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Chamonix Conditions Report: Powder Returns!

The season has been off to a pretty slow start in Chamonix, but things are starting to look up. A couple small systems over the last few days have each left 10-15cm of fresh snow and refreshed surfaces nicely. The sun came out Monday and the winds died down letting us get out and explore away from the lifts, reminding everyone how magical this valley is. Monday morning, the Aiguilles Rouges on the North West side of the valley were loaded with groups heading out to get some fresh turns before things warmed up ahead of the next small system, and brutal winds kicked in. […]
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Steep As It Gets: Learn to Ski Steep at a Clinic Near You

You are peering over the edge, staring into the jaws of a 45 degree couloir, thinking, is this over my head? Is this a smart thing to be doing? Do I belong here? Can I ski this? We’ve all been in a similar situation. Filled with doubt, wondering if the terrain we were about to ski into was just a little bit over our head. Most of the time we’re all right and all of the worrying was about nothing. You skied it. Sure. Did you feel comfortable or confident about what you did? How can you push things safely to the next step?
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One Air, Two Broken Legs, & No Insurance In a Foreign Country

As snow piles up (depending on where you are) it can sometimes be hard to imagine that it is still early season. The legs are attempting to prove themselves worthy after some time focused on non-ski/snowboard related activities, objects are still sneakily hiding under thin layers of snow, and thoughts of rationality in regards to making wise decisions may be a little dusty. Although this is what we live for – as mountain folk, we desire and thrive on the winter snow, and when it doesn’t fall, traveling to higher elevations or other destinations is a must. When doing these sort of activities it is important to keep safety in mind. […]
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No Pineapples at Kicking Horse!

Golden, BC

Conditions this past weekend, December 12-14 2014, at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort were all time, sort of. The warm pineapple express that brought rain to the tops of most resorts in BC brought a foot of blower powder to the alpine bowls while also decimating the bottom of the mountain. It was hard to complain about the ice and dirt at the bottom when you have what may be one of the top ten days of the season up top, where it counts. And just to cap it off, we were given mild temps and blue skies.
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Zürs, Austria Conditions Report: High Altitude Pow

With none of the lifts running in Zürs and only 3 lifts down the road in Lech, we decided for a tour from the valley (1716 m) to just below the top of the Trittkopf (2423 m), about a 600 m (about 2000 ft) vertical journey. About 2/3 up, we get a glimpse of the possibility for powder turns on the way down. It encouraging, as we encountered many rocks and bare spots up to this point. The snow was sparse and thin and we tried to find the quickest way up the mountain, since the days are quite short this time of the year here and we got a late start. Close to the top, we get a good idea where the best powder was and what line to take with the […]
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Breckenridge Conditions Report: 6″ of Fresh Snow

Dia nublado por la mañana con 6″ nuevos de nieve en las ultimas 24hs, caidos sobre una gran base de hielo que hizo acentar el manto para no tener riesgo de avalancha.Muy buena calidad de nieve en peak 8 y 9. Mas por la tarde se despejo el cielo y el sol hizo brillar la hermosa nieve que habia caido anoche. Algo de viento por la mañana disminuyendo hacia la tarde y cerrando el dia con un hermoso atardecer desde Boreas pass. los pinos pintados y las pistas tapadas de nieve que hace varios dias no recibian. […]
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Kicking Horse, B.C. Conditions Report: Open Top to Bottom

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, located in Golden, BC, had an early opening this weekend. The Golden Eagle Express Gondola was racing small crowds up 4,100 feet for top to bottom shredding. The Stairway and Catamount chairs were spinning top and bottom giving access to a large chunk of Kicking Horse’s great terrain.Fifty percent of the alpine bowls including Bowl Over, Crystal Bowl, Redemption Ridge South and all of the lower mountain were open for skiing. Although it didn’t snow much in the days leading up to opening, all the south and east faces of the mountain were skiing great with soft creamy pow over […]
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Squaw Valley Weekend Report: 1st Sneaker Powder Day of the Year?

I love a good sneaker pow day. Sometimes it’s raining at the base, sometimes the snow is slushy and wet, sometimes the wind is so strong it scours whole faces—but a sneaker pow day is all the more enjoyable because it’s unexpected. Most people stay home. Conditions seem sub-optimal. But the actual skiing? It ends up being holy-f***-fun. That didn’t happen today. It started snowing in the valley last night around 1am and by morning there were accumulations of about 1-3 inches of slushy snow on the ground. That slushy snow quickly melted as it began to rain. The rain […]
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Chamonix, France Comes Alive With Great Skiing This Past Week

Chamonix ski touring

The last few weeks have seen unsettled weather and a good amount of precipitation throughout the Alps, leaving the higher elevations in very good shape for the middle of November. Like any other ski town throughout the world, the locals in Chamonix have been jonesing to get out and make their first turns of the year. The sun finally made an appearance on Wednesday and offered a chance to get up into the high alpine above Chamonix and sample some of the fresh snow. From the small village of Le Tour, we made our way up the left flank of the Glacier du Tour to the Albert hut, at 2700 […]
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65″ of Lake-Effect Snow in New York Yesterday! | Photo Tour & Eyewitness Account:

All this snow fell in one day. Buffalo, NY yesterday

(editor’s note: this is an eye witness account from my brother who’s a badass truck driver and Afghanistan war veteran out of Ohio. He was in the big storm in New York that dropped up to 63″ of snow yesterday and this is his account.) Well, last night at about 1730-1800 I noticed a change of color on the road. The road changed from black to whitish, and I couldn’t tell wether it had dried or it was snow, and snow was falling but not quick. At that time I cut my jake break (air brakes on a semi truck) off, because you don’t want to be using that in slippery conditions. […]
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Water Dog Bike Park | Photo Tour

There are 18 of these hairpin turns and its a real workout to get up them. However, there's an excellent view of the rest of the park while riding up them and when you finish you feel like a boss!

