Time to Hike a bit!

After many days and nights begging Dan to come ski with me, it finally happened!
We hiked above Happo and did 2 lines over 2 days. The first line was a 1300 meter decent. The second line was a 1100 meter run. A mixed bag of wet snow and spring the first day to light dry wind blown powder the second day!
Great day out there and I was very glad to be able to get Chuckles- AKA Gandalf
out there too. I really owed him from the week before. You see, he picked us up after every sick line we did that weekend and that just isnt fair. Had to be fair and show him a good run or 2.

This that with some big lines thrown in!

You have to love spring when things get super stable!
You can run some of the bigger stuff and there is a ton
of sunshine. Went Skiing With Jer, Mark, Trent and Matt.
Got some really nice photos and the snow wasnt have bad
either!

Just some Powder pics!

Thought Id link a few pics up from my guests they took some great shot all week.
Thanks to mark, Hugh and Pat for the pics.

Happo a Tree riding report!

After sitting out Saturdays skiing to have an onsen with baby Hannah, I really wanted to go for a ski on Sunday. I met my good friend Janus on Saturday night and wanting to keep the group small we hatched the Happo plan.

The shock on Sunday morning in the lodge was that everyone was going to Happo too! Shocked really! Knowing that the mountain was only going to open up 1/3 of the terrain do to wind. We had to start thinking early. Top that off with every other mountain opening up almost nothing and you get a very busy Happo morning.
Ended up being me Janus and my old friend Damon today. I did ditch my SJ buddies (sorry guys, but heck you ditched me for a whole month!lol :laugh: :o :laugh:)

The plan was hatched and after a bit of stunt driving (thats a whole other TR) we made it to Sakka right at the opening. I felt like I was back in Canada on a Powder day! Locals and mates were everywhere! I turned to Janus and said man we are going to have to think fast today!
Got off at the top and headed into some great thigh deep trees! sick turns and considering Janus hadnt made a pow turn in more than a year he did well! (He is a ripper actually so when you are good it come back fast)

Then it was time to start thinking... Think about where to go to get fresh tracks. Also figure in the wind which people werent doing to which I say "thank you". After 6 runs of bottomless, uncrowded powder we met up with stunts and Dan to do a run. Great pillow line which to my surprise everyone let me do first! Sick I love going first! Pillows and face shots.

Got off the chair and went to a steep short line that had a few tracks, but heck it was a transfer line. See the key point of the day was to get in where the crowds were then get out! Had some pizza to recharge the engines and back out we went. I thought maybe my favorite trees in Happo had been hit, but nope, not at all. 1pm and not a f>>>>>>ing track period! Lets say that again, 1pm and no tracks. This on the day all the locals came out to play! The first line was insane pillows and an open gullie. The second line was as many pillows as you wanted! The third liene was really only pillows. Then a 4th was a long ridge to pillows and the last line was just a bunch of pillows. Never once crossed a track nor even saw an old track. Finally called it a day at 4:30 just spent and done riding sick pillows! My best day inbounds at Happo in a long, long time!

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.