Will is pretty excited.  It is blue and we are about to fly onto the glacier.

Home.

We set up camp and threw on our skis for a quick evening tour to get look around.  We ended up skiing some nice little  lines in the evening light just behind camp.

Nick ready to shred some pow back to camp this nice evening.

Back home. Little did we know but we had five blue days ahead of us…

First objective

Nick getting steep and deep on the hike up as Mt. Fairweather watches from the distance

Nice warm up

The next day we headed about a mile down glacier to one of the burliest zones I have ever seen.  We headed there just to check it out, do a bit of recon.  Once we were there we could not help but go ski something.  So Erickson and I headed up a large rib feature, which was one of the more reasonable lines, while Nick and Will explored something a bit more gnarly.

Chris is booting up the nice rib feature we are about to ski.  We wanted to get to the summit but the rock band above forced us to the left and onto an open face that we were not quite comfortable committing to.  So we skied a nice big 60 degree rib for about 1300 vert.   

Nick and Will trying to put the  pieces of their blown mind back together after they climbed and skied the lines of their life.

Wow!  Did that really just happen?    Nick and will skied some amazing spines from the far looker’s right peak,  still with a bit of evening light on them. A few days later Nick and I ended up in the same spine zone and I skied this…

The wavy spine of my dreams. Definitely one of the craziest lines of my life.  A few days later I found myself in a similar situation.

Hiking or climbing?  Why are my arms tired? Climbing up these lines is often the crux.  There were many lines that we chose not ski because they lacked a safe route up.  This line was right on the border.  Nick and I rested at the last safe spot before racing up this runnel to the top of the line.  We took turns breaking trail to be as fast as possible.  Choosing to be close together to increase the speed of group and limit time spent in the danger zone.  This was a clean line, if there were any cornices above us or cliffs below it would have been a no go.

Things were going too well..

Eventually it just snowed for eight straight days and the highlight of day was…

packing out a landing strip for Drake to land his plane on when it finally clears.

After the storm

Drake comes to pick us up

Hard to leave. Amazing place,  great friends,  unbelievable experience.

Adam Barker is the organizer of the shootout and an incredible photographer in his own right.  On the last day of the shootout he followed our group around and “documented” us shooting.  He took the photo above of me throwing a 50 foot front flip.  Definitely one of my favorite photos of the season.

For the last two days of the shootout I was assigned to my home resort of Alta.  The first day at Alta I skied with Suzanne Graham and photographer Kevin Winzler. It was cloudy and dumping all day so we skied pow in the trees all day.  Kevin busted out the flashes and strobes for most of the day.  Trying to light his shots on the this cloudy day.

Kevin and his assistant Little Greg. LG is holding a strobe.

Good times in the pow! Suzanne going up for some more.

For the last day of the shootout I was at Alta with my good friend and photographer Liam Doran and Weston Deutschlander. We had an amazing day at Alta.  We started with an early lift ride up Supreme.  We skied some deep pow lines in nice early morning light.  Next we headed out to Rocky Point and hit some of the classic cliffs.  First I lined up A-frame and hit it pretty big with a front flip.  Weston followed me with a nice straight air stomp.

Liam, far right, shoots Weston hitting A-frame. Things are about to get stompalicious.

Next I hit the tree air…

and Adam Barker killed the second angle. Liam shot this from below and got a really nice shot as well. Kind of nice shooting with two photogs!

Next we headed out towards Sunset Peak and skied some nice pow lines in the long afternoon light.

There is a person in that cloud of snow somewhere. Liam shoots Weston as he gets explosive.

Liam in front of my tracks. Little did we know it then but this last shot was going to be the Winner of the Powder category.

So Liam won the Powder category of the Salt Lake Shootout with this shot of me.  It was fun to win but I am super psyched to do it with a friend like Liam.  Nice work Liam! You can see more from the Salt Lake Shootout HERE.

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Day one I shot with Erlend Haugen, a norwegian photographer that is currently living in Chamonix,  France and Jesse Bryan a strong alpine skier from Snowbird. We had a super bluebird day in the backcountry surrounding Brighton.  Erlend is a great photographer and was ridiculously easy to work.  Good people and good skiing generally equals a great day and today was no exception. We skied some nice sun/shade pow lines off of Mount Tuscarora and then moved to a zone beneath Mount Tuscarora to hit some cliffs.  Jesse and I each hit some smallish (under 30) cliffs.  Finally as the light changed we moved to the northwest face of Millicent peak and got some nice steep pow shots.  Great day of shooting.

