The powder train didn't stop...

It's currently raining at my house, and after a week of hot weather, it seems the powder train has taken a different course. In Utah, we hopped on just before Christmas, and we've been riding that train every day since then. A great start to the winter, although with a complex snowpack always on our mind, we looked for safety in the trees. Steep skiing season is upon us, but I sure hope this thing keeps on chugging. We need the water, and a few more deep days.

Steelhead and Spines - Volume Two

"In the spring of 2015, we began another pursuit for big lines and wild fish. Once again, our direction was north to Alaska, just as it was 3 years ago on our first trip to capture steelhead and spines. Since then, our burning desire to explore around the next bend, to see what's on the other side of the mountain, has grown to an inextinguishable level. We found ourselves back in a corner of southeast Alaska where for a few months of the year, some of the steepest, fluted lines in the world can be ridden, while chromed out steelhead run up and down the coastal rivers. This is the place for us to step outside the bubble of modern society, and into a world of our own making, where skiing and fishing and camping is everything. We returned home with these images, and memories of battling storms and mountains on the glacier and of an island where pure fish swim beneath the old growth hemlocks."

             

              (click images for full size)

           

       

 

Nica November

I've never been a big fan of November in Utah. My emotions are torn between the seasons. Summer is officially over and the skiing hasn't yet begun. For the last two years I've spent my Novembers in Nicaragua. It's such an incredible place to soak it all up before the long winter...

Mountain bike Selfie

Back in the day, they used to be called self portraits. Nowadays they call em selfies. This one was taken with a Canon 5D Mark III and a custom chest harness while out on the trails in Park City this week.

What Kind of Meat? - A fly fishing and mountain adventure to Bolivia

   I never would have thought we'd make it to Bolivia when we did. It was a rather spontaneous decision to drop everything and invest it all into something my brother and I have dreamed about for years. Bringing a dream to reality, executing it successfully having researched only enough to do it safely, but leaving plenty of mystery to keep the adventure pure, that is our approach. We made a film that shows our passion and dedication to fly-fishing, in one of the most exotic and threatened locations on earth, the Amazon. We camped in the Cordillera Real, where snow from the 20,000' peaks feeds the great Amazon basin, and had our first experience at high altitude.  It turns out that Bolivia really is an adventurers paradise. From the mountaineering, backpacking, biking, skiing, to the fishing, it's hard to imagine anywhere else in the world where these outdoor pursuits exist on a greater scale, in such close proximity to one another. It's an incredibly fulfilling and organic experience to go from an idea to a film, something thats tangible, something that I can share with others, instead of keeping the memories locked up in my brain. Anyways, I think it's worth sharing. I hope you enjoy :)





If you're interested in a Golden Dorado fishing expedition to the Bolivian Amazon, contact our friends Patrick and Federico from Angling Frontiers, they will take you on the trip of a life time : https://www.facebook.com/anglingfrontiers

Mountain Biking around Utah in the fall

It's my favorite time of the year to ride. The air is crisp and pungent with the smell of decaying leaves, signifying the end of yet another growing season and the emergence of winter. Better get my legs in shape. All of the maple trees around Utah are going off right now with vibrant displays of color, and the aspens will be soon to follow. There is nothing quite like turning off your brain and racing through the mountains on a bicycle, the forest becomes a blur of color, like a two wheel trip with kaleidoscope eyes.

Reconnaissance Loop - Uintas

   The Uintas are right out my front door and have provided us with years of easy access to mountainous adventures of all kinds. But I hadn't been up there all summer, and a quick retreat to Utah's largest wilderness seemed long overdue. Four days should do it. You could traverse the entire range from west to east in 4 days if you wanted, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for fishing. My summer itineraries are usually based around fishing, so I thought about a loop out of the Highline trailhead that would take us through some new terrain, over a few mountain passes, down and up a river valley, with plenty of scheduled stops to wet a line.

 Kalen and I took the highline trail about 17 miles east on the first day before we setup camp. We wanted to make it to a secluded basin on the far side of upper Rock Creek drainage where a fantastic scene awaited us. Halfway there, the weather changed and set the tone for the rest of the trip.

We came across these goats on Rocky Sea pass and I thought, "I should have a goat".

The hike went by quickly, and before I knew it we were in the basin, in the alpine. The joy of reaching such a spectacular place after a long day of hiking was short lived. Before we had a chance to set up camp, thunder claps and cloud to ground lightning strikes had us running for lower ground. A few hours later the storm pushed on, as they usually do, we built camp, and I raced with my fly rod to the upper lakes to get a few casts in before dark. 

Reconnaissance Lake is an alpine jewell that I was very happy to finally see for myself. 

The second day we came over dead horse pass which is where our hike officially turned into a loop. Crossing from the upper rock creek drainage to the headwaters of the west fork Blacks fork river, and then over another un-named pass into the Bear river was our plan for the day.

We decided to camp at dead horse lake. Getting caught in the lightning storm the day before scared us enough that we didn't want to cross another high mountain pass in the afternoon when the storms roll in

There are many things that make the Uinta mountains unique. All of the headwater systems provide refuge for two of Utah's native trout, the Colorado river cutthroat and the Bonneville cutthroat. You can fish for them both in a single day, separated only by a few mountain passes and a mile or so as the raven flies. This fish above lives at the source of the Colorado in a small lake at 11,000', feeding on anything thats been blown in by the wind.

Continuing our loop, we made our 3rd camp along the banks of the east fork of the Bear river. This drainage is home to the Bonneville cutthroat and the headwaters of the largest terminal river in the western hemisphere.  Our last day of hiking would have been a big one. My feet were cursed with blisters from not wearing shoes for a month, and the weather kept us from our intended pace. After a little debate, we hiked to the Christmas meadows road and down to the mirror lake highway where we hitched a ride from a friendly old couple back to the truck. We didn't make the full loop and the weather was kind of shitty, but it was still one of my favorite treks through the Uintas to date.