Beauty and Beatings – A Recall of the Adventures in the Andes – PART 5

Now it’s Thursday, conditions look exactly the same as the past two days, and I’m assuming the worst, but still not throwing in the towel.  I mean come on, I’m on vacation a ski vacation nonetheless, every day is a good day, but even better if I can ski……so here we go again:

Yeah buddy ski day today and I have a ride up there, no hitchhiking!!!  Woohoo!! Alright gear on, skis in the car, day pack ready.  Let’s go.

We get up there to a warm overcast day, hardly any wind down low, and the Otto lift spinning with the staff saying it’s going to open.   Alright I’m buying a ticket.  Not ten minutes after I purchase the ticket, the staff determines it’s time to shut Otto down because there is 25 kph plus winds up top.  Awesome….  There goes twenty-five mil pesos down the drain.  I’m not accepting another down day, not today.   Time for “Plan B.”  I proceeded to pull out my skins and take off layers; let's hike the resort. 

A short forty minutes later the quick hike turned into a slow slog as I gained a ridge and the previous 25 kph turned into a 50 kph head on Andes winter welcome hurling snow and ice into my face, slowing me down to a miserable crawl.  There was so much snow being blown around combined with the low visibility cloud, I couldn't see a damn thing.  After another hour of Andes winter love, I decided to finally get some skiing in.  The next one thousand vertical feet of miserable, icy, crusty, thigh rattling groomer skiing brought a huge smile to my face.   Finally.  The down days frustration had melted away.  One more quick lap later I was finally all smiles heading back to the hostel.  And what is on the plate for tomorrow? Supposedly a few inches of fresh and a bluebird day of skiing.

Friday comes and so did the snow, but not so much the bluebird.  We pulled up to fresh tracks and blue skies.  Hallelujah, I'm soooo happy.  Plus I could finally see the mountain and started scouting lines and adventures.  After two runs of a few inches of fast pow, the glorious scenery was quickly hidden by a thick low lying cloud.  Considering the low tide snow and sharp volcanic rocks poking up all over, this was not a the best scenario, but thank goodness for skiing.  Another good thing was getting to ski with Dave from Powder Quest, especially since he had a good knowledge of the mountain.  We met at the hostel restaurant the night prior and had a fun time.  Now that he sent his group up north, he had a few days to himself.  If you're ever looking for a guided adventure down in South America, or need some info on the Chillan area head on over to Powder Quest's website and get in touch.  The best part of today was finally getting face shots, with skiing for a whole day without having to hike for turns in a close second. 

And what better way than to finish off the day? How about with a Chilean asado.  Of course no one is going to say no to slow cooked steak, chicken, and pork straight from the local butcher consumed with hot rolls, Chilean wine to die for, beer, and shenanigans.  How'd this great idea come to fruition?  Well I'll just pat myself on the back for this one; and then give credit to Isi for getting the meat and to Alejandro for taking the main duties of cooking.   It was a great time and a few of us managed to keep the night going till about 3:30 am at the local pub owned by a pair of gringos.  So back to bed by 4:00 am just to start it all over again in a few hours.  Enjoying life the Chilean way.


Here are some pics from the Asado

Rhys and Dave

Dave and Me



Beauty and Beatings – A Recall of the Adventures in the Andes – PART 4

Yeah buddy ski day today and I have a ride up there, no hitchhiking!!! Woohoo!!  Alright gear on, skis in the car, day pack ready.  Let’s go. 

We’re about a 20 minute ride up a dirt road to the resort.  It’s overcast and slightly warmer than desired.  My mind skips around various thoughts due to the excitement of skiing and the anxiety of not skiing battling it out; this ride couldn’t go fast enough.  We pull up to the middle parking lot. OTTO LIFT CLOSED!!!  Just the beginner’s poma is open and that is obviously not worth the price of admission.  My heart drops in time with the rising frustration created from a down day, one that wouldn’t have happened in America, a closure of the top lifts due to 25 to 40 kph winds (and the bottom lifts weren’t running due to no snow).  No why wouldn’t this have happened in the States?  Because a few years back the resort bought some second hand 50 year old Chinese pieces of crap cheapo lifts to save money.  And you pay for what you get; no secondary safety mechanisms on the tower rollers, a poor mountain top location with no windbreak, and twice the cost due to constantly breaking down from being a piece of poo.  Yep.

