This video is mostly a music video of the newest band TST has partnered w/ to back our videos. Larry and His Flask!!! Super stoked for these guys based out of Redmond, OR and we were lucky enough to see this past Thursday night at Ballard Washinton’s sold out Tractor Tavern. Look for them on this years “Warped Tour” and find them on itunes. They also have a new new album being released in a month.

Put a few clips in the video showing Alpental’s mid May snowpack. Super DEEP, W/ no cliff band on the Fan!?!

Wanted to share this local Snoqualmie Pass park edit of Jamie Baril by his bro Abe. He has a bag of tricks along w/ backcountry ski skills… Can’t wait to get him on film slashin’ and huckin’ his Moment Night Trains all over the Alpental backcountry next season.

Here is a sweet line caught on video this past May Day along w/ a few notes from our bro Andy Traslin about the epic ski.

The trip started with the usual offroading on some random logging road.
Alex had to spot me on the drive, because I was driving a 91 Honda civic and I
had about half an inch of travel. Many a cars have been ruined on these same
drives. Maddy assured me it would be okay… They drive these roads in these cars
all the time in Costa Rica.

I was stoked to be going into a new area, but I wasn’t too stoked on the 40 degree
side hilling approach. I thought I was ski touring on the dark side of Mt.Seymour.
notorious for steep mountain biking on the North Shore.

Aside from the looming overhead cornices on the climb and the swimming up hill travel at the top of the couloir.
The 3000 foot ski descent was epic, especially the top, which was knee deep powder.

Skiers:
Andy Traslin, Mike Traslin, Alex Gibbs, Maddy Armstrong

May 8th, 2011 not sure if I earned G.N.A.R. points for calling Mom as I skinned out towards Mt. Catherine to slog up the deep isothermic snow. I wanted to see what the North face old growth trees looked like between 4 and 5 thousand feet. I was hoping for a lot less new snow under the massive tree canopy up the steep slope. As I started up the last long pitch my guess played out right and as I was getting towards the main slide zone I could see most of the open chutes had cleared out the last new big snow.

As I approached the last few hundred feet skinning became quite difficult w/ firmer conditions under the trees and chute’s bed surface was somewhat firm due to the cold temps, so I popped the skis off and booted the last 100′.

Quick break, had Trooper drop to the first tree then cut the slope getting the top 8″ to release, so back to the same bed surface we climbed for safe passage down to the lower zone. Skiing was expert only for sure and skied too many different types of snow from top to bottom to list. I just took it easy the whole way down and decided the best skiing is still right in the back yard on the slopes of Summit East aka Hyak. Another season w/ bucket loads of last snow and no MF cycle to speak of so far. Might head East for a bit.

Tucker Taffe a 33 year experienced skier from Utah skied into a crevasse high on the Nisqually Glacier this morning. It sounds like another guided group was the closest to the incident but by the time they reached Tucker he had passed. Below is the King 5 video of the tragic event today. I am so sorry for the loss to his family and loved ones. My thoughts and prayers to you brother! RIP

Well I’ve been pushing on with some PT and another doctors appointment coming up in a week or so. In the mean time I’ve been trying to get out into the mountains via sled still, man the cam, look for new zones and generally just enjoy being away from the house for a day here and there. Cole sent me a bunch of footy from some sled serve at Stevens, crap I’m Jealous! Looks like him and the homies definitely had some good conditions to cap off the last week of lift serve.

MP, Drake, and myself have been getting out at Snoqualmie for some spring time fun…. only the weather hasn’t been very cooperative! April 30th we got some breaks, and the riding wasn’t too horrible, but there wasn’t a lot of fresh snow to work with and the avi danger was pretty dang high. Big, wet bastards that start slow then quickly become dangerous. In our usual fashion though we brought plenty of brews and hot dogs to give out to fellow skiers and sledders that happen upon our basecamp Cinco De Mayo came round and since Alpental wasn’t open once again, we went out into the BC for another sled ski mission. Most of the day was spent down low billy goatin’ about in the trees and scoping new areas to ski. The weather was aweful, rained or misted on us most of the day and the snow was deep but extremely wet.

However, it was actually a really fun day and we had a blast taking out time learning some new sled maneuvers and having a few beers. These two days were full of ‘tree’ incidents and plenty of stuck moments, and just a tiny bit of actual skiing or boarding. Hopefully we’ll have some sunshine in the following weeks, the amount of snow above 3k ft in the cascades is pretty impressive for this time of year….. at this point I’d enjoy some sun in the mountains, are you listening mother nature?!

