Saturday, March 6, 2010
Highlights from the Nissan FWT on Silverado
The comp started at 8:30 which I was a little butt hurt about because spectators were not allowed on the tram until 8:45. Oh yeah and special tickets were not willing to hook me up with a shop pass or any sort of deal. (typical squaw move)
I missed Cody's first run and I also missed JT's. JT was injured during his first run luckily it was nothing too serious. ( glad your ok buddy)
Once I finally got up there it was sick! super fun contest and really good support from the local crowd cheering on their local shredders. This first edit is highlights from the Mens skiing and snowboading runs. also a small crash section that is coed.
Now the guys did a good job for sure. The Europeans ended up taking it down even though I felt the most exciting one to watch out there was Timy D. Now the Ladies really killed it out there I was super impressed. While editing this footage I realized that I had to do a separate edit for them. Elyse, Ingrid and Jacyln Passo were among my favorites. They all were choosing technical lines and charging them with little hesitation. Passo probably had the biggest air of the day over the men and women, and for sure had some help from the angel's in the outfield as she landed then bounced about 30+ back onto her feet. This edit is strictly for the "ladies" of the FWT. Excuse my Barry White/Ladies Man commentary in the beginning I could not help myself. If you don't have sound on your computer don't bother watching this you will not get the full effect I was going for.
Labels: Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, Frtitz, Jeremy Jones, JT Holmes, Nicky B, Nissan Free Worl Tour Squaw Valley Silverado, Porters Ski Team, Ryland Bell, Timy Dutton
HA definitely worth waiting for to watch it with sound. Nice skillz Nick.
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Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Austria Part II
A little pillow here, a little pillow there = FUNThe next day went blue so we headed up the resort to see what we could find. What we found was avalanches on every aspect all over the valley, and then the wind kicked in as the morning progressed so going up high was completely out of the question. We were able to find a small zone that worked fine (the snow was quite nice), but by the end of the day the avalanche conditions became worse. We completely anticipated this and worked with the conditions accordingly, but when I ended up propogating a substantial slide we decided to call it for the day. No need to put ourselves in anymore danger. That just about sums up our sweet little trip to Austria. Good skiing, good beer and good friends equals great times!
Labels: Cody Townsend, Defereggental Valley in Austria, Elyse Saugstad, Salomon Freeski TV, Salomon Freeski TV in Austria
It looks like a super fun time, the skiing looks legit.
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Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tram Faced Postponed again!
Labels: Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, JT Holmes, Nissan Free Worl Tour Squaw Valley Tram Face, Ryland Bell, Tim Dutton
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Nissan Free World Tour- Squaw Valley Tram Face
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| From Fliers |
Fingers are crossed as competitors wait for the weather to clear, as this will be the first time the infamous Tram Face will open up to skiers and snowboarders. But let me make this clear, these skies and snowboarders are just your run of the mill folks. These guys and gals ski and snowboard this kind of stuff all the time and therefore have earned the right to ski the Tram Face at Squaw Valley. With names like Jt Holmes, Cody Townsend, Tim Dutton, Ryaland Bell, Jeremy Jones and Elyse Saugstad, who call Squaw Valley home, we are likely to see some serious lines go down. Ones that I am sure Cody, Jt and Tim have been eying since they were mighty mites.Let the snow gods be with us this weekend so we can see the tram face go down in Free World Tour history. Good Luck Team!
Labels: Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, Jeremy Jones, JT Holmes, Nissan Free Worl Tour Squaw Valley Tram Face, Ryland Bell, Tim Dutton
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
A few days in Jackson Hole
Pictures were to be honest, few and far between. Skiing took precedent. The camera stayed in the pack for fear of dropping it in the bottomless fluff that paraded across the Tetons. 8 days of filming from sunup to sundown left my legs beaten like piñata and more exhausted than a Tiger Wood's joke. Some of my best skiing in my life took place these past two weeks.
Welcome to the Tetons.

