Skate. Snow. Surf. Riders Union.

Conditions in the Northwest Cascades remain locked in an El Niño pattern, bringing warmer and drier weather than we’re accustomed to. Since Alpental, Mt. Baker and Crystal Mountain haven’t been receiving their usual obscene snowfall totals, I decided to seek out the powder. After spending most of Tuesday scoping the weather forecasts and jet stream patterns, Utah got the call. Wednesday morning found me on the tram at Snowbird by 10:30 a.m.

Snowbird

After a quick warmup run down Upper Cirque and the tram line, Peruvian Gulch–a short traverse and hike from the top of Hidden Peak and the tram dock–gave me my first taste of Utah powder. The Gnu’s Banana Traction floated nicely through the snow as I found pockets of untouched pow in the sparse trees and rock outcroppings of the Gulch. A couple of runs more through the Gulch and I was really starting to feel it so I began to explore other zones.

Snowbird has excellent terrain and plenty of it. Mineral Basin, Lower Cirque, Dalton’s and several other inbounds areas still held good snow even though it had been three days since the last storm. I could have spent several more hours or even days checking out all the possibilities the mountain had to offer, but I had an itinerary to uphold and it was centered around two of Utah’s best kept secrets: Solitude Mountain Resort and Neiva Snowboards.

Solitude

Situated in Big Cottonwood Canyon just a mile or so west of Brighton, Solitude is a powder rider’s paradise. Much of the best big mountain terrain in the canyon falls within Solitude’s permit area or within easy hiking access through the many backcountry gates. Terrain is only part of Solitude’s dirty little secret though. As the name would imply, Solitude is quiet. By quiet I mean uncrowded, even on weekends. The local pros who provided me with unabated hospitality asked that I help them maintain the anonimity though, so don’t expect me to map out your next super-sick powder adventure. Let’s just say they took me to the promised land.

Neiva Snowboards

Neiva is another of Utah’s best kept secrets, except unlike the hidden powder stashes of Solitude, I promised to help spread the word and let this one out of the bag. Cody Dabb and the crew at Neiva Snowboards are doing things the right way, albeit on a modest scale. Their boards are handmade in Utah from the highest quality materials. Full wrap Rockwell steel edges, sintered 4000 bases, sintered UMHW sidewalls, triax-4 fiberglass, carbon v-straps and vertically laminated cores are all part of the Neiva program, along with the great care that goes into every board made.

Cody set me up with their flagship model–an Escape 163–to demo for the first day of riding at Solitude. I warned him that I was notorious for sending boards home in pieces, but he assured me of the durability of the product, so I reluctantly set it up with a slightly set back stance and set out to follow Cody and Neiva’s big mountain pro, Dane Harlamert as they shared their knowledge of Solitude’s steep and deep.

We warmed up with a couple of mellow groomers and I got a feel for the board. Camber and its positive edge contact was like an old friend as I felt the board’s flex pattern and sidecut react to the pressure beneath my feet. Each turn on the board made me more of a believer. It wasn’t long before it was time to take the board off the groomed runs and give it a run through Utah’s famous powder.

Solitude Redux

Honeycomb Canyon is the name given to Solitude’s back bowls. This mostly double black diamond area is a virtual terrain park for big mountain riders. Since the Neiva boys didn’t know me well, they put me to the test on a series of powder chutes and drops followed by a massive frontside hip wall with a seven foot fir tree at the apex. We dropped into the foot or so of soft fluff, banged out tree lines littered with drops and hits, then stopped to set up for the wall hit, dubbed The Wave. Dane and I traded bangers but I must say he got the better of it, pushing a nice crail grab over the tree, giving it a light tap with the tail and stomping the landing with authority.

I could go on and on about the many chutes, cliffs and cornices but instead I’ll just say that the three days I had to explore Solitude was not enough. I feel fortunate to have had the chance not only to ride with the crew from Neiva, but to be welcomed into the Neiva Snowboards family with open arms. It wasn’t without a bit of effort though as Dane tried his best to test the limits of my big mountain riding skills and I did my best to oblige, following him through double- and triple-sets often with reckless abandon but always with confidence thanks to his knowledge of the terrain and its many features.

Three days of Solitude. A brand new Escape 163 under my feet. Great new friendships forged through the common bond of snowboarding. Hiking ridgelines and dropping tree lines. Chutes, cliffs, cornices. I’ll be back to Utah, my new friends and my new favorite powder spots as soon as I can get the chips to fall. Count on it.

