Great day with the Professional Leisure Team today. April powder and sun is hard to beat!
Fields of untracked Powder!
Doug having FUN!
Hard to beat the view
April Pow!
White Clouds to the horizon
SVT guides/interns and friends taking a “day off”
Was it April Fools, Niels’ Birthday, or the fact that it was snowing? Regardless, at our morning guide meeting yesterday, we decided to call a “powder day” and go skiing as a team. Nothing short of BIG FUN and pure stoke!
Kyle loving the tow
beautiful snow day
sharing jokes
a stoked birthday boy, Niels turns 24!
Birthday boys get 1st tracks!
Toby
Pato
Alisa
Kyle
Trudy
Brian going deep
having crazy fun
fat flakes falling
Happy Birthday Niels!D
Wow. What a past 3 weeks it has been! Our mountains have received snow for 22 of the past 26 days. The snow totals are impressive, with the Sawtooth having received approximately 7′ over this period and the other mountains in our area receiving over 4-5′!
The relatively dry early winter left us craving deep powder, but also left us knowing that when/if it came we would be facing a difficult avalanche problem. This is currently our situation: We have very tricky and dangerous avalanche conditions in the backcountry which has the potential to linger for a long time. The plethora of new snow has fallen on a highly variable and extremely weak early season snow pack. This is a relatively unique stability scenario that should be treated with respect and caution. We are seeing many avalanches on most aspects and elevations and starting on relatively low slope angles. We are also seeing large avalanches triggered remotely from afar and running long distances. Skiers should be acutely aware of keeping slope angles less than 30 degrees and to stay away from run out zones (both large and small). This is a great time to hire a professional guide who is acutely aware of the current stability issues and well trained and experienced with navigating out of avalanche terrain. We are finding excellent ski conditions on safe terrain (see pics below)!
The skiing has been phenomenal. We have been too busy skiing the deep powder over the past few weeks to keep up on the blog posts, so we are posting a series of photos from the various mountain ranges, huts and tours we have been guiding over the past few weeks. Enjoy!
YES!
Powder Flight on the pass
Skinning the Cross
yehaw!
Skiing the gentle powder
SVT Guide Joe St.Onge Kung POW
SVT guide, Chris Marshall, getting face-shots on the pass!
ahh, the beauty!
Skinning in the Pios
Powder on the Peanut above the Pioneer Yurt
Skinning above the Pioneer Yurt
Sirens of Snow traversing Galena Summit
A buried Bench Hut is a beautiful sight!
Deep powder above Bench Hut
Easy sliding in the deep powder
A cozy Bench Hut after a day of deep powder skiing
FUN!
Loving the low angle Powder!
With the recent storm dropping 10” of light density powder and little wind, the skiing was amazing the past few days. The cold morning temperatures left SVT guide, JP, and Bernard with empty bowls and pristine ridge-lines to lay down some beautiful tracks.
We live in a beautiful world!
Wednesday’s storm brought 10-20″ of fresh powder to the mountains of Central Idaho. With storms few and far between this season, the fresh snow brought big grins to all (skiers and farmers alike). Stability varies with the new storm and sensitive wind slabs can be found in exposed areas. Check the local advisory for the details: sawtoothavalanche.com and enjoy!
A pleasure to break trail in fresh snow
Fresh snow taking some heat on the solars
Heli-Guide day off, Pat carving the alpine
Fresh+ powder + big peaks + a little sunshine= smiles
Pato, Francie and JP caught up with some of the Sirens and Bros this week to explore some of the goods to be found high on Galena Summit north of Ketchum. Recent snowfall and cold overnight temperature have kept shady slopes soft and deep above 8500′. Our guest could not have asked for more as the sun warmed our faces and the powder soothed our souls! It was all smiles as we linked ridge after ridge on both of these classic Sun Valley Trekking ski tours. To book a trip with one of our expert ski guides, give us a call, and we’ll help you drop in proud!
Know before you go! The Bros all get on the same page with Patrick with a quick orientation before striking out for the day.
Wolf is all smiles after making beautiful turns
Looking good and making turns!
Stoked to be heading back up for more powder!
Divas trekking to find a some great lines.
Up they go, making laps on a gorgeous Sun Valley day!
JP guiding the group into some great terrain for fun turns.
Well deserved beverages and good company
SVT guides Joe St.Onge and Chris Marshall went for a recon tour above the Boulder Yurts today to check conditions for future tours. Good ski conditions were found above 9000′ and some stability issues including: new wind slabs (30cm deep) which were producing easy failures and planar shears in isolated areas as well as triggering a fairly large loose snow/sluff avalanche in the deep facets in steep terrain. Have fun and heads up out there!
Yes!
Boulder Mountains
Skinning Light
Alpine Smokies
Skis pretty good!
Fall-line facets
Skiing among the ancient White Barks
D2 avalanche triggered in the full depth facets, ran fast.
Chasing shadows
3″ of new snow, high winds, grouse, good partners and remote mountains. Ingredients for a good day in the Idaho backcountry.
Easy slider on the DPS
Grouse snow cave
bc art
Hiding from the wind
Alpine spirits
Figures on a landscape
We are closing out 2013 with 53% of average snowfall, which makes finding the awesome ski tours a bit of a challenge. But we are working overtime to find the best snow and most fun tours and would love to share some of our hard work with you! Check out some pics from yesterday to see what we are up to.
Finding the goods when the goods are hard to find.
Following the Sun Dog
Alpine Sculptures
Now that’s what were looking for!
mmmm…
The climb
Soft and beautiful light
ahhhhh…
Camas Prairie inversion creates beautiful light
Mix techniques
yes.
Couloir skiing
Apron powder
Hansi doing the vadel
Happy Hansi
Not bad for a low snow November!
SVT guides: Joe St.Onge, Patrick Graham and Chris Marshall went for a tour out in the Smoky Mountains yesterday to check the early season conditions. Despite a relatively thin snow pack, good turning conditions were found and a beautiful tour was had. Careful route finding and conservative choices are key to avoid the many thin snow hazards that are present right now. With that in mind, there is some fun skiing to be had right now!
Ah, good to be back on skis!
SVT Guides Chris Marshal and Patrick Graham
Charlie Brown powder
as beautiful as always
Lots of sharp nasties out there, especially at the entrances
Shade line pow
