Thursday, April 29, 2010
Chamonix is insane
I recently spent about three weeks in Europe skiing around and checking out the scene. I must admit that my mind was blown. I never really understood what Chamonix was all about until I experienced it for myself. Luckily I had a friend to show me around or I wouldn't have gotten into any of the cool lines that I did. Here's a few memorable moments and the photos that go with them.
Climbing to your line is often the most exciting part of the day. Using two ice axes at the same time does not seem ridiculous... In the photo below we're climbing 55 degree snow, exposed over a 100 plus foot cliff above a huge broken glacier... not your average climb, unless you're in Chamonix.
The mountains are huge and covered in glaciers. Steepness was redefined for me on this trip. Take the photo below for example. I'm skiing pow on a 45 degree face about halfway down the line, blowing a turn would result in a 1500 foot ragdoll. Falling is not an option pretty much anywhere in Chamonix. Once at the bottom of a line like this you have to ski through a massive cracked glacier and underneath the super huge hanging seracs that are all around.
Moving through the mountains is a little different in Cham than other places. Sidestepping through rocks is one thing, sidestepping, sideslipping, rappelling, and climbing all over rocks pretty much every run is what you may get into. The photo below is of some pretty average manuevering, and don't fall....
Once again, falling is not an option. Dropping into a line like the Cosmiques without a rope, on "firm snow" (ice),with a little exposure beneath you is definitely an acquired taste. My buddy Dave really likes the way "you fall you die" skiing tastes...
Skiing with ropes and using them (not for rescue) is really fun. Adding the dimension of ropes into your skiing opens a lot of doors as to what is possible and accessible. Plus, ropes are heavy in your pack and it would suck to ski around with it all the time if you didn't use it... Dave raps into the fun zone next to the heart of the Rond, remember, rocks are vertical.
The scale of the mountains in Chamonix takes a little getting used to. Around Tahoe we ski 50 degrees for a hundred feet at a time, in Cham you ski 50 degrees for 2,000 feet and there 2 begschrunds at the bottom. If you get off on being scared while you're skiing, then Chamonix might be the place for you. 
In any event, I had a great time and I'd highly recommend travelling to Europe to go skiing to anyone. Not only is the ski experience different but the culture and lifestyle is also very different. Smoking cigarettes, eating cheese and lots of chocolate is the norm, and somehow everyone is skinny, I could get used to that....Labels: Chamonix, Columbia Sportswear, Elan Skis, giro, Jeremy Benson
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Pow skiing in Europe
After our first day in Verbier it started snowing. It snowed quite a bit at the highest elevations of the ski area, so we headed out once it cleared to check out some of the other easy to access, "sidecountry" at Verbier. Right off the bat we headed up to the top of the Mont-Fort, 3300 meters, 10,000 feet. The view from the top of Verbier is pretty incredible, and in the photo below you can see the top of the Mont-Fort Tram with the imposing Northeast side of Bec de Rosses in the background. I didn't ski the Bec while we were there, but in the future I'd love to take the big hike up there and see what its all about, but there was just too much good snow all around...
The skiing "inbounds" at Verbier is great, but the resort was pretty skied up prior to it snowing, so it didn't get completely smoothed out. The hikes off the backside of the Mont-Fort, however, were quite smooth before it snowed and the endless terrain was really fun to get out and explore. The photo below shows just a little part of the area that is accessible, and your adventure is completely dependent on how far you are willing to hike. We skied primarily on the big faces in the photo below. Those pitches are about 2500 feet long....
Did I mention that the snow was incredible? Blower powder and faceshots were abundant, and I had a hard time not laughing out loud as we cruised the huge untracked powder faces.
In the photo below, Lynn crushes some low angle waist deep pow after negotiating the steep cliff riddled face behind her.
The skiing was really, really good. We skied as hard as we could and enjoyed every last minute of our time in Verbier.
Here, Lynn hikes past an old church way up in the mountains. There are a lot of old buildings and crazy scenes up in the Alps, the kind of things that you'd imagine you might come across while skiing in Switzerland. But we had a train to catch, so we didn't waste any time getting out of Verbier to head over to Chamonix to meet up with our friends Dave and Rosanna.
We packed up our stuff and got on our way to the steep skiing mecca of Chamonix, France. The train ride itself is spectacular. The train winds its way up into the heart of the Alps, going through tunnels, small Swiss and French villages, and past huge glaciers and valleys, eventually stopping in the bustling ski town of Chamonix. Its my first time here and the scale of everything here is pretty mind boggling. In the photo below, the Aguille du Midi is on the left, and some of the huge hanging glaciers that are common around here are visible in the middle and on the right. The top of the Aguille is 9,000 vertical feet above where this picture was taken to give you an idea of just how big these mountains are...
