4 inches or more while we were playing.

Very happy campers! Scored some gourmet pow in the Winds.

Loading up the sleds for the 30 mile ride home.

Chuck breaks trail over the lake.

Chuck motors off the lake into the sunset, I swear, after a stellar powder day.

Local Turns: Southern Wind River Mts

Local Turns
Southern Wind River Range, Shoshone NF
January 2nd, 2008

A view of Wind River Peak as I begin the 30 mile snow machine ride into the Christina Lake area, where I like to ski.


My wife tears it up on the golf course above Lander a few days prior to this outing. We got a couple of pretty serious storms around Christmas, that gave us 2 or 3 feet of snow- pretty much the entire snow pack in some places.

A view of the mountain I climbed and played on for the day. It's one of many nameless peaks surrounding Christina Lake.

Was solo for this trip.

A look up into Atlantic Canyon.

A little closer look. Can you guess what I looking at? Ha!

Happy to be out on another fine day.

Not bad turns either. Not quite the pow we experienced yesterday, but good enough.

Works for me.

I found a cornice to practice my hucks.

Landed all of them too.

More turns.

A different angle.

More hucking practice.

Try as I might, I just could quite get the time delay on my camera to catch me air borne- I tried a few times too. Ha! Maybe next time.

Another great day in the backcountry, a good way to start off the Wind River season. They're looking much better than they did last year at this time, though they could still stand some more snow.

2008 Powder

2008 Powder
Togwotee Pass, South Side of Vianni's Hole, Absaroka Range
January 1st, 2008

Chuck makes his way up the skin track.

With all of the new snow, we were being extra cautious. We chose an area with lots of options. Still feeling aches and pains from leftover avi injuries the mountains gave us a few week ago- we weren't taking any chances. Plus, both Chuck and I both had new boards that we wanted to keep around for a while. Ha! We dug a snow pits and did some tests- a shear test, an extended column test, and an RB. We found a 2 to 3mm thick melt/freeze crust down about 50 cm. The pit was to the ground- just over a meter- south facing. 30 degree slope. The crust was a concern, in that not much but facets were under it. In all, the entire snow pack seemed pretty soft- nothing harder than 4F. Shear and ETC tests told another story though. It took a about 6 or 8 full arm swings to get any failure on the layer of concern- when it did fail, it was maybe a Q3 at best. Our RB was more interesting, but probably not valid, in that we didn't have room to make it 3m back. The way it was, we got an RB2. We change decided to change our route a bit, but proceed up and look for low angle decent options, or proceed over the ridge to the north side.

Karla breaks trail for a while.

Karla and Chuck near the ridge above Vianni's Hole, the Tetons in the background.

The only reasonable route up the ridge from where we were, meant traversing under this rock band on a wind loaded pillow. The slope below almost immediately flattened out, so it seemed consequences would be minimal if I snuck out on it, and it went.

Sure enough- "KAWOOMPFFF!" it collapsed. It didn't go though. You can see my tracks and the cracks on both sides of them that shot clear over and around the rock band- right where you'd think.

Chuck and Karla, observing from afar, not far enough they couldn't hear the woompf though. After this, we all decided to bail on the bigger stuff and go play on the shorter, less steep treed runs we climbed up on.

Chuck spots Karla as she slides towards a safer run.

Chuck goes for it! Really good pow!

On another run, Karla surfs in waist deep powder!

Karla Series:

Awesome ride!

Chuck's Turn:

Good stuff!

Chuck's training video.



I got some turns in too...

Apparently the photographer thought "Shad" was a fish, and decided the "aquarium setting" on my camera was the best way to catch a Shad swimming. Makes sense I guess. Ha!

My new Prior. Couldn't live without one.

A look back at some of our work (the squiggles in the trees).

Riding off in the sunset. A great day in the backcountry. The perfect way to begin a new year.