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 […]
International
The Linda Glacier ski descent route on Aoraki/Mount Cook follows the red line, but goes into the “Gun Barrels” (blue line) instead of the Summit Rocks section. Photo courtesy Alpinism and Ski. In honor of heading to New Zealand in a couple weeks, I figured I’d post this video of Bruce Grant skiing Aoraki/Mount Cook […]
Yeah baby! I’m pretty psyched to say that I’m headed to New Zealand to ski for the entire month of October. Before I go any further, I’d like to specifically thank Black Diamond and Arc’teryx Equipment for helping me make this happen. Without their support, I wouldn’t be able to experience a lot of things […]
From what I’ve been hearing, conditions in the Alps this spring have been absolutely stellar for ski mountaineering to say the least, with rad lines being ticked off by some great skiers and snowboarders. Some have been first descents, while others have been repeats of lines that haven’t been skied in decades. On June 4th, […]
I had the opportunity to ski in Norway this year, but bailed on it because of life obligations. Soooo…when Doug Stoup contacted me about his recent ski trip there after a couple of North Pole expeditions, I was psyched to hear about his experience and even more psyched that he has done the research, homework […]
Click on all photos for larger image. Our last day of the week at Fairy Meadows broke clear in the morning and we were all anxious to get ski touring. Steep moraines led us back up and onto Granite Glacier, with our objectives for the day being Mount Sir William and Enterprise Peak. Some new […]
Ski tracks on the Triangle Face from the helicopter ride out. Click all photos for larger images. Another day broke clear and sunny at the Fairy Meadows hut and a couple of us set our sites on doing a tour to Mount Damon, on to Pioneer Pass and then to the triangular face that I […]
Click on individual thumbnails to view larger images. You can also advance to the next image once one has enlarged. There is a brief trip report below…hope you like the pictures! The following day, our second full day at the Fairy Meadows Hut, we awoke to greybird skies. The plan was to do a long […]
Morning light on the way to the Houdini Needles area. Click all photos for larger images. After our first night at the hut, which was filled with great food and fun, we awoke to clear skied and bright sunshine. We were psyched to have a day with good visibility near the beginning of our stay […]
Greg Hill leads the way on Rogers Pass. Click all photos for larger images. After eventually crossing the boarder into Canada, Dustin Lemke, Reed Finlay, Brian Ladd and I pulled into Revelstoke to meet up with friends Greg Hill and Aaron Chance. Being that the USA vs. Canada gold medal hockey game was only a […]
Ski tracks above the Granite Glacier. Click photo for larger image. I made it back to Jackson Hole with my bros today, safe and sound after a great trip to British Columbia and the Selkirks. We were late getting into the hut due to weather and missed one day of skiing (sort of), but we […]
This is a very nice little viddy that follows some Salomon skiers as they try to ski lines into the crater of Chile’s Puyehue volcano. It takes them a coupe tries to succeed…mainly because of weather…but they win in the end and score what looks to be some rad skiing.
Somehow things have fallen into place and I’ll be heading up to the Fairy Meadows Hut in the Selkirk Mountains of Canada in less than a month. A fellow J-Holer scored in the lottery for hut reservations last year (yeah…because it’s so sick, there is a lottery for reservations) and was able to book the […]
This new trailer by Granite Films brings back so many memories of skiing in Antarctica. Here, Jim Surette documents Chris Davenport, Stian Hagen and Andrea Binning on their trip to Antarctica last November. The three, along with a film crew and guides, traveled to the white continent on the Australis and will release the full […]
Randosteve skis with glaciers in the Horcones Valley. The weather forecasts we were getting off of the satellite internet connection at Plaza de Mulas continued to show unsettled weather for the upper elevations of Aconcagua. Unsettled weather means average winds at about 80mph, with stronger gusts, and temps rising to a maximum of about -5F […]
Glen Poulsen and Kim Havell on the flanks of Aconcagua. The crew was no doubt excited to get on the snow and the plan was to have a few days skiing and acclimatizing, while we waited for better trends in the weather forecasts which would allow us to move up higher on the mountain. At […]
Roadside attractions at Penitentes. Teaming up with Glen Poulsen from Tahoe and Kim Havell from Telluride, our quest to climb and ski Aconcagua began with a short stop over in Penitentes, a small, yet interesting looking ski area north of Mendoza. A few nice peaks with snowy ramps were visible behind burnt out faces near […]
Glen Poulsen scopes out a serac in the Horcones Valley of Aconcagua. Working my way back to Jackson today. Man…what a wild last few weeks it’s been. Some of it seems like a lifetime ago, other parts…will live in my memory banks forever. Before I get on with telling the story of Aconcagua and easing […]
Back at basecamp… …and the weather determined it was not meant to be. Steve called this morning and the team has returned to base camp from Camp Two and a half. The weather over the last couple days has been challenging – cloudy with the winds bringing the temps. down to approximately minus 40F with […]
Headed up to Camp Two and a Half! Well, despite some serious weather obstacles, the team has decided to move higher still! Steve called today to report that the team has decided to continue up to Camp Two and a half tomorrow, even after spending a full day in the tent yesterday, enduring “nuclear winds”. […]