I spent some time fiddling with levels, colors, and other settings with this edit cause much of 5/5 was horrible light. What I ended up with, while not ideal, actual seems to look a bit cooler than the raw video. We also have a slowmo section of drake that was done using twixtor.

Here is a video from one of the Plakes’ 12 Washington stops… Alpental! Kimberly and Glen Plake pulled into the Alpental lot late the evening of the 9th to a downpour of rain. They didn’t seem to mind getting their boards out and making some laps w/ the City League race folks then hung out at Helen’s bar in the base lodge til midnight. Before the night was over Kimberly predicted 8″ of new snow when she opened the RV door in the morning. GREAT call Kimberly, w/ even more up on top of Alpental… 12″ new overnight!!!

As we assembled outside the Denny Mountain lodge our friend and 10 time Warren Miller athlete, Brad Vancour, showed up to ride the heavy new!

With snow still falling in parts of the Cascades, Sierras and Rockies, we’re finding plenty of lift served terrain staying open for spring, and even summer, skiing and snowboarding this May, June and July.  Here’s a list of where to go and when in the U.S. (all subject to conditions) (resorts closing earliest on top):

*Alpine Meadows, CA – 1 lift open this Fri-Sun (last weekend), 830am-130p

*Mt. Hood Meadows, OR – 3 lifts open this Sat & Sun (last weekend), 9am-2pm

*Mt. Bachelor, OR – 3 lifts open DAILY, 9am-2pm (last day Sun. 5/29)

*Squaw Valley, CA – # of lifts open TBD Fri-Sundays, plus Mondays 5/16 & Memorial Day 5/30 (last day 5/30)

*Snowbird, UT – 3 lifts open Fri-Sundays, hrs. TBD, plus last day Memorial Day 5/30

*Alyeska, AK – 2 lifts open Fri-Sundays, 11am-5pm, plus last day Memorial Day 5/30

*Arapahoe Basin, CO – 5 lifts open DAILY, 9am-4pm (last day Sun. 6/5)

Resorts open into the summer:

*Mammoth Mtn., CA – 6 lifts open DAILY, 8am-3pm (last day Mon. 7/4)

*Crystal Mtn., WA – 4 lifts open Sat. & Sundays until 5/22 & Memorial Day 5/30, then 2 lifts on Sat. & Sundays into July, 8am-3pm (last day – they’re saying July until the snow melts)

*Mt. Hood Timberline, OR – 3 lifts open DAILY until Memorial Day 5/30, then 2 lifts open DAILY all summer, 9am-4pm

Let us know where you’ll be ’cause we might be there too!

Precip still rocking the Cascades into May and with a high snow level last Friday the choice was made to shoot for Mission Ridge. Mission Ridge ski area (now closed for the season) is located on the far Eastern slopes of the Central Cascade Range just outside Wenatchee, WA. The average snowfall is around 200 inches w/ colder temps than the Western slopes. I was hoping to farm some MF corn but quite surprised to find about 10 inches of new “rotten” snow at 6.500′ fading to nothing around 5,000′ which made for very difficult skiing(pretty much the Spring status quo here in Western/Central WA) not to mention wet slide danger off the ridge line.

Finished the ski, made the short drive back down to Wenatchee just in time for the start of the Apple Blossom Festival parade. The drive back towards Blewett Pass was epic w/ all the apple trees in full bloom.

Below is a short vid w/ some views of the grey but not rainy day.

I just got done with this looong edit from the week following our trip to Schweitzer. I left Idaho a day early to come back to Alpental and shred the deep snow that was piling up. This week ended up being the start of our great mid-late season blast of storms. From this week, deep into march we just kept getting hammered with snow. This video is all in the BC around Snoqualmie and Alpy. I can’t remember how deep the snow was, but it wasn’t any 6″ on hard pack, pretty much bottomless! All this snow in late February and March has led to a massive base which is still holding strong. If you haven’t been up in the mountains lately, the snow is still very deep and great BC skiing (or at Crystal) will definitely be had into June. Don’t put your boards away just yet! Enjoy the long edit, I’ll pump another one out soon.

I wasn’t sure about my own music choice on this one at first, but I’m beginning to like it, especially the second track.