We didn't want to waste any time or beautiful weather so we got up early the next day and headed to the Grand-Montet to go on a tour out to the Glacier Grand. The backcountry skiing scene in this area is unlike anything I've ever seen before. People from all over Europe, and of all ability levels are out in the mountains going all over the place. I wasn't really ready for the masses of people you see walking all around on the glaciers in these huge mountains. The photo below is an example of the popularity of "randonee" skiing in the Chamonix valley.
Its no mystery why so many people are getting out there though. These mountains are so amazingly beautiful that it would be foolish to not get out and enjoy them. In the photo below Dave and Rosanna hike up from the Argentierre Glacier on our way up to the Col du Passon. The peaks in the background are a stunning backdrop, and yes, some of those lines are skiable, when there is enough snow...
Lynn makes her way up the last bit of the hike to the Col. The glacial travel around here is pretty incredible and can also be quite treacherous. Most people carry an avalanche shovel, probe, beacon, rando rope, harness, ice screw, prusicks, rapelling device, ice axe, and crampons. Needless to say, my pack is a little heavier than usual...
This area is truly incredible, and we are psyched to be here, now lets ski some more pow...
Fortunately, the winds overnight didn't affect all the snow out there, and Lynn finds some more of the light stuff on our way to the Glacier Grand.
After skiing a little we strapped the skins back on and hiked another hour and a half or so up to the Col above the Glacier Grand. From there we got an 8,000 vertical foot run down to the town of Trient. We checked the map and found a cool variation down the mountain and got out of the main Glacier run that most people do. It was pretty much 2 Alaska heli runs stacked on top of each other, truly amazing. In the photo below Lynn skis out below the seracs at the bottom of the Trient Glacier, this kinda stuff is just your run of the mill, day out on the mountain here in Chamonix, but a completely mind blowing and new experience for me.
And in classic euro style we end up miles and miles from where we started. The run we skied is off the peak on the far left of the photo below, and now we're in Switzerland... From here its a bus ride to the train station to catch a train back to Chamonix. Lucky for us our friends have a Raclette cooker at their place and for dinner we ate cheese, and lots of it.
Several years ago while I was heli skiing in Alaska my guide told me, "you think these mountains are big, you should go to europe, it is way bigger than this.". I didn't really believe him, until now
The skiing "inbounds" at Verbier is great, but the resort was pretty skied up prior to it snowing, so it didn't get completely smoothed out. The hikes off the backside of the Mont-Fort, however, were quite smooth before it snowed and the endless terrain was really fun to get out and explore. The photo below shows just a little part of the area that is accessible, and your adventure is completely dependent on how far you are willing to hike. We skied primarily on the big faces in the photo below. Those pitches are about 2500 feet long....
Did I mention that the snow was incredible? Blower powder and faceshots were abundant, and I had a hard time not laughing out loud as we cruised the huge untracked powder faces.
In the photo below, Lynn crushes some low angle waist deep pow after negotiating the steep cliff riddled face behind her.
The skiing was really, really good. We skied as hard as we could and enjoyed every last minute of our time in Verbier.
Here, Lynn hikes past an old church way up in the mountains. There are a lot of old buildings and crazy scenes up in the Alps, the kind of things that you'd imagine you might come across while skiing in Switzerland. But we had a train to catch, so we didn't waste any time getting out of Verbier to head over to Chamonix to meet up with our friends Dave and Rosanna.
We packed up our stuff and got on our way to the steep skiing mecca of Chamonix, France. The train ride itself is spectacular. The train winds its way up into the heart of the Alps, going through tunnels, small Swiss and French villages, and past huge glaciers and valleys, eventually stopping in the bustling ski town of Chamonix. Its my first time here and the scale of everything here is pretty mind boggling. In the photo below, the Aguille du Midi is on the left, and some of the huge hanging glaciers that are common around here are visible in the middle and on the right. The top of the Aguille is 9,000 vertical feet above where this picture was taken to give you an idea of just how big these mountains are...
We didn't want to waste any time or beautiful weather so we got up early the next day and headed to the Grand-Montet to go on a tour out to the Glacier Grand. The backcountry skiing scene in this area is unlike anything I've ever seen before. People from all over Europe, and of all ability levels are out in the mountains going all over the place. I wasn't really ready for the masses of people you see walking all around on the glaciers in these huge mountains. The photo below is an example of the popularity of "randonee" skiing in the Chamonix valley.
Its no mystery why so many people are getting out there though. These mountains are so amazingly beautiful that it would be foolish to not get out and enjoy them. In the photo below Dave and Rosanna hike up from the Argentierre Glacier on our way up to the Col du Passon. The peaks in the background are a stunning backdrop, and yes, some of those lines are skiable, when there is enough snow...
