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2006/2007

4/15 Closing it out! Well another season comes to a wrap and it was a fantastic sunny day on the hill. Fast laps with the gang on Sundown then over to Bodybag, 2, and C prior to one last G-Bowl at 5PM. Snow is going fast, though Leo and I still managed to get some fun turns down as another season blows by. Hard to believe it’s over, but then again, tis the time to start chasing bigger lines. Till then!

4/14 Sunny Saturday as Leo and I hit a stellar Gate D to G bowl with chalky fun turns. We attempt a keyhole only to find sub par conditions and a bit of slab. Couple of late chutes to round out the last charging day on the mountain.

4/13 Fun sunny laps with Tim and Leo on the closures. Not as good as Wednesday, but never-the-less we made turns. Ended up bumping into Max Damore for his last day making some turns on Chute 1 and 2. Closing is coming up quickly.

4/12 Hurtin-Groomers and speed and outta there after 6 laps. It would be great to either get snow or sun, but the in between is a bit brutal.

4/11 Fun measurements with Leo. We knocked out 5 laps in the area and the run out in Chute 1 is fantastic. Great day leading into tonights events.

4/10 Snowing and kinda chilly. We round the Sunshine area in windy, blowing conditions. In fact it blew so hard that if felt like rocks hitting you in the face. Nice.

4/9 Slush and marginal. While it was sunny and the air temp warm, the snow is completely isothermic at this point, so some runs are getting marginal at best. Additionally, it rained last night, so that didn’t help the quality much. Still fun, just have to look a little further then the obvious.

4/8 Last day of Morningside. Measurements were in order and the clouds hung the proper veil to disguise the deeds. Foggy, Whistler like conditions are prevailing at the moment.

4/6 Tim and I bump it up on 3 @ 3 and Rolex. Perfect slush bumps for the K2 PMs and the Slayers. Gotta love spring.

4/5 Vail and cloudy. Fun times with the fam and we did manage to bag 2 runs in the sun before the snow reappeared. Lots of late season storms this year!

4/4 Epic measurements. For whatever reason, people aren’t getting after the goods, so I promptly put six lines through the secret zone today. Basically I hit every line I felt was skiable and to top it off, the sun popped out. Can’t go wrong on a day like that. I’ll be punchin’ in again on Friday as tomorrow it’s off to Vail.

4/3 Yesterday was better snow, but I got two better lines in the thirds. Main line skied quite well despite a punch in on my part on a funky crust layer around the rock. Fun turns also can be had skiers right, but I’m not saying nuttin.

4/2 Doug Coombs (acutal day) remembrance. I poach everything in sight with a perfect 4” on the crust layers which made the measurements memorable. They are skiing exceptionally well given the time of year and lack of bond to the rock. As the Jackson Hole Airforce said, there’s nothing better then the feeling of the rope grazing over your back as you race for the fresh.

4/1 Gapper day! Check Leo ripping the pipe and us gaping the backshop. I heard Leo ripped is marble bag while trying to land this sick air. The only thing holding people back was the weather.

3/31 Sunsation in Copper. We head down for H/H’s big shop battle event and check out De La Soul. Crazy times ensue anytime your with Burkley and this was no slouch. The weather thankfully cleared just as the comp got underway and good times were had by all.

3/30 Leo and I head for North canyon again and knock out “let’s all take a shower!” with so-so conditions and extreme down climbing coming back down the South facing slope of the canyon. I’ll post some pics soon, but steer clear from that face.

3/29 8” Classic Steamboat April storm, almost dust on crust but Leo and I bag first lap on Nostrils and I follow with an amazing lap down Fun Bags. Getting out is less then fun as I core shot my skis coming around the Bird, but the turns are stellar.

3/28 5” and improving. While a bit of dust on crust, I did manage to get good turns on 3rd pitch and the Z area. There’s a big storm here and it’s still snowing.

3/27 Yep, same as yesterday. Rough.

3/26 Craptacular back in the boat. That’s probably a bit harsh since it’s 11AM and frozen solid. Wait till 1 to get the slush..

3/25 Final day and we bag the opening of Redemption perfectly. It was epic and as Leo said “I’ll have that memory forever” so true.

3/24 Thicker new snow with everyone tired and snowing sky has us doing laps on CPR and Redemption finding new snow, but some sticky wet muck at the bottom. Sleeping on the Gondola is mandatory at this point.

