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...

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.

I've been skiing on next years Elan Olympus and Boomerang skis for the past three weeks or so. While they are similar to the current line-up of Elan skis there have been some subtle changes. Most notably is the graphic change on the Boomerang. The ski itself remains unchanged from last year's award winning design which many people, including myself, absolutely love. This ski is floaty with a waist of 120 mm, easy to turn in its 190 length due to the early rise tip and tail, and now it looks even cooler than it did. Not only has the topsheet graphic been updated, but the base graphic as well. This ski will also be available in two shorter lengths for those who may have been too small for the 190 length.

The summit series is new this year and is an updated version of the popular triple series from last year. One of my favorite skis of all time is the Elan 1010 which has been replaced this year by the new Olympus. The Olympus has the same exact dimensions as the 1010 but has a slightly lighter core and a slightly rockered tip. Both improvements have made an already awesome ski even better. The summit series also features a hole in the tip to accomodate a skin hook or to make a rescue litter while in the backcountry. If you choose not to use the tip hole for any reason the skis come with an insert that keeps it covered. At 110 mm underfoot this ski can do it all, and is my ski of choice on all but the deepest days, and all the time in the backcountry.

The current line up of Elan skis is the best they have ever produced, and next years skis are even better. The photo below is of me dropping into the backcountry white-out gnar on my new Olympus...

Here's a couple clips from yesterday and today, two of the best days of skiing that I have ever had. These are a couple of the good runs I had, the really, really good ones are safely tucked away in my brain, just for me. And, by the way the song, so fresh so clean, is describing the snow, not me...

For the past several days I've been in Portland, OR attending the 2010 athlete/design forum for Columbia Sportswear. The forum is a great opportunity to provide feedback to the designers of Columbia outerwear. This is the third year of the design forum and just another example of Columbia's commitment to continuous improvement in their outerwear design and innovation. The designers are usually pretty excited to hear what we have to say since we abuse their gear on a regular basis, something they don't have a chance to do while working in their offices.

The new taller heel riser is on the right, obviously. The difference is truly amazing, taking pressure and strain off my lower back and hips, making skinning uphill easier and more comfortable. Anyone who has felt that the heel risers were too short on their Dukes should get their hands on a set a.s.a.p.

After finding about an 8 inch thick layer of wet powder on just about everything south facing we changed our plan and decided to try and find some dry, cold powder. We stumbled upon this little north facing gem nestled in a cirque on the ridgeline that runs behind the Jakes ridge.

We sessioned this little but super fun zone for a couple runs each before heading back towards the lake and out of the desolation wilderness. Here's a super short video of my friend Chris Doyle shredding the walled in part of one of the cool little chutes in the zone we explored today. Lots of fun to be had in the Lake Tahoe BC right now with a corn cycle on the way. Nothing like Juneuary in California.

Chris Doyle killing it from Jeremy Benson on Vimeo.

Its been a few days since it has snowed in Lake Tahoe, and apparently we've already entered into a corn cycle, something I like to call "Insta-corn". Yesterday I headed to the south side of Jakes peak to see exactly what was going on with the snow in the backcountry and I was delighted to find excellent corn-like conditions, and no tracks anywhere. Today I returned with a few friends and bumped into Sierra legend Jim Zellers and the infamous Ralph Backstrom with a similar plan. Lucky for me I'd already gotten it good the day before, so I let my buddies go first. Not much had changed since yesterday and the runs were still pretty darn smooth, though really thin cover and a lot of wacky little rock chokes and whatnot.We skied a couple laps and found that the best snow was on south to east facing slopes, anything else is still in the transition phase and is pretty weird. Somehow I managed to put on my GoPro helmet cam for the first lap and it looked a little something like this....

Sorry that clip is 2 minutes long, but its a pretty long run. Nothing all that gnarly but lots of fun on smooth snow. I also made sure to shoot a few pictures while we were out, and unfortunately the scenery is just terrible.... Even hiking shots look cool with Emerald Bay in the background. Near the bottom:

And again a little closer to the top....

Ralph, having a good ol' time... with the rock garden above him.

And one more scenic. Its a beautiful place we live in, get out and enjoy it when you can.

Getting into the backcountry is easy as ever with tons of great skis that can handle a variety of conditions on the market. My ski of choice is the Elan 1010 which is the probably the best and most versatile ski that I've ever used. It can handle pretty much any condition and is a great width, at 110 mm's underfoot, for just about any day on the hill. Backcountry binding technology has also come a long way. The Marker Duke is a great example. For people who can't afford to have a dedicated backcountry setup the Duke provides the answer. With a DIN range up to 16 this binding can handle an inbounds thrashing and still hike around for days in the backcountry, truly the best of both worlds. Hopefully I'll see you out there.

It has been a pretty incredible week in Lake Tahoe. With 2 consecutive 3 plus foot dumps the mountains around here have just been getting plastered. We've gone from icy groomers with very little open to full on mid season conditions, in places, in a matter of just a little over a week. Yesterday, not only did KT-22 spin for the first day of the season, but Alpine Meadows also managed to open the ridgetop hikes out to Beaver, Estelle, and Bernies bowls. The skiing was off the hook to say the least, and the uncrowded slopes and liftlines made for all day freshies for everyone in attendance. It felt pretty good to step into my Elan Boomerangs for the past few days and charge around the mountain on my big skis with little to no more fear of hitting tons of rocks. While I completely forgot to put on my helmet cam for just about every run, I managed to strap it on once for the short clip you see here. Those GoPro helmet cams are so small that sometimes you forget that you even have it with you.

Jeremy

The off-trail skiing there is still pretty sketchy, although, not nearly as bad as here. The groomed runs are all-time good, and they even have snow on them, snow not ice. It seems that they've got a good little park going right now as well with boxes, rails, mini wall-rides and a nice looking medium size jump. In the picture below my buddy, and former Porter's employee Chris Doyle, makes the sweet snow on the groomers look like a three foot powder day slashing on his new Lib Tech TRice.

Mammoth does it up right and I was impressed with how well the mountain is skiing considering how little snow they have. The eastern sierra is always a sight to behold, and even though the mountains down there need a couple more feet to get the backcountry going they are still really impressive to check out. So, if you just can't take another red dog lap, head on down to Mammoth, you'll be glad you did.

It finally happened.  I went a full 7 days without going skiing.  Rather than cry about it I figured it was the perfect time to go hit up the East Face of Mount Shasta.  There's really nothing like a 7,000 foot run to brighten up your day, especially when ski season is "over".  Sunrises are cool, and your shadow is long at 6 am, here we're just popping out of the trees near the Brewer Creek Trailhead, at 7,200 feet.  The summit is 14,143.  

Jeremy

Jeremy

Jeremy

Today I headed into the Lake Tahoe Backcountry with my friends Dave and Oscar.  Since the past week has been off the hook, we decided to continue the trend and go big.  A desolation mission was in order and our plan did not dissappoint.  We started at Eagle Falls around 9:00 am.  After the past week, starting a little later was no problem.  We hiked to our first destination of the day, Dick's Peak.  At almost 10,000 feet, it one of the highest peaks around, and only 4 hours from the car!  Here's a shot of Oscar shredding windbuff off the summit of Dicks.  It was wind affected, but still pretty good.  

Welcome to spring in Lake Tahoe.  Bout time to head down to the east side.  Pray for snow!!!.

Jeremy

Here's a little clip from today skiing a line off Mt. Tallac.  Please bear in mind that during the majority of this line its incredibly steep and I'm exposed above a 100+ foot cliff.  As you can see the snow is still perfect in the north faces and the backcountry has been going off.  Big plans for the coming days...   I hope that everyone else has been getting the goods.  

Jeremy

Jeremy