Lynn makes her way up the last bit of the hike to the Col. The glacial travel around here is pretty incredible and can also be quite treacherous. Most people carry an avalanche shovel, probe, beacon, rando rope, harness, ice screw, prusicks, rapelling device, ice axe, and crampons. Needless to say, my pack is a little heavier than usual...
This area is truly incredible, and we are psyched to be here, now lets ski some more pow...
Fortunately, the winds overnight didn't affect all the snow out there, and Lynn finds some more of the light stuff on our way to the Glacier Grand.
After skiing a little we strapped the skins back on and hiked another hour and a half or so up to the Col above the Glacier Grand. From there we got an 8,000 vertical foot run down to the town of Trient. We checked the map and found a cool variation down the mountain and got out of the main Glacier run that most people do. It was pretty much 2 Alaska heli runs stacked on top of each other, truly amazing. In the photo below Lynn skis out below the seracs at the bottom of the Trient Glacier, this kinda stuff is just your run of the mill, day out on the mountain here in Chamonix, but a completely mind blowing and new experience for me.
And in classic euro style we end up miles and miles from where we started. The run we skied is off the peak on the far left of the photo below, and now we're in Switzerland... From here its a bus ride to the train station to catch a train back to Chamonix. Lucky for us our friends have a Raclette cooker at their place and for dinner we ate cheese, and lots of it.
Several years ago while I was heli skiing in Alaska my guide told me, "you think these mountains are big, you should go to europe, it is way bigger than this.". I didn't really believe him, until nowLabels: Chamonix, Columbia Sportswear, Elan Skis, Jeremy Benson, verbier
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Flight delay
I was supposed to spend the entire day in Newark, NJ yesterday on a layover on my way to Europe. Thankfully my flight got delayed so much that they had to reschedule. Spending the day choking on pow was way better than sitting in the airport. Here's a few clips from yesterday morning.
Flight Delay from Jeremy Benson on Vimeo.
Labels: Columbia Sportswear, Elan Boomerang, Jeremy Benson, Powder Skiing
Sunday, March 28, 2010
More fun on the East Side
Ah the East Side. There's really not quite any place else like it on earth. For the past 2 weeks my friends and I have taken full advantage of the mild high pressure conditions and have gone after some of the loftiest summits in the state of California. This weeks goals were Split Mountain and Birch Mountain. Both located just outside of Big Pine, CA, these peaks are separated by only a couple of miles. Basically, Split is west of Mt. Tenemaha, and Birch is north of Tenemaha. You even use the same system of dirt roads to reach both "parking areas". In the photo below my friend Oscar sets out on the "trail" toward Red Lake on our way to Split Mountain, 14,058 ft. I always love the juxtaposition of the desert and the snow, it wouldn't be the east side if you didn't do a little desert walking...
About three hours, and a variety of minor issues, we reach Red Lake and catch the first glimpse of our objective. From here the summit is only a mere 4,000 vertical feet away... We came to ski the fabled East Couloir, which becomes visible as you approach the base of the peak. Our ascent route is visible in this photo, and it is the very thin ribbon of snow on the lookers right of the peak, known as the St. Jean couloir.
About an hour later we're still about an hour from the bottom of the couloirs. The East Couloir coming into view on the lookers left, and the St. Jean, in the center of the photo. The scale of things down here is really deceptive. What looks like a short distance often turns out to be much farther and steeper than it seems...
Here is a view of our primary descent objective, the East Couloir. On a big year this line has a 70 foot rappel over an ice bulge at the bottom, this year it has about a 400 foot rappel over ice, rock, more ice, more rock... it just isn't that filled in, so we changed our plan. Maybe we'll come back and tag this classic line another year.
So we head up the St. Jean couloir in hopes that the snow will be good in this aesthetic, steep, skinny couloir. About a quarter of the way up we find about a half inch of water ice on top of the snow in the chute, fine conditions for climbing in crampons, not so sweet for attempting to ski down. Here's a view looking up the chute....
Eventually the crew made it to the summit of Split Mountain. Andrew, Oscar, Duncan and myself are all pretty wiped out at this point. We'd explored all of the ways down the mountain that we weren't willing to go down, so we opted for the "easy" way down, which we had to pretty much figure out as we went. It turned out to be pretty decent skiing, and far less life threatening than either of the other options we'd explored that day.
About 11 hours after leaving the car that morning we returned safe and sound. 7,500 vertical foot runs are lots of fun, especially when you carry ropes and harnesses most of the way for no good reason, I guess we all could use a little extra exercise...
In any event, skiing Split Mountain was something I've wanted to do for a while, and I'm thankful to my friend Andrew for providing the motivation I needed. Hopefully the next time I head that way there will be appropriate snow conditions for getting after the more aggressive lines.