Shroder Baker in Trench Town.

Josh Nielson feeling the side effects of living in Trench Town.

Todd Ligare. Tree couloir of deepness.

The Sea of Dreams

Heading out my favorite zone in JH. The North Shore aka The North Choir.

One of the more exciting lines I've ever skied. Sluffing like a hard rain, peppery like a Steak au Poivre and a bounty of airs. (My track = looker's leftmost)
Side note: 7 and 1/2 hours of bootpacking for this 20 second line was totally worth it!
Labels: Cody Townsend, Jackson Hole, Salomon Apparel, Salomon Freeski, Teton Gravity Research
totally jealous!
So Sick, yeah Cody
Nice work Cody, you hit it just right!
No way Anonymous. Bootpacking is for real men. Did Edmund Hillary skin to the top of Everest? No he bootpacked.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Austria Part I
After leaving Utah, having a day to do my laundry and pack my bags, I found myself on an early flight to Munich with the ultimate destination being Austria. I am here in Austria to film a Salomon Freeski TV webisode, but since it worked out timing wise I left 2 days before the rest of the crew to participate in the Women's 2nd stop of the Freeride World Tour in Fieberbrunn. The competition venue was pretty cool, the women's field was loaded with tons of talent and I was excited to compete for the first time this season. Unfortunately I ended up crashing at the beginning of my run. The snowpack is very thin in Austria and my line accentuated the numerous amounts of rocks just lying beneath the powder. What a bummer! At least I can walk away and chalk it up as a learning experience. Congrats to Ane for laying down a solid run for the win!
Later that afternoon the guys picked me up and I was headed to my next Austrian destination, St. Jakob in the Defereggental Valley. Since we definitely need some fresh snow in these parts to get after it, we have spent the last few days exploring and getting our bearings down in this valley. I can't wait for it to snow, which it is suppose to heavily at the end of the week- wahoo!, so we can take advantage of the great terrain offered. I'm with a really fun crew of Cody Townsend, Ben Mullin and Ian Coble, and I'm sure we'll find plenty of things to keep ourselves occupied with in the meantime. Like watching the Olympics live in the restaurants and bars here in St. Jakob, which is so cool. Last night we watched the men's Downhill: every single racer with no commercials and stupid 15 minute bios. Astoundingly we will get the optimum Olympic coverage going half way across the world!
Cody and I hamming it up while checking out our surroundings our first day in the Defereggental ValleyLabels: Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, Freeride World Tour in Fieberbrunn, Salomon Freeski TV, skiing in Austria
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wanna Ski with Cody and Elyse??
This coming March Chugach Powder Guides is hosting an Epic Athlete Experience with Cody and I! I am very excited to have this opportunity. We get to go heli-skiing with clients, not as guides but as athletes. We will be based out of Girdwood and there is a 5 day or 7 day package available. I think Girdwood is one of the best possible situations for heli-skiing for so many reasons. First off, Girdwood is one of the coolest towns in Alaska, with lots of good restaurants (Double Musky here I come!) and interesting people to mingle with. Secondly, if we can't fly we get to go Snowcat skiing. CPG recently opened 500 more acres for cat skiing in addition to upgrading to a new, super posh cat. I actually got to experience this cat skiing last winter. It was a blast and totally worthy! Thirdly, there is Alyeska Resort, one of the best ski resorts in the world, at your disposal for down days as well. But down days in Girdwood with CPG are fairly rare, only once has a group be unable to get in a helicopter in their 13 year history. No other heli-operation in Alaska has it this good! If this is something that interests you click here to view more info on the CODY TOWNSEND & ELYSE SAUGSTAD HELI-SKI EXPERIENCE. Hopefully we'll being seeing you there...
Labels: Chugach Powder Guides, Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, Girdwood Alaska, Squaw Valley
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Early Season Essentials at Porters
Every season the typical skier loves getting new gear and also dreads it at the same time, well, that is if it is a new pair of ski boots. The fit can be so peculiar, and it's amazing how each year a new bump will miraculously give you aches and pains that had never existed before. I will say, it is a huge weight off my shoulders knowing I have a shop that I can head to that I know will be able to tackle every problem I may throw at them. What shop is it that performs these special miracles? Why Porters naturally! Of course this sounds like an advertisement since I am a sponsored athlete for Porters, but lest you forget I choose my sponsors as much as they choose me. Before Porters added me to their team I was already a regular at the shop, it being "the" place to deal with my gear and pick up any new needed goodies for the season. Anyway, I was really excited that the kick ass staff at the Tahoe City shop was happy to put in the few hours of effort it took to get my boots dialed. I am forever grateful... that is until next year!
John Segal, a former employee and still a normal sighting at the store (probably because it's the coolest ski store EVER), chatting up Cody while he cuts our new ski poles to size
Cody making sure the "boot fits"Labels: Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, Porters Boot fittings, Salomon Geisha, Salomon Poison Boots, Salomon Skis, Scott Poles
Skiing on Wave- Behind the Scenes
In order to accurately delve into the world of wave-skiing, I will interview myself. Well technically I'm interviewing myself but most of these questions and comments are plucked right out of internetdom. So here we go, Cody Townsend on Cody Townsend.

