Good skiing in Utah lately...

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.

Powder surfing in the Monashees

This is some awesome vintage snurfing footage from the interior of British Columbia, sometime in the early 80's...

still waiting for winter...

   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?!?!?

Snurf Ya Later

Neil and I just released our first episode of the season. "The Provo Bros", will be a 3 part series released throughout the 2010-2011 winter, produced under Inspired Media Concepts.

a little info about "Snurf Ya Later" :

The early season conditions in Utah were about as amazing as I have ever seen before. My brother and I logged thousands of feet of some of the best pow turns we've ever had, but for the first time in my life, they were not on skis. Instead, we traded in the fancy splitboards and alpine touring equipment for two basic wooden boards. By removing bindings from the equation, we're essentially crippling our ability to travel through the mountains, but at the same discovering new ways to push our riding into uncharted territory. Progressing, by de-progressing in a way....



Check out the face book page for The Provo Bros show here....
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Provo-Bros/167417003303897?v=wall

New Year...

A new year brings with it a new board, with new feelings, and new challenges. Combine all that with some new powder and you're in business.


^new Grassroots powdersurfer


^new zone


^ nothing new about going backside, just a timeless feeling that feels new again.


Happy new year folks!

dashing through the snow...

Twas the night before Christmas, and the powder was good, particularly over in our neck of the woods. We assembled the sleighs, loaded up on snacks, to the stoney zone we were headed, for fresh pillow stacks. We were delighted to find, that the powder was kind, but the pillows we loved, had been buried above. At the top of the headwall a new line with a vision; a hair-ball traverse through a steep pillow ribbon.   Maybe next time when every-thing's right, for now we're on a mission for a powder delight. Back to the sleighs for some boondocking splendor, there's nothing like a christmas eve, backcountry adventure.....






^ pick a pillow, pack it, send it

photos taken by Neil....

Fall turns to winter

the first week of october brought the first winter storms of the year. Enough snow to play around a little bit, but a good sign that big snows are on the horizon. For a few days the landscape was striking. The contrast between the new snow, and fall colors at their peak was money! Its very uplifting to live in such a beautiful and ever changing environment.


nice contrast

sick views from 10,420' :


bananza


colorful aspens along the wasatch crest


Looking across the central wasatch, the stoke level rises!


the cottonwood canyons. millions of people will soon gather here.


Neil grinds out the first turns of the year down the shoulder. Beyond sketchy. Shark fins are looming beneath the snow.

Here is a little snurf action. Its always fun to sort of de-progress in a way by snurfing (no binders). Plus you only need a little snow and a grassy slope to have fun. I'd like to try and ride an entire mountain without bindings one day. going back to the roots.

click for HD