About three hours, and a variety of minor issues, we reach Red Lake and catch the first glimpse of our objective. From here the summit is only a mere 4,000 vertical feet away... We came to ski the fabled East Couloir, which becomes visible as you approach the base of the peak. Our ascent route is visible in this photo, and it is the very thin ribbon of snow on the lookers right of the peak, known as the St. Jean couloir.About an hour later we're still about an hour from the bottom of the couloirs. The East Couloir coming into view on the lookers left, and the St. Jean, in the center of the photo. The scale of things down here is really deceptive. What looks like a short distance often turns out to be much farther and steeper than it seems...Here is a view of our primary descent objective, the East Couloir. On a big year this line has a 70 foot rappel over an ice bulge at the bottom, this year it has about a 400 foot rappel over ice, rock, more ice, more rock... it just isn't that filled in, so we changed our plan. Maybe we'll come back and tag this classic line another year.So we head up the St. Jean couloir in hopes that the snow will be good in this aesthetic, steep, skinny couloir. About a quarter of the way up we find about a half inch of water ice on top of the snow in the chute, fine conditions for climbing in crampons, not so sweet for attempting to ski down. Here's a view looking up the chute....
And here's my view looking down. This chute was no joke, really steep, pretty narrow, and with beautiful rock walls top to bottom. You can also see the Owens Valley, only 9,000 feet below us here.
Eventually the crew made it to the summit of Split Mountain. Andrew, Oscar, Duncan and myself are all pretty wiped out at this point. We'd explored all of the ways down the mountain that we weren't willing to go down, so we opted for the "easy" way down, which we had to pretty much figure out as we went. It turned out to be pretty decent skiing, and far less life threatening than either of the other options we'd explored that day.About 11 hours after leaving the car that morning we returned safe and sound. 7,500 vertical foot runs are lots of fun, especially when you carry ropes and harnesses most of the way for no good reason, I guess we all could use a little extra exercise...In any event, skiing Split Mountain was something I've wanted to do for a while, and I'm thankful to my friend Andrew for providing the motivation I needed. Hopefully the next time I head that way there will be appropriate snow conditions for getting after the more aggressive lines.One of the best parts of spring skiing down on the east side of the Sierra is the camping. Camping in the desert way out on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere at the base of beautiful 13 and 14 thousand foot peaks just can't be beat. In this shot Mt. Tenemaha dominates the evening skyline. Split Mountain sits just behind that, and Birch Mountain is just visible on the right of the photo.
Our next objective was the summit of Birch Mountain, and as usual this mission started with a healthy little dose of desert walking. In the photo below Oscar makes his way towards the snow just after leaving the car at the end of the dirt road at 6,500 feet. The summit of Birch Mountain is 13,658 ft., so the climb and the ski run are 7,000 vertical feet. Unlike Split Mountain, Birch is not set back on the crest, so the fall line is quite a bit more direct making for a quicker climb and a much quicker descent, depending on your route. Birch Mountain is on the right, Mt. Tenemaha is on the left. Its hard to tell from the photo, but Birch is 1,000 feet taller than Tenemaha.
About a third of the way up the mountain and I can't get over the contrast of the snow and the desert. Here Oscar is bootpacking up with the snow and the desert making things interesting in the background.
Near the top of Birch the views were pretty phenomenal, here Oscar skins with Split Mountain dominating the skyline behind him. Our descent route from two days earlier is visible in this shot. Again, it is hard to capture the scale of everything in a photo, these mountains are absolutely enormous...
After about 5 and half hours we reached the summit of Birch Mountain and were awed by the view. The Palisades to the North, Split Mountain and the other high peaks to the south was just too much for my camera to take in. My computer almost exploded when I downloaded all the photos, and in fact I lost about 40 shots in the process. Oh well. Luckily, Oscar captured a shot of me on the summit of Birch scoping out the downclimb to get into the line we wanted to ski.
Our next objective was the summit of Birch Mountain, and as usual this mission started with a healthy little dose of desert walking. In the photo below Oscar makes his way towards the snow just after leaving the car at the end of the dirt road at 6,500 feet. The summit of Birch Mountain is 13,658 ft., so the climb and the ski run are 7,000 vertical feet. Unlike Split Mountain, Birch is not set back on the crest, so the fall line is quite a bit more direct making for a quicker climb and a much quicker descent, depending on your route. Birch Mountain is on the right, Mt. Tenemaha is on the left. Its hard to tell from the photo, but Birch is 1,000 feet taller than Tenemaha.About a third of the way up the mountain and I can't get over the contrast of the snow and the desert. Here Oscar is bootpacking up with the snow and the desert making things interesting in the background.Our goal on Birch Mountain was to get a 7,000 foot corn run. The south facing slopes were nice and smooth and the winds were out of the north keeping our chances for excellent conditions high. We'd viewed the south side of Birch Mountain from the summit of Split 2 days earlier and this is what we saw. In the photo below you can see the south side of Birch, the peak on the right. We ascended roughly on the lookers right skyline to the summit, and dropped in just to the lookers left of the summit down the really aesthetic 3,000 foot long south facing gully. The rest of our run is obscured by ridgelines in this photo, but it was really fun.
