VIRTUAL HIGH FIVE!
Posted by Kim Kircher on her site “Strength from the Top of the Mountain.” She is a phenomenal writer and I am honored to have SheJumps make it to the VIRTUAL HIGH FIVE of what she does. Thanks for the support Kim!
Post here> http://kimkircher.com/2012/01/10/weekly-high-five-report-shejumps-empowers-women-to-get-outdoors/
Suicide/Country Lane January 3rd, 2012
Happy New Year! 2012 has got “Nowhere-to-go-but-up” (snow-wise) written all over it! So we decided to boot UP Suicide chute (or “Country Lane” as it’s known once you ski it) with buddies and awesome locals Laura Dewey (North Face Masters Champion) and J-Rey (Champion of LIFE).
View of Suicide or Country Lane from the road
The first pitch isn’t really that bad, but it’s super FUN! Ice/rock maneuvering…We’ll call it “Soft Ice.” Happy to have a whippet on hand…Crampons wouldn’t have been a bad idea…Vibram soles make me happy
A Pic a snapped with my phone…
Bottom of the chute
Almost there…
Self-portrait with my sweet new helmet (Thanks SMITH OPTICS!) and Little Cottonwood canyon in the background…
Dewey and J-Rey getting ready to drop in…
Laura snapped a pic of me making some turns in the surprisingly nice snow…Nothing moving either. Didn’t feel like I was running from a bank with money bags hanging out of my pockets and the cops on my back. Yeah, that’s what the Wasatch feels like right now (if you’re out there….)
I definitely wasn’t taking any pictures while I was semi-gracefully balancing my ski tips between rocks and trying to find a wide-enough part of the choke to put an edge in. It ended with a sweet little straightline over blue ice. YAY! SOMETHING EXCITING TO SKI!! Yeah, this picture definitely doesn’t do justice!
And, Dewey on the APRON making it look easy. Good luck at the North Face Masters, Dewey! AWESOME corn snow (January corn snow, that is) on the lower apron.
So yeah, everyone and their grandma apparently has skied this line. That’s OK, it’s something to ski that isn’t a crowded groomer or fingers-crossed-wind-buff…Might just have to go back tomorrow and do it again! A short, but great, mission. Now, if it could please snow, that would be awesome!
Early (?) Season Wasatch
I got to meet some awesome new people (Robby and Mikey) and get to know a fellow-SheJumper LIZ DALEY when we went up to ski the north side of Mount Superior. Here are some pictures from the mission. Mind you, these guys had already shredded the Suicide Chute on the SOUTH face of Superior in the same day. I was stoked to go along with them for the 2nd part of their 5,000+ vert day! First off, I ran into a New Mexican who was drinking Happy Camper IPA, a damn good IPA IN A CAN!!
Robbie keeping the stoke alive with an awesome THUMBS UP!
He insisted that I take a picture of him skiing….
What our entire snowpack is made of right now….SCARY!
Liz getting ready to set the boot pack for the last pitch up Superior.
Super windy on the ridgeline…
The inversion is gnarly but makes for great photos!
FULL ON MONTE CRISTO!!
Robbie on the summit looking happy!
Me making Liz turn around awkwardly in strong winds so I can snap a picture
Mikey super stoked to SHRED!
That was a fun day! Another fun day had was with J-REY…icy switchbacks on slippery vegetation with no objective in mind at all, just skiin’ around and checkin’ stuff out…Had a funny hue setting on my camera but went with it…
Iciest. Switchback. Ever.
Cool view of Cardiac Ridge
View down Mill D
More fun turns to be had here still…
Got to see SheJumps Board member Liz Cunningham on the Cardiff saddle! Had to show off my new Hot Chillys…ZEBRA!
Noodling the S*&% out of that low angle pow!!!
All in all we are making the most of it here in UTAH! Makes you appreciate a snowpack and a season like we had last year that much more! Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you make 2012 the best year ever!
