Thursday, December 26, 2013

Glory Christmas Powder

Last time Molly and I came to Jackson for Christmas, there was zero snow. None. Nada. This year is thankfully much different -- when we arrived, a nice string of snowy days followed by a little storm brought 30 inches of new snow...

Keith, Meagan and I headed up to the Teton Pass on Christmas morning at a leisurely 10:30am. The nice thing about living in a mountain town is that you can head up to the hills at any time of day... We hiked up the worn bootpack on Mt. Glory and enjoyed the amazing views over Idaho and Wyoming. We played it very safe on the way down, sticking to low angle slopes and trees along the west ridge. The powder was incredible, especially on the Voile V8 skis I was demoing...  :)  they're 112 underfoot! Very fun. Keith and I followed the Glory run with a descent down to the old Wilson road with some really fun turns in the trees.

looking from across the road from Glory -- lots of ski tracks from the day before

bootpack up Mt. Glory

skiers approaching the summit of Mt. Glory

inside the Mt. Glory "hut"

Keith and Meagan gearing up for the down

Keith flying
cruiser slopes

Meagan in the trees

Pa-pow!





Keith exiting... backcountry runs always end so quickly



Sunday, December 1, 2013

Redertengrat

Ah, it was a glorious season opener... at the beginning of December, Axel, Tom and I went to the end of the Wägital to do the popular Redertengrat tour. We expected fairly thin conditions but instead found really nice powder and were able to ski all the way to the car! Only scraped the boards a few times, but no real damage was done...


Axel posing

Tom and Axel skinning through the woods

skin track zig zag

snow trails

snowscapes


Lunching at the ridge

Tom dropping in!

Hipster in the mountains

Axel's first turns in almost 2 years



Tom kicking up some powder 


Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Flumserberg gear test

We headed up for a first winter group meeting of the year with Romain and Andreas -- to Flumserberg, where we opted to skip the lifts and walk up instead. I don't normally like to walk up ski resorts, but as a gear test before the season start proper, this seemed like a good way to go. Beautiful vistas, surprisingly nice snow, and some sweet turns... all before lunch. :)

gearing up
winter wünderland


good place to talk science

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Etzlihütte - Chrüzlipass - Sedrun

Axel, Molly and I played support team for Dani's master's thesis research and went up to Etzlihütte where she could interview the hut keepers... On the second day, we headed up and over Chrüzlipass where we found more amazing scenery and lots of wild blueberries which Dani and Axel later made into a delicious pie. 


Starting out above Etzlibach



shapes

Axel, charging straight off a socialist propaganda poster

Crisp morning


Blueberries!

More blueberries!

Etzlihütte blending into the cliff



Fluorescent lichen

Axel trying to wow Molly and Dani with his mountain knowledge on top of Chrüzlipass

Dani and Molly descending into Val Strem


Granite blocks...



Saturday, August 31, 2013

Val Susauna - Val Funtauna - Val da Ravais-ch - Val Tuors

A many-valley mountain bike tour -- crossing from the Engadin to Graubünden linking together four splendid valleys. Amazing scenery, difficult trails, flat tires, broken shocks, it was all there. Started in the beautiful village of Susauna with a home made pie and coffee -- finished in Bergün with pizza and beer like every good tour should.

Starting out up Val Susauna along the gorgeous Vallember

Val Funtauna

Molly cranking up Val Funtauna -- the trails were trickier than they look... 


Friends

Rising above Val Funtauna with Piz Kesch in the background

some carrying of bikes was required

Looking back down Val Funtauna

at Sela da Ravais-ch

Molly dropping down the twisty singletrack along Lai da Ravais-ch

Molly crushing the trails despite the broken rear shock... 

exiting Val da Ravais-ch