Near the top of Birch the views were pretty phenomenal, here Oscar skins with Split Mountain dominating the skyline behind him. Our descent route from two days earlier is visible in this shot. Again, it is hard to capture the scale of everything in a photo, these mountains are absolutely enormous...After about 5 and half hours we reached the summit of Birch Mountain and were awed by the view. The Palisades to the North, Split Mountain and the other high peaks to the south was just too much for my camera to take in. My computer almost exploded when I downloaded all the photos, and in fact I lost about 40 shots in the process. Oh well. Luckily, Oscar captured a shot of me on the summit of Birch scoping out the downclimb to get into the line we wanted to ski.
The High Sierra is a great place to call home, if only for a few days at a time....
Labels: backcountry skiing, Birch Mountain, Columbia Sportswear, Elan Skis, Jeremy Benson, Split Mountain
Friday, March 19, 2010
Double the pleasure, double the pain
Like any good morning down on the east side, ours started with a pre-dawn wake up in the desert. We had arrived at the Shepherd Pass trailhead, just west of Independence, CA, around midnight the night before. We knew we had a big day ahead of us, so we got up early and got on the trail as soon as we could. Our goal was the summit of Mt. Tyndall, one of the thirteen 14,000+ foot peaks in the state of California. Tyndall's summit sits at 14,018 feet above sea level and is the western-most 14 er of the bunch, meaning that it is the farthest away from any road. Lucky for us the summit was only 8 miles and 8,000 vertical feet from where we parked and the sunrise is always beautiful on the east side.
Since the distance to our objective was so great we decided that it would be a good idea to spend the night out there. We figured that we could ski a couple things, instead of just having one massive day we could have two. After hiking for a couple hours we crested the ridge from Symmes creek into Shepherd Creek and we were awed by the scale of the mountains. It might be hard to tell from the pictures, but these mountains are huge, really huge. Mt Williamson is on the left, and on the far right of the picture you can just see Shepherd Pass, only 5 and a half more hours away. To access Mt. Tyndall it is easiest to follow the Shepherd Creek Drainage up to Shepherd Pass at 12,000 feet. From there it is only a mile and 2,000 more feet to the summit.
5 hours later and the rest of the crew, Andrew E., Andrew P., and Duncan are about to crest the top of Shepherd Pass. The drainage we ascended is behind them with Mt. Keith off to the left. At this point we'd already been hiking for 7 hours and calling it a day certainly would've been pretty awesome, but our objective had finally come into view so there was really no stopping now.
As we crested the Pass we saw the hulking mass of the north face of Mt. Tyndall. We also entered into the boundary of Sequoia National Park, which was a first for me. At this point we are a mile from the base of the face we want to ski the weather is perfect and we're all feeling pretty good, and happy that we're not trying to return to the car tonight.
About two hours later I'm on the front of the bootpack heading to the summit of Tyndall. Shepherd Pass is the low spot behind us and Mt. Keith is the huge peak in the distance. We made it to the summit, took in the sights and wondered at the scale of it all. The mountains in this area are so massive it is hard to even imagine until you see them for yourself.
After skiing the variable cold snow conditions down the north face of Tyndall we set up a camp in some of the talus on the plateau at about 12,000 feet. Camping on dry ground is a little easier than camping on snow and having a bunch of loose rocks around to build a small wind shelter to sleep behind is always nice. It was a cool night for us, but a warm night by mid-winter high elevation standards. In the photo below we prepare for day two in the early morning sun under the north face of Mt. Tyndall.
Our original plan was to ski the west face of Mt. Williamson on day 2. After reconsidering the logistics and timing we modified our plan to ski the inviting south face of Mt. Keith. While Mt. Keith doesn't top out above 14 thousand feet it comes in just shy at 13,977 feet. Due to its lack of height it is often overlooked and I had never even heard of this mountain before attempting to ski it. Mt Keith was also kind of on the way back to the car so we just had to check it out. In the photo below Andrew E. approaches the south face of Mt. Keith with some nameless 13,000+ foot peaks in the background. You could easily spend a week skiing back here and have barely scratched the surface...
As we ascend the couloir the views just get better and better. Andrew P. and Duncan are the two dots below with Tyndall and Shepherd Pass in the background. The south facing snow was softening up quite nicely by now...
