Soul Gypsy

Temps were ridiculously cold in UT, the rain crust omnipresent regardless of the 15 inches of blower snow. Basically shut down in UT the Powderwhores threw out the idea of a little excursion to Mt Shasta. We left the next day in hope of good weather and corn.

Conditions were looking promising as we hiked in a short ways to spend the night in the mountains.

We set up camp on little knoll at the base of the mountain.

A beautiful spot indeed, the sunset was stunning and we were psyched to hiking Mt Shasta the next day!

I recently decided to GoPro – so I bought a GoPro helmet cam. I’m still messing around with it but this is a short edit that gives you a taste of what the trip was like.

After crawling in our sleeping bags for the night the wind started howling. After our amaze and subsequent laughter faded we realized that our tents were not going to make it through the night. All warm and cuddly packing up camp in a nuclear wind storm did not sound fun. With little choice we did it anyway and skied back to the car by headlamp.

Since we had driven all the way to Cali for this little venture we decided to at least attempt the peak the next day. We persevered playing “red light –  green light” (as Noah put it) with the wind until a final gust blew us all off our feet and we flipped a Uee.

The snow had just softened up in the lower reaches of the mountain so the ski back to the car was a good time. We basked in the absurdity of our trip before packing up and resuming our journey through the life of a homosexual – alcoholic ad man in the book on tape Dry. Mini-epic 1.5 miles from the road? New personal best perhaps…

When Ryan Hawks invited out for a fun jump day with Lars and Silas – the Green Mountain Freeride Crew I wasn’t picturing this.

Some B.A snowboarders from the hill had been working on it all season. We put it in a full day adding some lip and buffing out the in run. The forecast for the next day called for cloudy skies but we drank it blue and aching heads awoke to bright skies. We were at the hill in a jiffy. The snowboarders hit their jump first then Lars and Ryan were up next.

Everyone was having trouble landing this jump. I wouldn’t call it suprising seeing as we are all freeride skiers and it was by far the biggest jump we ever hit. It was the first jump I hit all season. Anyways, first hit Silas threw and stomped a sick cork-7! There were no pictures of me so I threw up a short clip of one of my 720 attempts. No true stomps but I was getting close!

The huck fest continued until there was nothing left in the landing but bomb holes and then it went on a bit longer. At the end of the day I knuckled the thing but walked away unscathed. Scary though. Anyways – as Brooke Edwards eloquently put it – its not a big jump day until someone gets bloody.

When the oil light in your car comes on – it doesn’t mean you can add more oil at the next gas station, it doesn’t mean you can try to limp your car home. It means you need to stop your engine and add oil immediately. So when the oil light on our 1978 BMW came on we stopped the car. Too bad for us it happened to be the middle of the night and we were cruising through Montana far from any population center. We coasted down the pass as far as we could and took the nearest pull off. The number of times I have been stuck on the side of the road is well – enough to make a normal man (or women) abandon all faith in owning a vehicle (at least one I can afford). And being normal enough I have done that. Regardless, being the gypsy I am I sometimes rely on rides in beater cars. Needless to say being stuck on the side of the road in the middle of the night with no one in sight made me slightly displeased. Especially when the options were weighed. We went to knock on the door of the closest house but by some stroke of luck found a gallon of used diesel motor oil. A few drops helped us to the next gas station.

With a few wrong turns and the usual mishaps we made the drive from Revelstoke to Jackson in a solid 24hrs – 8 hrs more than the recommended travel time. (so it took 50% longer for you math wizzes {that is right isn’t it?}) Luckily drive-master Ben was at the wheel and we had nothing to worry about. Although I did wake up a few times sliding sideways down the road in our rear wheel drive car –  I knew Ben had it under control….enough.

The venue for the Jackson Hole Freeskiing Qualifier Event was looking good and I went about my pre comp routine. I skied a solid line but fell in the outrun. Someday I’ll stick it!

This shot is from the inspection day – I skied the prominent feature in the photo. Read more about the competition at freeskiingworldtour.com. Anyways life goes on. It was an awesome weekend skiing in the sun after a month of skiing in Canada (think cold, dark and deep).

A three day viscous lashing from the heavens brought snow upon snow and fun upon fun. I could never capture the experience without actually stopping to take photos. Which I didn’t do. Nonetheless everyday has been more exciting than the one before it and I just paused after a 10day stretch playing the drop knee boogie to consume some food, limber up and heal for the shredding and hucking to come. Oh I forgot to mention the lift lines were really bad and all the snow was skied up in a few hours each morning.

NOT!!!

Big breakfasts are always nice. I finished this one up with a big bowl of Ice Cream.

2 egg mushroom onion, tomato and cheddar omelet, Bacon and hashbrowns. All cooked to perfection I might add.

More updates to come! Tons of lines are now filled in at the ski hill and ready to be shrallped! The stoke is high in Revelstoke!

At home I was usually the kid coming up with bad ideas, but here at the PW’s in Utah I can barely keep pace. Noah and Andy are always up to something and when Andy rushed off with my brand new sticks and bindings to mount them at 7:00pm I didn’t exactly know what I was in for. It turned out into a bit of mission, but Andy was kind enough to go on a wild goose chase and wrestle my bindings into submission just so I could share the pain. Waking up in the dark, meeting at 7:00am we planned to get an early start on the day. Much to our dismay, the shitshow Andy started the night before (he said it was the longest hardest mount he has had) was continuing. My boot was at Rosenberg’s where the mounting went down so we started our day with a little morning drive while the other boys headed up to the hill. As we parked at Pole-line trailhad I realized I had forgotten my gloves, luckily Andy had an extra pair (typical poncho), we flipped our heelthrows and started the trek. We planned to head to Cardiff and lap until we dropped, in which case that forsaken soul would have to stand back up and finish the 10,000 vert. T’was bound to be Gigaling good time.

Lap One! It was a perfect day to play in the mountains, splitter blue skies, perfect powder and a determination to “just keep hiking.”

Lap Two. Andy’s smiling, the legs are feeling good and about to enjoy some silky turns.

Noah’s Lap three, he was 1000 vert ahead all day, due to Andy and my little morning excursion.

Gi-gi-gi-great!

Getting another one, Noah, Andy and Darryl heading up the skinner.

Lap four, the sun is now down and I had to keep moving just to stay warm. I was a layer short for the chilly afternoon. A good excuse to keep plodding though! Over the half way mark at this point. In distance, not pain of course.

Pumping out another one! Noah feeling the burn, I had to giver a little to keep up with these folks.

Lap Five: Andy started wrapping his skins around his body to keep the warm and sticky. I don’t know how Andy was feeling but I sure felt like I had rocks or something else heavy strapped to my ankles.

Darryl, Jacobsen and Noah at our gear catch, melting some snow and staying fueled. I liked to get a little head start up the climb if I could.

There’s a Half moon rising and I’m probably a about 3/4ths depleted.

(Dramatization). 9000vert landmark, still have to hike out of this biatch, legs are led, hips are hurting and the gas tank is empty.

Darkness approached, looks like it is going to be black to black from car to car today.

Andy stilling the hallucinations and psyched to have hit 10 gi-ga GRANDE! First time I have personally gotten a so fully drained and even a little ataxic from a day of skiing.

Twice as much vert means twice as many burritos! The smile says it all. Can never say no to an adventure, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to hauling those super fat boards up the hill for 10,000 vert anytime soon. But if the snow is deep enough….