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Helmet Follow Cam in Corona Bowl

AndreCharland — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:42:47 -0400

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Good news: my cheap flip video camera can double as reverse helmet cam

Bad news: The last day of Whistler for 2008 was cold, icy and uneventful.

Thanks to Jamie, Lotte and Danielle for being troopers though.

Revelstoke Mountain Resort

J Dogg — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:20:53 -0400

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Full Moon Skiing on Paul Ridge

J Dogg — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:18:22 -0500

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Gotta get your fix somehow. So amidst a not very powdery week in the Whistler area and a few days at the day job, we took advantage of the full moon and went for a stroll up to Paul Ridge in Garibaldi Provincial Park. Aiming for anything better than bullet proof, we actually scored some quality ankle deep pow. Not to mention the epic moonlight views and a scrumptious dinner on the Ridge.

We weren't alone. Four or 5 groups could be seen here and there in the distance, little white lights zigzagging down the hill like headlights on a bad night of driving under the influence. Or something like that.

It's pretty cool up there at night, and it was so bright you could have easily shredded some steeps if there were any to be had. Maybe next time it's Fissile by full moon...

Here's a bunch of tacky attempts at night photography:

My First Weekend in Whistler of 07/08

AndreCharland — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:53:51 -0500

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Just when I thought it would never come, my first weekend 6 months after shoulder delivered a cold sunny day with my best friends and light powder.

Jamie telling Calvin and Hobbes how it's going to be.

Of course there was some ice, some rocks and not all the lifts were running. Now my calves, quads and back are screaming. But I can't wipe the grin off my face with steel wool! It's on now, the alpine is open the base is settled and it's all cold smoke from here.

We stared off the day with a few quick laps in Spanky's which was deeper and lighter than I would have expected. After a late lunch we started to hit the typical boot packs. Then finished off the day with tour up to the top of Spearhead.

The run down Husume from there was glorious. We all had fresh lines down the high shoulder into the gut. Sorry no pics of that, it was getting dark and the beer at Merlins was calling!

Fissile Summit Chute Day

J Dogg — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:13:57 -0400

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Just a super dumb, quick vid of Andre & I heading out to Fissile last weekend. some dudes beat us to the Summit Chute unfortunately, but we still had some good turns.

Backcountry skiers put high stress on wildlife

Tobin Seagel — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:16:32 -0400

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TENILLE BONOGUORE

Globe and Mail Update

Backcountry skiing and extreme winter sports are stressing out native animals in the Alps, European scientists say.

In a study of European black grouse, the researchers first put captive birds under stress to measure the levels of stress hormone corticosterone that emerged in their feces.

The scientists then took that knowledge and used it to measure the stress hormone levels in animals in the south-western Swiss Alps.

What they found is native birds in outdoor recreation areas are suffering higher stress levels than birds in undisturbed habitats.

“Disturbance by snow sport free-riders appears to elevate stress, which potentially represents a new serious threat for wildlife,” the researchers note in The Royal Society's Journal B.

Corticosterone is used by many species to regulate stress, metabolism and immune reactions.

The ability of animals to cope with that stress is yet to be ascertained, they said, but the research team said Alpine wildlife may need protective zones to keep them away from increasing human activities.

This article was excerpted from the glove and mail. link below. If anyone knows what journal this was taken from, please forward me the info. I'd love to know how they isolated backcountry skiers from the myriad of other factors that occur in the mountains. thanks.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070307.wskistress03...

Silverton Sidecountry

tatsuno — Tue, 2 Jan 2007 21:46:31 -0500

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Photo cred: Julie Weinberger

Out of Bounds: Tales from the Backcountry

whistlerartscouncil — Fri, 8 Dec 2006 17:26:21 -0500

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If you like to go out of bounds with a board or two and a camera, it’s time to bring your images in-bounds to Whistler Arts Council’s 3rd Annual Out of Bounds: Tales from the Backcountry exhibition!

Out of Bounds is an exciting photography exhibition and competition featuring scenes of skiing and snowboarding in British Columbia's beautiful backcountry. This juried exhibition showcases some of the region's most well-known professional photographers as well as exciting emerging photographers from the Sea to Sky Corridor and the Lower Mainland.

The winning photographer will win a heli-ski trip with Coast Range Heliskiing through its People's Choice Award. As well, one of the voting public will also wint a heli-ski trip.

This extreme photography event will take place at various venues throughout Whistler for the entire month of February.

Check out www.whistlerartscouncil.com for the Out of Bounds launch party details!

Whistler Arts Council:
604 938-9221
info@whistlerartscouncil.com
www.whistlerartscouncil.com

Mt. Baker's Back-Country open now! 203cms!