Crazily enough I even got one of those guys to take a picture of me on the summit of Mt. Keith. Mt Tyndall, Mt. Whitney, and Kings Canyon in the background. An amazing area to say the least. I'll be venturing back this way very soon.
And dropping! Duncan drops into the line we just climbed, and shreds it. He's got 3,000 vertical feet of fall line skiing before the first bench and the beginning of the ski/hike back out.
Andrew P. drops in for some hard earned corn turns down the south flank of Mt. Keith. Once we gathered our stashed gear at the bottom of this run it was a 3 and a half hour ski/ hike/survival skiing slog back to the car. The only reasonable way out of this area is the way we came in and it wasn't that much easier on the way out, other than it being slightly downhill. There was lots of skis off, skis on, walking on dirt, walking on snow, etc. This area is deep!
By doubling up on peaks we also doubled up on the pain. Carrying your winter overnight gear deep into the high sierra certainly puts the hurt on. But what made us hurt only made for an epic adventure the likes of which I've never been on before. While I was aware of the possibilities in this area I had never realized the true potential, until now. I'll be back down there soon, really soon.
Since the distance to our objective was so great we decided that it would be a good idea to spend the night out there. We figured that we could ski a couple things, instead of just having one massive day we could have two. After hiking for a couple hours we crested the ridge from Symmes creek into Shepherd Creek and we were awed by the scale of the mountains. It might be hard to tell from the pictures, but these mountains are huge, really huge. Mt Williamson is on the left, and on the far right of the picture you can just see Shepherd Pass, only 5 and a half more hours away. To access Mt. Tyndall it is easiest to follow the Shepherd Creek Drainage up to Shepherd Pass at 12,000 feet. From there it is only a mile and 2,000 more feet to the summit.
5 hours later and the rest of the crew, Andrew E., Andrew P., and Duncan are about to crest the top of Shepherd Pass. The drainage we ascended is behind them with Mt. Keith off to the left. At this point we'd already been hiking for 7 hours and calling it a day certainly would've been pretty awesome, but our objective had finally come into view so there was really no stopping now.
As we crested the Pass we saw the hulking mass of the north face of Mt. Tyndall. We also entered into the boundary of Sequoia National Park, which was a first for me. At this point we are a mile from the base of the face we want to ski the weather is perfect and we're all feeling pretty good, and happy that we're not trying to return to the car tonight.
About two hours later I'm on the front of the bootpack heading to the summit of Tyndall. Shepherd Pass is the low spot behind us and Mt. Keith is the huge peak in the distance. We made it to the summit, took in the sights and wondered at the scale of it all. The mountains in this area are so massive it is hard to even imagine until you see them for yourself.
After skiing the variable cold snow conditions down the north face of Tyndall we set up a camp in some of the talus on the plateau at about 12,000 feet. Camping on dry ground is a little easier than camping on snow and having a bunch of loose rocks around to build a small wind shelter to sleep behind is always nice. It was a cool night for us, but a warm night by mid-winter high elevation standards. In the photo below we prepare for day two in the early morning sun under the north face of Mt. Tyndall.
Our original plan was to ski the west face of Mt. Williamson on day 2. After reconsidering the logistics and timing we modified our plan to ski the inviting south face of Mt. Keith. While Mt. Keith doesn't top out above 14 thousand feet it comes in just shy at 13,977 feet. Due to its lack of height it is often overlooked and I had never even heard of this mountain before attempting to ski it. Mt Keith was also kind of on the way back to the car so we just had to check it out. In the photo below Andrew E. approaches the south face of Mt. Keith with some nameless 13,000+ foot peaks in the background. You could easily spend a week skiing back here and have barely scratched the surface...
As we ascend the couloir the views just get better and better. Andrew P. and Duncan are the two dots below with Tyndall and Shepherd Pass in the background. The south facing snow was softening up quite nicely by now...
Crazily enough I even got one of those guys to take a picture of me on the summit of Mt. Keith. Mt Tyndall, Mt. Whitney, and Kings Canyon in the background. An amazing area to say the least. I'll be venturing back this way very soon.
And dropping! Duncan drops into the line we just climbed, and shreds it. He's got 3,000 vertical feet of fall line skiing before the first bench and the beginning of the ski/hike back out. 
Andrew P. drops in for some hard earned corn turns down the south flank of Mt. Keith. Once we gathered our stashed gear at the bottom of this run it was a 3 and a half hour ski/ hike/survival skiing slog back to the car. The only reasonable way out of this area is the way we came in and it wasn't that much easier on the way out, other than it being slightly downhill. There was lots of skis off, skis on, walking on dirt, walking on snow, etc. This area is deep!
