powder tours – Page 3 – Sun Valley Trekking

November Powder and Pre Season Ski Report

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Nov 142014

November 14, 2014 faceshots

It’s official, we have begun the ski season! The recent storms have brought over a foot of new snow to the high country here in the mountains of Central Idaho. Depending on the geographic area, aspect and elevation, this snow fell on either dry ground or older snow. The upper elevations in the mountains around the headwaters of the Salmon and Wood River Valleys had a preexisting snow pack made up of facets and crusts and there are stability concerns in many of these spots with the new load. Please check the latest Avalanche Report for a more detailed description.

SVT Guides, Joe and Francie St.Onge went out around Galena Summit for a short tour to check conditions and found some fun turns, even with the thin coverage. Careful out there! Some of these pics make it look like mid-winter, but generally the conditions are classic early season. So keep the snow dances going, burn a ski or two and praise ULLR to bring us more turns like these!

Fun powder skiing in thin snow (notice the sagebrush)

Happy Girl!

Thin early season conditions make meadow skipping a good choice

65 cm snowpack with 40cm of new snow sitting on a supportable crust.

Powder Cloud

Funneling faceshots will make you smile!

Devil’s Bedstead Ski

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May 152014

The Devils Bedstead in all its majesty

May showers bring Powder to the high peaks and we were able to experience some of this magic the other day here in the Pioneer Mountains, Idaho. A surprise visit from our old avalanche forecaster, a pro skier and a local doc coincided with Joe returning from the Hawaiian Islands and the Trail creek road having just opened. Recent cold temps and new snow led to great conditions on one of the most iconic ski peaks in Idaho. Thanks to Dylan Crossman for some of the great shots here, enjoy!

Clearing “the bush” on the approach

Trying to get a view through the white-out

Great booting conditions

Climbing in the white-out

Feeling the exposure high on the face

taking it all in

Climbing on the moon on the summit pitch

Nothing like being perched high on an alpine face

Terry topping out on the summit

loving the Coombacks and the view down the ski line

Whoohoo!

Powda!

Can’t beat the conditions

Dylan Crossman showing how its done

the lower face

and back to boots for the walk out, stoked.

Sirens of Snow at the Coyote Yurts

Coyote Yurts, Huts and Yurts Comments Off

Apr 082014

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!

From Famine to Feast, Ullr has come!

Daily Powder Tours, Huts and Yurts, Uncategorized Comments Off

Feb 232014

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!

Powder Day in Central Idaho!

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Jan 312014

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

Early Season Powder Tour

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Nov 242013

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!