A very good WEEK!!!

Well a great week just came and went with some of the sickest turns of the Season. Got to ski with so many people that I wanted to ski with too over the weekend.
Pat, Matt, Becka, Mark the list goes on. Got some great pictures of people all week too. Ill let the pictures do the talking this time!















I hope the pictures did the week justice!

Riding with Becka and Matt.

Went riding with MAtt and his girl up into my favorite hiking trees. Stable snow meant that we could Ski some pretty sick lines. Did my favorite pillow line in trees and then hucked my favorite rock drop. Too bad I was only taking the pictures and not getting them taken this time!

Bigger lines!

Finally a few warm days brought a day of stability to Hakuba. We have been getting snow and super cold temps for about 3 weeks now. Avalanches all over the place with a few deaths had me running scared silly. Compound that with a faceting Ice layer and other faceting layers though-out the pack. It was high time to pray to the gods for some warmer weather so that we could run the bigger lines. Well after 2 days of warmish winds it was time to check the snow pack.

At the start of the day, the idea was to dig a pit and more than likely turn back and ski the ridge to the resort. I have turned away many times this season. To be honest I think it is best to have turning back in your mind this season. As we got into the alpine we could see about 20 tracks through some of the 35 degree terrain. Nothing was sliding so I started to think, that maybe we could actually get to ski.

Got to the top of Happo and quickly climbed to the top of the "Za Mix" area of Happo. Prefect sunny weather and about -2c in the high alpine. Dug a pit and found a bomber snowpack much to our surprise. Still layers about but the faceting had decomposed enough to be consistent. Right then I knew I was going to ski the line and I started to get flashbacks from last season....

The last time I was standing up on this line in such prefect weather was with Kina Picket and Billy Poole. They were running lines for Nomads with another crew made up of Bryce Philips and Will Burks. I remembered how stoked everyone was to run new lines in such prefect weather. I remembered Billy going balls to the walls with a huge grin, and then hucking a rodeo 7 off of a rock like it was a walk in the park.

As I got ready to ski the line I got fired up. I wanted to ski that line faster than I ever had before. In a way, I wanted to let out the stress of work, the snow pack from hell and the sadness I felt out on that line. I also wanted to show Billy, that by having to opportunity to host and ski with him for that week, made me a better skier.

As I committed myself to the line I found a focus that I had not felt in sometime. I dropped in and in less than a minute of focus and speed I was in my safe zone. Amped, amped is what I felt, amped like I never have been before. It was like 100 kilos flew off of my shoulders on that run. I felt the passion for why I ski again and why I love to push myself even as I get older. Thanks to the crew that came out on the day, Kev, Mark and Chuckles.