The Snow Troopers » Karter

Mt Baker, WA – Deep Pow March/April

Karter — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:23:40 +0000

Rob Larson and I put together this edit with a bunch of footage from late March/early April. Basically it is mostly Cole and I hittin it deep up at baker, with some other Stevens shots in there for good measure. Couple clips of John Shaw, and a couple shots of Cole’s brother, Zach, who rips it hard on the daily up at Baker as a Pro Patrol. I was horribly sick during this whole time, but couldn’t seem to stop skiing, I’ve toned the HC audio down so its not just me coughing the whole time! This storm cycle was the start of the season’s late comeback, which lasted deep into April. Cole’s RMK actually ended up seizing up near grouse ridge this week and we had to pull it out, much of which by hand and with ropes, what a pain in the ass….. Time for a new sled! Anyway, enjoy the vid!

Silver Peak, WA – Last Chance for Freshies? – May 23, 2010

Karter — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:35:24 +0000

We had a blast yesterday on another mission up to the local hot spot, Silver Peak. Cole, Andy Devore, and myself left late but met up with Tim and some friends around noon for some soft serve action. Heidi, Matt, Catherine Crim and Travis toured up with Tim much earlier and were waiting at the top when I got there after leaving Cole and Andy to hike the ridge further down. They had to get a small cliff band that looked too good to pass up. While I went to watch them drop in Tim and the gang did a lap on Miller Time and started the tour back up for a final lap. However, Tim, being a monster on the skins, decided to stick around with us for the rest of the day. We sessioned the typical zone for hours and found a couple nice drops and a great cornice to play on. A couple more of our local friends showed up and got a little show of some fun lines and tumbles during play time Much of the day was spent waiting for the cloud cover to part for just enough time to ski, but it was worth the wait. The snow was buttery smooth and all the debris was so soft you could blow right through it! No Complaints on another great day at Silver. Check out the pics taken by Andy.

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Silver Peak, Wa – Freshies and Sun April 25, 2010

Karter — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:19:21 +0000

A bunch of us decided Silver would be the optimal zone for play on sunday, which was a sunny day! The previous day or two laid down at least 4″ of new up there, which made for some awesome spring skiing. Found a couple good spots to build a huge jump, found a way to access what could be the sickest line on Silver (didn’t hit it cause it required a 30ft drop to pretty much flat, another day), got some good video and photos for your enjoyment, and tag teamed a line we hit last spring. Our crew was pretty deep…Drake, Cole, Poppoff, Pete, TNT and Myself, then on top of that a dozen or so other folks showed up for some turns. We had a full day including some brews and a filling lunch of brats, dogs, and picnic salads! Stay tuned for video! Maybe we’ll do it all again next weekend….. For all the photos be sure to check out http://blog.airpoppoff.com/2010/04/silver-peak-hikeski-42510.html

Stevens Pass, WA – Pow for Days! 1st week in April

Karter — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:30 +0000

So the last 3 or so weeks have been pretty epic here in the Northwest, we had a great cycle of storms which put some pop back in our turns! Cole and I have no doubt spent too much time skiing, if such a thing is possible, coming out of a sunny trip at brundage, followed by huge snow at Baker, then into several weeks of binge pow inhalation via sleds, stevens and alpy. Thanks to my lovely, but worthless computer, I have been struggling to put something together, so here’s the first of the Stevens Pass/Alpental edits. If you’ve been out much lately in the NW these conditions will look familiar.

Mt Margaret, WA-sled ski mission March 27, 2010

Karter — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:45:36 +0000

Matt Poppoff, myself, and Shaun Maurer decided that Saturday would be a great day for some BC action up on Margaret. We only took a couple actual runs, most of the day was spent searching for a pickup route for a specific line we’d been eye ballin, and some time on a little wind lip near the road gap location from earlier in the season. The snow was great up high, but in the trees it was quite inconsistent. Turns out Matt’s new Arctic Cat M7 is a badass machine and was a great buy. I can’t wait to explore this area more, and get some more vert in, feels like this area has so much potential for how quick the access is. All three of us took turns taking a few shots, so check out the pics! Sorry, no video this time.

For more pics (and full sized) check out Matt’s blog @ http://blog.airpoppoff.com/2010/03/first-time-sled-ski-gold-creek.html

Brundage, ID and Summit Central – Lift Serve + Park – March 1-8, 2010

Karter — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:27:52 +0000

What better way to enjoy a lack of snow that to do a little trip to a new area, ride some park, and enjoy the sun! Check out this video of what myself and Cole have been up to, plus some goods from Shaw and Lockie who just generally do it right in the park at Summit Central. Looks like the snow is gonna be at baker, so its time to load up the sled and head up north for a few couple days…see if that turns into a week The season ain’t over yet!! I just wish I was up in Alaska with TNT, where the snow is DEEP!

Alpental, WA – VertFest March 6, 2010

Karter — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:03:05 +0000

Saturday was amazing! Sunshine all day, an incredible group of people, and the BARK Ball to bring even more folks together to finish it all off. The competition ranged from women to men race and recreation classes, a class for those over 50 yrs old, and the splitboard class. The fastest competitors were in the mens race category, finishing one lap top to bottom in about 50 minutes. Pretty impressive! OR and the Summit did a great job putting it on, and during the awards/raffle ceremony you could tell all the hard work paid off. Tons of free gear and smiling faces.
Check out the video for a proper description of the day!!

2/20 White Pass Expansion Trip Report

Karter — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:47:37 +0000

So Nick and I finally have all the gear we need to go Hiking, Needless to say, It was all well worth the money and time spent in class etc, etc. Special thanks to The Snow Troopers and Kathleen of White Pass for helping with this TR!

-Matt Poppoff

Check out Matt’s full gallery, GPS image locations, and his blog here:

http://blog.airpoppoff.com/2010/02/hogback-mountain-white-pass-expansion.html

Can’t wait to get up there and check it out for myself, looks like some pretty fun new terrain! See more in the short vid…

Alpental, WA – 17+ new in 48 hrs. made for a good time in the Backcountry.

Karter — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:12:32 +0000

9″ new in 24 hours at 3,000′ and 17+ new at 5,400′ made for good times for all the local Alpentalics… Especially when the BC gates opened. Solar effected slopes have a thin but skiable crust West faces were really good but the BC was close to off the hook(knowing the year we have had to date).

Stevens Pass, Jan 19-20, 2010 – Chasin Pow

Karter — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:54:14 +0000

Cole and I’s plans for a quick mission to Tahoe busted so we decided to head up past lake Wenatchee in search of some good sled serve action. We found some decent terrain, but the day was more about exploration and not so much skiing. I took two short laps in some heavy, deep snow at the end of the day. Wednesday morning came fast, we didn’t actually get out to ski until noon or so, figuring Stevens Pass was gonna be real wack. Surprisingly the snow was real decent and we manage to shralp pretty much every sketchy line accessible from big chief. One run led to another, and the level of sketchiness of the previous run was always outdone by the next, that’s when I knew we were having a killer day. There was just enough pow to make most everything work, minus a couple hard pack landings. We skied that area for about 3 hours and never got bored.

BTW, a lot of this footie came from the new Vholdr ContourHD. You can really notice the improvement on all levels.