Why this place is special
Because 4″ on hardpack somehow equals faceshots?!
It’s no secret that the West is a little, shall we say “anticipatory” for new snow. I believe the forecast called for less than half an inch, but luckily for us it was an unsettled northwest flow and “less than half an inch” turned into 4! We get pretty spoiled in Little Cottonwood Canyon but so far everyone is much more appreciative of every flake this season! First run yesterday I immediately ran into another BRO shredder! Here we are showing off our awesome planks made in the USA! The SheJumps skis (My skis) are for sale from PMGEAR for $899.99, with $100 going towards SheJumps! email sales@pmgear.com to PAYPAL today!
I met up with Kylie North from the Alta Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau. Her, Jim (new ski buddy), and I ripped up some light POWDER SNOW and smiles were everywhere! Icicles in Jim’s ‘stache…what did someone say? Better stache equals better info? I think this gives me all the info I need right here!
Jim ripping it up in Fred’s Trees!
And the lovely KYLIE NORTH shredding it up…You know what made her jump? Moving from Oklahoma so she could do THIS everyday! Go Kylie!
OPIE! This guy always makes me laugh! Great to be able to lap chair after chair with different awesome people…When I took this picture I told him “I’m blogging you.” And he said “Ok!” Here goes OPIE!
And here is Jim in nipple-deep (might be an exaggeration) Stonecrusher POWDER!
And then I skied POWDER all way to my house…pretty much….
Here’s to making it in the next big cycle of storms!!
Cleveland Volcano
This would be really cool to ski one day….Maybe not any time soon….Put it on the bucket list!
http://unofficialnetworks.com/skiing-exotic-volcanoes-cleveland-volcano-ak-58441/
“Cleveland volcano is one of the most, if not the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands, and it is almost completely unmonitored.”
Mountain Rider’s Alliance Picture of the Week
http://www.mrablog.com/picture-of-the-week-60/
Pretty stoked! Great photo by Gregg Trawinski a couple of years ago near Alta, UTAH. I wish it was snowy like that right NOW!
First Day Back on Skis in North America
I was a little hesitant to charge out to Alta because of fear of hitting rocks after one in Chile nearly dislocated my shoulder…But my friends Bob and Mike Birch got me all stoked despite waking up with a fever…Sweat it out, right?
Super mellow cat track to start…no big plans just skiing low-angle pow today due to avalanche concerns…
On our first lap, I saw my friend Selmer, shredder extraordinaire…but wait…what’s that he’s got? It’s a swallowtail noboard!! With carpet for the pad! Nice work Selmer!
Liguria is an awesome restaurant in Santiago, CHILE. Check it out if you ever go there…This pin was on my backpack and put a smile on my face when I saw it today…A bit of the South America still sneaking in there…
Ran into some old friends…Meredith! Just back from Tanzania…what a culture shock!
And on our 2nd lap, a 5.10 skin move through the trees…Usually there is snow here I think…
Stoked to be wearing my Banff Mountain Film Festival BUFF! What a treat…
And there go the guinea pigs…Skiing in the protected gullies is still the safe bet. The pow was super dense for Utah style but it’s going to build a great base.
We did cut this slab off at the end of the day…NW facing aspect around 9000 feet. Wind slab about 6-7 inches thick…Avy danger was CONSIDERABLE today. Be careful out there!
And for my afternoon project, my first time (of many, many times) shoveling both decks of the Brighton Chalet. I’ve GOT to get my time down!
I Jump: Avalancha en el Volcán 2011
I distinctly remember telling all my Hood River friends that my trip to Chile this year was going to be short and sweet—“I’m only going to guide for a couple of trips for CASA Tours and then be home.” I just started getting into kiteboarding this summer and the Columbia River Gorge is known for its amazing windy August and September days. I wasn’t lying until I actually got down to South America and started to ski powder. Then I forgot all about summer as I knew it before.
