Our Shasta to Hood Sunski roadtrip coincided with the 7th annual West Coast Sessions led by our good buddy Ethan Stone. Each year a select group of the country’s (and to a smaller extent the world’s) best am riders are invited to a unique week-long session at Timberline on Mount Hood, and JP and I were able to walk out to the spectacular jump they had built especially for the riders with our lawn chairs and beers and spectate. It was a jaw-dropping show of skiing talent set against a killer sunset high above Oregon, and I took my first real crack at shooting action photos. Shane McFalls was a filmer for a team in the video competition aspect of the gathering, and can be seen here working on what I can only imagine to be the world’s first VHS-MiniDV-3D camera system. I think.

Scrappy Joe Young mid-flawless-noseblunt-cork 9

Jed Kravitz dropping in with heat and 12,000′ Mount Hood in the background.

Mount Hood sunset with Jed in fine form

One of Jed’s mint opposite tail cork 7s

Jed Kravitz again, rodeo 5 dub-nose. Perfect.

There’s some serious low-light grain action here, but Jed’s style was too good not to post this one

Treefort Lifestyles Jeff Curry getting laid out in a nutty cork 7

Crazy Karl Fostvedt in a perfect blunt 10

Rob Heule in an unnatural 180. Foreground foliage baby!

Hood loc-dog Drew Stew threw down all week with the grossest bic-ed head with a dread rat-tail out the back. Dude is gnarly.

Couldn’t have caught Drew at a better moment here. Go Colts eh?

Joey van der Meer cork 7 trailing tail

All in all it was one of the most amazing sessions to watch, and this was just one evening in a week full of insanity. Make sure you watch the videos here:  http://thewestcoastsession.com/video.html

Having spent the last 5 or 6 winters in the mountains, the act of searching for new things to do and ski in the snow has become an art form. I’ve found that not only have I become far better at it, but also enjoy it just as much as actually skiing the discovery. The anticipation can become unbearable knowing there are so many cool places to be. Snow conditions have to be just right, your attitude and physical abilities have to be on point, and of course you should have a buddy at the bottom with a recording  device of some sort to catch the action.

This winter has afforded me the ability to see lots of new places around Lake Tahoe that are incredibly beautiful and also look totally radical to ski. For example, this zone here elicits the promise of a ride you won’t ever forget. Tucked in between each of the snow spines and rocky outcroppings is a terrifying chute waiting to be sent at high speeds.

Looking South along the Sierra Crest

Any skier that has so much as glanced at a ski magazine on the grocery store shelf knows what a “pillow” looks like. A tasty pillow zone somewhere in Donner Pass:

Blackwood Canyon, just waiting for some fat flakes to fall.


Ward Canyon

Luckily the Sierra Nevadas are 400 miles long, we’ve got a bit more exploring to do.

Lawdog school ended in early March. I packed up my skis, tent, and bike, and was quickly on the road to Tahoe. Some things to note:
1) A quarter mile off I-80 in Iowa City, on Dubuque Street is a decent concrete park. Its a great way to break up the drive. The transitions are a bit lumpy, but its still better than almost every modular park on the East Coast.

Dubuque Street Park, 1/4 mile South of I-80 in Iowa City

2) For skiiers from the East Coast and Mid-West, driving across Nebraska on I-80 is a rite of passage. The seven hour traverse across Nebraska is dreaded, eye-opening, and at times, strangely enjoyable.

Big trucks and big farms - I-80 in Nebraska

Hung out with the Ft. Collins crew (Tyler, Toby, and A White) for a night, then drove to Salt Lake for a reunion with some of GMD homies. Apparently their landlord is very relaxed because the crew has installed a sketchy ladder leading to the second story roof. It made for a great view while I enjoyed a few beers.

Seth Orton & Bros. Apparently Seth had an old person slip-and-fall and broke his ankle.

Two out of three North sisters!

Finally, onto Squaw Valley and skiing. The Lake Tahoe area has had a “bad” winter but that sort of thing is all relative. It still snowed ~350 inches in North Lake Tahoe. With freezing mountainous nights, there has been more than enough snow to ski various jumps, jibs, and chutes into June.

