“Light The Wick” trailer by TGR.

Ripley Creek, BC TGR Oakley Team Trip.

TGR’s “Behind The Line” Patience is the name of the Game, Episode 5 Season 2

A Day In Chamonix!

Came here as one man, leaving another! Petersburg, AK.

After a few weeks of more weather days than skiing days, we find ourselves coming to a close on the trip. Mother Nature has been in charge and always will be. Wally, the pilot that runs the hanger we base out of, put it best after living here for over 13 years, “I’m not the same man I was when I first came here.” This is very true of all the trips I have ever been on. Experiences coupled with being in a new place, accelerated that transformation in all of us.

Clear days have delivered the goods, but its never easy. Wind started blowing and made the game plan change. From looking at peak tops, to looking in the lower protected grounds. Wind limits tight landings for the heli, so its not safe to do.  Thats part of it though, doing what you can when you can. After some days of wind and sun we found ourselves hoping for weather to reset the zone. Its crazy to say, especially after the weather days we sat through. Having the rest is nice for the body, but bad on the mind.

From the locals that climb the mountains out there, to those that spend their time on dry land. They all say this is a low tide season. Makes you wonder what it would be like on a normal season out there. Would the crevices be more covered allowing the spine lines to death be a go?  Offering more. Would many of the spines just be gone completely?

You’ll never know what to expect when you’re exploring new terrain.  Uncertainty and the hopes of perfect conditions are a daily occurrence. Our limits have been tested and pushed into another level of team work.  Cutting away and realizing what its all about, all over again.  Thats why we love it, and thats why we will leave here different Men.  Thanks to everyone in the crew, check out TGR’s “Light The Wick” this fall or their site to see what has happened.  I’ll let the photo’s tell more of the story.

The Land of First Descents-Petersburg, AK.

Alaska!  This time around with TGR we (Sage, Ian, Dana, and soon Daron Rahlves) have chosen. Petersburg, AK no one has ever been here to film skiing with a helicopter. Over the years all of us here, have been to all the Alaska hot spots and were starting to feel like we were skiing the same old mountains. Along with that, those areas were starting to become over run with clients and other film crews. So it was time to take a chance and go exploring once again, just like the old days.

As a group we made a few choices and found out which of those would work best. Some of the TGR boys had been to Petersburg, earning money for the winter season years ago on fishing boats. They had seen the mountains from the water. While flying up to Alaska you go right over these peaks, but never really know where you are.  Unless on the milk run flight and were paying close attention. Lots of planning has gone into this trip, leaving us out of our comfort zone as to where to begin. Fixed wing flights have played a crucial roll in that.

Being here is quite a bit different than other AK trips. This is a full time fishing town and you notice that in the nice homes and trucks. Out in the mountains we have long flights in and complete silence, since we are all alone. No other film crews or client groups to get beta on snow pack stability in the surrounding areas.  Relying on ourselves for safety, there is heli back up, but that is an hour out at best if we had a problem.  We are GPS tracked and the heli calls in often.

Weather has been some of the worst keeping us down most of the time.  Skiing has been days apart to the next.  Down days are quickly forgotten when we get out. The mountains are all their own here, big dark brown spiky peaks shoot up out of the glaciers. It’s hard to show perspective since the glaciers are miles wide spreading out the terrain.  Peak’s with names like the Devils Thumb and Witches Cauldron fill the area, which has only been explored by ski mountaineers and climbers.

As far as it goes, every run is a first to be skied, from the flattest to the steepest of them. This is something that is harder to find these days. Thus far halfway through the trip (just over 2 weeks have passed) much has happened when we do get out. I don’t want to spoil the tale, I’ll let TGR’s new film “Light The Wick” and my photo’s tell the rest. Till the next Alaska Blog of Petersburg!

Chamonix, France.

Chamonix is a place I have never skied in all my years as a skier so this was a real treat.  Kye Petersen and I came here with an Oakley film crew to document our steps as we scouted our lines for an upcoming late spring trip. Gaining experience through different types of training for these huge lift accessed mountains.  Chamonix is not a place to be taken lightly, danger lurks at every moment of the day and you’re not ever really safe until you at the valley floor drinking a beer with your bro’s reflecting on the days adventure.  Its unlike anything I have ever done.  One day at a time and working our way into it was the routine.

For the most part the snow was hard pack, this made the steeps that much steeper and the degrees of the runs are the real deal, not what others would say elsewhere, most of these areas have been climbed and thats where the steepness ratings come from.   Seeing as I was skiing on powder skis the entire time, it was an added challenge to keep one focused on the hardpack conditions.  No fall skiing was the course.  Focus was the main concern as we practiced some ice climbing, familiarizing ourselves with crampons, ice tools, rappelling and other needed bits of exposure to the world of Chamonix.  Skiing with a much heavier pack than usual filled with gear you normally wouldn’t carry at your local ski area keep you mindful of each turn.  For the most part we were skiing on or around glaciers the entire time.  Each day was filled with some sort of hike/skin or rappel to get to the line.  9000 vert runs loom off the Aiguille Du Midi and even 11,000 vert off the Mont Blanc. This place is big and real.  Fear of rock fall, falling into a crevice, avalanche, serac fall, or falling sit in the back of your mind every run.

The bottom line is the lifts take you to places that would take many hours to climb from the bottom and even then you wouldn’t think of going to them without the lifts taking you there.  There are regular ski runs in the valley, but thats not why went there.  It was for the mind and life changing experience of being in these mountains.  Skiing around with some seasoned seasonal American Mountain Freaks, gave us a look into their world which only compares to Chamonix itself.  You see the reason why people go there year after year and wonder when you will get to be there again yourself.  In this place it doesn’t matter how good you are or how rad you think you are. Looking around you see people doing things much crazier than you and what your doing doesn’t really matter other than getting down in one piece.  Thats why a celebration is in order at the end of everyday.  Not your typical ski vacation.