I had a great time guiding for CASA Tours (my second year, amazing tour company for ski and snowboard vacations in Chile and Argentina). We had great snow for almost every group and I even had time between trips to go to the Pichilemu and catch some waves.
I was just beginning to wonder what it would be like to actually leave on my scheduled day of departure—September 20th—and head home, when I was contacted by Rodrigo Vera, a professional climber and instructor at one of Chile’s top eco-tourism colleges in Pucón, Chile. Rodrigo, or “Negro” as he’s known to most, offered me a position as the Director of Marketing for a competition he had been dreaming to create for years—a timed race from the top to the bottom of Villarrica Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in South America—Avalancha en el Volcán.
My immediate reaction was “Yes! Of course!” and then the reality set in that I wasn’t going to be writing press releases and contacting my media friends in English, but in Spanish—and not any Spanish, but Chilean Spanish. As the time drew closer to the day of the competition, I realized how far I had come by throwing myself into the position. I was proud of overcoming the desires to quit and say “Wow, I have no idea what I’m doing!” and continue to work at the level I envision for any project in my life.
When the competitors started showing up in Pucón, I was the person to meet and greet them, register them, give them all the beta about the competition and make them feel welcome and proud to be involved the competition. It was an amazing feeling to put faces to names and ask them, “How did you hear about Avalancha en el Volcán?”
The day of the competition I hiked up and raced with all the competitors. It was a great feeling to see everything through start to finish. I ended up in first place for the women and really feel vested in seeing more people have the amazing experience of sharing a day on an active volcano with people from around the world….Avalancha en el Volcán 2012!
What an amazing experience!! Thank you to all who made it possible!!
Villarrica Volcano
Life is always different when you sleep during transport. I got onto a bus with Shawn Mac (current travel buddy) in Santiago last night at 10:22…Yeah right, in Chile it was more like a 10:20 bus with a chance of 10:45. We were supposed to arrive in Pucón at 8 a.m. and got there at 9 a.m. instead. Pucón is what the perfect mountain ski-town should be, small and funky with a background of an active volcano, just to keep things interesting.
We met Gustavo, owner of Etnico Hostel in Pucón and we headed up to the mountain (after a quick gear explosion in the hostel room trying to get everything together). By noon Shawn and I were hiking up Villarrica. We fanagled a one-run pass–but got denied on the very lift we really wanted (the highest one). Had a quick safety check-up (you can never be too safe on Volcanoes) in a valley before heading straight up the 9,341 foot volcano. We knew we were on the later side of the time frame, so we cranked it without switchbacks. During the discussion of how useless switchbacks are (although despite ourselves we employed them during the bootpack session toward the top), we also discovered that Shawn Mac is the new “Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy” with endless amounts of common sense to ease the pain of modern life. The newest chapter will be out…soon.
On the ascent, we found a few abandoned pairs of skis. We were wondering where the people were who owned these skis…So we decided they must have forgotten them and so we decided to hike the skis to the summit for them! Here is Shawn doing his good deed for the day.
Shawn doing a good deed for the stupid people who forgot their skis
On the way up, up, up
We made it to the summit (a smokin’, tokin’, grumblin’ volcano) in about 4 hours. We stopped a bunch towards the top because there were about 40 people making a mess of the bootpack as they were sliding down on their behinds (with butt covers, of course). When we were up there we actually HAD to wear hankerchiefs over our faces because the smoke was just too much. It was so rad though! You can see 14 volcanoes from the summit of Villarrica.
(Crazy Snow!)
The view of Lan’in! The next objective…
The Bros conquer another volcano!! We are volcanologists!
Silhouette of Villarrica…
And yes, of course, the ski down was INCREDIBLE! Challenging rime, ice, and corn conditions up top (truly psychedelic patterns!) but then we cut onto the north facing side (towards the resort, frontside as shown in picture up top) and it was pretty glorious. Well worth it!