I live down there in a tent! Olympic Valley, Squaw Valley ski area is to the right over the ridge.

JP on Mt. Rose, late May.

After a May 26-28 snowstorm, Tarca and Timmy K on top of Slide Mountain Chutes.

JP and Hazen put the finishing touches on a triage of Donner Pass jibs, May 29th.

Tarca on top of Alpine Bowl, May 31. We skinned from the parking lot.

Lower right, Tarca drops a cliff on the way down Alpine Bowl, Memorial Day.

That’s it for now. Look for video footage of our late spring skiing in webisodes from JankyFilms out this summer! And keep on skiing, there’s still plenty of snow out there that kids from the East Coast would kill to ride.

To say this winter got off to a slow start is most deffineitely an understatement, it almost didn’t show up. The last month however has provided us with some big storms and a more winter-like experience here in Tahoe. It was hard to pry oursleves away from the resorts seeing as some of the most infamous lines and zones have just recently filled in and become ridable after months of leaving such things to our imaginations.

The first week of April started out with some significant snowfall and the end of that first week remained sunny and cold, that combined with some serious wind events gave us the hunch that conditions would at least be decent and allow for some good backcountry exploration. Castle peak was first on the list. It was a zone I have been thinking about all season. The ease of access combined with the featuresque terrain I had seen in photos made it an easy choice for one of our first true tours of the 2012 season. The Castle did not disappoint. Rising over the ridge from the south face we came up on AK style chutes and spines that were untouched. It took a second to realize that all the tracks at the base of the north face were from sleds and not skiers, a foreign sight after spending a couple winters in Little Cottonwood. The conditions were good, better than expected but still variable, thin cover right off the top but better once you got deeper into your line. We squeezed in a couple laps by noon unfortunately I was supposed to be at work around that same time so the ride back down to Boreal was a bit hectic but if your day doesn’t end with a sprint down I 80 in all your gear you may not have sent it as hard as you could have.

Castle Peak made made such a great impression on us that we went back just a couple days ago this time with a bigger crew, the JANKYcam2, and damn near hero snow that was gifted to us this past week. That footage is classified for now but the POV’s from our first jaunt should tie you over.

In three weeks, and one day, I could be done. Done with year two of law school. It has been a wacky time since I left Tahoe in August. Things kicked off with Hurricane Irene right when I got back to Vermont:

Then I sat on my ass, did three months of work straight, and got the most out-of-shape (and best grades) since I drank beers all day in college. The jury is still out on whether the trade-off is worth it:

Next, Vermont had the warmest winter ever recorded, coupled with one of the lowest snowfalls ever. My housemate Jim took this photo of me on the highway embankment behind my apartment in January:

six inches!

In March, an incredible two-plus week, 70-80 degree heat wave melted all the snow, and I had my “last day” on March 23, racking up a grand total of 31 ski days.

Obligatory shot of the bros - Samuel and Andrew. Non-bro Jimmy on the way left.

Mud season lasted about a week. April 8th, I hiked up Killington, from the base of Bear Mountain, through both melted out parks, to the peak.

From the tip-top of Killington

Then boom! EAST COAST POW DAY! Scratch 31 days, make that 32! On April 9th, 18 inches stacked up on Killington. It was easily my best non-park day all season. We got two completely untracked runs. I got this shot of Jim after a 20-minute hike:

Definitely boot deep - you can't even see those boots.

With the late season storm, I’ll go out a few more times here on the East Coast. But in three weeks and one day, I’m done. Then it’s back to Tahoe to build some late and great spring jumps. Can’t wait.

Living the way we do, working full time and trying to make a movie, traveling is usually reserved for the shoulder season usually occurring in April and May. But when there is little snow to ride and no work to be had getting out of town seemed like the only way to stay sane. It took just one fall in the firm Squaw park  for me to realize I needed to take a little vacation from the ice crust and 45 degree days that have been theme of Tahoe so far this season. So I loaded up Legacy (pronouced with Italian accent) and pointed it towards the coast.  The trip was not so much about finding fresh snow as it was about regaining some of the positive spirit that has been slowly slipping away over the last three months. The eventual goal was Vancouver, BC but I would end up settling for a couple days on the North Coast of California and a day of riding at Mount Hood Meadows.