Dejected and disappointed we headed back into town to our hostel, once again the ride seemingly taking forever. Official “Down Day #1.”  We shall try again tomorrow.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out in the hostel getting to know some of those on their own adventure.  First off there was the gentlemen kind enough to give me a ride to the resort, Nick, a spry man in his 60’s and on his tenth plus tour of South America.  Now it took us all of a couple of seconds to realize we’d met before.  I immediately recognized him from time spent at Snowbird.  He’s a very interesting chap and has stories from all around the world many times over as he’s one that chose many years ago to seek after treasures of experiences and knowledge.  And he has a very refined talent of always being kind and inviting to those around, enlisting them into a group setting.   Nick and I hung out quite a bit during the trip and usually shared a table for dinner in the hostel’s restaurant.   He was also a huge boon in getting me up to and back from the resort every day that he was at the hostel. Then there was Natasha, a Parisian former ballerina now turned doctor going into her third year of residency enjoying the last couple of weeks of a three month vacation.  How was she? Classic Parisian for the first few days; I mean come on, even the French hate Parisians.   But she loosened up after a few good days of skiing later on down the road, but not quick enough, earning the nickname “Parisian Princess” in the meantime. 

Alright it’s Wednesday now. Yeah buddy ski day today and I have a ride up there, no hitchhiking!!! Woohoo!!  Alright gear on, skis in the car, day pack ready.  Let’s go.  Does this sound familiar?  Rinse and repeat.

“Official Down Day #2.”

Now my legs are just getting antsy.  Now frustration has really set in.  The weather reports are all over the board.  Depressions, ridges, systems on the horizon, no systems on the horizon; it all is true and it all is false in some sense.  Welcome to the Andes.  To combat hostel laziness and spending hours upon hours attempting to battle each other to connect to the ever inconsistent and flighty internet connect, Nick, Natasha, and I set out on a walk up Shangri-La road out to the Mission Impossible Lodge.  The walk, under overcast and drizzle i.e. snow in the mountain tops, became a discussion of France, Europe, and the reaches of modern medical reaches between Nick and Natasha with me listening and observing.  Interesting times to say the least.

The day also brought two sets of Australian couples on opposite ends of a similar journey.  The first couple, Chris and Kate from Melbourne, was in their first month of a nine month vacation, while the second couple, Rhys and Terri from Perth, was in their last month of a ten month vacation.  It was fun to see Western and Eastern Australians interact, to see the opposite sides of the adventure spectrum, and tell us of the differences between the coasts, and asking them about "Stalia" slang .  All four were a good inclusion into the the hostel group, escpeically when it came to consuming vast amounts of Chilean wine, pisco, Escudo and Cristal.

Group shot after dinner one night

Another Great Weekend Come and Gone

Today marks the end of another awesome weekend of skiing for me.  I was lucky enough to get another 4 day weekend to ski, hit some fresh pow, ski new terrain, drop a few cliffs, test out some new sticks, and get above and out of the nasty inversion in the valley.

Friday started out with a film day at Snowbasin.  The new PR Director, Jason, had scheduled a shoot with some local pro and up and coming riders. It was my first shoot with solely snowboarders, and I enjoyed the riding differences and opinions on terrain that they brought.  The plan was to show the early season riding promoting Snowbasin, and to send the video to Transworld Snowboarding Magazine. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side and we shot in a grey bird setting.  The footage turned out decent despite the lighting, but we're planning on getting a reshoot later on.  We'll use the reshoot footage to send to Transworld.

