A storm arrived around Christmas time and delivered a much needed coat of fresh snow for the mountains of Utah. Things have been filling in nicely ever since. In the last few weeks, I've skied a lot of powder, some of it better than anything I've had in Utah in years. Granted, the last few years have kinda sucked around these parts, so I've been gone a lot. It sure does feel nice to be skiing pow again in our own backyard. Some photos that my brother Neil and I have shot lately.....
^ It got cold for a little while, and deep.
^ we found solitude and untracked deepness in the Uintas
^ Neil doesn't mind grinding out a few thousand feet of Wasatch wiggles
^Trent and his pops. Father and son Wiggles. Bruce laid down an epic figure eight.
^deep, blower pow for Neil
^ Jonny G, the Uinta snow scientist taking pictures of crystals and stuff
^ Aspen trees catching the glow from the first few moments of sunshine.
^ Mt. Raymond
^Had a great bluebird day with our friend, Nick Russell, hitting lines off Raymond Peak. Huge smiles all day!!!
#filmisdead
^ Watching my brother slash turns between the sharp rock fins of Raymond's east face
^ Nick Russell following my track because he liked how I worked those waves!
^ Even on a down day, I can't help myself from heading into our backyard for some powsurf laps.
Last week, the conditions were right for a full moon tour. Every month during the winter when the moon is big, it's always a great idea to go for a little backcountry ski at night. Most of the time its snowing during the winter, but this year we've had more high pressure in Utah than I hope to ever see again. So we had epic conditions for full moon skiing, I'll take that for once...
^We hung out on a ridge top for the sunset, and then dropped in for big run at twilight.
^with the avalanche conditions as tricky as they are right now, we are not riding anything extreme. This, for a few thousand feet is about as good as it gets right now. We dropped in under the glow of the twilight blue hour, and by the time we reached the car the moon was out at 90%.
^the following night, under strong high pressure and a nearly full moon at 98%, we had an incredible hike into the alpine. It was so bright, headlamps were not needed, and one of the only times they were used was to make this photo.
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."
Sometimes it can be difficult to get back into the mountains. The business has to come first, or else there can be no play. I feel blessed to spend a lot of time in the places that I love, but it seems as though I could never get enough. The idea of not being able to do these things is always driving me hard to make the most out of every trip, however long or short.
My brother Neil and I had a break in between jobs, giving us one night and 48 hours to get back into the mountains. We're lucky to live at the western entrance to the Uintas, a vast wilderness to explore, and also where we got our start in fly-fishing. I've become so familiar with the land, that if feels like my home. Yet its impossible to see it all. Using the maps to find a new place with a squiggly blue line that leads to some small blue dots is where it all starts. Its what we're all about.
We thought we'd explore a bit of the North Slope of the Uintas. The one billion year old wrinkled core of the range runs west to east for 150 miles, with long glacially carved river valleys running north and south from the crest the entire way. This anomalous feature is the largest east/west oriented mountain range outside of Alaska. Once we made it to the north slope road, we headed east up and over the great basin divide and into the headwaters of the green river.
^ we turned off the main north slope road and began driving up a valley to a trailhead along the west fork blacks fork. One river crossing which was perfectly handled with Neil's land rover. His rig is necessary for accessing some of the hard to reach trailheads that encompass the Uintas.
^the first few miles of trail brought us through a sad forest of dead, bark beetle infested conifers. This is a characteristic that has become widespread throughout the Uintas and a majority of vast timbered lands all the way to canada. Its primed for a massive fire, and only a matter of time before the Boy Scouts of America set it ablaze, again. Once we reached the first meadow we encountered a heard of sheep and their shit. Not very pleasant but its the land of many uses so you just have to avoid the loud, smelly bastards. After we passed the sheep, the long meadow began to open up, along with the river and the views
^ We rigged up our rods with some bushy dry flies and began leap frogging our way up the river, hitting every choice hole along the way.
^ I fully lost track of how many fish we caught on our way up the river to camp. Most of the fish were small and feisty brook trout which at times seemed like that was all that existed. However I knew that this drainage harbored some native trout. As a naturalist, I lose my shit when a beautiful native cutthroat trout comes to hand amidst a sea of invasive brook trout. This colorado river cutthroat has evolved over thousands of years to live in this stream, evident by his vibrant camouflage to match his environment.
^ with no real destination in mind other than a camp with a view, our plan was to hike along the river and fish until we found what we were looking for. The numbers were adding up both in terms of miles and fish caught. It was time for a break.
^ click image to view larger version.
After about 5 miles, we found a sick camp spot in one of the upper meadows with some beautiful water running through it. Once the sun dropped behind the massive valley walls, the fishing was elevated to another level. I kid you not we were catching fish every cast. we fished for one hour before dinner and probably had over one hundred fish between the two of us.
^ Flash 360 Panorama. Use the controls or click within the image and drag it around.
^ another colorado river cutthroat that fits in my hand. Most of the fish were small but had lots of character and vibrant colors. Most importantly, the trout were not afraid to eat my fly as it floated through a corner pocket again and again, each time finding itself lodged in the mouth of the next eager fish.
A good camp trip to the uintas is not complete without a fast moving storm cell. We retreated to the tent just in time to get pounded with rain for about 20 minutes. Eventually the massive thunderhead moved to the next valley as it glowed with the last rays of sun.
The next morning we ate a large bowl of jah's oats before our ambitious trek into the alpine. We had 17 miles to cover before we could begin the drive back home. My plan was to hike to a particular ridge line to shoot a 360 panorama, and fish a little blue dot on the map that I suspected may hold some native cutthroat trout.
^ we cracked through the treeline and made out way on to the alpine tundra. The wild flowers were just starting to come into bloom across the high terrain. Its a harsh life for them this summer with only a few months to grow between snowflakes.
^click image to view larger version
I had scoped out a spot on the map where I would be able to shoot a 360 Panorama. This ridgeline acts as a divide between two great river systems. Neil sits on the left in the Great Basin at the headwaters of the largest river in the country to never reach the ocean, the Bear. And I sit on the right of the image in the headwaters of the green river and colorado river drainage, one of the american west's iconic bodies of water.
^ flash 360 panorama. Use the controls or click inside the image and drag it around.
^ On our way down from the pass, we would stop at this beautiful alpine pond that sits above all else at the head of the valley. I made a quick stop to photograph these paintbrush flowers. While I was fussing with lenses and getting raped by mosquitos, Neil was down at the pond tied into his second fish. He's on the left shore but he's hard to spot within the carpet of flower buds. Before I headed down, I tied on a little black flying ant that I had crafted the day before at my tying bench at home. Soon after his first flight, he was firmly tucked away in the corner of a cutthroat trouts mouth at 11,200 feet.
Being at elevation and exposed to the wind, lots of terrestrial insects are blown into the pond. A fish would swim from 20 feet away as soon as the ant hit the water and slowly gulp the insect as if he knew what he was looking for.
^ Native fish on ants above treeline is what we're all about.
^ At 4:30pm I caught the last fish of the trip which marked the beginning of our long trek home. We still had to pack up our camp and hike 10 miles back to the car. Its a great feeling of accomplishment when you have a successful trip to an area that you've never seen before. After exploring one long, blue squiggly line and a blue dot, its time to move on to the next.
