The Snow Troopers

On April 21st, 2012 Stephanie and Zack Jessel along with Tara and Carl Simpson headed down to Washington’s Southern Cascades for the a super long ski they found on Mt. St. Helens. Imagine what kind of ski it was before the lid blew and decreasing the elevation from 9,677′ to 8,365′.

Quite the lunch spot with a nice view of Spirit Lake & Mt. Rainier.

As you most likely know already, Mt. St. Helens has shown activity in the recent years by blowing off a little steam. The steaming made the news and also made for some cool video as we skied off Mt. Adams back on July 8th, 2006 with her steaming away in the background, but if you don’t know the true power of the volcano, be sure to check out the videos below.

Below is a short clip of the 1980 eruption.

Below is an old 22 minute documentary of the eruption.

Upper International & Adrenalin runs

With all the sun and warm temps this past weekend and guys skiing the moguls like Glen Plake and Jonny Mosely, one might think this video was taken in California. But, it was our own Alpental which was open with a base depth of 214″ at the summit, clear skies and temps in the 60s. One friend noted that WA might be the only place on the planet where you can ski in these supreme conditions without any lift lines. If you missed it this past weekend, be there when Alpental re-opens next weekend and don’t forget Cinco de Mayo weekend too.

[View with PicLens]

Back on April 9th in SlC, UT, Matt Heffernan headed up Neffs Canyon to check out the snow line. Neffs Canyon is located just a few drainages North of Big Cottonwood canyon, which made for a quick assault for good views and skiing. Temps are rising in the West and the snow’s melting, so get while you can… We know Matt sure has been hitting it hard, more of his vids to come.

Neffs Canyon located just North of Big Cottonwood Canyon

We recently reported on the possible opening of Cayuse Pass and North Cascades Highway SR20, respectively, by the end of April and 1st week of May. You can read that post here. So far, no changes to that schedule – fingers crossed, we’ll be backcountry skiing and riding those zones very soon.  This week our heroic WSDOT teams also began clearing the roads to 5,430ft Chinook Pass, located on SR 410 between the towns of Enumclaw and Naches and about 5 miles east of the Cayuse Pass summit.  With our late winter weather and snow continuing to fall this April, there’s lots of snow there so WSDOT’s current eta on opening Chinook Pass is Memorial Day weekend.

Snow covered Chinook Pass taken by WSDOT mid-April 2012

I wanted to share a bunch of recent videos our Wasatch connection, Matt Heffernan, has been banging out after long days of climbing for his turns. Matt would be my deffiniton of a real skier from being able to win a park comp in a wickedly talented zone to spending a day with the bros ski touring and slashing some sic Wasatch lines. This first video is a trip he did on the 7th of this month up into Little Cottonwood Canyon to hit a sweet South drainage in the White Pine zone.

More footy from this past weekend’s King of the Hill freeride competition at Crystal Mtn including Tyler Southworth, Alpental’s Marcus Mair (at least I think it was Marcus) and POV shots from the winner, Andy DeVore aka Alpental Andy.

Here’s a quick, simple conditions report giving you a look at the snowpack between 2,600′ & 3,600′ in the Central Cascades on 4/18/12. The skiing was quite the challenge yesterday with 1 inch of new, wet sticky snow on top of deep, isothermic snow. I had a fresh warm weather wax on my boards, but it didn’t seem to help much with the stop and go snow. On another “musical note”, I couldn’t stop thinking of the GREAT, late, Dick and his passing yesterday as I worked on this edit. Dick noted that music was one of the most important things in life and something along the lines of how almost anything in life good or bad can be linked to a song. I agree with both, music is very powerful to me and is right up there in my life with what I love most, my friends/family and SKIING. This video is backed by the epic music of our friends Project Lionheart and I let the track keep rolling after the video, for the FULL listen!

Our bro Matthias Giraud, aka Super Frenchie, sent this one over of his trip back home this past February. I say, “trip back home” because Matthias has been calling Mt. Hood, OR his home this season. Matthias skied this sweet Chamonix close out line the same day he learned about the three Cascade Mountain brothers lost in slides February 19th (2 of which he knew personally). The news added a lot of extra thoughts in Matthias’ head that morning and tram ride up Les Grands Montets, but he stayed focused and had an amazing descent. We are in hopes of getting him up here to Snoqualmie Pass to check out our playground that has been dubbed “The American Alps” where I’m certain he will see some lines he wants to own. The below vid is down and dirty raw footy w/ no music for the real feel! Fasten your seat belts and click play for your safe ride off Les Grands Montets!

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.