Saturday was great with Snowbasin finally opening up the John Paul lift.  I was so toked to finally get off the flat groomers and be able to ski the steeper terrain.  The snowpack was only about 12"-24" deep but it still allowed for some great riding.  After a short session I headed to Scout Steed's brithday bash up in Farmington Canyon.  Her two year birthday party was a sledding session high up in the mountains.  It was a lot of fun playing in the snow, eating chili, drinking wassel, and sitting by a fire with friends and family.  I built up a jump for the sled and ending up launching everyone, including myself, about 10 feet off the ground, which made for good laughs and heart pounding excitement.

Sunday brought in another full day of skiing followed by a good game of hockey.  Boy do I love my Sunday night hockey games.

And yesterday was spent skiing at Solitude.  I had good company and good snow which made for a great day.  I skied all over the mountain, enjoying all that there was to offer.  The snow was soft and deep enough in some places to hit some cliffs.  I finally dropped my first cliff of the season on a series of three 10 foot cliffs. 

Now after all of that, of course I'm in a great mood.  Here's to my last week of work. 
Sunday was

How Shall This Winter Be??

Waking up to a beautiful white blanket of heaven's finest this morning brought a smile to m face.  Winter is finally here in a three part storm cycle that is sure to bring a couple of feet to the mountains.  And it's doing so in great fashion; just in time for the lifts to start turning this Thursday at Snowbasin.

And with that comes another year's worth of goals to shape up and guide the season.

1. Ski at least 45 days both frontcountry and backcountry
2. Ski at least 600,000 vertical feet
3. Ski the south face of Ben Lomond Peak
4. Drop S&S at J-Hole
5. Ski Superior 
6. Continue filming and putting edits together
7. Enter a big mountain competition or two
8. Call in sick to work at least twice for a 15 inch or more storm
9. Solo Willard Peak ice drainage and ski down into Liberty
10. More photos
11. Throw more 3's
12. Throw more front flips
13. Stop being a girl when it comes to back flips
14. Nail my line through the blond cliffs
15. The usual male skier dream

I think that rounds the potential season up.  I'm really stoked to ski a resort full-time for two consecutive seasons.  This will be the first time ever doing that and Basin has a lot of hits waiting to happen.  But I am also super excited that I managed to get a full season pass up to Grand Targhee for $250, so I will definitely be hitting that resort up a couple of times this year in addition to my six days up at Jackson Hole, which I couldn't find it in my heart to forgo this year. 

Now it's just time to keep the moment from Portillo going.......

Pics n Stuff O'Chile - It's about time I post this

Alright I know that it's been a little while since I posted anything.....ok more like a long while.  I've been working on a video promo for Nick and Kayo's Portillo Big Mountain Telemark Camp in between work trips, a Six Flags and Atlantic City day, skim boarding at Destin Beach in Florida, and setting up other business ventures.  It's been quite the busy 8 weeks; the time has flown by and been one big blur.  I'll be posting the camp promo video here next week, promise.  And there'll be more posts of additional edits that are in the works.

I just totaled my stats from Portillo and this is what I got:

Ski Days: 13 (out of 15 potential)
Vertical Footage: 155,770 feet

I already have a good jump on my ski days and vertical footage for the season.
For now here's some pics of me in Portillo courtesy of the talented Luke Lubchenco.

My absolute favorite

Yes I know the camera looks funny on my helmet

At work

First week powder goodness

First day of Roca Jack

More Roca Jack

Lake Run Slash

One last sweet lake run shot

Time to End........

As the snow turned to a hard, technical medium from the soft heavenly blanket of bliss with the raging winds of the upper Andes, the reality of our required departure and return to a world two weeks forgotten also blew in.  The two weeks of skiing, touring, yoga, hot tubbing, joking, bonding, and constant schenanigans were now soon to become memories and experiences of the past instead of the daily routine that had become life for two weeks. 

During that time everything else was forgotten and put aside. There were no worries of work, of bills, or of the summer heat.  There was just living, living in the moment.  All that mattered was skiing, fresh turns, food, partying, sleep, and avoiding falling prey to the next prank; life was good. 

