This edit highlights what happens when five girls get together and push one another to go beyond their comfort zone and progress the sport that drives us. There were a lot of crashes, but some huge pillow lines and cliff drops that show just how hard women are pushing on Teles!!

Thanks to Paige Brady for putting together this edit.

Home Sweet Home

The last week has flown. I spent three amazing days in Silverton, got to watch the Hourse drawn Ski Jouring competition down one of Silverton’s main streets, helped

Ski Jouring

Colter getting it done

build a sick acid drop off a hotel for Colter Hinchliffe, Tour up into the East San Jaun’s, Stay in the Treasure Mountain hut which sat at 12,000 ft.  

and accesses some of the gnarliest terrain on the continent, kicked it with good people, great laughs and sick pow.

In the words of my Trew teammate, Pat Sewell, “I LOVE MY LIFE!!!”.

]]> http://shaunraskin.com/2010/02/11/silverton-treasure-mountain-hut-wrap-up/feed/ 0 http://shaunraskin.com/2010/01/30/mother-nature-giving-it-to-utah/ http://shaunraskin.com/2010/01/30/mother-nature-giving-it-to-utah/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:28:35 +0000 sfraskin http://shaunraskin.com/?p=544

Alta Patrol hard at work on the Gun tower

This past week has been a little like living in a war zone. It seems that our greatest alia , Mother Nature, has decided to wage war on the state of Utah. With huge storm totals of inconsistent snow densities, followed by ripping winds, and now sunny warm temps, it seems as though she has decided that Utah residents are going to have to learn to use some self control this season, much like our neighbors have to do every season in Colorado.

The week kicked off with an early morning wake up to beat the LLC closure and get early chair with Re Wikstrom, Paige Brady, and Pip Hunt. We were able to stand by while the Alta patrollers waged their war with mother nature. It was an incredible experience, to stand so close while they shot off round after round of chest pounding, ear ringing explosions into the adjacent mountain sides. After getting amped for the day with a little explosive energy boost, we had a great morning of shooting, powder, and as always great laughs.

Re Wikstrom letting her camera do the talking

While the backcountry remains an ominous landscape of usually popular lines that are still laying untouched, the inbounds ski has proven to be quite exceptional and if you can get to the resorts that aren’t hit as hard as others you will be hugely rewarded with tons of powder and fresh lines still awaiting a good slasher turn.

Page Brady (Right) Pip Hunt (left) enjoying the sounds of war

Yesterday, I went to Brighton to shoot with Steve Lloyd. It was the first time I had skied in sun shine since before my journey up to BC about three weeks ago. The skies were crystal clear and Weston Deutchlander, fellow Trew rider, Colter Hinchliffe, and I were out trying to get the shots.

We skied some killer sunny sky powder and Weston and Colter sessioned a sick natural kicker. The day ended with a sweet 35 footer  onto a relatively flat, but deep landing, or shall we say splat/ hot tub zone.

All and all a great week to be back in Utah!

But Now… My mind moves on to the powder to come!!!

Tomorrow at 5am I head out with Re Wilkistrom, Candy Foere and Paige Brady on an epic road trip upt to Golden BC. We will spend one night in golden then meet up wit Martha Burley and the Helicopter and get flown into the Ice Fall Lodge!!!!!

I am so STOKED!!

I am going to try and do updates daily. So Stay Posted……..

The past two days I have spent waking up well before the sun rise and heading over to Snowbird for the First Annual Freeride Avalanche Summit.

Mineral basin snow profile

The point of the summit was to discuss the many snow safety issues facing todays freeride community. We hit on all the major avi 1 topics, such as beacon search and rescues, snow pits, reading terrain, and mountain travel.

Logan Shows us how the BCA new Arsenal saw shovel can save time and lives!

However, the Summit also pulled on huge resources that the Utah Avalanche Center has. We were able to take a trip over to the Wasatch Powder Birds to discuss Loading Zones for potential emergency evacuations, then the AirMed bird landed just down the hill and we were able to learn a bit about packing a patient and calling for life flight.

Wasatch Powder Birds

AirMed

We also were able to use the Snowbird Avalanche training center and worked on probing, beacon searches, Recco locator detection, and group dynamics when an avalanche hits.

Along with having an incredible amount of activities and local resources put into action, the leaders of the course and discussions were also quite remarkable. We had some incredible big mountain legends such as Jenn Berg, Brant Moles, and Gordy Pfeiffer. Not to mention an alstar staff of avalanche and snow safety specialists such ad Bruce Tremper, Craig Gordan, and Jim Conway.

Weston and Noah Howell getting cozy while learning the extended column test

All and all the past two days were the best put together avalanche discussion and education I have yet to receive. If this is just the first season for the Freeride Avalanche Summit, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the Summit and the potential reduction of Avalanche fatalities in the backcountry.

Sam, Jason, Forest, and Barker get ready for the early morning Tram lap

Last season’s trip to Alaska was one of those windows. I was not planning on competing last year, I had decided that my real focus was going to be on working with photographers and pushing hard to get published in as many magazines as possible.

However, during the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show in Salt Lake City I bumped into
Lizet Christiansen, a fellow Rossignol athlete. She was reintroducing the Alpine meadows comp. to the Telemark circuit and was hoping to get some competitors signed up. I thought on it for a minute and then decided that I always say I want to inspire others and what better way to inspire others than to get involved in a competition that might attract a bunch of first time competitors.

