Its been like ground hog day in Utah for the last 3 months. Wake up, not a cloud in the sky, and absolutely no snow anywhere in sight. I couldn't have been more excited for this annual trip to Retallack, where I knew it was firing and I could escape this devastating drought. The trip was a major tease, and it was kind of like a dream, for more reasons than I could ever describe. It's like I went to sleep in Utah, arrived in this snowglobe winter wonderland in the Interior of BC, skied blower snow for three days without a cloud in the sky, and then my dream turned into a nightmare when I woke up in Utah again. No snow. It was a very surreal trip, maybe not sleeping much for 4 days has added to the illusion. But I know for sure it definitely happened, there were photos on my leica when I got home....
^Goat Range, BC, its on the list, believe me.
What was crazy about this trip, was that I spent over 65 days at this very place last winter, and I never saw one bluebird day like we saw on day 2 of this trip. Lucky we were.
^Johnny Five, master of the joke, keeper of the stoke. Rockin the same toque as last year.
^ Pretty strait forward here, bounce all the way to the end and hope there's a nice place to land. Skiing on the all new Armada Bubba's here. I feel like the mayans prophesied that in the year 2012 I would have these ultimate skis to sacrifice snow pillows for the good of man and to bring even more prosperous snow falls. Maybe not, but these are next level.
Its been a rather slow, yet interesting start to the 11'/12' winter. In terms of snow, Utah has had a few teaser storms that started up in early October, but there was never really any momentum with the storm patterns. Unfortunately, we're now setup with a very dangerous early season snowpack. There is a wide variety of weak layers from the ground up which will become a HUGE problem once the big storms finally arrive. It will be another year of extra caution and patience, allowing time for the mountains to heal up, and eventually we will find our place on the big lines. Lately its been great to hammer the groomers at the ski resorts, and this year I feel particularly nice about my condition going into the season.
^ Neil and I have found some good powder on the more mellow, grassy slopes. With the early season snowpack I'm usually more worried about tagging a rock or a log than an avi. You can avoid the avalanches by sticking to low angle slopes, but there's no way to avoid the sharks lurking beneath our severely deprived snowpack.
With flashbacks of deep dry snow, heavy on my mind, I spent a night flipping through b-roll footage from our 2 month trip to BC last winter. I found some pow surfing footage and put together this GoPro helmet camera vid. For the record, I consider Retallack Lodge to be the holy mecca for pow surfing, or noboarding, whatever you wanna call it. Where else can you hit 6-10 runs a day, each one between 1500 and 4000 vertical feet of the nastiest fucking terrain in the world, without bindings?!?!?
Retallack powder mining, its a one of a kind experience. Karl the Gnarl is a one of a kind experience. You'll have to see for yourself at the legendary lodge in British Columbia...
Until then, enjoy this video which tries to somehow capture the energy. This piece was created with footage from an even larger project, Retallack: The Movie. Check it out fromInspired Media Concepts.
"During the winter of 2011, my brother Neil and I were presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity. We were to spend two months embedded in the heart of the Kootenays at the legendary Retallack Lodge. The mission was to shred pow with our good friend Tanner, who was on his comeback, and to help film Retallack:The Movie for Inspired Media Concepts. I took the role of the dedicated time lapse junkie, while Neil was a true on slope camera master. This video is a showcase of our skills behind the camera, as well as a few of our favorite long lens shots from Retallack:The Movie. Time lapses make way for deep powder mining, and a trip into the heart of the "silvery slocan" to see how silver miners conquered the mountains a century ago. Mining for powder in the Selkirk mountains is serious business, and we found out just how serious it can get. We hope you enjoy our short film, and perhaps absorb just a sliver of the energy that is Retallack Lodge in beautiful British Columbia."
I'm pleased to present the latest offering from Inspired Media Concepts. "Retallack: The Movie" is the product of two months spent in one of the great powder skiing kingdoms of the world, the interior of British Columbia and even more specifically, Retallack Lodge. Having the opportunity to help make this film while skiing powder with my buddies at a place like Retallack was not normal and something that I'll be eternally grateful for.
I'm also stoked to share some behind the scenes footage over the next few months to show what it was like making this film at Retallack. There's some funny fun shit that goes on up there in the koots!
Inspired Media Concepts presents the official trailer for Retallack: The Movie. This is the first feature film that I have ever been a part of and I'm pretty excited about the whole experience. We shot the film over the course of two months exclusively at Retallack Lodge, a cat skiing operation positioned deep in the interior of British Columbia. I spent a lot more time behind the lens than in front of it on this one, which at times was hard, standing idle as the boys hit beautiful powder lines. But at the same time it was up to me to capture the visuals that would tell the story of this amazing dream destination. In that aspect Im proud of what I was able to accomplish and I think everyone involved feels the same way about their contributions.
