I’m having surgery to repair my knee Wednesday, but Max, Wilson and Charlie went up Eddies on Saturday and Max returned with some footage. Enjoy.
Turnagain
Archived Posts from this Category
February 28, 2012
Living Vicariously Through My Friends
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain, video | Tags: Eddies' |1 Comment
January 30, 2012
It was supposed to snow yesterday, but it remained sunny and calm granting us an additional day to enjoy the near perfect snow. Andy and I were considering going up Kickstep, but the site of some friends at the Eddies lot convinced us to join them for a sure thing.
My season of camera mis-operation continues, and I forgot to tighten it properly so it slams down there and the end missing out on the glorious apron. No matter, with stability and powder I have nothing to complain about, especially considering last season. This month has been fantastic. The cold has been completely overshadowed by the perfect skiing. I wish every day could be like yesterday.
January 29, 2012
Partying at the Library
Posted by dongshow under Skiing, Turnagain | Tags: Library, tin can |Leave a Comment
It seemed like every skier I know was at the Tin Can lot this morning. Proper and the Library got destroyed, Charlie (pictured above), Graham and Neil (track pictures here) snowboarded some incredible lines further back. Luke had mittens on his feet at one point trying to avoid frostbite (it was -5 ish), and a large group of friends with a dog hacked through a giant cornice to ski some nice lines (picture bellow) just road side of the lines Graham and Neil took. I even got to see a speed wing descent of Tin Can proper. So despite not skiing anything worth mentioning (I’ve lost all skills) an all around incredible day on skis that will stick in the memory for a while.
January 25, 2012
Return of the Light Fluffy Stuff
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain | Tags: tin can |Leave a Comment
I went out solo on Sunday figuring I just needed to turn some laps and get in shape, but the conditions turned out to be fantastic with light waist deep snow like I remember from my Alta days blowing over my head at all times. A couple of pillow lines with cold deep faceshots really rounds out a weekend. Things were breaking loose down low, but the snow was so light and un-bonded as to not really be a concern. Hopefully more soon, Wilson is even talking about getting back out there now that his toes seem to have heeled.
January 22, 2012
End of the High Pressure
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain | Tags: Wolverine |Leave a Comment
I went to bed thinking I was meeting at Carrs this morning at 8 on the way up Peterson Creek, but woke up to numerous texts saying plans had changed, we were meeting at 7 and going for Wolverine. The early rush caused me to run out the door in a t-shirt, and after seeing the thermometer hit -29 driving past placer I was a little worried I would end up frozen stiff in some creek. It turned out I was fine in the cold (I kept my down on to till the summit), but it caused both Jeff and I to have numerous skin failures and we both ended up using skin straps to keep things together pretty much from the parking lot. Neil led a quick skin up the sharks fin and up the west face/ridge to the summit. From there Jeff lead the way across the gnarlier sections of the ridge, and after traversing the entire thing, we skied the same line I’d skied on my previous trip. We skied 4 or 5 minutes before the clouds moved began blocking the sun. Great times, I’m still feeling exhausted from my 3 weeks in Michigan, so the skiing itself wasn’t anything pretty (Neil went first and crushed it). I also failed operating cameras today so I have nothing but pictures. Looks like it’s going to snow for the next couple days, hopefully this next cycle is as good as the last.
January 15, 2012
Cold Cold Powder
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain | Tags: Cornbiscuit, Magnum |Leave a Comment
Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I’ve been in Michigan exploring West Grand Rapids bars for the last 3 weeks. But Wilson recently moved up to Alaska since Utah doesn’t have any snow, and the conditions are seem best described as incredible so there should be plenty to come soon. We finally got out today , despite the cold temps, and it was incredible. A binding failure kept us from going exactly where we’d planned, but the day was incredible none the less.
I’m still to cold to really go on much longer, but the video bellow should make clear that Davis Creek is skiing really really well, hopefully we’ll be able to report on the rest of the range soon.
December 12, 2011
Media Blackout on Eddies
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, mitigated disasters, Skiing, Turnagain | Tags: Eddies', horrible idea |Leave a Comment
I forgot all my camera’s on Saturday, so of coarse the weather decided to co-operate and give us a gorgeous window of light that morning. Andy, who snapped the picture above, joined me and lead the way up Eddies, keeping the pace up to beat the incoming clouds. The horizontal light this time of year is something I look forward too throughout the summer, and the snow was absolutely perfect surfable Alaskan cream. Effortless skiing, and some all time top turns. I should forget my camera equipment more often if this is the way I’m going to be rewarded.