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Stewart, BC-Ripley Creek

Last year was my first trip to these Northern,BC neck of the woods.  TGR and a crew of Oakley athletes went to Bell 2 serviced by Last Frontier Heli a Canadian based heli ski operation.  We heard about Ripley Creek through them on that trip and decided to leave behind the 5 star set up at Bell 2 this year and explore yet another new zone to us.  Stewart sits just on the edge of the southern most part of the Alaskan pan handle nestled up to Hyder, AK on the Coast Mountains.  The road in to town comes to a dead end in Hyder a few miles past Stewart, which is primarily a mining town by trade.  WIth the economic state and lack of mining, Stewart is pretty much a ghost town in the winter.  Some hard core sled necks are pretty much the only people going into these mountains.

The crew consists of Kye Petersen, Callum Pettit, and Sammy Carlson.  We are filming for the TGR’s next film, name still undetermined.  Being with such a youthful group of skiers was nice to see, energy and fearlessness. Which came into play for Callum, he jumped off a piece of glacier ice and skipped off another piece and crashed on some not so soft snow and ended up dislocating his shoulder.  Sore after getting it put back in, but was out for the rest of the trip after a few days in.  The mountains here are pretty intense, poking up out of glacier ice fields and at times the peaks look small because of the massive expanse of snow covered glaciers in between them. This season 15 feet of snow shy of the normal cover, exposed many crevices making many lines unsafe to ski due to the gaping holes in run outs.  Everyday was a new adventure for us searching the terrain by air and sometimes flying to places that offered little and then back to ones we had thought to much to handle at the time.

A curve ball for coming here at this time of year is the light.  February into March is pretty early for these kinds of mountains since they are big and the sun still sits low in the sky.  We had early mornings and late afternoons as our best filming times for the better quality powder.  So NE and NW aspects were on our list.  Many times you over look lines on some of these aspects because you see them in the shade and don’t even notice them.  When you see them lit up you can’t believe your eyes.  Being in a new place its tough to catalog a list of lines for these times of day since you don’t know much of the terrain.  Our guides played a big roll with the knowledge of terrain and aspects.  Some days were sunny others were cloudy, typical Coastal Mountain ski adventure.  Luckily the terrain here offers many pillowy tree runs below the Alpine for cloudy or snowy days.  This worked out for use because the best snow was here and wasn’t seeing the light of day on this trip, even when it was sunny.

Pretty sick trip, good bunch to be with.  Another step towards the main goal of the season AK.  As we had TV on this trip we were able to catch up on the Olympics.  There was alot of curling on, so we inquired and found that we could curl and we did.  US vs Canada, we had even numbers in our groups from representing countries.  US won the best country in the world.  One last thing, if your ever driving to AK you will drive by the turn to Stewart and Hyder.  Make this turn cause your probably not in a hurry and go get Hyderized in Hyder.  I had heard about this from other Pro’s and its not to be missed a moonshine shot of sorts.  Check out TGR’s “Live From The Field” to see some of the stories I’m talking about but in short video versions.

North Cascade Heli and the B3!

This has been the 3rd year we have been to NCH, weather is always an issue in the Pacific North West. Thats why we like it up there, it’s all about the Pow! New this year was as A-Star B3. This helicopter is by far the most powerful machine you can fly in, one landed on Mt. Everest. So having that and Seamus as our pilot, we were getting to the tops of the peaks like riding a high speed chair lift.

We got out everyday on our 10 day trip. NCH is located west of Spokane, WA in Mazama a sleepy little town in the winter servicing many cross country skiers on the weekends. You pretty much have the whole place to yourself. We had a variety of skiing from Alpine to pillowy trees. This year Erik Roner came to try some of the big cliff faces in the area. Sage and myself stayed entertained with some newer lines for ourselves on the shooter chutes, a classic we have skied each trip.

Big thanks to everyone at NCH. Its always fun to go off the radar(no cell phones) and shred the area and kick off the heli season there. The mountains are great (the most southern part of the Coast Mountains that stretch up into Alaska). Check them out, the best heli skiing in the United States. These guys have a laid back attitude. Look for more on tetongravity.com, enjoy the pics sorry not so many ski pics, busy trying to get into some places myself.

Getting the Ball Rolling at Jackson Hole!

Thus far it has been a slow start to the season as far as snow fall is concerned. As the years have gone it seems like starting to film doesn’t happen till the end of January into February. At this point I was thinking we were starting in the North Cascades, but then I saw the “Snow Lab” on the TGR site and saw 18 inches had fallen. Called the boys, booked a ticket and 12 hours later was on my way to the airport headed to Jackson, as well as starting a month long trip for filming.

Jackson Hole is by far the most intense resort to ski in and out of. Not skiing there for over 6 years or so was a much needed kick start for me. In the past we would pass through there on the way up to Canada to warm up. It was what was expected, deep powder snow. Right out of the gates it was filming with an early up Tram ride, which would be the only ride of the day. Heading out and hiking for the lines or hiking pillow drops in the trees was the routine. Good times with a full crew of cameras and athletes.

I was stoked to get back at it in Jackson, going to places I had never skied, but only seen in the films. Watched fellow skiers Cody Townsend, Todd Ligare, Erik Roner, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, and Rachel Burkes sending it for the week I was there. Here are a few pics, check out the gallery as well as TGR’s “Live from the field” for some action.