The film will be available on DVD and digital download August 1st!
just a few random photos from our days at Retallack Lodge. So far its been nothing short of incredible. I've been shouldering a fully loaded pack lately with a time lapse rig and video kit. My back has been suffering, but a few hours at any of the hot springs in the kootenays and a couple hashers will keep me going. Looking forward to charging real soon....
The ol' blog has been getting a bit dusty lately. I just have been so damn busy living the dream, that I forgot all about computers and the internet! Seriously though, living in the Kootenays has altered my lifestyle. Things are a bit more simple on our program. You see, I'm here in the interior for 6 weeks to produce some kind of ski movie. Its still in the developmental process in a way, but we're shooting it all at Retallack, and thats unique. So the end product will be unique, just as the mountains and the people and the energy of the kootenays.
Neil and I hung out on a ridge in the selkirks the other evening, here are a few shots.....
and here is a frame grab of tanner sending a double cork. he is a beast...
I just returned from a short but sweet trip to Retallack, BC. It was the annual trip with the Armada squad to get some imagery of all the new products in their natural environments. Once again, deep powder and high avalanche danger kept us off the big terrain. But like always we were able to find some incredible skiing in the protected forrest at Retallack Lodge.
^ These trees have adapted well to the heavy snowfalls of the Kootenays.
^ Always a good fire burning at the lodge.
^ Head up to Retallack and visit with CR. His spirit is up there!
First of all, I'd like to thank Red Bull for putting together one of the greatest events in all of skiing! Their production, planning, and organization was really Impressive. It's so great to see a company like Red Bull supporting this type of skiing in such a huge way. Also, I'd really like to thank the staff at Retallack Lodge. They did such an outstanding job accommodating this rowdy bunch of skiers. The food, hospitality, and environment was on another level! I truly believe that Retallack Lodge has transformed the Cold Rush from a contest into something more of a festival, celebrating the joy of skiing in the mountains with your friends. BIG THANKS!!!!!
My experience with the Cold Rush began when I received a phone call, asking if I could make it up to fill the position of an athlete who got injured. I knew I had a to take care of a few things at home, but how am I going to pass up this opportunity? The next day I was on my way to beautiful british columbia, my new favorite place on earth. I've never been involved with anything like this before, so I was completely humbled to even be considered for this event.
The Red Bull Cold Rush is a contest to see who is the best all around, mountain skier. The venues included the beautiful north face of Texas peak with all of her various alpine descents, a kicker zone with 7 different jumps that all had powder landings, and the PME cliff section which was a short, technical face with unlimited potential. The terrain at Retallack is absolutely ideal for such an event. I wish that I had more time to prepare for this, as I skied far to conservatively to be considered a contender for the top spots. My position in the final results (7th), meant very little in comparison to my excitement for being a part of such an amazing event. To me, it was all about experiencing all that the cold rush had to offer with a great group of people, at one of the greatest places on earth, RETALLACK!
So, here is a video I made with the goal of documenting the cold rush from a skiers perspective. I shot it using my 5D Mark II with a fisheye lens and a 50mm 1.8. I also used the GoPro HD mounted on my helmet. Even with all the camera men and photographers capturing the action, I still felt compelled to document it for myself. Enjoy! I know I did!
Just a quick little update from Retallack Lodge. I made the drive from Utah to the interior British Columbia a few days ago. This is my first time in this area of BC and all I can say is DAMN! Why have I not been here before? Anyways, Im up here doing some work for ARMADA. Well actually im not working at all, because skiing Kooteney blower is not exactly what I call work. Here are a few photos I took from today. Lots of cool stuff coming soon and a more in depth look into what its like at one of the greatest Cat skiing operations in the world, RETALLACK! fucken A rights
blasting through the pow
The trees up here are nice and big if you know what I mean
2500' Vertical of Pillow popping heaven. seriously, its awesome.
On march 27th, my brothers and I celebrated our pops' 56th birthday at none other than powder mountain. My pop, like many utah skiers/boarders, he had never been to powder mountain. After a healthy serving of fresh pow last week (30in+) and bluebird skies slated for the old mans b-day, it was time he learned why we have been going there for the last 4 years. He learned pretty quickly why they call it Powder Mountain!
The birthday boy cutting it up on lightning ridge.
Siebert testing out his new jones. so far so good.
farming the pow at powder mountain is often times highly enjoyable.
dropping into a steep chute off Cobabe Peak, pre avalanche
a proper slope cut resulted in the entire chute getting flushed out with the debris running rather far down into the trees.
It would have been a bumpy ride had I taken the fall line down into the chute.