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Conditions have finally improved in the Washington Cascades. Sunday night we received a foot of new snow, followed by a couple additional inches on Monday. Crystal Mountain got hit the hardest due to the southerly aspect of the storm. I managed to plan for two days on the snow this week, taking advantage of my last idle week before I start a new project on Monday.

Alpental Super Tuesday

Alpental Super Tuesday was as good as it has been all year. For those who don’t follow, Alpental is traditionally closed on Monday so any time there is a big dump early in the week, Tuesday is the big day for Alpy locals. I rounded up Aaron and Larry and we met on site for the festivities. Aaron and I warmed up with a quick groomer on Armstrong while we waited for Chair 1 to open. Once it did, we headed straight for Snakedance and the fluffy goods from Sunday night’s storm.

Snakedance is a short traverse into the trees, opening into an area of gladed tree lines dotted with small to medium drops and littered with natural booters. When conditions are good–and if you get to it early enough–’Dance can be one of the most fun runs at Alpy, mostly because of the sheer number of hits with good landings. I had a blast but somehow I lost Aaron in the glades so I headed to the bottom to meet Larry.

We arrived at the summit just as Ski Patrol pulled the gates open, so with Alpental’s backcountry looking good for the first time in weeks, the only thing to do was drop into the Elevator Shaft gate. L-Mohler took to Elevator proper while I followed my instinct down through the trees closer to ropeline, eventually ending up atop Rock Face. Both of us got first tracks down our respective lines and at the chairlift we both had huge smiles on our faces. As one would expect after riding significant powder for the first time in weeks.

Several more backcountry runs were in order, including Knoll Zero and more Elevator Shaft and Rock Face runs. We took a short lunch break after about five top-to-bottom runs and from the parking lot we scoped our lines and planned our after-lunch excursions. Belly full of sandwiches and chips, we headed back up for more. From Chair 1 we scoped the Cable Line chute, which had been untouched and had only a bit of avalanche debris littering one exposed section. We decided it would be a worthy finisher, so we hit one more backcountry run top to bottom and returned to close it out with a Cable Line run.

Larry dropped in first through the trees above the Cable Line. The view of Cable Line from the lift is much different from the view dropping in. From the top, it is impossible to see the cable and the cliffs until you’re totally committed. As L-Dawg swept down the chute close to the tree line, I followed closer to the cable and the cliffs, making two huge turns followed by a massive bottom-turn on the runout, both runs earning cheers from the onlookers on the lift. Probably our only glory runs of the day considering we opted to pass on the signature cliff drops under the chairline.

We finished out with a tree line between Shot Six and Breakover followed by a dip under the Armstrong ropeline and a quick drop sequence off the small knolls under the quad. Actually the small knolls turned out to be about twenty footers considering how little snowpack we have this season. So I suppose that counts as a glory line too.

Crystal Mountain Southback

When I arrived at Crystal early Wednesday morning, I had already received the previous day’s report from my crew of locals. Mostly skiers, I knew they would have virtually destroyed the inbounds terrain and the most easily accessible backcountry, so I packed my DaKine Poacher with everything I’d need for a full day of deep backcountry travel. Food, water, blankets, shovel, probe, snowshoes and trekking poles filled the Poacher to capacity. I hadn’t been equipped like this in quite some time, but I wanted to be prepared because my crew will sometimes decide to do a run into the National Park or down to Highway 410 on a moment’s notice.

The grooming was looking epic, so I ditched the pack at the bottom of Rainier Express and proceeded to take two monstrous leg-burners down Lucky Shot to check out the work of Kyle and the Crystal Mountain’s cat crew. Groomed runs were fun for a warmup, but I came for the off-piste terrain, so for the third run I headed into Bear Pits to check out the conditions, where I found a mix of skied-out hardpack and soft, deep snow in the trees. Shaded exposures (north-facing slopes) held the best snow, so I immediately decided to grab the backpack and head out to hike the 7012 foot Silver King.

After the calf-burning traverse to the base of the ridge leading to the top of The Throne, I hooked up the MSR snowshoes–a five-minute ordeal–grabbed the trekking poles and began the slog out to the top of Silver King. Hiking around the back side of The Throne was made much easier with the snowshoes as the sidehilling aspects of the traverse became insignificant thanks to the MSR’s built-in crampons. Can’t believe I have been sidehilling that traverse in snowboard boots for years while leaving the snowshoes in the car.

