Here’s a video of the 2012 King and Queen of the Hill freeride competition held this past Sat. 4/14 at Crystal Mountain off of the Silver King peak. Enjoy! And congrats again to Andy DeVore, King of the Hill and Alex Bachmeier, Queen of the Hill – and Josh Wirta and Tyler Ceccanti for finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Andy just sent this one down of a sweet line he just skied recently. The Pencil Chute is located outside Pemberton, BC. For this day trip Andy and his friends hitched a one-way heli ride.

Roped up & peering into the chute.

Andy droppin’ in… Nice and easy.

Congrats to our friend, Andy DeVore (pictured left & below), on winning this weekend’s King of the Hill freeride competition at Crystal Mtn. Coming in 2nd and 3rd were Josh Wirta and Warren Miller athlete, Tyler Ceccanti. Alex Bachmeier, the only woman to compete out of approx. 18 competitors, took Queen of the Hill honors. Sting was there enjoying/filming the competition under sunny skies and warm temps — be sure to check back for footage of that exciting event. It was a gorgeous day that ended with the Bikini Downhill (yes, we got footage of that too). By then, winds had kicked up so although it was sunny, it got chilly and a bit crusty.  There were quite a few spills – ouch. As such, the Bikini Downhill struck folks as the more hair-raising of the two events. Congrats to all the brave folks for participating and entertaining us all!

Here’s a rare one… A Traslin video assisted by lifts and gondolas. Mike and Andy headed up the Whistler this past March 16th, timing it just right for great snow & views. A change of pace indeed, getting 5,000+ descents w/ out breaking trail for 2 hrs.

Now that it’s mid-April, we’re keeping an eye out for news from resorts that plan to stay open into May. With Oregon and Washington leading the nation with the deepest snow pack this year, it comes as no surprise that they’ll have several resorts spinning lifts in May. Just take a look at last week’s video below to see the incredible spring conditions in WA. So, don’t put away the skis and boards yet ’cause this list of U.S. resorts will keep you going well into May and even beyond (conditions permitting). Reach out if we missed any.
California
Alpine Meadows (current snow depth: 76″ bottom/142″ top) – open Fri-Sun 5/13
Mammoth (60″ mid-96″ top) – last day 5/28

Colorado
Loveland (41″ top) – last day 5/6
A-Basin (35″ mid) – TBD

Idaho
Silver Mtn. (81″ mid/105″) – “Silver Saturdays” all through May (if not June)

Oregon
Mt. Bachelor (155″ bottom/180″ mid) – Thurs-Sun 5/27
Mt. Hood Meadows (157″ mid) – Sat-Sun 5/20
Timberline (190″) – daily all spring until 5/28, then daily all summer until 9/3

Utah
Snowbird (99″ mid) – TBD but neighboring Alta’s last day is 4/30

Washington
Crystal (101″ bottom/141″ top) – Sat-Sun all May, last day Memorial Day.
Stevens Pass (140″ bottom/162″ top) – Fri-Sun 5/6
Summit At Snoqualmie: Alpental (134″ bottom/227″ top – still #2 deepest snow pack in the nation) - open Fri-Sun 5/6 and Summit Central (119″ base) – TBD
White Pass (120″ bottom/215″ top) – Sat-Sun 5/6

We’re sad to see Steamboat closing this week. If you can make it there, their Springalicious spring festival is happening now and concludes on their closing day this Sunday 4/15. We visited this great ski town back in Feb. and were impressed. The ski area is actually a complete mountain range: Mount Werner,Sunshine Peak, Storm Peak, Thunderhead Peak, Pioneer Ridge and Christie Peak consisting of 2,965 acres. It offers 3,668 vertical ft of skiing starting from a base elevation of 6,900 ft that rises above the town of Steamboat Springs.  It is perhaps the most well developed and self contained ski town we’ve been to – it is, afterall, dubbed “Ski Town USA” and has produced more Olympic athletes than anywhere else in the World. Buddy Werner, Jim “Moose” Barrows and so many more are from there. Snoqualmie Pass’ own Olympic Gold alpine ski racer, Debbie Armstrong and Olympian Billy Kidd live there now. We met up with Kelly Bohmer from Fleischer Sports to get a tour of the mountain. That’s Chad Fleischer’s shop - a ten-year veteran of the US Ski Team and 2x Olympian. Yup, he now lives in Steamboat too. Folks there love and have time for everything that has to do with skiing – they even welcomed hearing about our little website and invited TNT to appear on Steamboat TV- you can see that interview in an earlier post here.

Colorado resorts were off to a slow start this season so when we were at Winter Park the end of Jan/start of Feb., they had only a few feet. Nonetheless, most of the 3,081 acres mountain was open with fast groomers. We’d love to go back sometime and ski this high 9000′ base elevation mountain on a deep powder day. There’s a lot of amazing terrain on the “no pain, no Jane” Mary Jane (2610′ vertical) and all over Winter Park – the Parsenn Bowl @ 12,060′ and Vasquez Cirque @ 11,900 (with 50+ degree pitches) were closed but if they’re open next time we visit, that’s where you’ll find us. Check out the video for some views. The resort shifts into spring hours starting tomorrow and is scheduled to stay open through 4/22 930am-5pm weekends and 10am-5pm weekdays. This season, we stayed at the Vintage Resort Hotel -it gets our thumbs up for being in a sweet location (with super friendly staff, suites equipped w/ kitchens, etc.) and costing quite a bit less than being in the village, yet is a mere <5min "Village Cabriolet" ride away. The Cabriolet is just 1/2 city block out the front door with no lines. Upon arriving in the village, there're a few stairs and then free radio flyer type wagons waiting to help you transport your gear and kiddies to the lifts (about 5min or less walk through the village). Had we known how convenient this place was, we would've stayed there last year. We'll be sure to visit again next season.

[View with PicLens]

124 soldiers and 11 civilians are missing after an avalanche buried a Pakistani army base earlier today under 60ft of snow. The base is located in the Himalayas near the Siachen Glacier on the border with India. Pakistani rescuers had to postpone rescue efforts due to bad weather. No survivors have been found so far.  The avalanche covers an area estimated to be one square kilometer. Here’s a short news clip with more info.

ATTN: THIS IS NOT A SKI VIDEO (but it is bad ass)!!!

Having so much extra footage every year that never gets used, only to be stashed away on a hard drive, we added our very first intern, Jasper Wesselman. Jasper is a junior at Issaquah H.S. here in WA and skis Alpental as much as he can along with trying to fit in park days too. We first met Jasper when he shared his Whistler Camp of Champions edit, which was sic. He has kicked out one edit for us so far and is currently working on the Snosk8 Massacre edit right now. In the meantime, check out this edit he filmed in a couple of hours with Sammy Britt at Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park last Friday. The video shows Jasper’s filming & editing talents, along with his bright future.

Today’s looking like a repeat of yesterday on Snoqualmie Pass -sun breaks, warm temps, spring conditions and great views into the backcountry. We’ve been keeping an eye on Lundin Peak, Silver Peak and Granite Mountain for a future backcountry ski adventure. They’re looking like they need to be skied but we’d have to steer clear of those big cornices. Also, a past video of TNT skiing Granite back in Jan. ‘09 (video entitled Hyak but it’s actually Granite).

Lundin Peak

Silver Peak

Granite Mountain