Day two I shot with Kevin Winzler a photographer from Salt Lake and Jason West, a good friend and an alpine/tele shredder(today he was on alpine gear, sell-out!). It was snowing all day so we had to work to get some shots with the lack of light.  Luckily Kevin is a master of lighting and showed up with a full arsenal of flashes and strobes. First we skied some pow off of pioneer ridge.  We found a small cliff to session and Kevin set the his flashes.

JW guinea pigs it.  While this cliff is not very big,  Jason made it a much larger air, landing well out of the picture.  Jason gave the landing two thumbs up so I could help but front flip it.  Jason and I each hit the cliff twice until there were no soft landings left and then moved on.  Next we moved back inbounds and Kevin broke out the strobes.

Kevin shooting,  Jason getting powlicious under the strobe.

We ended up shooting this zone until dark.  Kevin got some really nice shots,  you can check them out HERE, they are the shots around the rocks that look like night or evening light.  Long day of storm riding and working to find cool shots with two rad guys.  Kevin is a really amazing photographer and I was lucky to get paired with him for two days!  Next, two days at Alta, one with Kevin and one with Liam Doran. Oh yeah, and a bunch more snow…

Suicide Chute follows the red line…

In the past when I have skied Suicide chute I have approached via the apron of Mt. Superior and then bootpacked directly up the chute.  Dylan had tried an alternative approach in the past and claimed it to be a better option.  So we started slightly down canyon from the apron of Mt. Superior and skinned our way up to the Homicide chute, which is opposite the Suicide chute on the south ridge of Mt. Superior, and bootpacked up the last 300 feet or so.

Jay Beyer skinning his way towards the base of Homicide Chute with the South ridge of Mt Superior in the background.

Dylan Freed breaking the bootpack up Homicide Chute.

Jay booting…

I have to agree with Dylan that the approach via Homicide chute is safer and easier. There is very little exposure to avalanches and the bootpacking up Homicide is much easier than Suicide.

Dylan dropping in.

Dylan still dropping.

Jay coming out of the final choke onto the apron.

All in all it was fun day.  We skied some nice pow in a spectacular location,  can’t complain.

So the I spent the next two days shredding around Alta, first with Jay Beyer shooting some stills and then with my friends from Colorado, Will Cardamone,  Chris Erickson and Jake Sakson.  It was a insanely fun to shred around with the CO rippers on an epic day at Alta.   They were just as psyched as I was to be getting some faceshots. Today we headed back in to the backcountry to shoot some amazing powder with Will, Chris, the PW crew and photographer Jeremiah Watt.  I forgot my camera so I had to resort to the cell phone to shoot some photos so forgive me for the low quality…

Powder Paparazzi

Where’s Will?  There is a skier in there somewhere.

Will with a face full of powder.

Chris getting a face full of powder while Jonah captures it.

Chris in the pretty colors pulling up to catch his breath after nearly choking himself on snow!

Looks like more snow is on the way!

Travis loving a little sun in the morning.

Me on Imaginary Voyage, one of the best pitches of 5.10 I have ever climbed. Photo: Travis Kemp

…continuing on my Imaginary Voyage.  Photo: Travis Kemp

We drove back to Salt Lake in a storm.  Looks like 3-4 feet of snow in the next few days.  Psyched to ski!

My friend Travis is in town and looking to get his ice climbing fix.  The skiing conditions are less than ideal currently so I am psyched to do some ice climbing with Travis.  The other day we headed down to Provo Canyon to get on the classic Stairway to Heaven.

Travis on the approach early in the morning. Currently there are five pitches of ice on Stairway. The first pitch is obscured by the trees in this photo.  We hiked around the first pitch since both of us had climbed it multiple times and there were a couple of groups top-roping there.

The second pitch.

I tend to get sucked into skiing powder when it is there and last season it seemed to be there all the time.  So I had not climbed ice in over a year. The second pitch looked nice and thick so I took the lead.  I was definitely a bit rusty but made it through unscathed except for a mega pump.  Travis quickly followed and took the lead up the third pitch.

Travis starts up the third pitch.

Travis wandering up the third pitch.

I led the short but steep fourth pitch, which led up to the base of the fifth and final pitch.  The last pitch is a beautiful steep pillar.

Travis buckling up for the last pitch.

Travis in the thick of it.

A couple of rappels later we were down safely enjoying some salami and cheese.

mmm, salami!

All in all it was a super fun day in the mountains that definitely reignited my love of ice climbing, which is good because it does not look like it is going to snow anytime soon.

I am psyched to be back in Salt Lake to enjoy some skiing.  It has not been a great winter as far as snowfall but it will come.  Even with less than ideal conditions I have been able to get out and have some good days at Alta and in the the backcountry.  I had one day with Noah and Darrell in Days Fork that was actually filled with more faceshots than coreshots.  Hopefully there are a bunch more of those to come soon!

Noah, happy about some powder...finally!