Silverton Mountain, Colorado - 3/17/2013

I'm way behind on my posts, (I still have to put up that report from Dix and the stuff at Tupper), but I just got back from a trip out to Colorado, so I wanted to put up some pictures from there:

I flew in to Phoenix to meet my brother, it didn't really seem like we were going on a ski trip:

Our ride for the week (my brother's Jeep - we put the top on before we left Scottsdale):

We went from Desert:

To High Desert:

And directly into a dust storm:

Pretty cool. The next morning, we woke up to snow outside the hotel in Silverton. We drove up to the mountain and it was still snowing:

Silverton has a tent for a base lodge and one lift with no safety bar. When you get to the top of that lift, you see this sign:

The only skiing allowed this time of year is with a guide. Our guide was a monster. Our first run was about 3,000 vertical feet through about 5 inches of powder over rock hard crust. With one stop. And we were over 13,000 feet above ski level.

That went really well, so I grabbed my camera for the second run. We started on a traverse:

And dropped into some trees:

The camera really flattens out the slope in that shot, but it was pretty steep. The snow was much better in here. Wind loaded, deeper, slightly heavier, but without the crust. We found some fun stuff to play on towards the bottom:

As we walked back to the lift, the sun started coming out:

Here's our crazy guide.  

His name was Josh (or something), but everyone called him "Wild Horse" or just "Horse" - there wasn't really any explanation about how his nickname came about . . . Strange . . . Here he is giving my brother some guidance. 

We were told to cut slopes, go one at a time, ski certain lines, etc. - mostly because of avalanche danger, but also to preserve snow. The hard part was skiing these really long lines without stopping (so you could reach Wild Horse's safe zones). This didn't make for the best pictures. Nor did the fog rolling in just in time to make the descent fully vertigo-inducing:

One again, pow on top, crust underneath/ The crust started to go away again as we got lower into the trees.

We skied down, crossed a river and hopped on a cat track:

And made it down to a waiting area:

Took a couple of pictures:

Eventually, the shuttle bus came:

Which kind of looked like they ripped off a UPS truck. It was a little claustrophobic on the inside, and it was covered in stickers . . . Cool.

After that run, it was time for lunch, delivered right to the sunny picnic tables next to the lift. I also took out my GoPro to shoot some video in the afternoon (edit coming later).

If it seems uncrowded, it's because there were only 19 people on the hill that day (plus a few guides, patrollers, and shuttle drivers). Now that the sun was out, it was time to start really hiking. After lunch, we got on the lift:

And started hiking to here:

How far was it? Well, this picture was taken about halfway up:

Brother was pretty tired on the hike. I was too.

But he recovered when he saw the kind of terrain we'd be skiing:

(Pay no attention to the grass, it was really windy in that spot)

Wild Horse kicked off the cornice for us:

It looked pretty steep:

And it was . . . But it was also pretty fun. Most of it had that firm crust underneath, but there was still some good snow to be had. Here's some pics of the descent - Instagrammed for your pleasure (the clouds moved in again to put us in vertigo mode and flatten the light on all of my pictures):

It was a long run:

Really fun line, though. Definitely worth the hike. By the time we got back down, we were pretty beat:

 But it was on the bus again for another ride:

Groups average between 3 and 6 runs a day, so we were glad to get 5 lift rides. The final run would be in the trees. Wild Horse scouted the route:

Yep, it looked damn good. And steep:

We got a solid run in there (you'll see it all on the GoPro edit). And by the time we reached the bottom, our legs were pretty shredded. We totally deserved our St. Patrick's Day green beer. 

It was one of my best ski days ever. 

Next post, I'll report on Telluride and Durango, including the drive to Telluride on the most scenic road I've been on since last year.

Jay Peak Video

The community college skiing class that I teach is done for the year, so I finally have a little free time. I went to Jay Peak a couple of weeks ago after they reported 30" in 2 days. By the time I got there, it was pretty trashed, but it was still a fun day.  Here's some Instagrammin':

The tram had been closed for the previous week, so when we got onto Green Beret, it was pretty deep:

And here's some video (no video of the best parts - Green Beret and The Dip - I was having too much fun):

Jay from Matt Charles on Vimeo.

And here's the end of the day:

It was a damn good time.

More posts coming later - a couple of ADK backcountry trips - but right now, I have to go pack for Colorado.

