Southwest Couloir on Moran done!!!!

After my attempt about a week ago, I was ready to go back and ski the Southwest Couloir. I was hoping the snow would be a little more settled and this time I knew exactly where I was going. This time I was joined by three different guys Don, Patrick and Ben. These guys are some of my favorite ski buddies so I was stoked, they also are strong which is great for putting in boot packs. (ha ha.) We left the string lake parking lot around 4 am and started skinning toward the mountain. We were a little nervous about crossing Leigh lake, but we knew it would be faster and day was supposed to warm so we needed to get going. The lake seemed pretty frozen but the top layer was definitely weakening. We cruised across the lake with no major problems and jumped onto shore. We were hoping that the lake crossing was the crux of our trip. We started to skin up the canyon following Moran around. We passed quite a few bar tracks, a couple of them definitely belonging to a grizzly, this made me nervous. I really did not want to come face to face with a grizzly.
As we wove out of the trees and started to gain elevation the alpenglow on the mountains was so beautiful, there was no one in sight and the only tracks, besides the bears that we saw were the tracks from us the week before. We skinned as high as we could which was put us at 9500 feet only 3000 more to go! The snow was pretty frozen so we put on our crampons and started our boot pack up the gully that we had missed a week ago. We were able to move pretty quickly with the hard snow and continued switching off. We made it to the base of the couloir in about an hour and a half from when we had started boot packing, the base of couloir was at about 11,000 ft. We took a quick break and then started our ascent up the beautiful couloir with huge walls on either side and a mix of different types of rock. The snow was a little deeper in the couloir, which made for better skiing, but tough boot packing. The elevation also was starting to slow our pace we reached the top of the couloir at around 11 am and still had not seen any sun, but we knew as soon as we skied out of the couloir it would be really warm. We topped out at about 12,300 just about 300 feet from the summit, scrambling over rock and snow in an exposed area looked a little challenging so we opted out of trying to get to the summit. We clicked in and one at a time skied the long steep couloir. (about an average of 45 degrees entire way.) The snow was variable, but it was definitely high on my coolest couloir list. We skied out of the couloir and into the sun. The mountains around were starting to come alive with wet slides, so we boogied down the gully and out to a safe zone for a break. This time we had to go around the lake and do some bushwhacking, definitely took longer, but we were all glad that we had nothing to do with the lake. We made it back to the car right around 4 pm, made for a long day, but we were all psyched to have skied an aesthetic couloir on Moran!

Attempt of Southwest Couloir on Moran!

It had snowed about three feet in the last week, which was making for some winter conditions. A group of four of us decided to go and checkout and hopefully ski the Southwest Couloir on Mt Moran. I was not feeling totally optimistic, because of all the snow that we had received in the past week, but I was really excited to go and check out a new area. We left the String Lake parking lot at 5 am, the skies were clear and it was below freezing. We skinned across Leigh lake, which was still very frozen. The sun rose up over the lake and made fore a gorgeous sunrise. We stopped for water and food at the mouth of Leigh canyon on the far side of the lake. We then started to ascend up the canyon, the skinning was pretty tough with all the new snow we were trudging in snow up to our knees. I was glad that we had four of us to break trail, because we continually switched off as we climbed about 3800 vertical feet. Somehow we missed our turn and ended up at the bottom of Hidden Couloir on Thor Peak. Dan and Mark were sure we were going the right way and Brian and I were not totally convince, we somehow had veered away from Moran. We decided since we had already come this far that we would just start making our way up Hidden Couloir and get some good turns. We were skinning up the bottom when a small slide came barreling down above us, which seemed to be in slow motion. We were all able to get out of the way, but that was enough excitement to turn us around. We skied back down the skin track and decided to at least see if we could see the Southwest Couloir. We boot packed up a protected saddle and there right in front of us was the couloir, it looked pretty awesome. We knew with the conditions and time of day that we were not going to attempt to ski it. We skied over the saddled and decided to ski down the gully that we were supposed to ascend up. The skiing was really good, with just a few sharks here and there. Since we had not come up this way we were not sure if we could ski the entire way down. The gully narrowed more as the four of us descended in elevation and we all skied to the side in a safer zone and Brian skied down to see if the we could ski through. He said it was a no go, we then strapped on our crampons and got out our ice axes and decided to try and down climb the small ice section. Mark descended first and was having some difficulties so we started to look for another route. We climbed up and to the right and were relieved to find a way out. We skied out and to the lake and were psyched to have made it safely down. After seeing the couloir I can not wait to get back up there to hopefully ski have another chance to ski the Southwest Couloir!!!

Static Peak

My two good girlfriends and I decided to go and check out the conditions in Grand Teton National Park. We decided to ski Static Peak, which stands at 11,303 feet. It was a good start to the spring skiing in the Tetons. We started skinning around 730 am and reached the summit around 11 am. It was more of a trek than I had thought. I had been up there in the summer, but the winter approach is different. It was still pretty frozen at the top, which made for tough skiinning. The summit of Static is actually one of my favorite views in the park. You have a great view of Buck mountain and the Grand. It also drops off about 500 feet off the backside. it was still pretty cold when we reached the summit at 1120 am. We decided to just ski the main bowl back down to Stewarts draw. It was pretty nice corn and it was fun to rip big G.S. style turns the entire way down. I was pretty excited about skiing static it was a lot longer and steeper than I had thought. Now I think I am ready for something bigger!!!