Earlier I had planned to hike out past Three Way Peak, where I knew I could find untracked lines, but for the first run I chose to hike to the top of Silver King. Upon arrival I found that Brain Damage–one of the heaviest lines into Avalanche Basin–only had a couple sets of tracks, so I opted to work the north facing exposures of A-Basin. It proved to be a good choice as conditions were quite soft and the chute had only a bit of rock exposed.

I quickly descended the col and into the open bowl below. A-Basin is usually littered with avy debris and one must be careful–especially at high speed–to negotiate the slide paths accordingly. There was plenty of soft snow in between and I rode out the bowl at high speed in super-soft conditions. With conditions that good, I could only head back to the King for more.

By the third run into Southback, I decided to try a sunny exposure. Finding a nice open and untracked chute on the backside of The Throne, I scoped a cornice and two or three mellow drops, lined them up and proceeded to log three solid bangers. With no witnesses out in A-Basin to affirm, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

After meeting with my crew at Campbell Basin lodge, we regrouped for another hike into South. Since the crew is on skis and can access the backcountry much more quickly due to the easier sliding around The Throne, I let them go on ahead and I was again on my own. No worries, I just hiked The King solo and logged another run down Brain Damage to finish out an epic backcountry day.

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Warm air troughs have been bringing repeated waves of rain to the Washington Cascades for the past week, with occasional dips in the freezing level which resulted (mostly) in freezing rain in or near the passes. The cold air sitting over British Columbia finally began to push southward late Thursday, resulting in heavy snow in the Mt. Baker area and as far south as Stevens Pass.

According to the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center (NWAC), the avalanche danger is rated as High above 5000 feet, moderate at lower elevations. The snowpack will likely stabilize somewhat over the weekend due to an increase in high pressure and decreasing orographic shower activity. Combine this with the encroachment of Joe Public into the alpine regions (at least into the inbounds and sidecountry regions) and we should see the danger decrease by Monday.

High winds scuttled the upper mountain areas of Crystal Mountain today, forcing the closure of High Campbell and Northway, along with wind-hold status for Rex and Green Valley. Further north at Stevens Pass and Mt. Baker, my onsite crew reported steady rain below 4000 feet and sloppy, Cascade concrete conditions above the snowline.

It seems the NWAC is reluctant to make a definitive prediction for the period from Sunday through Tuesday but the current indications call for increasing westerly flow to bring cooler air, along with showery conditions in the passes. Snow levels should be low enough to produce snow in most alpine elevations. More to come as the weekend progresses.

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Back in 1987, snowboard companies couldn’t distance themselves from rocker–a concave base design also known as reverse camber–fast enough. Soon after board manufacturers realized the effectiveness of camber, along with other ski-manufacturing-related innovations such as sidewall construction, rocker boards quickly became the industry’s dinosaurs. Strange for an industry that at the time was only in the first stages of maturity.

Nowadays, camber is the industry’s dinosaur. Manufacturers are racing to bring more rocker or reverse-camber designs to market. Rocker designs are reaching into more niche applications such as park and jibbing. When manufacturers–including industry innovators Gnu and K2, the companies that led the camber revolution–began reintroducing rocker boards just a couple short years ago, the boards were targeted towards powder riding. Now with the combination of Gnu’s Banana rocker along with their Magne-traction serrated edge design, boards have become much more versatile.

Today I had the opportunity to evaluate the Gnu Carbon Credit BTX 165 Wide at Summit Central. Conditions could best be described as Spring in January. Overcast, hovering just under 40 degrees with occasional showers, I figured the it was the ideal day to take the Gnu for a test session in the terrain park. But first I decided to put the BTX through its paces on the steepest groomed run available, Alpine.

I took the board through some nice big arcing carves to get started, then dropped down to the steep face and let it run wide open. The Magne-traction held nicely at speed, responding immediately when the edge was initiated. Digging the edge into the granular snow was not a problem, and the board let me push it through some hard carves at speed with no washouts. The Banana rocker effect seemed to result in a slightly leaned-back butt position, the only aspect that reminded me of riding rocker boards back in the late eighties.

