International Climber

Blue Heron weekend

Saturday evening the Blue Heron bed and breakfast in conjunction with The Cellar hosted an evening/weekend cooking class/dinner. It was optional to help or simply enjoy the evening. Champagne started the event at 5, followed by seven fabulous courses paired with the perfect wines. Absolute decadence and dining with great friends, old and new, made the perfect evening. Slept in until 9 and enjoyed another fine dining experience of coffee, pastries, quiche and mimosa all provided by Claudia and Dave. All this in a beautiful setting along the Snake River. Who could ask for more?

Long Canyon revisited

Turbo, Dean, Mark, Andy, Wade and I back to Long Canyon. Unfortunately my camera didn't make the trip. With 2 snowmachines the approach was a breeze. Our skin track from a few weeks ago was still there making a 2 hour approach go in 50 minutes to the base of the bowl. We skinned up a west gully complete with a short chimney with a few rock moves. A great summit in bluebird skies followed by some fantastic turns in new snow. Every turn I made created these small sluffs behind me creating shadows that made me think I was triggering something bigger. I thought I was being chased down the gully. It was a super day in the hills. I must use photos from the boys. Here is the link.

http://nopiste.blogspot.com/

photos courtesy Dean Lords

A couple more images from the BS chute adventure.

Boy Scout Chute

Last Wednesday Dean, Turbo, Matt and I headed for Teton Canyon. The objective was a nice, NE facing chute south of the Boy Scout camp on Treasure Mountain. A quick 'bile ride to the gate, some skinning uphill for an hour or so brought us to the base of this awesome couloir. Relatively steep and snow conditions looked safe enough so skis on the packs and up we went. A little post holing in sugar at the top made us a little leary otherwise uneventful. Skied a tree covered slope above the chute, down-climbed back into it for a bunch of jump turns in the fog. It was great! Skied the big mushrooms on the way out for a bonus.

The Long Canyon adventure.

Another great day in the hills... Snowmachine ride for 4.5 miles, skinning in deep, bottomless snow, riding a small avalanche, cool turns and a cornice huck, great friends in an awesome alpine environment! Doesn't get much better!

See the link to the ski website...

http://nopiste.blogspot.com/

Teton Ice Park

Not wanting to swim in chest deep snow up to the Ghosts. Grayson, Jack and I decided some laps at the ice park might be a fun option. Turned out to be a great choice. Ice climbing in the sunshine is awesome. We could have been in our tee shirts. We all worked on some mixed sections and found a great dry tooling wall for some steep training. Even though it's not very big it offers a great place to do a bunch of laps with a 5 minute approach from the car. Can't wait to go back! Nice work Dr. Phud! Your technique is really improving.

BC skiing

Wednesday turned out to be a great ski day. Turbo, Dean, Mark and I headed to Mike Spencer Canyon on Pine Creek Pass. We had 2 snowmachines so were able to eliminate the 8 mile approach nicely. Super deep powder on Mike Spencer peak (as we call it) at 8400 ft. Here is a link to the ski website for a cool vid from Turbo. http://nopiste.blogspot.com/

Teton Ice

Grayson (Dr. Phud I presume) and I took the bubblehead train into Teton Canyon today. Forecast was for 3-7" of new snow and wind but didn't have really any weather to deal with. Turned out to be a very pleasant day. Green Pea is in big and pretty steep with good ice. We did a bunch of laps and worked on some technique. Nice to get on the ice again. Now it's time to get in the BC for some skiing as it seems the avy danger is subsiding a bit.

Resort skiing again? Okay!

Wednesday Targhee reported 6" new snow. I'd say it was more like 10 plus the 6" from the day before. A perfect day for 11 of us to gang up on the hill! Turbo and I joined Dean and Heather, and a few other Kelly Canyon ski patrol boys: Captain Suffer Wade, Darin and Kevin. Brian Wood (tele-skier and Paramedic for the day) Danny (Mammut athlete) an incredible skier! Ian (former Mammut dude) and his better half Anna. We skied the powder and crud until our legs were fried! One run in the sun and the rest in Grand Fogee's finest soup. Yippeee!