The days were spent honing an upright tight stance and embracing speed, invoking the style and technique of Nick DeVore.  Both of my ski weeks started with a fresh dump of soft snow.  The fresh turns to be had each day came under the coaches' requirement of doing so with speed and fluidity.  My legs were pushed to new limits and given a pounding that I'm still recovering from.  

Both of the groups were awesome even though they differed on many levels.  The first group was mainly juniors (under 17) and just full of so much energy and laughter, which was truly contagious; I felt like got a little younger that week, and we all know that I don't need anymore excuses to act immature. It was constant joking and laughing.  Honestly just an epic combination of personalities, energy, and skiing.

The second group was all adults and a good bunch of mountain rippers.  We had a blast hiking around and shredding pow.  And they all definitely knew how to have a good time both on the mountain and off. 

As I now depart my little bit of heaven and return to the grind, my muscles ache and my joints are pained a little.  Yet I smile with each little ache and pain. The soreness and the aches serve as a reminder; a reminder of the adventure had and the friendships made.  But it also serves as a reminder of the hard work and long days of cutting trees down after sitting in an office for nine hours a day to pull together the extra funds needed to make this trip possible, the late nights, the stresses of a financial commitment, the doubts and worries........and oh how it was worth it.

Rocking out hard at La Posada

Beautiful sunsets every day

Enjoying the sunset during my daily hot tub session with my mustache

Slackline session

Final dinner group shenanigans

Parting our ways at the airport.  I was bracing for the payback wet willey to follow.

Winding Down

As this great camp and experience is about to finish up in less than 30 hours, I can't help but think how great it has been. 

Check It Out

Check out the blog post on thewinterlife.com blog for some cool shots and a good write up of what's been going on.

"So Good When It Hits the Lips: 2 Days of Blue Skies and Powder at the Portillo Big Mountain Telemark Camp"

First Day Out

Sweet sweet sweet day.  Did I mention how sweet today was.  We woke up to a good half foot plus of new snow.  Energy was running high and we couldn't believe that we're skiing pow on our first day out.  Nick and Kayo declared it to be a schralping session.   It was a care free day of lapping some light snow.  We did 23 laps and scored 15,840 vertical feet.

I did break the cam out and filmed a buch of the group taking laps.  We're going to surprise everyone with a short edit of themselves after the camp.  It's going to be hard for me to get it out before the camp concludes, but I'll get something out to each participant.  Here's a couple of shots for the day.  I'll have plenty more photos to share after I get back to the states.............I may try and delay that for a month or so...........

The scenery

 

Fun Chair shots with the GoPro

Chile!!!!!!!

First day in Portillo down and out.  I managed to get a shuttle before I even checked out of customs.  I did have to wait around for an hour for the driver and other scheduled riders to show but it was all good.  The two hour ride definitely felt just as long.  Since there was snow in the mountains and all throughout the pass from Portillo to Mendoza, the Chilean Carabineros (police) had deemed it too dangerous to drive and had the road closed off.  Luckily we had a Portillo sign in the van window so when the diver told the cop he should let us through because he is "an expert driver that runs this road every day and could do it in his sleep", the cop believed him and let just our vehicle pass. 

The road was definitely not scary, but merely slushy in most places, with the temperature being at or above freezing.  But since most don't grow up driving in snow and ice in Chile, it could be considered scary. 

With the road being closed I didn't have to deal with a huge rush of incoming skiers.   As I stood in the freezing lobby getting accustomed to my preferred season, all I could think about was getting some lunch and then skiing.  I clammered all my stuff over to my 15' by 6' room for 4 and tried to unpack with organization.  I finally gave up and just went to lunch. 

It wasn't until I had clicked into my skis and started to ski toward the lift that I experienced my truly excited state.  At that moment I just had the biggest smile push it's way out and I hadn't even made my first run yet; I was completely ecstatic. FINALLY.  It took so long for me to get to this point. 