Also, near the bottom I skied into some alder cliff mess, clicked out of my skis (immediately after reminding myself that was a horrible idea), found an easy exit and then got into all sorts of problems trying to retrieve one of my skis, including a couple short tumbles over some rocks and rotten snow. There were a few moments where I thought I’d be joining Charlie in the lost ski I’m laughing about it now, but at the time it was rather annoying. Despite the stupidity down low, everything up high was so good as to make it easily overlooked. This season has already delivered above and beyond all of last year.
Elsewhere, Beau is back to posting almost daily mouth watering shots from the Beartooths, and Skier Boyz have a rundown of some of the road chaos from yesterday, which I may or may not get to posting about later this week.
November 28, 2011
Pictures a Friend Took While I Was Watching Football
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain, Uncategorized | Tags: Goldpan, Superbowl |[2] Comments
Charlie took these three pictures Saturday while I was watching football in my bedroom, and despite feeling quite pleased with the decision at the time, it’s hard to look at these and not feel a slight tinge of regret. So I’m posting these for three reasons, first to highlight how amazing the current conditions are, second to prove that you always regret not going skiing, and third to convince the rare Anchorage reader to buy a print from Charlie at his first friday at the Upstairs Studio. I might post some of my stuff from the weekend later, but it’s nothing compared to these shots. Later
November 26, 2011
More November Powder Skiing
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain | Tags: Eddies', tin can |1 Comment
It’s been cold with continuous snowfall since Wednesday evening. Today, we got a brief glimpse of the sun when the sucker hole pictured above opened up. Andy and I were even considering racing down to the car and driving to Summit Lake for some turns in the sunshine. Luckily, as soon as we realized what a bad idea that was, the hole in the clouds closed in on itself and it began snowing again. The last two days have been some slow powder laps. Incredible conditions for thanksgiving weekend, I can’t wait for the weather to break so we can get on something with some pitch.
November 23, 2011
Snowing Again
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain, video | Tags: Cornbiscuit |Leave a Comment
Last week the wind blew and it got extremely cold and I was convinced all the snow had gone to shit. I didn’t even go out on saturday, opting to pass on a day of -17 F. temps, wind, and crust skiing. But sunday, neither Max nor I could resist and we wound up going up Cornbiscuit. Strangely it was cloudy and overcast everywhere but Turnagain Pass, and we actually had decent visibility, although very little direct sunshine. And the snow, was actually fantastic, the week long cold snap had dried it out and made it surprisingly fast, I was shocked how quick I got going before having a chance to throw a turn, and the wind seemed to have minimal effect on the northern lines in Davis Creek. So great times, and I’m thrilled to report that its currently dumping in Anchorage, and has been snowing hard down south since early yesterday. So whoohoo, more snow and more skiing to come. Video form the weekend bellow.
November 16, 2011
Max’s Video From Friday
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain, video | Tags: Eddies' |Leave a Comment
Max on Eddies from Friday, a decent sample of the conditions in the trees.
November 14, 2011
True Winter Weekend
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain | Tags: Eddies', Jamie Pierre RIP, Magnum |1 Comment
Thanks to veterans day, and a series of storms blowing through, I’ve spent the last 3 days doing nothing other then ski powder and watch football. My progarm has been as follows. Leave home each morning before the sun is up, spend all day swimming in the snow, a nervous drive home (today the car in front of us lost a wheel, etc.) in the dark followed by lounging at home, eating some pizza, and disinterestedly watching football. Friday I went up Eddies with Max and Mikey, and returned there again on Saturday with Andy. Friday was pretty deep, and it continued to snow through that night and all day Saturday, so both days were deep and wet with lots of faceshots.
Today, Andy and I were headed back to Turnagain and the sun was coming out, we really couldn’t believe our luck, but once we got out of the car at Sunburst we instantly noticed the wind, which battered us all day. It was also worth a laugh that after cruising past and overflowing Tin Can lot, Keille and friends were the only people parked at sunburst, and the next 3 cars all contained friends of ours whose first words were to remark on the crowd at tin can. It made for a kind of a class reunion fare as everyone caught up after the long off season.
So we headed up Magnum and braved the winds, which were of the super nasty sustained type, with gusts to 40 or so as well. As predicted they torched the snow in places. Luckily, Davis Creek is small and somewhat sheltered, so after a turn or two we found some extremely nice powder. I’ve only got a handful of pictures from today, with the heavy snow friday and saturday and the intense wind and cold today weren’t very conducive to picture taking. I also set off a non consequence windslab lower down by slashing on the crest of wind loaded gully. Picture bellow. Oh, and I have to mention Jamie Pierre, RIP. He’s made an appearance in each of our full length films, and talked shit to all of us back in the Utah days. Very sad news.