After straight-lining Alpine about four times to check for speed wobbles (there were none), I changed focus and headed over to Golden Nugget to get a feel for the board’s heelside edge. Nugget makes a slight arc to the rider’s right then swoops back to the rider’s left to return to the bottom of Central Express, the perfect run for a regular-footer to open it up and dig a hard heelside edge. I took about five runs on Nugget before boredom set in and I decided to take the board through the park.

Maybe it was just the fact that it was a new board, or maybe the Gnu has a ton of pop. Either way, I found that the board was able to launch smoothly off either edge and landings were stable at speed, even when off balance or when a spin went a bit off-axis. My switch frontside threes felt as smooth as ever and the board ollied effortlessly off even the smallest feature. After a couple quick cruises through the smaller line, I styled out a few airs then took it over to the triple set to get some real air.

Again I found the board to have ample pop, but with enough torsional softness and flex to make it forgiving enough to spin off the heel edge for example. Landings felt stable and solid, again due to the forgiving torsional flex. Needless to say I enjoyed the board in every situation I put it through today and can’t wait to try it out on a powder day!

This board is not as stiff laterally or torsionally as its big brother the Riders Choice BTX or its cousin the Lib Tech Skunk Ape, but it holds an edge as well as either of those boards and has the right amount of versatility to make it a great board for any level of rider. Especially the budget-conscious rider who is looking for a board they can slay powder on in the morning and take into the park in the afternoon (like me)!

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New snow has finally returned to the Washington Cascades just in time for New Year. Four inches overnight wasn’t much more than dust on crust but the snow was still falling as I arrived in the upper lot at Alpental just after 9:30 a.m. yesterday. I quickly threw on my gear and hit the Armstrong Express (aka Debbie’s Chair) for a warmup run. No lift lines and I quickly racked up three runs by 10:00 a.m. when Schatzy and L-Moller arrived in the upper lot.

We were celebrating Larry’s 40th birthday by shredding everything we could, and by Alpental standards there wasn’t much. The hardpack layer was scoured smooth on Upper Nash, so the drop-in was fairly brutal. Regardless, we found the best snow on Snakedance and kept to that section for the most part all day. We made top-to-bottom laps until noon then took a short break for water, after which we headed straight back to the top for more.

By the end of the day, there were a couple inches of new on my car, with more in the forecast for tonight. A short warmup tomorrow should help the new snow to bond with the icy layer, especially with the coming weekend, which will ensure that the crowds help the snowpack to settle and stabilize. Backcountry has remained closed due to low snow conditions, so it is hopeful that the storms coming the next few days will help to fill things in.

Looking ahead, I’ve now broken the last of my old boards, and I’ll be picking up a used Temple Cummins from L-Moller to use until the Nitros come in. Speaking of which, that reminds me of some upcoming topics. I’ll be dropping by the Seattle offices of Nitro this week to pick up the goods and also to preview the 2010/2011 proddy. As soon as I get my hands on it, I’ll be sharing the details here.

Also ahead for 2010, I’ll be covering several events from the grassroots to the mainstream. Mount Baker’s Legendary Banked Slalom is as grassroots as it gets, and has as much or more history than any event this side of the US Open. We’ll be there to bring you the debauchery and devastation that inevitably transpires. Later in the year, we’ll be making a pilgrimage to Donner Summit for another grassroots event, the Donner Classic, organized by Cali boys Mike Chantry and Don Bostick and literally overflowing with old-schoolers like myself sporting their antique steez.

On the other end of the spectrum, the 2010 Winter Olympics are just around the corner, both literally and figuratively since I’m here in Seattle. I spoke recently with Roger Kornmaier of Nussli, the company responsible for the infrastructure that supports many of the massive outdoor huckfests such as the Dew Tour and the Air+Style. Nussli has been tapped to provide support for the Olympics in Whistler and Vancouver, and Roger has kindly agreed to provide us with access to a project manager so we can get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to put together one of these mega-events.

Now that I have some topics planned, stay tuned for the goods. I’ll keep it coming throughout the winter and I’ll have some surprises in store too. Let’s just say I met the man who really invented the snowboard, and he agreed to give an interview. If you’re interested–as I am–in the true history of snowboarding, I’ll try to give the man a forum to tell the story.

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As I sit here in the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport awaiting my flight to Seattle via Salt Lake City, I’m annoyed with the weather reports. A massive winter storm blew through the west and southwest last night and continues today, with another potential blizzard forecast for tonight.

