spines

[VIDEO] “DIG:” An Alaskan Snowboard Film Where Ryland Bell Rides “The Line of His Life”—A 3,200-Foot Spine

haines spines Alaska

“It was hands down, unequivocally, the line of my life.” – Ryland Bell Ryland Bell has always been a dark horse. Born in Alaska and based year-round in Haines, the notoriously hardcore snowboarder and lifelong commercial fisherman spends his winters quietly hiking world-class spines from his backyard. In April of 2025, he headed deep into his home mountains in search […]
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Martin Kuprianowicz |
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Tahoe Backcountry Report: Skiing in a Video Game… Digitized, Overly Smooth, Fake Texture Snow in Made-Up Terrain

Report from December 20, 2021 The snow out there skied like a video game… It looked digitized, overly smooth, fakely textured, made-up terrain. It skied like… well, it’s skied weird as hell. Chalky, powdery, smooth, predictable on right turns. Breakable crust, catchy, hooky, scary on left turns. The terrain was fantastical:  fake rock spires, seam-ripping spines, perfectly hewn planer faces, […]
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Miles Clark |
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[VIDEO] SnowBrains 2020/21 Alaska Highlights: Helicopters, Spines, Powder, & Backflips

We spent the entire month of April 2021 skiing in Alaska, traveling around, chasing snow and good times. This was our 13th ski trip to Alaska (damn we’re getting old…). Within 12-hours of landing in Anchorage, we were flying in a helicopter with Triple Point Expeditions skiing some of the highest quality powder we’ve ever laid into in Alaska. After […]
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Miles Clark |
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“The Fingers” at Squaw Valley, CA Today Looking Best We’ve Ever Seen Them in Our 18-Seasons Here…

Today is the best we’ve ever seen “The Fingers” look in our 18-seasons of skiing Squaw Valley, California. Look 👀 at those Spines! We’ve also never seen Eagle’s Nest spine up the way it is right now. Sliding down those spines on Eagle’s Nest today would be a dream… The spines simply don’t shape up like that anymore due to […]
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Miles Clark |
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Bariloche, Argentina Backcountry Report: The Big Lines of “Alaskita”

Little Alaska is my favorite line in Bariloche. It’s not too bad of a hike, the views are stunning, and the terrain is intense. Avalanche terrain management is priority number one here. The upper spines are subject to wind loading. The middle convex rollovers are textbook avalanche start zones and the lower chutes would flush you extremely hard if anything came down. This zone is only to be played with when stability confidence is high. The wind really hammered the Catedral massif two nights ago – pressing the snow down, scouring some zones, and filling in others. Little Alaska is very prone to wind and wind loading. The last time I […]
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Miles Clark |
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Japan Report: Pillows + Pillows

ski powder japan

January in Japan this year was special. We got snow, we got sun, we got pillows. The most interesting features here are spines that have pillows. We’ve coined them pillowspines. Every sunny day initiates a search for more pillowspines. Every snowy day is a search for pillows in the trees. Powder is the norm, pillows are the highlights. February has begun with rain, cold temps, and brutally hard snow for […]
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Miles Clark |
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頑張って – Photographic Reflections of Japanese Spine-Pillows

頑張って = Ganbatte = “Do Your Best” Spines and pillows: two of the more desired features in skiing. They come together in one of the most profound and sought after zones. The terrifyingly joyful minutes between top and bottom provide years of living, learning, and experience. At the bottom, you’re too breathless to shout, too exhausted to feel elated, too surprised you’re alive to be excited. Religious, out of body, life changing, orgasmic. Love outweighs fear. We find ourselves sprinting up the skintrack to ski these prolific lines. […]
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Zach Paley |
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The Gift of Sun in Japan in January: Photos & Video

In Japan, in January, it’s supposed to snow and snow a lot. They usually get about 300 inches in January. Not this year. This year, we’ve been in a cycle of snow then sun then snow then sun in place of the usual snow everyday. This year’s cycle has been great for getting up high and skiing some of the more exciting lines in the area. The X-factor has been the avy conditions. We’ve backed off of […]
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Miles Clark |
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