Pat Mulrooney — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:55:02 -0500

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John Armstrong tearing up Baker's Back-Country. Photo: Pat Mulrooney

Okay I'm not sure what everyone else was doing on Monday but for some reason we were the only crew in Baker's Back-country! The group was Danielle, Mike, Dave, Lee, and John. We got to the parking lot at 9:00 am and no one else was there? This just meant that we had to break trail with at least a 2 foot deep skin track. One of the ski patrolers told us that everyone left early who came up on on Sunday as the freezing levels got too high and the snow was too heavy. All we could see in front of us was a base at 203cm, Temp -3deg C, and no one else there! The first uptrack took around 2 hours but the 1 metre deep blower face shots seemed to make up for it. By the time we were on out way up again our track had 30 cms of fresh on it! We ended up getting 3 ridiculous runs and by the end of the day no one else had been in the entire area and 2 more feet of pow had fallen! Some how this was better than last opening day at Baker on Nov 12 2005. Check out all the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patmulrooney/sets/72157594376190367/

Crazy Bushwacking Summer Couloir Mission

AndreCharland — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:35:24 -0400

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Found this onYouTube from the WeKnowSnow.com guys.

I thought we were hard core...this is too much!

Deer Pass by Bike

AndreCharland — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 04:59:03 -0400

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Crack of 8am, well maybe slightly after 8 as Dale reminded us we ferried out to the middle of Tyaughton Lake in the trusty Tyax Air Beaver float plane. It's been 2 years so I've done a float plane drop in the Chilcotins. The plane was as I remembered but now has an iPod for your in flight pleasure as you cruise through the chilcotions.

The first descent out of Deer Pass was as epic as I remembered it.Fast, narrow and goes as far as the eye can see from the top. Unfortunately Jordan's camera batteries died at the top of the pass, so the rest of the trip's photos are from my trusty little Kodak but it should be entertaining for you.

The climb up Deer Pass was a bit more than we had expected. After choking down a bagel around noon, we had a 2000 ft vertical climb climb up to the top of the pass. It was mostly pushing and hike-a-bike as it was too steep to climb, but fortunately it was late enough in the season that the bugs weren't a problem.

The descent was EPICAL fast and open up top, with a couple marmot sightings to add to the excitement. The trail changed from alpine sandy corners to steep twisty single track through the forest and non stop for the whole 2000 ft, it was awesome. Other than my brakes squealing I could hear hooting from Jordan, Kris and Charlotte all close behind me.

From there it was a race against the sun through Humming Bird and Trigger Lakes and then down the Gun Creek low trail to save the climb up to Spruce Lake. At this point we only stopped 2 more times to refill our water bottles and to fix Jordan's second flat. Charlotte and Kris took off ahead, but we caught up to them shortly after as they were waiting on the road because they just saw a grizzly bear tromp by. We waited as a group, yelled a bunch and then cruised up the road back to camp.

Around 10pm we rolled back into the camp, hooting and hollering, and went straight for the Kokanee and Miss Vickies potatoe chips! A great way to end an 11 hour epic ride in the Chilcotins. Kris and I were both raving about how well our Blurrs' handled all of the terrain descending and climbing the rough single track like nothing else. For the record Kris was rocking the Blurr LT and I'm representin' by DH background with the Blurr 4X.

More Photos on Flickr.

technorati tags:chilcotin, bike, mountainbike, crosscountry, epic, tyax, sprucelake, lornalake, warnerlake, tyaughton, floatplane

Blogged with Flock

wedge6

J Dogg — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 19:06:58 -0400

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wedge5

J Dogg — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 19:05:58 -0400

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wedge4

J Dogg — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 19:05:10 -0400

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wedge2

J Dogg — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 19:04:22 -0400

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wedge1

J Dogg — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 19:03:35 -0400

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AFTER THE DROUGHT [TEASER]

cuseo — Sun, 3 Sep 2006 00:22:07 -0400

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Ah Remembering Winter

Lotte — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 02:38:29 -0400

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Can't wait for winter. Actually summer is way more exciting than winter for a lot of reasons right now, but hey, came across this photo, from a trip up Paul Ridge last winter.

Mt Baker - Sure Beats Shuksan

J Dogg — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 02:39:20 -0400

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Redemption weekend... for some. Andre, Jordan & I headed down to Mt Baker, Washington the weekend following our lame Mt Shuksan trip. This time we'd stick to our usual skiing style - find a big mountain, bag it in a day, and shred back down to the base. Good times for all.

So Mt Baker it was, but not for everyone. Andre fell victim to SUBWAY food-poisoning, so at 4am myself and rookie mountaineer Jordan Manley left the parking lot and headed up Baker with a useless map and a bunch of gear that Jordan didn't know what to do with.

After a few hours of unanticipated trail hiking in boxers and t-shirts, we hit snowline and threw on the skis. Cranking past the dozens of late-morning mountaineers, we can't even count the number of whacky comments and questions we got about our skis. From "You won't need those up there will you?" to "How are you not going to fall into crevasses?".

Hmmm, undiscouraged we continued up, dodged a few crevasses, boot packed the Roman headwall, and topped out at a leisurely 2pm. After a good few whiffs of sulfur from the crator, we clipped in and shredded 5,000 feet of dreamy schmoo snow down to the dirt line, where we found our ill companion waiting to catch some vicarious ski action.

And just when we thought we were done, 2000 feet of downhill hiking with broken backpack straps ensued. But we made it, and Jordan the rookie straggled deliriously into the parking lot, stoked on the weekend's mission.

Andre wasn't quite as stoked on his parking lot loitering session, but he'll get redemption... in Argentina.

Wedge Mountain Mission

J Dogg — Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:00:00 -0400

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Finally got up & down this sucker. It's just so tempting, seen every day on the way to the resort.