More Instagram

My blog posts always taper off this time of year because I'm working my ass off - my regular job 5 days a week plus teaching skiing 4 days a week. It gets pretty tiring. In fact, this is the first day I haven't skied since last Wednesday. I haven't got much news, but I do have some pictures. Here's some that I have on my phone:

Well Executed Adirondack Backcountry Ski Trip - 1/28/13

After our first attempt, I finally got the information I needed about the trail I was looking for (even if I drove right by the trailhead on the return trip and had to scour the side of the road in search of a skin track). It turned out to be a pretty awesome 3 hour slide tour with about 4-5 inches of fresh pow. Nice to get a little bit of redemption. Here's some pics (some instagrammed):

Poorly Executed Adirondack Backcountry Ski Trip - 12/31/12

I'd say that in life, most of the time, I have no idea where the hell I'm going. Every once in a while, this symbology lines up perfectly with an actual backcountry trip where I, in fact, have no idea where the hell I'm going. I'm not going to bore you with the details of this trip, but click here to see what we were trying to do. Actually it was nice to see myself mentioned in the report, with such nuggets as:

I had some issues with my bindings, got my car stuck for a half hour (in the wrong house, nonetheless) and ended up an hour and a half late. Matt's car was already in the trailhead parking lot, but Matt was gone. He was at the wrong trailhead. 

And

On our way out, we saw Matt's car still at the trailhead at 4:15. We headed to the local bar, got a few beers and decided we would head back to make sure his car was gone. At 6:30 it was still there, and pitch black out.

Needless to say, the trip didn't really go the way I wanted. Here's a map of what went wrong:

Obviously, I figured out somewhere along the way that we weren't even close to the place we wanted to ski, but I thought that it would be possible to at least get some skiing in on those mini slides on the top (Side note: there was a solid skin track on the trail we were on, which I expected to veer off onto the intended slide at one point, but that never happened). Unfortunately, it was pushing 3:00 by the time we got up top, visibility was awful (even from the fire tower), and, after slogging up 4 miles, we didn't want to have to hike back up whatever slide we skied. So, we gave up and just skied down the way we came up. Here are some pictures:

Like I said, the hike was mostly great: 

Damn, I miss that snow. We had a snack at the top.

Then I climbed the Fire Tower. Like I said, visibility was not good:

After a quick shot of the group at the top for posterity:

We headed down, trying to beat the darkness. Most of the skiing was power wedging or pushing and gliding down the skin track. Here's a picture of what it looked like before the sun set completely:

So, we came out by the light of headlamp, around 6:30. Whatever. So we didn't get to really ski at all and we completely missed our objective . . . Who cares? I'm already planning the return trip.*

*No guarantee that I know where the hell I'm going.

Pics From Last Weekend

I'll have a post later in the week about a cruel joke of a backcountry trip, but for now, here's what Gore is looking like lately. Get it soon, because the weather looks iffy for the next week or so...

Instagram dump

In our ridiculous, ADD society, it appears that we've all collectively shifted our attention from the horrible tragedy of Connecticut to the ridiculously trifling idea that Instagram is going to sell our crappy photos without our permission (which isn't even true). Good job, America. Maybe someday you'll actually have the courage to follow through on your disaster day promises of reticence, reform, and remembrance and actually give hope to people that things in the future will be better. Wait, look over there, a puppy!

Maybe I'm just bitter because of the December malaise. It hits me every year. I know it's coming, but I'm powerless to stop it. The only solution is skiing - preferably powder skiing. But since Sugarloaf was just outside of day trip range for me (4 hours I can do. 6.5 hours is rough), I'm just going to have to keep waiting.

Until then, Enjoy this Instagram dump of pics from the last couple of weeks:

Mountain Bike Ride a few weeks ago on the Middle-Murphy-Bennett Trail (not really bike friendly, nice hike, but not recommended for riding):

Nice night out in Albany a couple of weeks ago:

Driving down to North Carolina to help my parents' move into their new house:

Beach in NC:

Golf in NC:

Downtown Wilmington, NC:

Happy Holidays.

Killington - November 9th, 2012

Skied Killington yesterday, used a 2 for 1 coupon, so it was only 19 bucks. They had those typical early seasons runs open (along with FIS and Downdraft) and the walkway to get back to the Gondola to download. Here's some iPhone pics: