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
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
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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Sunday, January 24, 2010
Wow
Over the past week we have received around 8 feet of snow in Lake Tahoe. Not record breaking by any means, but we have had one of the best weeks of skiing ever! Not only did it snow 8 feet, but we've had consistently good skiing the whole time, and for the past couple of days we have enjoyed the most stable snowpack that I have ever seen. So stable that I can hardly believe it, yet I have tried to take full advantage of it. With thin cloud cover and consistent light snow for the past two days we have enjoyed all-time powder conditions on south facing terrain. Normally I avoid south faces after storms but this cycle has allowed us to enjoy powder conditions in places that I never thought possible. The Lake Tahoe backcountry has been going off, giving up some of the best conditions in history. Sure I've got sore toes, shin bang, whiplash, and a broken finger, but that's all water under the bridge. I'm not sure how many more of the best days of skiing of my life I can have, but it seems like everyday for the past week has been just that. I'm sure I can find a little room in the old memory bank to store a few more.....
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...
Labels: backcountry skiing, Columbia Sportswear, Elan Skis, Jeremy Benson
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Yes, it is snowing that hard.
Its been snowing for days here in Lake Tahoe. The past couple of days have been epic to say the least. Today high winds and heavy snow kept most of the area's lift accesible terrain closed, but there were ample deep untracked powder turns available in the Lake Tahoe Backcountry. The skiing only improved throughout the day as the rate of snowfall and velocity of the winds increased. My new GoPro HD worked flawlessly, and I still can't believe that such a small camera can shoot HD video with such good color. Check out some of my clips from today. It was my first day skiing on some of next years Elan Olympus skis, and I'd have to say that I enjoyed them thoroughly. Sorry if the video is a little long, but hopefully you like Guns and Roses...
Labels: backcountry skiing, Elan Skis, GoPro HD, Jeremy Benson, Powder Skiing
DaveLuckily I like Guns and Roses! Sick pow skiing Benson! Almost as good as being there ... almost. Keep crushing it!!
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Monday, January 11, 2010
My prayers have been answered
For a few years now I have hoped that I might eventually have a taller heel riser for my Marker Duke bindings. Finally my prayers have been answered. I recently acquired a set of the new "long" heel risers. The difference is pretty substantial as you can see in the following photos.
With new and improved Duke heel risers views like these are much easier to come by. This is the view to the south from the summit of Jakes today...
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.
With new and improved Duke heel risers views like these are much easier to come by. This is the view to the south from the summit of Jakes today...Labels: backcountry skiing, Columbia Sportswear, Elan Skis, Jakes, Jeremy Benson, Lake Tahoe, Marker Dukes
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
What a week it has been.
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.
Today we branched out in search of variety and some more pow for the skiing. We ventured up the street from my house and hiked up to Grouse Rock and into Ward Valley. With high ridge top winds and grey skies dominating for most of our tour we rethought our objectives for the day and focused on lower more sheltered slopes. Many of the natural avalanches that occured during the storm cycle are still very evident, especially on East/Northeast aspects. While nothing really seemed to be moving at the resort yesterday the evidence of natural slides was a little disconcerting especially with the weak layer down near the ground. Finding it a little hard to believe that all that new snow has bonded up tight we tentatively made some ski cuts, and then pretty much went for it.
The consistency of the snow has definitely changed a little overnight. It has become more dense and compacted as well as being wind affected in some areas, and sun crusted on south facing slopes. We decided to lap it up on an sheltered East/Northeast facing slope for optimum powder conditions. Here's my buddy, and unofficialsquaw Kick Ass Blaster, Mike Vaughan finding a nice pocket of fresh on his first turn.
And a few turns later opening it up by the spiny rocks that make up the features of this area.
After hours of hiking around and skiing more pow we were finally chased out of the woods by the dwindling daylight, not that we could see all that well today anyway. In any event, lines in the backcountry are at a super fun low-tide level with more features than usual. Now is a good time to get out and explore and find some great early season stashes for yourself. As far as we could tell, the snow is locked up tight just about everywhere, so go on out and get some. For more information on local avalanche conditions check out: http://www.sierraavalanchecenter.org/
Labels: Alpine Meadows, backcountry skiing, Backcountry Tahoe, Elan Boomerang, Jeremy Benson, KT-22, Powder Skiing
Eric AsistinOh yess Benson...The view over to Alpine was quite nice from KT....Glad u got some too.