The after a couple wrong turns around Sacramento I cruised over the foothills past Clear Lake and arrived in Fort Bragg (not to be confused with Fort Brag, NC the large military base where the US Special Forces are trained) After dollar tacos at North Coast Brewery and car camping in the 24 hour Safeway parking lot, the first night was in the books. The early morning clouds were starting to give way as I started up HWY1 to the 101.

The therapeutic qualities of getting on the road were evident right away. The winter that wasn’t was out of mind, that space was now taken up by the mind blowing scenery of the California Coast and the Redwoods which put most other trees to shame.

The trip provided ample “GTS” opportunities. Watching the sunset from Redwood National Park, not a person to be seen in any direction. Once the sun had set there was no choice but to drive through the night in order to be in Government Camp by morning. Mount Hood had been receiving storms all all week and 8 inches that day. Combined with the 100 inch base it was the only logical move. I can only pretend there is no winter for so long, apparently two days is the limit.

 Sunrise on HWY26 heading towards Mount Hood. It had been well over a year since I had been to Hood and it was the first time being there in the winter. It was a comforting sight and evidence that winter could be found, a tale I would have to tactfully relay back in Tahoe.

I had never ridden Meadows before but that didn’t matter, it seemed like every pass holder I rode the lift with wanted to tell me about the “sickest zone” on the mountain. At first I barely said anything as they started to spill about the goods for fear that one word could set them off into a realization of what they were doing. After a couple DEEP pillowy runs in the woods out the gates of Heather Canyon I started to take more liberties with the locals who, upon an initial profiling, I determined might know where to go.  By the end of the day I soaked up enough knowledge to call the day the best of the season so far. Not that there was much competition.

Possibly the most exciting thing I have ever seen in a ski area cafeteria. This was a sign that it would be a great day. If you don’t know you should find out.

Breakfast and a good ten minute scope of the terrain Mount Hood has to offer. It was time to ride. There will be some POV to accompany this post as soon as I free up some computer space. Footage or it never happened right?

Unable to get my shift covered for the following night combined with the fact that Northwest resorts to not give discount tickets to employees of California resorts even with a letterhead (though mine was out of date to boot) I decided call the trip and head back to Tahoe, hoping that during the 11 hour drive the forecast would change to three weeks of storms (no such luck). Hood to Tahoe takes you right through Bend so it made sense that I end the trip the same way I started it… with a brewery. Deschutes is the most renown of the many breweries in Bend and I had never been, so it was an easy decision. The perfect spot to get a little loose before the long drive home.

Timmy, Haz, and JP took a trip down to Mammoth this past week. They haven’t gotten much in the way of snow but that hasn’t the park folks at Mammoth from building sick set-ups and the best kickers we have hit to date! Can’t wait to make another trip when there’s snow. Here’s a little tease!

I know it’s hard to believe in a winter like this, but powder snow IS A REAL THING. We had the cameras rolling for the deepest days in what turned out to be one of the deepest seasons in Alta’s long history of deepness. Enjoy!

Brighton February LostTapes

Last February, JANKY went out and shot some video at Brighton during a little FreeskiBrands (Surface, Causwell, Joystick) photoshoot with Jason Eichhorst (phenomenal photographer, check him out!) clicking away. Skiing is Blake Nyman, Shayne Metos, Liam Casey and Eliel Hindert. All of the skiing was with the intention of capturing a still. I tried to show that with these clips as best possible. Didn’t wind up using the footage for anything else, so I figured I’d kill some time waiting for more snow this year by editing some old footage. Hope you enjoy!

We’re having a grand ol’ early season here in Utah. Stay tuned for some fresh shots coming soon…

A nice time-lapse edit put together from the Utah syndicate. Word has it they are about to get hit with some snow for opening weekend at Alta and the Bird. Should be a mad house… wish we were there.