Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Silverton shred fest



last friday we headed down to Silverton to shred the gnar. we found some areas to shred that had exposure to cliffs, falls, couloirs, avalanches, rocks, etc. Silverton is a ski area where they allow only 100 people per day with a guide; so esentially you get a backcountry experience in a relatively "safe" manner. each morning everyone is checked and required to have a transceiver, shovel and probe. On our first run I went first of our group into a chute after the guide, made 2 turns on 6" of fluff over crust then fell, turtled on my back, said a prayer, somehow flipped over to my feet before being severed in half by 2 rocks that looked like a jagged piercing body shredding field goal and then toe side carved around the left rock. I set the tone for the group's first run and freaked everybody out a little bit, but the day got better as it went on.

here we go:



2nd run - this is Chris our guide telling me where to go into the "nightmare couloir"(the area that his left pole is pointing to)- which was about a board width at the narrowest spot and prob about 300-400 ft tall. the sketch part was that the terrain rolled over steeper and you couldn't see what you were getting into. fun, but scary and sketchy.


the nightmare couloir is above just left of center


Day 2: on top of a 13,053ft peak getting ready to shred down to the picture below.


this couloir was the highlight of the trip for me; it was about 2-3 boards wide and covered in a couple feet of good pow. Then at the bottom, it opened up and you could point it for about 1500-1800 vertical feet through untracked pow. I went first after the guide and set first tracks all the way down to the valley floor. the feeling was totally surreal.






Guess who's "secret" red bull sponsored private super pipe? Some asshole will probably do a big gnarly heli-drop run and then do some some huge brodeos for next years video. tomato? rice? terje?