There is nothing better than a ride after it rains. Its cool out and the dirt is perfect. But what if you can’t go far from the city? Water Dog Park, in Belmont California, is about a 30 minute drive south of San Francisco. This park is filled with greenery and breathtaking views. You can drive right through the city of Belmont into the parking lot. From there, you can see two valleys and houses above the park. This gives a cool perspective of how the park is truly close to city life. […]
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Biggest Snowfall of the Year in Patagonia Yesterday!

Winter ended a few weeks ago down here in South America. We started chilling on the beach and even took our first dip in the lake. We waxed our boards to put them away till next year and switched our minds to summer time. But then all of a sudden a big snow storm came from nowhere! It snowed for a week non-stop. So we decided to take our boards out again and go up the mountain to an awesome and wild place called Mallin Alto. It snowed way more than we’d imagined! And it actually was the biggest snow fall we had this winter. Even the snowmobiles got stuck […]
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Italian Alps Backcountry Conditions Report: 50cms Fresh Snow on Passo della Stelvio

After a start to the autumn characterized by unusual warmth, with low snowfall across Alpine ski mountains, the first real precipitation dropped 50cm of snow, mainly in South Tyrol, in the Ortler Alps in Alto Adige (Italy) last week. The winter scenery and the good whether conditions have prompted me to take a tour in the area of Madaccio glacier. The climb, at sunrise from Passo dello Stelvio to Punta degli Spiriti, then down for the long slope to glacier of Madaccio, dominated by Tuckettspitze, skiing on the first powder […]
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Arizona Trail Conditions Report: Red Pow in Sedona

Sedona 3

The Flagstaff/Sedona trip was an afterthought. A half hour prior to leaving Vegas for Moab I got a text from a friend who was struggling to find a camp site saying “Don’t come, this place is a zoo.” Fall recess in the Utah schools corresponding with a half marathon made Moab the kind of busy that rivals Easter jeep week (albeit, less wife beaters, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and bud light.) So we left Vegas and headed eastbound instead. Scoring a tent sight just outside of Flagstaff we headed into town looking for a bit of food and some craft brew. We ended up […]
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Trip Report: Heli-Touring Deep Powder in British Columbia

I had never skied snow so deep, so light, so dry. It blew over my head and into my nose and mouth and face. To turn in it was effortless. It was endlessly deep and it was unending. Run after run the conditions were always the same. Perfect powder. It just did not stop snowing. Skin tracks were filled within hours. Runs were renewed like magic. There was no hint that we had been there the day before or even just that morning. When would it stop snowing.? Who cared? There is no such thing as too much snow. […
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VIDEO: How Gnarly Can You Get as a Heli Ski Client in Alaska?

Alaska, 2014.

My life was forever changed when when my parents took me to watch Steeper and Deeper in 1992. While watching one of the big mountain powder scenes I remember turning to a friend and saying, “I want to do that”. Ever since then skiing has been a major part of my life. 20 years later I finally got my chance. In April I got the opportunity to go to Points North Heli in Cordova Alaska. Skiing in the Chugach is an experience of a lifetime. I was very fortunate; the weather cooperated perfectly for my trip […]
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San Francisco Premier of “Pretty Faces” – The All Girl Ski Movie – on October 25th:

Pretty Faces.

Get ready to hoot an holler! Coalition Snow, a Tahoe-based women’s ski and snowboard company, and GoodPeople, the Bay Area’s online marketplace for independent outdoor and action sports brands, are excited to announce that joining the roster of ski films dropping this fall in San Francisco will be the first-ever, crowd- sourced, crowd-funded all-women’s ski movie, “Pretty Faces.” “Pretty Faces” premiers on Saturday, October 25th, at the Brava Theater in the Mission at 6:30 p.m. Get your tickets at http://bit.ly/prettyfacessf. Stoke will be high and we guarantee a good time! Athletes from the […]
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Trip Report: Skiing Iceland from Summit to Sea

We are on an island just below the Arctic circle surrounded by the stormy North Atlantic. Even though people have lived here for more than a thousand years it is still a wilderness of glaciers, mountains and thermal pools. Nature’s powers are felt everywhere. Arctic winds assault us and storms throw snow, hail and ice into our faces. Though it is April, winter’s vice like grip is firmly holding on. In fact it had started snowing that “winter” in September. On a typical day of spring skiing, the Icelandic weather changes every 20 minutes or […]
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