By doubling up on peaks we also doubled up on the pain. Carrying your winter overnight gear deep into the high sierra certainly puts the hurt on. But what made us hurt only made for an epic adventure the likes of which I've never been on before. While I was aware of the possibilities in this area I had never realized the true potential, until now. I'll be back down there soon, really soon.Labels: backcountry skiing, Jeremy Benson
Monday, March 15, 2010
Milking it.
Monday 3/15/10. Today I figured I would be milking it, skiing some not that great wet pow. Turns out that the snow on north facing slopes was still nice and cold, stable, and skiing great. Surprised at our luck finding such great snow conditions and a virtually untracked Mt. Tallac, my friend Jon and I set about the task of trying to put tracks down all of our favorite lines. Luckily we have different favorites, so we barely even crossed each others tracks. In the photo below, Jon drops into one of the steepest chutes in the Tahoe Basin, in perfect pow, and he proceeded to ski it better than I've ever seen it skied. 
After that we took our pick of the front face chutes before heading back to the top for another lap. We dropped in on a completely untracked Cross, 2 days after the storm, I was shocked that no one had skied it yesterday. From the summit of Tallac its an uninterrupted 3,000 foot run to the bottom, steep at the top and progressively mellower and rolling near the bottom. By the time we skied our second run the snow was already beginning to turn and what was great steep powder dropping in was variable but creamy pow from about halfway down. In the photo below Jon drops into the steeper skier's right entrance of the Cross, nothing but sweet cold snow with surprisingly little wind affect. 
Needless to say, there were still fantastic conditions to be had out there by those willing to find them. While todays high temps will have baked our snow out even more it seems like we might be into a corn cycle within just a few days, not to mention that this is perfect weather for working on your goggle tan...
After that we took our pick of the front face chutes before heading back to the top for another lap. We dropped in on a completely untracked Cross, 2 days after the storm, I was shocked that no one had skied it yesterday. From the summit of Tallac its an uninterrupted 3,000 foot run to the bottom, steep at the top and progressively mellower and rolling near the bottom. By the time we skied our second run the snow was already beginning to turn and what was great steep powder dropping in was variable but creamy pow from about halfway down. In the photo below Jon drops into the steeper skier's right entrance of the Cross, nothing but sweet cold snow with surprisingly little wind affect. 
Needless to say, there were still fantastic conditions to be had out there by those willing to find them. While todays high temps will have baked our snow out even more it seems like we might be into a corn cycle within just a few days, not to mention that this is perfect weather for working on your goggle tan...Labels: backcountry skiing, Columbia Sportswear, Elan Skis, Jeremy Benson, Lake Tahoe, Mt. Tallac
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Refresher
While I heard it was pretty good today at the resorts I have no regrets about cruising down to Mt. Tallac to ski some high, north facing pow. High elevation snow was still good cold powder before our 6 inch refresher last night, which was icing on the cake. In the photo above my buddies scope their line before dropping in, with some really fun terrain in the background...
The terrain on Mt Tallac is second to no other mountain in the basin. Check out the rad lines in the background as we get ready to drop our next line. The short video below is from my best run of the day today. Its hard to see in the clip but the top three quarters of this line are exposed above a 150 foot cliff, blowing a turn or getting caught in your sluff are not an option... Best run of my day 3/9/10 from Jeremy Benson on Vimeo.
Needless to say, there is some great skiing out there, and judging from the snow that has just started falling, I'd say its looking to get even better.
Labels: backcountry skiing, Elan Skis, Jeremy Benson, Lake Tahoe, Powder Skiing
Saturday, March 6, 2010
2010 Skiing Magazine Ski Test
For the past 4 days I've been attending the 2010 Skiing Magazine Ski Test at Snowbird, UT. This was my fourth consecutive year testing skis for Skiing Magazine and one of my favorite events of the year. I'm always excited when I get invited back, even though I know how challenging it can be to ski on 60 different pairs of skis in 4 days. Luckily I enjoy skiing, testing, and giving my opinion on skis, so it all works out.
We arrived last Sunday to the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird, met up with the folks from Skiing Magazine and hung out with the 15 or so other testers. One of the perks of testing is that they put you up at the Cliff Lodge, something I could never afford, and feed you for the duration of your stay. We also get hooked up with a bunch of swag from companies that sponsor the test.
All of the major brands are represented in the test like K2, Volkl, Elan, Rossignol, Dynastar, Head, Black Diamond, Nordica, etc, and a number of boutique ski manufacturers like Liberty, Faty-pus, and Bluehouse. I find it incredibly interesting to see what different ski companies are putting out there since all I ever ski on are Elans. This year rocker was the name of the game and almost every ski I tested had some kind of rocker, or reverse camber. This type of "technology" isn't exactly new, but is finally being brought to the masses by all of the major brands. A big thanks to Shane McConkey for being the mastermind behind what is now seen as the most innovative advancement in ski design for the past several decades.