3/23 Mix conditions have us standing around awaiting sun. T2 laps were in order and the gang got right on it, banging out as many as possible. We finished the day with a dual straightline off the second molar’s spine in vertigo-esque light. Interesting…

3/22 Epic! We finally get to the Dogtooth! After a year of planning, we set out with mixed weather and hit four laps on the way to the prize. While going through, we did manage to break Leo’s pole, so he had to suffice with a tree branch. Further, we ran into a whiteout on the final ascent, but still managed to get on it, and get some turns in. One of the best days of the year for sure.

3/21 Kick Assorse! Holy pow day. Yesterday’s gondola on “slow/no other chairlift open” scenario had me anxiously awaiting today and it would not be a disappointment. I immediately hit CPR and conditions looked epic, so I figured a straightline was in order. It was so perfect I promptly hit Redemption and did the same. That was the start of a long day of skiing sick straightlines, spines, and hitting first tracks nailing 3 straightlines down T2’s main face’s chute. (photo, my tracks overlapping each other next to the slide!) Didn’t see the slide, but oiy! there’s some movement out there. T-minus three hours before the next crew arrives and the debacle begins. Here’s my straightlines (only one skiing that!) with the slide to the left on Tim’s line from last year’s flick.

3/20 Storming hard! Gondola runs at about the ¼ of the speed and we are confined to the CPR area. Good turns are had in the front side trees and there’s still untouched snow at 4:30, when I made my last run.

3/19 More warm weather, though some snow. Hard crusty conditions make up the majority of the mountain and the vis is so bad we bag any thought of hiking.

3/18 The sun will shine! The boys got it down on paper today as we make 3 laps on T2 face, followed by an epic run down the second molar, which can be seen from the resort site at: http://kickinghorseresort.com/mountain/maps/ Aerial photo 4 a quarter of the way from the right side of the photo

Here’s a photo of the guys making their way up T2’s ridge (Ryan is almost dead center in the photo). It’s much more filled in then years past so the walk is cake compared to last year’s otter slide.

3/17 Warm beer? No warm snow. The temps rise hard and another overcast day have us on Stairway’s front side of Redemption ridge. It’s been a tough start…

3/16 Overcast but fun and Tobin leads the way. We ski around the Rudi bowl area in the fog and scope the possibilities. Then it’s off to Terminator to hit some off the back. A few more CPR/Redemps and we prepare for another day.

3/13-14 Fun days blazing the measurements and getting ready for the trip.

3/12 Crust but secret zone is skiing quite well. After some crusty turns, the measurements skied quite well. Given the crusty conditions, there’s no one around… Get it!

3/11 Bring on the Sun! Paul and I take out some features we’ve been looking at and then by 12:30 it appeared the sun would stay. I have been anxious awaiting the ability to take advantage of the new time change, so I promptly went home, loaded the pack and went straight to North Canyon to take out a run I named “Cinderella Story”. It’s a mix of pillows and wide open meadow with a steep face or a cliff drop depending on the way you go. Also b/c of its location, I knocked out a complete round trip in an hour, breaking trail the whole time (even to the N Canyon, where is everyone?) This brought me to 3:30 PM so I took my time, took a bunch of photos and took out “Twocks” on the South Face (facing FB) Interesting conditions, but really fun to pick through the rocks and return easily to the bridge. The new time is fantastic as I was back on BC at 4:20. Perfect. Due to the sensitive nature of the photos, I’ve only posted this. The rest are on a certain page that if you know me, you know where it is. It has some canyon map info for Paul as well.

“Twocks” Think about the name, you’ll get it.

3/10 Wet dump in the boat! Skied good spring snow in Fun Bags, then hit rather killer conditions on main line Gbowl. The snow turned really wet so I hit up 2/3 and did some trail maintence. By then the vis went to nil, so I decided to bag it and await the 5-9” they are calling for tomorrow!