The visibility was pretty bad as a storm was moving in and whatever light we did have was completely flat.  I got some nice "knock-off-the-rust" turns in some nice milky maritime powder.  It felt so good to be home but somewhat awkward and foreign at the same time. 

After skiing 7 laps, somewhat successfully dodging the just barely buried rocks, and notching 5,000 vertical feet, I called it a day.  As I walked in to the lobby after checking my skis and boots, I first saw Luke Lubchenco, and then the rest of the group.  Kayo Ogilby and Nick Devore, the coaches soon came up and introduced themselves as I chatted with Luke.  I can already tell that this is going to be a blast and a great learning session. 

We had a short introductory meeting and then proceeded to finally eat dinner at the ripe Chilean time of 8:30 pm.  We sat, ate, and joked around in the cafeteria while snow continued to fall.  Spirits and aspirations are high.  We'll be having a bluebird powder day in the morning. 

 Dropping into Santiago

Getting my visa

 


Our LARGE room for 4 people

First night storm sure to bring the goods in the morning

It's been a while.

As I sit here, finally relaxing without the weight of my carry-on bag, computer bag, and ski boots stuffed with energy bars and underwear on my shoulders, having walked from Terminal A to the end of Terminal E in the Atlanta airport to combat the soon to be pooling of blood in my legs as a result of the overnight flight to Santiago, I, one laugh at my current run-on sentence, and two, am still yet to feel the "excitement" of skiing high up in the Andes during summer.

Why is this I wonder? 

Maybe it's because I'm still feeling the drag of three straight weeks of tree work that mainly consisted of large tree removals with huge heavy trunks. Maybe it's the barely six hours of sleep I had last night holding my excitement at bay.  It could be the long duration of stress endured making sure that I stayed healthy enough to make the trip.  Or quite possibly, I'm just not excited to ski at all.

I'm sure it's not the last reason.

There are three hours remaining in my planned layover.  The people watching isn't as intense in the end of Terminal E, and is not enough to hold my enjoyment as the Georgia thunderstorm has ended.  As my thoughts wander and I think about the time leading up to this point of my summer, I must admit that this trip wouldn't be possible for me at this time in my life if it wasn't for Seth.  His desire to start a tree business and bring me in as a partner has lead to be the main source of income for this trip.  I am a little concerned about my conditioning as hockey hasn't been a frequent enough activity these past six weeks and with tree work disrupting my workout schedule.  A few times I did manage to hike up waterfall canyon and then run/jog down to simulate backcountry touring and the impact I would feel on my legs while skiing.  Hopefully that helped. 

I guess we'll see during these next two weeks.

My up at the waterfall getting ready to run down

Spring Fling

The month of April always seems to bring some of the best storms of the year. I always look forward to this time of the year as coverage is usually good and the snowpack is pretty consolidated and safe.

This edit is up there for the level of fun had during editing.  It definitely isn't the best of skiing I've had all year, but the edit is fun to watch. 

Here's a little bit of the spring madness.


Spring Fling from Free 2 Be Productions on Vimeo.

Breakfast of Champions: Powder Before Work

I like most people, want to get each day of work off to a great start. I've always been told that you must start the day off right with a good breakfast. For some people it's Wheaties or Raisin Bran, maybe pancakes and eggs, or my favorites cream of wheat, grits, and bacon.

I had the opportunity to change things up the other day and I've never been more determined, happier, and successful in a single day of work. And I was a pleasant person to be around. Ah what did I change to get this way you ask?

I changed my breakfast. Introducing Alex's Breakfast of Champions: Powder Before Work

Easter Sunday Solo Tour

The week leading up to Easter Sunday has been a hard one for me personally.  Stress, irritation, frustration, and depression had worn me out.  Even the massive powder dump of April Fool's wasn't enough to shake me out of this funk.  I knew that I needed to get this issue off my mind and move on past it.  I decided that it was time for me to make my first solo backcountry tour. 