Porters TahoeNICE WORK BENSON!!!
Nicky B son, aka Turka LurkSick JB, nice line by the way too.
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Adventures is Mediocrity
Although many explorers, adventurers and professional athletes would like to tout their adventures as grandiose dreams, epic tribulations and great triumphs, we all know mediocrity generally plagues an average amount of missions. This past weekend in Tahoe helped proved the fact that, like people, 49% of adventures are below average.
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.
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
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Summer Slander
Although mild attempts at humor are ventured (and mostly eluded) there are serious declarations in this video that hate at the architecture of skiing. Zoloft ain't got nothing on the depression this vid sinks me into. Although I respect nearly all skiers for their athletic talents, their 'intellectual traditions' can sometimes leave something to gain. Sorry for the negative post, but positivity is hard in these heat scorched weeks of August. Enjoy for whatever reasons you want to enjoi.
Labels: backcountry skiing, idiots skiing
captain short shanksWell I know they won't be shredding anything we are headed to in the Backcountry. My 5 tips for this crew are
1. Stay in the park
2. Stay in the park
3. Stay in the park
4. Stay in the park
5. Stay in the park
oh it wasn't so bad. sure they're park rats but that wallisch kid is pretty dope.
too many kids 2day just ain't got the appreciation / ability for puking pow days but that's just fine by me!
the whole 'ragging on park kids' because you ski backcountry and it's SOOOOO much cooler really is getting old and needs to stop.
why can't we all just get along?
P.S. this video was a complete joke...stop taking it so seriously. i've seen these kids out on pow days and they slay just as hard as anyone else.
That video is supposed to be funny and not taken seriously. ps- Tom Wallisch is skiing in Full Tilt Boots and kills it.
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Thursday, July 2, 2009
The Backcountry
I believe it's the multitude of shared traits that makes backcountry fly-fishing and backcountry skiing so appealing to me. Both provide a healthy amount of solitude and silence. Both command respect of nature and reverence at its organic beauty. Both make you rely on yourself and breach that safety net of emergency hotlines, instant communication and rapid travel. Then in skiing and in fishing there is a surge of adrenaline and excitement in a peaceful and calm world. For me that adrenaline comes when I'm experiencing those moments of flight on a pair of skis or setting that hook as a monster brown trout just breached the surface water and attacked my floating fly.
I really don't know why I wrote what I just wrote. It really is a terrible introduction for a Trip Report. I guess it has to do with the fact that most people find it contradictory or even oxymoronic that a professional skier/thrill-seeker would be into such a calm and silent sport such as fly-fishing. I guess I just wanted to explain myself to myself. Cause sometimes even I think, "Why the hell do I like this fly-fishing thing so much?"
Anyways, I recently went on a backcountry fly-fishing trip with a few buddies deep into the Sierra wilds. Since your attention span is probably waning by now, here are some pictures and stats of the trip.
Days: 3
Nights: 2
Miles: 18.9
Pack Wgt: 52 lbs.
Trout Caught: Group: 100+ Me: 20+
Trout Eaten: 7
Lakes Fished: 5
Streams Fished: 2
Liquor Consumed: 9 pints of Jameson Irish Whiskey, 1 litre Milagro Tequila
What were all truly looking for.
I really don't know why I wrote what I just wrote. It really is a terrible introduction for a Trip Report. I guess it has to do with the fact that most people find it contradictory or even oxymoronic that a professional skier/thrill-seeker would be into such a calm and silent sport such as fly-fishing. I guess I just wanted to explain myself to myself. Cause sometimes even I think, "Why the hell do I like this fly-fishing thing so much?"
Anyways, I recently went on a backcountry fly-fishing trip with a few buddies deep into the Sierra wilds. Since your attention span is probably waning by now, here are some pictures and stats of the trip.
Days: 3
Nights: 2
Miles: 18.9
Pack Wgt: 52 lbs.
Trout Caught: Group: 100+ Me: 20+
Trout Eaten: 7
Lakes Fished: 5
Streams Fished: 2
Liquor Consumed: 9 pints of Jameson Irish Whiskey, 1 litre Milagro Tequila
What were all truly looking for.
Labels: Backcountry, backcountry skiing, Cody Townsend, fishing
ben-day-holooks so fun!!!!!!!!!! love this time of year!!
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way to go buddy ...you should write a book about all your travels.....such a fascinating fact about living in tahoe for nine years