3/9 Got it done today with the Friday Afternoon Club. Leo, Ryan, and Paul took out line after line in the keyhole with Paul knocking out pretty much everything we’ve looked at for weeks. We probably generated a segment today alone, but should we fall short, have a look at these: Paul sticking a line most people wouldn’t even think exists-

Apres never looked so hot:

3/8 It is snowing again in the boat with 1 to 3 possible. And it did. We hit it up though bad vis maybe took the cheat out for a while. An awkward fall had him upside down in a well and after showering him with snow I was able to free the little fella. His knee was burning so here’s to a speedy recovery! Mike off to a bad start:

It’s dumping:

3/7 Bluebird boat! Had to get out early today, but made another run through the Hanger entrance of Clothesline which is good, but some cupcake slipped it recently. Then it was off to C to Z line, which while better then Monday, still a far cry from most years. That said, Bodybag was exceptional with perfect thicker, sloughing conditions down the mainline. The Hanger entrance:

3/6 Another set of groomers with spring like conditions. Curious about the canyon…

3/5 Couple of quick laps on C to Z. Did the straightline, but it’s far short of years past. Ended up doing Chute 1 as Bodybag seemed to high up for today.

3/4 Fun laps with Stephanie. Enjoying the bright bluebird day, we checked out the Storm Peak Lab and then hit Chute 1 and Gate D. Here’s Steph shredding the gnar on Chute 1.

3/3 After another solo straightline down Clothesline, I recruit Ryan and Leo for a lap in Fun Bags main, which for unknown reasons, was hardly touched. We promptly returned to Clothesline where I captured the action from a new entrance to Clothesline, which I’m calling “Hanger” as it’s got some pretty interesting airs and could be insane on a big day. There appears to be other lines in the area across the way, but we spend a solid 10-20 minutes helping the lost find there way back out. Remember folks, if you’re clueless, I hear Billy is skiing today.

3/2 Another 11” new! It’s like groundhog day here. Wake up at 7, heuvos, gondola line, ski to bell to bell. But today, well, what a day. Retracing some of our steps from yesterday, Ryan, Leo, and I check straight into the Crack followed by some epic turns in the keyhole and another G bowl. Then Ryan had the call of the day, Clothesline. Dropping in from the Men’s tee, I noticed that perhaps the line could be straightlined from the first turn. Turned out I was right and this allowed Ryan and Leo to hit from even higher up to just below the log. Fantastic! And the sun finally came out.

Another day on the job:

Here’s Leo having trouble with his “sunscreen”

3/1 Timmy and I get after the canyon in a big way. Hitting left G Bowl to the Crack really helped kick things off. It was super smooth conditions given the new snow abounding in the area. Next up we trudge over to Poone, where the snow is ridiculously deep. Followed that up with a Keyhole and Bird Bag for good measure. Fantastic day in the boat, but cold!

2/28 Feb going out with a bang. Another 16” new last night and the gang was back at it. With a suprise showing of Brothers Mathey, I team up with Timmy, Paul, Leo, Ryan and we promptly took out Bird Bag and the Keyhole. The snow in there is unreal right now and Paul has big plans for tomorrow, where another storm is moving in. For now here’s Paul, Tim, and Leo on Far Out Rock late in the day:

Ryan doing his best impression of a monkey:

2/27 Not much new overnight, but the canyon holds well as Zac Littlepage, Jeff Price, and I hit the Keyhole and Granola Bowl which is fantastic. Returning to the mountain later in the day, we get whiteout conditions and the snow just keeps coming!

2/26 Another 9”! A few quick laps this morning on 4 Points, Fun Bags and the GC has us enjoying yet another powder day with the snow coming down. The skiing just seems to be getting better though the avi danger is getting a bit risky. Go here before anywhere else:
http://avalanche.state.co.us/Forecasts/Steamboat/
I triggered several slough slides today running on the old surface from Friday.

2/25 The fun continues with Paul, Ryan, and David as we harvest what has to be the busiest days the canyon has ever seen. 10 people pile ups in the hike out common, but that didn’t stop us from this: (Paul Z in various states of the Whiteroom)

2/24 23” new!!! Check the photos! I think that says it all, but 4 laps in the canyon with EPIC conditions Here’s Leo and Ryan’s set from today. They take a while to load, but will optimize on Monday.

Yes, it is snowing in the boat. In fact, they had us at 13” at 5AM, 23” by 1PM. Here’s proof, Ryan Smith in the Keyhole:

Leo Lutz on his last run at 3PM in G Bowl

2/23 More fun laps with R Smith, taking out the crack and others awaiting the storm. Snow is carvy fun…

2/22 Sunny and back at it. Interesting “Spring is here” conditions force me to follow by nailing 3 in Middle Earth, before punching in 2/3rds followed by Sinalinden after passing on the crack. I would say today was my favorite in the keyhole thus far in that it was perfect carvey pow. Some complete gaper marked the way to the hole and should be shot. Immediately.