So I told Lizet that she could count me in and I would see her in February at Alpine

As things so often do, once I made that decision the ball just kept on rolling. I soon received an email from Megan Michaelson, who prior was just a name that I had seen in Mags and a reputation that I had heard about. Her email, was inviting a list of people that I had never met (but some I had heard of) inviting us to stay at her mom’s house in Lake Tahoe for the comp.

I was shocked to receive such an incredible open invite, after all I had never met the girl and as far as I knew she didn’t even know I existed, let alone was planning on competing after my 2 year comp hiatus. But after making sure she meant to include me on the invite I accepted the open invitation with out ever thinking it would lead me to an article published in Telemark Skier and an incredible experience up in Alaska.

I went up to Alpine Meadows, competed and met some amazing people.

Who says just because there is no snow to ski we can’t still obsess over the sport that drives us? Well, thanks to our friends at the Utah Avalanche Center, addicted Wasatch dwellers were able to have an excuse to congregate and talk about snow for four hours this past Saturday.

The idea was to have an open discussion between experts and enthusiasts, sharing experience and knowledge in an effort to educate ourselves further about the dangers of backcountry travel and explore the latest practices.

We heard about historic avalanche events and the newest innovations from avalanche forecasters, ski patrollers, snow scientists, UDOT avalanche professionals, search & rescue personnel, mountain guides, ski industry manufacturers, backcountry skiers & snowboarders, snowmobilers, and avalanche scholars. Among them, the infamous Bruce Tremper.

It was just a really good way to spend a balmy afternoon in the beginning of November. Nothing quite gets you thinking like reminiscing about the horrific incidents from last seasons avalanche cycle.

I find that over the long summers it can take me a few tours to start getting back into my backcountry routine, not only in terms of gear checks and organization, but when it comes to decision making and group communication. Attending the awareness talk is one way that I am trying to stay one step ahead of the game this season.

It is easy to forget, but what we do every day, whether deep in the backcountry, off the side of your favorite resort ,or within the resort lines, is extremely dangerous. As human beings we like to focus on what we can control, and we like to think that we have got snow safety down to a science, but the truth is, snow is an ever changing substance that has many factors affecting its strength and composition. It does not always follow the rules, rather as many of our local resorts found last season, avalanches can follow more of the exceptions and catch us all of guard.

It is for this reason that I strongly urge you to get involved with you local Avalanche organizations, take an avalanche course, go to open talks about snow pack, learn how to use the beacon, shovel, and probe you got last Christmas, be educated so that you can live to play another day.

COUNTRY WIDE AVALANCHE RESOURCE LINKS

But, I decided to stay in bed, knowing that I would need the last three hours of horizontal darkness, even if they were spent wide awake. Eventually, I did fall asleep until the alarm went off at 6am and I was finally allowed to start the day I had been hoping for since I moved to Utah.

I jumped out of bed, grabbed a cup of joe and checked the weather one last time. Then I fed Merl, the dog, a big heaping helping of his food, knowing that even though he didn’t know it, he was going to need every bit of kibble. After which, I grabbed everything that I had packed the night before, jumped in the truck, picked up Whitney and then we were off.

We arrived at the trail head at 8:15am. There were only two other cars in the lot, which was quite surprising seeing as Timp is one of the most popular hikes in the state. All we could think was that it was due to the fact that it was a Sunday in Utah.

We got our gear together, strapping skis and boots to the outside of our packs, while Merl, so over wrought with puppy excitement, used the lot as a formula one race track.

Before we knew it Whitney, Merl, and I hit the falls and then it was as if we blinked and there we were approaching the snow line. We were making great time. Merl was doing great on his first big hike and Whitney was mitigating hot spots on her feet very nicely, and I… well, I was busy taking more pictures than a Park City tourist.

Everything was going bizarrely smooth for a pair as accident prone as Whitney and myself, we just knew something had to happen. And just as Whitney uttered the words, “Last time I just pranced over this section.” BOOM!!! She slammed down hard on the boulder behind and let out a horrific scream. When I turned around, there she was, white as a ghost holding her ankle.

After a few minutes of silence she decided that the only way to figure out if we should go on or turn around was for her to just keep hiking up. So on we went….

We slipped and slid our way up through the glazed-over snow pack, kicked in steps where the ice gave way to recrystallized snow, and post holed through the deeper snow pack. Suddenly it became perfectly clear why there were only two other cars in the lot.

Merl, Happy to see the snow

Whitney pushing through

Side stepping one of the many steep and slippery slopes

As we reached the hanging meadow it became obvious that there was going to be plenty of snow to ski and that my decision to leave the skins at home was going to be brutally paid for by every step of trail I broke.

But inevitably we made it to the lake and snow field where Whitney and I decided to take a much deserved lunch break.

1 Can Smoked Oysters + 1 bag of trail mix = Retro Lunch

It was 1:30pm. The snow had been basking in the sunlight for the pas few hours, warming from it’s icy evening temps. Whit and I sat down among the juvenile pines, I opened my can of smoked oysers and bag of trail mix and we soaked in the rays while scoping out the boot pack up the snow field.

After eating enough oysters to ensure nausea for the rest of the hike we decide it was time to capitalize on the sunny slopes and get skiing.

The final push

We finished the hike, threw on our skis, and started our way down the hill.

After skiing four pitches down the peak, about 1,000 verticle ft. of velvety smooth, supreme spring like snow we hit the trail and it was time to hike our way back down the trail.

As Whitney , Merl, and I limped, moseyed, and swaggered our way down the mountain, I couldn’t help but fearing I was still in bed and this was all just a dream.