Just some quick photos from a fun ski tour yesterday up Yellow Mountain above Trout Lake with the Ophir slayer ski posse- Dan Hehir, Haimay Palmer, and Dylan Sloan. We found some great snow, some variable snow, fun couloirs, and all on a beautiful, warm day. Haimay and I skied the notch to the right (photo below), and Dan and Dylan skied to the left. It was another good day of adventure in the high alpine.
In the forecast ahead, 3 inches of snow.. so maybe some ice climbing, exploratory ski touring, and a drive to SLC for the OR Show next week.
A fun week in the San Juans…some good ski tours in Ophir and Bear Creek, and then an exciting weekend event just over the hills in Ouray. A group of us drove over to enjoy various aspects of the 2010 Ice Festival these past few days with great slideshows, impressive competition performances, an excellent super hero dance party, and once again meeting some interesting and talented new friends.
On Sunday, it was time to hit the snow again..and this time it was a lap in Bear Creek with Outside Magazine’s Justin Nyberg. Though variable conditions reign, it was a gorgeous day and a fun tour.
The San Juans are in need of some more snow right now. Still some fun ski adventures to be had. But, in the meantime, it is feeling like a better time then usual to get in some ice climbing mileage.
Here some photos from the Ouray IceFest exhibition competition on Saturday- route set by the uber talented Vince Anderson. The featured climber is Ines Papert, who was fast, smooth and committed, as well as riveting to watch:
The San Juan mountains, so far this season, are clocking in just above average on snowfall..and that means that we are back to our true Continental snowpack. Our backcountry is weak and tender, and so it has made for a very unpredictable touring experience at this stage of our winter.
So, my time of late has been spent enjoying the ski area, a few days touring on ridgelines at or below treeline, and climbing some ice. And, as the touring conditions have allowed for some great lower angle powder skiing, it has been a good time to test and play with the gear.
Salomon has built out a new line of touring/on-mountain ski boots, and I have been taking out the new Lady Quest on some fun excursions. With its ride/hike technology that includes a women’s liner and specific women’s cuff (with a release cuff system), this boot is made for a solid performance in both uphill/downhill motion. It is extremely comfortable with immediate use, with a very flexible and soft hike mode, and an amazing cushioning system.
When this boot goes into downhill lock mode, it is as solid as they come. Excellent function with its magnesium backbone that improves power and transmission along with true alpine flex technology that locks the cuff into the lower shell for further directed energy and precision oriented performance.
Weighing in at 3.86 pounds per boot, the Lady Quest is very competitive in the touring marketplace and unsurpassed in its on mountain performance. This is cutting edge for an alpine boot that tours as well as it skis. It is also compatible with all safety touring bindings on the market, with touring pads of Contagrip rubber available to add on to the system.
The new Quest line comes out in stores this Fall 2010. It is a fantastic new option for in-bounds comfort seekers along with off-piste explorers.
To those we love and see each day,
And other loved ones far away,
To all good friends- whose friendship means so much,
And those with whom we’re somehow out of touch…
A very Merry Christmas
and best wishes for a Happy New Year!!
If you happen to have been following www.tetonat.com, then the play by play of our trip has been played out. If not, below is another short synopsis of our adventure as well as a photo essay of our journey.
Every expedition lends itself to gained experience and knowlege of the mountains, cultures, challenges, and successes. Often times, you also make some remarkable new friends. Glen Paulson, Steve Romeo and I had a great journey together in the Horcones Valley. From the beginning, our team established that skiing was our priority, and to explore the area before us as best as we could. With that mission in mind, we tackled quite a few routes on and around Aconcagua up to 19,200ft. We may have skied some first descents, and we ultimately made the best decisions we could in regards to weather, conditions, route evaluations (wind load, ice, etc), potential rescue operations of other climbers, and team health.
Our ulitmate goal was not achieved. We, however, accomplished what we came to do- learn and grow in the mountains, have a safe and fun journey, ski as many routes as possible- as well as to ski more then half of Aconcagua, meet new mountain friends, and develop lasting friendships with each other for future ski and climbing endeavors. I was lucky to travel with two extraordinary talents in the ski mountaineering world, and will treasure these Argentine discoveries.
Enjoy the photos…
Since I got back into town a few days after the fellas, I’m a bit behind on updates. Until I get my act together, you can follow the trip reports at Steve Romeo’s site www.tetonat.com. He took some great photos and does an excellent storyline.
A fast round-up in the interim:
We skied a good portion of Aconcagua (18,000ft down to Basecamp at 14,000ft) and skied 6 other possible new routes in the valley, including a few couloirs. The weather was burly but we found some good windows for skiing on the headwall of Cerro La Cuerno as well as below Nido Camp on Aconcagua. It was a great journey with some amazing partners, new friends, and some good solid suffering as well as successes.
More to come in the next week or so.
Happy Holidays!
This call came in today at 1:30pm. I am having Kim call in to a Google Voice number and leave messages- the messages are then transcribed to text. Then from there I just listen to the message and correct the mistakes that Google Voice makes. Its pretty slick.
“Hey Jonny, It’s Kim calling again. I hope you’re getting these updates. We actually did not make it up on the mountain, because the winds came in higher than 60km per hour. There just crushing everything people’s tents are getting ripped apart and all that stuff, but anyway, the weather cleared this afternoon so we ended up going for an other obervation ski and it was awesome. we went up above camp one, which is Camp Canada was at about 5000 meters or 16000 feet or somewhere in there and and then we skied 3000 feet from a face to a ramp to a really awesome coulior and actually rolled right into base camp sort of Ski in Ski out- it was really fun. we are now supposed to have really bad weather again for the next few days, so we’re just trying to wait for a window to go up on the hill and see whats going on., And then hopefully getting to ski higher up. Everyone is feeling great, everyone is pumped on today, it was really awesome- Just trying to ride out this weather. Hope all is well.”
11-23-09
via satellite phone
“It’s Kim calling from base camp on Aconcagua- quick update, we got in yesterday. It took us two days to get into basecamp at 14,000 feet, and today we went for an awesome ski above basecamp to about 16,000 feet or so, did this really cool coulior , about 1500 or 2000 vert and um, it was beautiful, beautiful skiing conditions, their is a good amount of snow around- so we are psyched for the coming days up higher- I think we are going to go up to camp two the day after tomorrow. The weather’s been a little hard to predict its been extremely, extremely windy up until this morning. I guess that’s all I have to say right now. So, just giving a shout out to all of you guys and saying hello. Hope all is well and we’re doing some skiing in Argentina and having a great time. Everything’s everyone feeling great and doing great. So, we’re having fun and being safe. Take care. Talk to you in, probably another 3 or 4 or 5 days. Bye bye.