Why did you use ski boots and ski bindings?
To put it basically, ski boots and ski bindings were the safest and highest performing set-up we tested, and trust me we tested nearly everything out there. Most waterski, wakeboard and water-centric bindings didn't have the capability to come out of the bindings and skis as easily as ski boots come out of bindings. Nor do the water-centric stuff have nearly the drive and control of a alpine set-up.
Do boots sink like cement shoes or what?
Surprisingly enough ski boots float on their own when tossed into salt water. So no they don't sink you like a mafia boss' enemy.

Why no poles?
Cause how could have we held onto the tow rope with poles in our hands? Skiing on the waves was difficult enough without throwing joysticks into the mix.
Was it difficult?
Extremely. I couldn't have predicted it would have been that difficult at first. It was super awkward at times, really hard to maintain speed and incredibly hard to make rad turns because the design of our skis was so off the mark for enabling good turns and such. But at the same time there were moments when it felt like we were just out skiing down a mellow slope on any ole mountain.
How did the locals react to the endeavor?
Surprisingly the locals on Maui were friendly and supportive of our project. Maui is place that is quite open to innovation in the ocean and the fact that they accepted some fruit booters into the line-up truly proves that.

What skis are those?
We used two main type of skis, Wakeskis and some skis that were custom built for us by Starr Surfskis. They definitely did the trick in the fact that we were able to successfully ride waves but ultimately the designs were waaaayyyy off. If I could scrap it all I would in a second and go through a full redesign. I mean that was the ultimate challenge to the whole project, no one had done it before so we had to figure it out on our own with little time and a slim budget.
When are you doing it next?
Well to be honest probably never. I would definitely give it another go if I had the chance but the logistics and challenges of skiing on waves are pretty immense and costly. Plus we aren't trying to start a new sport here, just seeing if it could be done.
[just because all surf movies have girls in bikinis as B-Roll, I might as well oblige on this post. Elyse looking to the future]

Labels: Big wave skiing, Cody Townsend, Mike Douglas, Skiing on Waves
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
"Big Wave Skiing"
Labels: Big wave skiing, Cody Townsend, Porters Ski Team
I would like to try ski kiting on the water. Looks like a fun trip.
Nice I've been waiting for this edit to drop, thats pretty sweet!
SSSIiiIICCCKkkkK!!!
thats a sweet idea looks like a lot of fun....i wonder what the surfer kids are going to think about this...
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Adventures is Mediocrity
This particular median escapade started when JT Holmes, Jason Abraham, Elyse Saugstad and I decided to skip out on the White Ribbon of Death on Red Dog at Squaw Valley for one day and mish it down to Carson Pass for a backcountry outing.