2/21 Getting it done with Leo. After a big warm up and sunny skies, I happen to run into Leo and proceed to hit the canyon. Granola is skiing extremely well after yesterdays storm, though a chance meeting with Ryan Smith revealed that other areas were skiing even better. Thus it was off to Clothesline to check the chute and take advantage of the weak snow pack’s slough situation.
And were back! 2/20 6”ish new with the sun returning after a bit of a storm, I snuck out early to grab a few early turns. Fast laps in the bags and Luke’s had me happy as a clam for the day.

Jackson proves to be worth the effort as we get some great field experience and skin up some sweet laps in the Grand Teton Park and Togwotee. Returning to hazardous conditions, but looking forward to improving ski conditions.

Check out our friend Dan at ISPO. You two look like a couple of “boobies”

In Jackson, more soon, but I’m up to a giraffe’s butt in snow crystals right now.

1/30 Solo’d around but this sums it up:

Watch the Video 1/29 Solo down the bags. Windblown, thin, and sketch. Snow. Please.
1/28 Stepping it up from yesterday, Stephanie decides it’s time to skin so we head over to the meadow for some crystal, yet again windblown turns. Decent, but not quite the reward we had hoped for.
1/27 Stephanie and I hit the gates with a mix of windblown and firm conditions. Stephanie hits D for the first ttime with only 15 days on skis!
1/25 Vegas break. Been keeping it real in LV, but I do have the first installment of footage for next year cut for Dan’s Helix ski project. Check it.

Click To Play

1/18 Buff it up! Paul, Tim and I hit up the inner buff area by the cabin and rock the remaining snow. See video.
1/17 Homo Rainbow (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Timmy and I Helix it up and do the Hollywood shots for the above vid. Firmer conditions, but the “precious” holds true…
1/16 Cold! Warming slightly, I do a solo through Fun Bags and a Chute 2. 2 is basically awful with mostly rocky conditions, but FB is hanging in there nicely!
1/14 3 laps on the Helix. I solo through Bowling Alley, Poone, and Fun Bags with great powder and sketchy exits, but none the less a good time on the new skis and cold skies.
1/13 Dan and I hit the Beav with 16” new and the new Liberty Helix! Great new skis from our friends in the South and great conditions to boot! We should have a new promo for the ski soon, check back!
1/11 The Dome-After a successful second mission on Tuesday, it was time to strike the prize, the Dome. A big peak that is in the middle of nowhere, yet seems like it’s right there when you look up from valley. I had an idea that we could access the peak from the West bank and today it was time to prove it. Tim and I cruised into the lot at 9:43, sled running and ready to roll. With only a minor wrong turn, I happened to stop almost exactly where we needed to go. The down and up strategy looked like it would work, so we unpacked the sled, rolled down the West slope and hit the climb that would take us to the Dome Proper. By 11:15 we were midway up to the prize and starting to check lines out. There’s three ridges to chose from and we naturally had to hit from the main peak, if for no other reason then to say we did. After some quick phone calls from the peak, we hit the goods running down the NW aspect of the cone shaped peak at 12:30. Grabbed some footage and then it was off to break trail back up the way we came in. I had suspected that we could knock out the skin up the West side in a hour, but 1:20 was the best we could do as we were a bit beat from a day of breaking trail. Ripped back down on the sled and another adventure comes to a close. This picture shows the line on the far lookers right, Timmy checking it out:

More photos are located on the Photos page.
This vid clip is from the summit:
1/10 Solo on the mtn-Went and checked and out what’s been happening since I left. Pretty thin to say the least, Gate C remains closed due to lack of snow. Canyon is OK but getting out is, well interesting…
1/9 On the sled-Shakleton and I dig out the bile, and hit Buff in search of the secret zone. After a quick lap on “in the buff”, we headed East and an hour later we found out we were still a long way from the prize. However, we are more energized then ever, so keep checking back.
1/8 Back in the boat-After traveling back from MT, we sneak in a lap through Birds Beak to find good pow, but still thin conditions, especially on the way out! Careful is key.
1/6 Big Sky, A fine Boyne Product-A little piece of Michigan in Montana
The wind hit 60 some today and everything was closed down, I skied the trees, sort of:

