not bad for her first backcountry run!
A fun weekend skiing with a local family on the peaks of the Boulder Mountains. The backcountry corn factory is in full production!
steep skiing
pretty good even if its not powder
Alpine lounger
Father and son on the Peak!
Approaching the summit of Senate Peak
Mother and Son 2
perfect corn in the Boulders
searching fro the powder
Mother and Son
a little corduroy exit with Senate Peak in the background
carving the apron
We are just back from the annual Sawtooth Woodcuts: 4 days of cutting wood and skiing couloirs. Hard labor and Fun Stuff.
Heading out for a day of skiing couloirs from Fishhook
the Sickle above Fishhook Yurt
The Shovel Couloir
climbing an unnamed couloir
Still finding dry snow of steep, sheltered upper elevation norths
Toby looking good
Niels psyched for the Drop
The team
Always great to be out with Irie
stoked intern
Chris leading the way up the Shovel couloir
Alisa in the steeps
getting ready for the next drop
Trudy
Nothing like the granite hallways of the sawtooth
Hope turn
ah, a cold beer and popcorn after a great day of skiing
making the approach to Bench hut
great effort by a tough team
heading home
finished with the crux and 3000′ of wide open skiing ahead
Another awesome spring day skiing with the Sirens of Snow on Galena Peak!
Early morning start across Senate Meadows
Skinning the sunny ridge
Switching from skis to boots as the terrain gets steeper
ascending the summit pyramid
the final summit ridge
breather
on top of the world!
almost there
stoked on the summit
what a day!
the summit shots
the Boulder Range in all its glory
The 1st ski pitch is a beauty
The beginning of the crux, midway down the south bowl
A little rope work makes for smooth skiing
skiing with the rope
Bond girls
woohoo
sweet features
and on down
stoked!
Cover Girls.
Just back from an awesome 2 day trip to the Coyote yurts with the Sirens of Snow. Perfect corn, settled powder and lots of FUN!
Making the initial climb toward the Coyote yurts
Corn:30 on the souths
wide open bowls!
Beaver Creek Fire makes a dramatic backdrop
chat-track
Powder on the north burns!
woohoo!
Nothing like powder under an April Sun!
Joanie turning the burn
“hey, hey we are the monkeys….”
Arriving at the Coyote Yurts after a 4000′ day of skiing
Ah, frozen margaritas hit the spot!
Nothing but the finest wine served!
Pato and Alisa enjoying the Apres
Trudy and the view
Now what is Pato doing?
nothing like the sauna
those aren’t her real boobs!
sharing good food and good times around the table
sunrise at Coyote
The morning light is beautiful
Surface hoar and the Pios at the point
nice boobs!
Heading for another day of fun!
and away we go
stoked
hard to beat the views around Coyote Yurts
Morning powder
Yehaw!
Bond Girls cranking corn
perfect peel-away corn
no fun had here
The Team
Final run back to the valley
sure was sweet!
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
nice view on the descent on Hyndman
We are just back from a 3 day mission into the Pioneer Yurt with goal of supplying the yurt with cords of firewood and other supplies for the next season. We transitioned from snowmobiles to chainsaws to skis and alpine axes, cutting lots of wood and climbing and skiing some classics in the process. Conditions are spring like on the big peaks and skied great.
Skier and snowboarder unite, its a happy world
sure, lets go ski that!
up, up and…
still smiling
Niels discovers that a Pick-omatic works when one forgets the alpine ax
summit of the Pios
Niels working out the jump turn
hard to beat this setting
carve
playful skiing/boarding through the basins on the way back to the yurt
ahh, relaxing on the fresh rounds cut for next season
après 1
après 2
après/après, burning the slash piles after the woodcut
heading to the Dorsal Fin
Trudy working the pick-omatic for an ascent/descent of the Dorsal Fin
jerky girl
stoked
working the machines in the low country
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
