december to remember

so december started off a little slow in the snow category, things really kicked into gear on the 15th, and the conditions have been fantastic since. pics here are all from myself, chad, ashley, or chris. more of chads pictures can be seen on http://powderhappy.blogspot.com/
12/17 – kirkwood

12/18 – kirkwood
i hooked up with chris and sean on a bluebird day at the kookwood
good morning

chris hits a popular rock just above the drain

hopping off an air near waterfall

sean, walking like an egyptian

then we parted ways as i hit some of my favorite lines on vista.

12/19 – kirkwood sidecountry
hiked up early to ski some powder under red cliffs and build a kicker underneath the cliffs as well
ashley goes big

and even bigger (this one’s in the video)

nacho to the rescue (after causing the crash, he’s always the first on the scene)

my new facebook profile picture

12/25 – carson pass backcountry
after a few days off to finish up all the christmas stuff, a few of us had christmas morning off to get some early turns
adam dropping in

nacho is mad that i made him run back up the slope to get out the way

12/26 – echo shuttle laps
kinda sketch, video here

12/27 – emerald bay
mellow day touring with ashley, who just got new chipmunk skins (seems kinda cruel really)

i heart my skis

ashley takes off towards the bay with fannette island in the background

before trying out the new skins

lather, rinse, repeat

12/30 – trimmer peak
hiked up for several laps with jenn, nils, and jeff
approaching the top

jenn

stairway to heaven

12/31 – 0 dark thirty – thompson peak
after waffling back and forth for hours we finally decided to get some full moon turns in. i had been planning how i was gonna get good night time photos all day long. half way up the skin track i pull out the camera and turn it on. sd card error!! (which means i forgot it).
so i tried grabbing frames from the helmet cam as chris and jim rode through the headlamp beam. it didn’t work for shit, but heres a couple
jim

chris

3 days later our tracks were still visible on the peak.

1/3/13 – the gulch of doom
me and the wonderpup breaking the trail

jaime is stoked

but she is not alone. chris, jason, and chad are stoked too.

nacho, also stoked

stoked that this deadly avalanche cycle has passed us by

chris lugged the snow skate up so he could hit cliffs with it in the gulch (more later)

chad dropping in

before dropping one

i followed off a smaller air

then we found a pillowy lower section
chad

me

next it was off to the gulch proper. i thought i’d start things off with one of the bigger airs (chris’s view)

chad’s view.

sadly, nacho followed me to the edge then couldn’t get back up

i tried climbing up to him but he wouldn’t come close enough to the edge. we did get him out though. special thanks to jason.

then we spent more time on the smaller hits in the bullpen
me

jaime

jason

me high fiving chris

chris on the snow skate

and chad

jaime sums up the day (i think)

1/5 – dawn patrol at carson pass
chad and i met up at the red lake parking area to drop a car. at 6:45 the sun was starting to get things aglow

nacho is finally starting to be more of an early riser

chad and nacho survey the possibilities

nacho is giddy

and a bit of a spaz. don’t know where he gets it from

chad drops in as the first rays hit the slope

lower down he drops into a pillow zone as nacho looks on

then it was my turn

this zone is fun!

the first run was done, by the moon not the sun

then it was back up top for a bit more alpine style terrain. chad drops into his line and gets thrown a little back

and takes a little tumble

i opt for a different variation of the same theme

redemption time

he backslapped just a bit, but skied away no problem (it’s in the video even)

the video includes almost all of december, since like the 13th anyway, which is when i started wearing the helmet camera again.

a december to remember from powdork on Vimeo.