1/5 Bridger Number 2 with 5 new. Hook up with local rippers and by pass the crusty old tele-rs! Nailed the line I wanted to (picture, center line), which was banner in that I got to complete the best lines of all three areas inside the week. That’s probably the smoothest trip I’ve done yet! Interesting side effect of Montana is their over the top requirements for inbounds terrain. Each person has to have a Beacon, Shovel, and a Partner! The first two I can see, the partner put me at odds with the resort as being solo, you stand around like an idiot until someone lets you tag along. I got sick of waiting and poached a group, who thankfully turned out to be sympathetic, but warned that Patrol would hunt me down if they thought I was solo! They led me to the goods and I was feeling lucky, so I went for round two. This time, the old crusty crew said “I’ll pass” to my request to tag along. Thankfully I ran into some younger, hipper BBowl locals who were keen to show me the goods as we ducked the rope and ran for face shots off the ridge to the North of the Photo. 30 minute hike was worth the 10+” we had to ourselves. Thanks again to those guys (names withheld for obvious reasons).

1/4 Check out Stephanie ripping up the Big Sky Tram:

1/3 Early Bday present on Moonight (2). After checking out this line on Monday, I decided it had to be done. On the Headwaters ridge of Moonlight, there are some fun, steep chutes which require some extra effort to get to. I skied the inner lines earlier in the day and decided the prize had to be done before I left. Soloing around 2pm, I traversed the shale shoulder over to the chute. The run looked stable, but you never know, and I sure do love shale traverses. Once on the line, it was not a gimmie, as the bottom of the chute didn’t go due to coverage issues, thus a traverse, dog leg over another exposure was required. Thankfully the chute was in excellent shape and I found some really fun turns out of the dog leg. The first photo is the line (lookers right) from the chair.

This photo is on the hike, through the shale.

This photo shows the line with route depecited by arrows

Great times, glad to have another big line done!
1/2 Bridger Bowl-Checking out Scot Schmidts old stomping grounds, Stephanie and I hit the Bowl. The terrain is pretty intense for a little area, though the best turns appear to be out the exit gates to the North and South. They are planning on expanding in both directions, but for now, I’m sure this is a local’s paradise.

1/1 Happy New Year! Bright blue skies greet us at Moonlight Basin for some zoomer groomers with Stephanie and Alex. The photos are from late in the day, with Moonlight reflecting the name.

12/31 BS Day 2 Something about the 30/31! Ever since 00/01, they seem to be some of the best of the year, as if the year must go out with a bang. This year was no exception as I lucked out and was escorted into Big Sky’s Big Couloir by the lead Avalanche Patroler for BS, Tom Thorn. With great chalky conditions, we cruised the 1600ft long “coolie” in style. The first photo is me in the chute and Tom below (lookers right) awaiting me on the shelf where we sneaked over to the little couloir’s exit to grab some more fresh turns. As with all chutes, the entrance is worst part and this one is particularly interesting as you down climb from the tram on shale rocks. I ate it about 3/4 of the way down, but managed to hang onto the gear. The chute itself reminds me of Husume in Whistler if it had a dog leg. Always good to get the first big line out the way!

12/30 Big Sky Montana Day 1-After some negotations and payoffs, we bypass Denver and get to Bozeman, minus some gear. I get out today and make my intial tracks on Lone Peak. It’s an amazing area and there’s plenty to keep you charging around. The condtions are mixed with shark finned rocks in the congested areas, but good snow can be found if you look. In the first photo, you can see the peak with tram slightly in view. The Big Couloir is lookers right dog legging down the face. I skied the left face, where wide, Jeff Murray style turns can be had. Some cupcake ate it in the Big couloir today shutting the run down for most of the day. Ripped around the rest of the mountain, as tram laps are lengthy. We’re set up to ski the Big tomorrow, barring cupcakes and conditions. More then!

12/27 Mentone Alabamba-Stephanie gets first tracks on the steep slopes of Cloudmont. Check out the photo of this young, budding ski star.

12/20 Dumping in the boat-Tim and I score major pow on 3rd pitch and I kick off a slide (see picture). We then proceed to hit Bird Bag in the canyon which is just epic and the walk out still bites. The snow just keeps coming (today’s pic) and tomorrow looks like it’ll be an early Christmas present!

12/19- I cruise solo on some interesting terrain on 3rd pitch. Here’s the line of the day:

http://michaelmartinproductions.com/assets/2006/12/21/slide1220.jpg