While our cabin near Flagstaff gets snowed in and my brother works on his snowmobile in anticipation of rooping in the deep pow, I’ve been getting calls from the crew back home letting me know that once again, the Washington Cascades have been left high and dry. Or maybe I should say it is low and dry, considering the sub-freezing temperatures with not a drop of precipitation in sight.

If the world were a perfect place, I’d be making SLC my final destination, or more specifically, Park City to check out the Coghlan brothers’ new program at the PC Snowboard Academy. I’d even settle for a day of hiking or skinning up at Arizona Snowbowl (which plans to open later this week by the way), followed by a run out to Taos to follow the easterly flow of the storm.

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Summit at Snoqualmie has announced a real Black Friday special for the rest of us. Alpental will host Seattle’s shred heads for the 2009/2010 opener tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. No need to jump out of bed at 4:00 a.m. for this door-buster (unless you live three hours away).

For those interested in the weather, snow levels jumped up to above 7000 feet on Tuesday and turned the leftovers from Sunday and Monday’s massive powder dumps to mashed potatoes. Fortunately, the rain tapered off and the sun made a brief appearance so those of us that had not already packed up the gear and hit the road were treated to spring-like conditions.

So for those considering a Black Friday run to Alpental, unless the snow level drops significantly you can expect some wet, heavy glop. The current Alpental weather telemetry from the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center (NWAC) indicates significant rain has fallen since early this morning and the current front of warm air should push gradually southward. This will result in gradually cooling temperatures, with freezing levels lowering to between 2000-4000 feet by Friday morning. Maybe just a bit too late to guarantee fresh pow for the Alpy riders on Friday.

The NWAC mountain weather forecast indicates cold front should continue through the weekend with snow turning to showers on Saturday. Reports indicate that we could see snow showers decreasing by Monday, followed by a ridge of high pressure building on Tuesday and Wednesday. Just in time for me and the wife to fly to Phoenix for a few days of warm weather beginning Thursday morning. I’m glad the forecast isn’t calling for a huge winter storm to set in the day we fly out.

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After experiencing something on Saturday that I never thought possible–powder leg at Summit West–I decided to kick the early-season legs into gear and get up to Crystal Mountain for some midweek powder lines. I met up with a crew of four dudes at the VIP parking lot, where we exchanged greetings, stuffed our feet into boots and headed to the lift. Nate “Young Buck” Marquardt and his brother Joel, Steve-O Fratella and Matt Small would round out the crew, with cameo appearances by the occasional local (Wayne Grevey et al.).

Steve and I started off with two spectacular runs down the frontside near Iceberg Gulch. Since the ski patrol had not removed the ropeline protecting Sunnyside and Memorial, we started off by dropping down Iceberg Ridge to Rightberg where we worked an untracked run through the tree-lined gullies. Colder-than-usual snow conditions allows us ample overhead shots on each heelside turn in spite of the run being in full sun. A second run, this time closer to Pope’s Gulch, confirmed the epicness of the morning as we were rewarded with more overhead shots, a few cat-track hits into untracked landings, and high-speed turns from top to bottom of Rainier Express.

As ski patrol pulled more ropes and opened more gates, it became apparent that finding the best snow was going to be a matter of timing. We headed into Green Valley to contemplate the situation and get a new perspective by riding Grubstake. Fortunately we found excellent conditions on the sunny face with a consistent coverage of up to 20 inches of fluff. Steve and I made high-speed turns into the tree-protected chute to the rider’s left of the chair, where I found a 10 foot knob of rock to drop off into the untracked field below. We cleaned up and headed to Chair 6.

High Campbell was experiencing high winds and the lift ride was an excruciating 15 minutes in a brutal side wind. At the top, we made the call to hit Double Ought (00) Chutes, which was excellent due to the excessive loading from the Southerly wind. At the bottom of Chair 9, we were told that Chair 6 was closing, so it was decided to hit the VIP lot for some lunch.

After the meal, we scuttled most of the shaded exposures on Chair 3 (Green Valley) including Rinky Dink, Snorting Elk and more. Come to think of it, we scuttled everything in the sun and in the shade. From there I headed solo back to the frontside for a Door 1, followed by a trip back to Grubstake for a tree run just this side of Stockholders. I met up with Young Buck and his bro, who finished out the day with me by tackling the first Upper E/Lower Bull of the year, followed by a couple of Doors and an Upper Lower Exterminator to close out an epic day.

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