You see them all over the skiing forums, threads from people asking about all the different heli-ski operations in Alaska, as well as throughout Canada and the lower forty-eight. Dude, what’s the heli terrain like in Valdez vs. Haines? How are the guides at Bro-Show-Heli vs. Rad-Dude-Rotors? Will my helmeted head fit inside the heli […]
Trip Planning
Well, close is a relative term, but when you drive 6 hours, hike in and bushwhack through tough terrain and camp within a mile of your line, I’d say that is pretty close. Unfortunately, the wind, sun, rain, and graupel made this mission unsuccessful. Camp and the line in the upper left corner. Click photo […]
I’m heading out for some adventure skiing tonight and a bit of a drive before for a Monday morning departure, with 3-4 days scheduled in the backcountry. This is the second time I’m going for this peak and line…sorta. The first time, my partner and I departed Jackson, did most of the drive, only to […]
Soooo…I was out skiing on one of those greybird/mostly cloudy/mountain snow-shower days last week (pretty much like every day last week) and of course, I didn’t use any sunscreen since it didn’t seem like the sun was really out. Well, at the end of the day (and after I got out of the shower) my […]
I like to wear my transceiver on the front of my torso and away from my arms, backpack straps and jacket pockets. Like many of you (I think), I wear an avalanche transceiver when skiing in the backcountry. (My personal favorite is an Ortovox S1.) Most transceivers come with a decent carrying case and harness […]
I know many of you out there probably have quite the quiver of rando skis and maybe a few pairs of boots. I know I do. They range from a 5 lb/foot (ski, boot, binding) old-school Dynafit race setup, to a more than 10 lb Black Diamond/Dynafit hybrid. I ski on both setups quite often […]
Sometimes I get bored of energy bars, blocks and gels when I’m out skinning. Don’t get me wrong now, Probars and GU products still give me the kick-in-the-butt energy I need to rally. But occasionally, the Albertson’s bakery sale rack really does the trick at getting me psyched to fill up the tank and is […]
Historically here in the Tetons, winter closures to protect wildlife habitat in Grand Teton National Park have started on December 15th. Area closures around and near the town of Jackson, mainly Forest Service land, start on December 1st. Advocates like the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance put out ads on the radio and in newspapers (do […]
After about 24 hrs of travel and four plane rides today, I will be in Christchurch, New Zealand…two days later. It’s a nineteen hour time difference between Jackson (MST) and Christchurch (NZDT), and my longest leg is from Los Angeles to Auckland…which looks to be about a 13 hour flight. OUCH! Hopefully a coupe sleep-aids […]
It’s pretty hard to avoid there being high avalanche danger in New Zealand when it snows 13 feet in 10 days. Like with most trips, local or abroad, I’ve started to eyeball the conditions and weather forecasts for New Zealand. (Launch day is tomorrow!) MetService.com seems to be the best website for weather and Avalanche.net.nz […]
Using your bike to access ski descent is super rad! Click all photos for larger images. With the coming of spring…or at least the plowing of the GTNP inner road, it is a great time of year to incorporate a bicycle into your ski tours and shoot for some of the peaks and lines north […]
I’m headed to the east coast for Gore-Tex camp today and I figure this will be the last gear list update before I head back to Jackson and then jump on a plane (or five) on Sunday to head southward to Antarctica and then on to Aconcagua. My mind has been racing and no matter […]
T-minus 9 days until I leave for over 6 weeks on this epic adventure to ski on the Antarctic Peninsula and Aconcagua, one of the seven summits. And for sure…I’m felling the pressure. I’ve had these Julbo Explorer glacier glasses for about three years, waiting for the right opportunity to bust them out. Well, it’s […]
More packing and refining of the gear-list for Antarctica and Aconcagua going on lately, and it’s fast approaching less than two weeks away! Today we’ll touch base on the clothing, outwear and base layers that I will bring. I’ll be taking a mixture of hard and soft-shells (both jackets and pants), a couple insulating layers […]
I know these next few weeks are going to fly by with a busy schedule of working, traveling to the east coast and getting my gear ready for the upcoming trip to Antarctica and Aconcagua. It’s a little tough to pack for this trip, because really, one almost wants two completely different setups to deal […]
If there is one thing I hate…it’s taking pills. I don’t really like to mess with my body, I rarely get sick enough to warrant taking prescription medications and I often to prefer to feel like crap than mask what my body is going through. That being said, you also want to stack the odds […]
Finding and buying topo maps for trips to areas that aren’t near where you live can sometimes be challenging, time consuming and expensive in the long run. The good news is that there are resource out there that allow you to obtain USGS quad maps for nearly every part of the United States…for FREE! YAY…thanks […]
Remember everybody, today at exactly 12:00pm (noon) MTS is the last chance to “Guess My Time” and win a free pair of La Sportiva Exum Pros. The winner will be announced tomorrow! Yay! What I ate. With just a few more hours to enter into the contest, I thought I would run down the things […]
So, you couldn’t find any ski partners, but today is your only day off this week and you are just dieing to ski that couloir you’ve been eying. The avalanche forecast is for moderate danger, with isolated pockets of instability in wind-loaded areas and the weather forecast is for bluebird skies. You decide to go […]