Quote of the Day
“If you follow your bliss, you’ll have your bliss whether you have money or not. If you follow money, you may lose the money, and then you don’t have even that. The secure way is really the insecure way and the way in which the richness of the quest accumulates is the right way.” –Joseph Campbell
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!!
Another look at SheJumps.org in Chile
I just wrote a piece for SheJumps.org and it is up now on the site! Please take a moment to check it out…I will be posting it here soon. Also a (seriously) rad new video from SJ-Co founder Lynsey Dyer (and another one of me skiing Mount Adams is on there too!)
Valle Hermoso
For more sweet photos of the trip so far, I just checked in at FlyLowgear.com as well…
So there I was…
I will write enough to say that this past week was very challenging. The “family” as I call it in Alta, Utah is incredibly tight-knit and we lost two people in the course of about a week. Compton lost his life in a motorcycle accident and Jake was pushing himself (as usual) in Glacier National Park when he fell over 800 feet. It’s devastating to lose people, but there is a tangible, albeit small, amount of solace knowing that they were doing something they loved. Rest in peace bros, you will be greatly missed.
And it tends to do, time rolls on…Not without some tears and a few beers to remember some amazing times skiing powder with those guys…I was working all last week guiding my last trip with CASA Tours. We had 3 weather days stacked up right on top of one another. In fact, my last 2 weeks were pretty much one huge weather day. The last week of August Brian Stevenson, Spencer Francey, and I went to Lonquimay and had a phenomenal day of ski touring in Araucaria trees…That was the last sunny day. After that, all of Chile got pummeled by yet another Pacific weather system and it was down time all around. We went to Pucón (check the lazy reblog below), checked out some hot springs, and I tried to get work done for SheJumps and this incredible competition that is happening in Pucón in October.
So when weather day after weather day was stacking up and our clients were beginning to get frustrated (hold on, let me fix the weather for ya! Just kidding), things were starting to feel foggy for me. I couldn’t put my finger on it…I knew that it was the stress of losing 2 friends in a week, but it also felt like it was the mid-trip blues. A point when you are not quite sure where you belong…You want to live somewhere, find some shelves, plug in your chargers and leave them there.
Yes last week, as I like to say, “is what it is.” But I had a turn for the better, no pun intended, during the last two days when, without abandon, I hiked. Ando sola ahora…Maybe I didn’t hike that far compared to some people (ahem, Greg Hill), but it felt damn good to give the ski area “the bird” and start trucking. I just went solo and then I happened to meet some super cool people along the way. The experience, however routine it may seem in my own mind to go ski touring, shed light on a few things I think I was forgetting. Have you ever been thinking negative thoughts and then stub your toe? That’s sort of what was going on with me…I think…Well I am taking all of these lessons not with a grain of salt, but with gust of fresh air—err fresh “volcanic” air hehe.
Two days ago, after skiing Volcan Nuevo I was skinning over to Valle Hermoso with my new French friend, Camille. I remember the exact negative thought about a frustrating experience I recently had when I slipped on some ice and my ski actually came loose (turns out I didn’t have the Dynafit toe piece completely cleared out of ice). I slid about 10 feet and self-arrested myself with my feet on some rocks. It would have been gnarly to crash into them with my body, and thankfully my other ski was just about 10 feet below that…but it was an incredible reminder and one-way (for now) ticket back to reality. It was like the Universe saying “Hey Claire, what the $#@! are you thinking about ? Do you know where you are and what you are doing?”
So yeah, that happened. And then…this happened:
top of Volcan Nevados de Chillan…
It’s just so beautiful here you just can’t be bummed out for really any amount of time!
On the summit of Volcan Nuevo ^
My new friend Camille super stoked on the pow turns we just got from the summit of Volcan Nuevo!
End of Classic Shortie #2 and then the Pinche Puelche…
The second Classic Shortie trip was awesome! Although skiing at La Parva and Valle Nevado wasn’t initially anything to “write home about” (I guess that is an excuse for not blogging), our arrival into the Las Trancas valley was marked by numerous text messages from my Chilleno freeride buddies saying “Vente! Esta nevando!” (Translation: Get over here! It’s dumping!). But as usual, the Miguel Torres winery that we stop at for lunch on our way to Chillán instigated a fairly debaucherous yet classy drive south on the Panamerican highway.
lunch at the Miguel Torres Winery
keepin' it classy: wine in paper cups. but it's good wine!