The Desert Climbing and Biking

This past week I put my skis away just for a little and went down to the desert to enjoy some warm weather and some climbing and mountain biking. We started out our trip in St George, Ut in Snow Canyon, which actually has some great climbing and biking. I have not done a lot of climbing on sandstone, but the stuff I have done I absolutely love. It is very grippy and I can use my feet and feel more confident. There was also some great technical biking that I was not expecting over sandstone through slots in the rocks. Really fun and a great way to start out biking again! We climbed and biked everyday which was really fun! We then headed down to Red Rocks, Las Vegas. Red rocks is a a beautiful area with canyons and amazing climbing just out of Vegas. When you are climbing you can see the strip. It is pretty crazy because the differences between the two are like night and day. We climbed the entire time in Black Velvet Canyon which is a beautiful canyon with water running through and huge walls for climbing. The first day we climbed a classic called Frogland, which was six pitches of about 5.8. The next day we climbed Yellow Brick road, which is on Black Velvet wall. This climb was 5.10a and 5.10b which was a lot more challenging for me. Very steep and exposed, but it was one of my favorite climbs I have ever done. It was 4 pitches and pretty sustained the entire way. I am beginning to become more confident with climbing and I hope to eventually be comfortable leading trad. We had great weather the entire time and it was hard to leave, it was a great break from skiing after a long and crazy winter. I am excited to still do some skiing in the Tetons.

Podium and No crashing!!!!! Finally!!!!

Last weekend I competed in the Freeskiing World Tour Championships in Snowbird, Ut. I have been having a really rough and disappointing season so I really wanted to the end the season off on a positive note. I was really bummed about not qualifying for Verbier or even being able to have a judged run on the Freeride World Tour. I was excited to compete in Snowbird though, because it was the comp that I had won last year. I had hurt my knee in Kirkwood, so I was not sure how it would feel competing on hard pack in Snowbird. I wore a brace and my knee felt pretty good, I picked out a pretty mellow line on the day one venue but just really wanted to stay on my feet so I could ski my fun line on the finals venue. I did not score as well as I would have thought, but was only about 4 points out of first and 2 points out of the podium. I was in 8th place. Going into the finals I was so excited to ski my line on North Baldy, but my mindset was little different this year. I just wanted my confidence back and after my first run I had gotten it back. I moved from 8th to 2nd and was so excited for the superfinals to ski my line with more confidence and really charge. I won the superfinals run by 21/2 points, but it was not enough to move into first. I was just psyched because I skied like myself and ended my season with a solid second place finish!!!

if you want to see the top three runs go to http://www.freeskiingworldtour.com/video.html

Snowbird!!! Freeskiing World Tour Championships!!!

This year has been a very different year for me as far as competing goes. I have been participating on two different tours which has made it difficult for me to competitive on either tour for the overall. I have also had some tough luck with crashing, which has been tough on my confidence and my body. I crashed very hard in Kirkwood and have been rehabing my knee since, today was my third day skiing since the crash and I am feeling almost 100%. Last year I placed first here in Snowbird and won my first Freesking World Tour event by ten points. I am not sitting anywhere in the overall standings so I do not have the pressure. I just want to come out and finish my season strong and confidently. I have very similar lines picked out as last year, which I am excited about. I just want to make sure that I make it past tomorrow, so I can ski my fun line on Baldy that won me the competition last year. Tomorrow we compete on Silverfox, the conditions are definitely a little chalky and challenging. I just need to be aware of the landings and that I will accelerate after taking any type of air. I am ready and am feeling confident about my skiing! The event will be live at freeskiingworldtour.com
(the picture on the top is Silverfox and the one on bottom is Baldy.)

Kirkwood California Freeskiing World Tour Stop # 4

After Squaw I was pretty sore from crashing and had to take a few days off. I wanted to be ready for Kirkwood and be confident with my skiing. This has been a really tough year on me mentally and it has started to downward spiral my confidence. When you start to crash a lot it makes it hard to think about anything in the gate except crashing. Squaw was my 5th pretty large crash in a row. I arrived at Kirkwood feeling pretty confident but mentally a little off. I placed second there last year and wanted to just have a strong finish to make me feel confident about my skiing. The first day I I picked a pretty mellow line to just gain back confidence that I can ski and not crash. I did just that but did not feel that great about my run. I was sitting in 6th place going into the finals. Looking at the next days venue I picked out a little more rowdy of a line that I was really passionate about. The next morning I changed my mind and mellowed out my line again. My good friend Janina skied the line that I wanted to ski, I was so stoked for her, but it made me want to ski it on my superfinals run. I was sitting in 5th going into the superfinals so I figured I had nothing to lose. I went for the line, but as I was skiing into the chute I had a bad feeling. I needed more speed for where I wanted to ski and next thing I knew I was coming up short on the air and landing on some rocks and cartwheeling down the venue. I felt no pain at the moment, but as I started to hike up to get my ski I knew I had tweaked my knees pretty good. ( I think I have a slight tear in my MCL.) I ended up 5th, my friend Janina won and also won the coveted sickbird with the line I was so passionate about, I am so stoked for her, but wish my confidence would have been better to ski the line. The good news is I still ended up 5th out of 30 girls. I think I just need a little break from competing for a little while, I know I can ski but have had a tough year. I hope my knee will heal, so I can try to go defend my title in Snowbird next weekend.