We skied as hard as we could and put all of the new skis through the wringer. Check out the September issue of Skiing Magazine for next years gear guide, and hopefully a picture or two of me...
Labels: Jeremy Benson, Skiing Magazine, Snowbird
Monday, February 22, 2010
Please hit button to Refresh
As it was finally starting to get a little ugly around here we got just what we needed. Somebody hit the refresh button, and just like that we've got six new inches of good quality snow to smooth everything out. With a bit of a nagging foot injury I can't really ski anything but really smooth snow, so I headed up to Mt. Tallac today to see how the snow was. The recent snow has made the skining conditions much better and more grippy making for a much easier climb than you would have found out there a few days ago. Only three people were out there in front of me today, and I thank them for a great new skin track. I was also impressed by their especially gnarly drop-ins to the top of the cross, way to get after it whoever you are. Luckily for me, two of my favorite ski runs in the world were completely untracked... While the new snow was very stable it was sluffing pretty fast, not deep, but fast. The sluff made me a little tentative, but I still had a great time up there today. I toyed around with a new GoPro POV set up today and I was pleased with the results. I basically mounted the camera on the top of a telescoping ski pole which I securely strapped to my pack. In the future I think I might try and put it up a little higher, it was a fun experiment nonetheless. I must warn you that the video is a little long...
Mt. Tallac 2/22/10 from Jeremy Benson on Vimeo.
Labels: Columbia Sportswear, Elan Skis, giro, Jeremy Benson, Lake Tahoe Backcountry, Mt Tallac
DaveSWEEET. CS looked money!
Nicky B son, aka Turka LurkI like that alternate angle loo9ks pretty cool
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Thursday, February 18, 2010
Pyramid Peak
After nine winters living in Tahoe and skiing the backcountry I am always stoked to get out and do something new. Since I'm somewhat of a creature of habit there are way more things that I haven't done out there than things I have. I suppose that I tend to get into a groove with the places I ski, and I often find that I just do what is easier, or closer. This was not the case yesterday. A friend of Lynn and I suggested that we go ski Pyramid Peak in Desolation Wilderness. In the photograph above, Pyramid is on the left, Mt. Price is on the right, and Jack's peak is in the foreground, pictured from the summit of Dick's Peak. At 9,983 feet, Pyramid Peak is the highest point in the wilderness and one of the most aesthetic mountains in the region. We chose to access this peak from the closest main road, and we parked our car around 6,000 feet at the Horsetail Falls parking area off of Highway 50. The hike brings you up a southeast facing ridge to start and at that elevation the snow was a little thin... We had a bit of an interesting bushwack to start out our day.
After ascending about 500 feet or so we were out of the thinly covered rocks and bushes and up onto a prominent ridge that would lead us all the way to the top of Pyramid Peak. While the summit isn't very close to where we parked getting there was quite straightforward and the navigation was simple, once you were out of the bushes. In the photo below Lynn approaches the Southeast side of Pyramid Peak about 3 hours into our hike...
After hanging out at the summit for a while we dropped in on our objective, the north face of Pyramid. Having only viewed this face from a distance I always thought that it was way longer and steeper than it actually was. The snow on the north side was still nice and powdery despite the unseasonably warm temperatures that we've had lately and the skiing was great. Here's a shot of the north side of Pyramid with good coverage, many seasons this doesn't fill in well enough to be able to ski it without walking over rocks...
After skiing the north side we traversed back around and skied a variety of terrain and snow conditions near the route that we came up. Coverage was great and the terrain interesting most of the way back down to the car. Things got a little spicy once we got back down below 6500 feet or so, but with some good route finding, a little bit of bush skiing, and some questionable creek crossings we made it out of there with no problems at all.It was a beautiful day in tahoe yesterday and going out to try something new with a mellow crew made for a fun and relaxing day in the backcountry. Its always fun to ski something you've never skied before and a mountain like this that stares you in the face is nice to check off the list. This peak is deep so if you plan to head out there be prepared for a long day or take it easy and make it an overnight...
Labels: backcountry skiing, Dalbello skiboots, Desolation Wilderness, Elan Skis, Jeremy Benson, Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Peak
way to go buddy ...you should write a book about all your travels.....such a fascinating fact about living in tahoe for nine years
Gainesaka Team Extreme Green, aka No Man Benson, aka The Lone Wolf. I like this story, but you still cannot melt Henry into butter and make sugar cookies out of him.
Jeremy BensonI am so happy that people are "fascinated" by what I have to say. I may write a book, and if I do I'll be sure to blog about it so people have a place to anonymously try and clown on me on the internet...
Eric Asistini need to get out there one of these days with ya Benson & eat some granola
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