I determined that the necessity of staying safe, understanding conditions and snow factors, terrain assessment, being alone relying solely on myself, knowing that my beacon would only be good for a body recovery, and the physical demands of the area I was to ski, skin, and hike, was enough to be able to get over the past two weeks and to move on in life. 

I did choose wisely as I knew conditions were stabilized and would remain overall good for the day.  In the end, this tour proved to be what I needed in coming to terms with the external and internal issues that were affecting me: it was a definite success with lots of plan changes.  Solo touring has opened my eyes to a new realm and new understanding of myself and the snowpack. 

I definitely foresee more of this in the future.

Jackson WITH Jared - A Redemption Attempt

After missing out on the previous trip and seeing the video dedicated to him, Jared was very eager to experience Jackson in the same manner.  Here's how it all turned out; you be the judge on his redemption attempt.

Jackson Without Jared

Going to Jackson Hole for the last weekend in February has been the best decision of the 2009-10 season. As temperatures reached 55 degrees in Ogden and Salt Lake City, we ski untracked boot deep lines.

Since the resort was skied out, Trevor and I decided that it was time to go exploring a little further out of the gates than we've gone before. Cody Bowl's warm up lead us to go out to No Name and ski the face and down into the canyon. The next day we lapped tree runs in the Magical Forest, low angled, but fun albeit, and finished by skiing out Four Pines. The whole trip we only took 2 gondolas, 2 trams, and 1 chair ride. Every trip is different and awesome.

Something was different this trip; our group agenda changed from skiing the technical big lines that we usually ski to just finding and skiing good snow. Maybe it was the fact that Jared bailed out on the trip for a playoff hockey game in his league and wasn't there. Well Jackson without Jared was an amazing weekend and this video is dedicated to him to show him how much fun he missed.



My Nomads readying for Four Shadows

 

Trevor stoked for the first run after a short hike

Feeling "good" after a 4 hour drive on 4 hours of sleep

No Name looking sexy

A future goal for a future trip

All in all a good trip

Tagged a Few Sick Lines

This weekend I had a chance to tag a few sick lines at Snowbasin.  More and more terrain has opened up over the past two weeks and not enough snow has fallen to keep me from exploring and hiking.

On Saturday I hit the Fingers Chute #2 for my first run of the day.  No this was not my intended warm up, but oh well.  The snow was variable inside the steep narrow chute, but I made it down to the exit, which is about 2 feet wide with uncovered rocks to be jumped, just fine.  I lined up my exit, hit the small air, and straight lined out through the apron of untouched snow.  It was so fun that I continued to haul for about 250 feet.  As I was probably going about 40 mph, I either hit a buried avy snow chunk or a pocket of air under the surface, and the next thing I know, I was hurling through the air and completed a 3 1/2 rotation ragdoll.  Easily the worst crash I've had thus far.  As I was completing my first 1 1/2 rotations, I thought to myself, "this hill isn't steep enough to continue ragdolling."  Yeah I was wrong.  I ragdolled so hard that the inside of my goggles were completely filled with snow.  Yeah I laid there for a good 30 secs.  Unfortunately Bryan, who was shooting photos, didn't catch that last part as I had slipped out of the reach of his camera when travelling in the chute.

I definitely tweaked my ankle and bruised my fibula and calf as my skis did not release and ended up being the torquing point of my boots into my leg.  I'm lucky that my $2000 camera in my backpack was not damaged in the fall.  Yeah what a wonderful warm-up result; nailed the chute, the exit, and the first 250 feet of the apron straighline.  The final 90 feet of ragdolling was what kicked my butt.  I probably should have called it a day after that first run, but I pushed on with the good soft snow.

Here are a few more pics thanks to Bryan Smith.  He really has an eye for the snow shots.

Me entering the Fingers Chute

 

Mount Ogden Towers

 

Looking down into Heller's

Skiing the variable snow in Heller's

 

 

Looking back up at Heller's