And dump it did! The storm left over 4 meters of snow in some places (although only 2nd to the 7 meter storm in July). Here is a picture of them trying to dig the chairlift out on August 18
But before they were digging out the lift, we were shredding the storm pow. One of the reasons why Nevados de Chillan is so sick compared to anywhere else in Chile is because they have tree skiing! Al the other areas (for the most part) don’t usually have accessible trees within the area and trying to ski in a storm on a volcano is like being dropped into a glass of milk. You can’t see 4 inches in front of your face. Here is an edit, actually of me and my Chilean friends skiing in the “Bosque Darkside” at Nevados de Chillan in late July. It’s got a short piece of me skiing, basically just shredding too fast for the go-pro follow cam edit! But the video makes me happy, these guys are so rad! I’m at minute 6. Nothing too special…but my parents might like it.
During the storm the CASA Tours crew headed out to the MI Lodge to have dinner. We used their 4xr trucks as transfers but there wasn’t enough space for everyone inside. I was stoked to be in the back with Travis (my guiding partner) enjoying some pre-dinner faceshots after a day of storm riding!
After the Classic Shortie trip was over (short video edit to come, err, shortly), I stuck around to shred the rest of the pow. Unfortunately on Saturday August 20th, the PINCHE PUELCHE came…that means that everything went a little further than wind BUFFED…This is my friend and professional photographer Brian Stevenson who came with me on a ski tour yesterday after they opened up the mountain (it was closed due to super high winds (aka pinche puelche) on Saturday).
We toured out to Valle Hermoso, a beautiful area just next to the area. No tracks, but plenty of wind affected terrain. None the less we managed to make it look like we were shredding pow! The snow kicked up a bunch of spray. Brian and I shot photos for the day, but here is one I took of him.
Have to give this guy props (below) his one-piece and the old-school CASE Logic bag is so classic! You always see some good ski style down here.
(S)heJumps into the Canyon is a huge success!
(S)heJumps into the Canyon wraps up with smiles and a love for skiing
The teens spilled into Goldminer’s Lodge at Alta with sweat on their brows and huge smiles on the last day of (S)heJumps into the Canyon. It was the last session of four, where teens from four Boys & Girls Clubs in the Salt Lake City area came to participate in a program where they learned how to ski from some of the best skiers in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Coaches included 2009 World Champion ski jumper Lindsey Van, World Cup aerial winners Emily Cook and Ashley Caldwell, plus numerous big-mountain skiers and local rippers alike. The teens were taught by local heroes that provided mentorship and coaching to these teens that wouldn’t have the chance to ski without the support of SheJumps and the many sponsors that brought this program to fruition for the third year in a row.
“I can be scared of doing one thing and then with the support of SheJumps I have been able to jump…or go faster than I usually do,” said Honduras immigrant Lidia Mejia, 17, recalling the experience. “I can reflect back on something that is scary and say if I can do that I can do this too.”
SheJumps goal was to impart the spirit of the organization in the teens, which is to take a jump, or challenge, that may not be immaginable. For many of these teens, the Wasatch mountains are just a backdrop to their lives in the city. They often don’t have the opportunity to engage in expensive outdoor activities such as skiing. During the program, SheJumps taught 43 kids over the course of four weeks in March—which was the largest group to date.
“Teaching the teens how to ski was a joy,” said coach Lindsey Van. “There was no griping, no complaining—they just totally appreciated the experience and couldn’t have been happier sliding on snow.”
Thanks to the many sponsors that made the program run—outer wear, rental gear, lift tickets, and even lunches were donated by wonderful businesses like Rossignol, Deep Powder House and Alta Ski Shop, Goldminer’s, and Alta Ski Area. Much of the added expenses were covered by The North Face grant to help make an impact on the teens. SheJumps couldn’t have done it without the 20 wonderful coaches that volunteered their Saturdays to help mentor the teens. Also, a big thanks to photographers Jeremy Koons and Re Wikstrom for documenting the experience so Shejumps could collect memories for the teens to take home with them.
SheJumps hopes to expand this program to other regions, and is always looking for sponsors to make it happen. If interested, please contact Executive Director, Claire Smallwood, at claire@shejumps.org.
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(S)he Jumps Into The Canyon was established in 2009 to work with as many Boys & Girls club teens as possible in order to inspire them in the mountain setting by offering creative avenues for physical expression that are completely free for them to try. Since it’s founding, the program has provided a month long opportunity for 9-17 year olds to learn about fitness, skiing fundamentals and using public transportation to reach the mountain.