Our planned destination. Round Top peak.

My ambitious mind had planned to tackle the Crescent Moon couloir (looker's right chute) in low-tide gnar conditions ala Jeremy Jones.
My eyes upon first arrival then said, "Well low-tide can't even begin to explain how dry that couloir is". Mediocrity was inching its way closer.
Looker's right couloir looking rockier than Tiger Wood's marriage.

So immediately our grandiose dreams were vanquished. But we just got up at 6:00 am, drove an hour and a half and didn't want to ski another day on the W.R.O.D. at Squaw. So we skinned on.
"We're not turning around. We're going that way!"

"We found the low-tide gnar!"

The gnarliest of the gnar. Sketchy-log creek-crossing on loose skins and Alpine Trekkers (aka Alpine Day Wreckers).

Skinning up the mediocre.

Average.

And then the trip got so average that photographerJason Abraham didn't even take his camera out. So there was a total of zero pictures of skiing. Yup. Count that. Zero. We skied right back down our skin track on a solid 20 degree pitch. Whoopee.
So yes, this outing was dramatically anti-climactic. So to leave you all with at least something interesting. Here's a picture of the super-duper famous JT "Birdman" Holmes post-porty-a-potty-poo. It was such an important moment that I had to take a picture of another person taking a picture of JT's post-dump exit. It smelled bad and was his second dump of three that day. Well, I guess that's above average.

Labels: Backcountry, backcountry skiing, Backcountry Tahoe, Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad, jason abraham, JT Holmes
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Roundtop Mountain










Today, Cody, Abro and Elyse and I went to look for some snow that would sustain our weight for some turns. Why is it that we always look like such dorks when we go ski touring?
We chose Roundtop Mountain off of Carson Pass. It is 10,100 feet high, so we figured maybe there would be some snow there, in a gully or a chute where the wind blew it in...
The first backcountry outing of the year, be it on a snowmobile, skis with skins, snowboard and snow shoes, splitboard, it always is a bit of a trial in just re-figuring out how to travel across snow for a day, efficiently. With this in mind, it is nice for that day to be a mellow one. Not one in which you need to race out there to get to the fresh tracks, and not one with any big expectations for film or photos. By the time those days roll around, you need to be dialed.
There is just so much stuff that needs to be part of the routine, and on day 1, there is no routine. Today, I forgot my goggles and the footbeds for my ski boots. With no need to get rad, it was all good.
Because of some creek crossings, we took a roundabout way to the Roundtop Lake and looked around at slim pickings for turns around Rountop Mountain. We weren't surprised and we were in it for the hike, so we kept going and found some snow. It was wind crusted snow amidst a minefield of rocks, but it was backcountry skiing. We'd found what we were looking for, and Abro found that he had forgotten the memory card for his big heavy professional photographer camera, but at least he had carried it along for the 5 mile round trip.
After day one, it is good to make mental note of how the day went, what you ingested, what worked, what didn't. Make note of how much hiking you are capable of doing, and how exhausted you were.
Today I carried just a bottle of Gatorade and a sandwich. No avy beacon or shovel or probe. I wish there were enough snow for avalanches to be a concern, but there simply isn't. I drank about 6 ounces only, it was cold, not much sweating. I hiked about 1000 vertical feet, and could have done much more. My Nordica Agressor boots were comfortable right out of the box, and my skins seem to be sticky enough to last another season.
One big dump, and it is on!
Labels: Abro, Cody Townsend, Elevated Image Photography, Elyse Saugstad, J.T. Holmes, jason abraham, skiing in tahoe
Nothing better than some sketchy early season turns near round top, If I had a nickel for every time I've done that... I'd have about 30 cents.
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Hey Nicky, great edit but I was mislabeled. The person in red was not me.