Blog Posts for 2009

It wasn’t until I was sipping coffee and pulling my stuff together this morning that I realized the switch to daylight-savings time had occurred while I slept.  This meant that while I thought I was grinding beans at 6:15, it was actually 5:15.  Crap.  I called Wray, hoping that he was also up an hour early.  He turned out to be as poor at global time-awareness as me, so the break of dawn found me pulling away from the house with Bodie-the-dog riding shotgun.

We’ve had an amazingly snowy October here in the Tetons.  While the valley has been mostly just cold and gray, the mountains are holding a remarkable amount of snow.  A storm cycle at the start of the month dumped over 20″ at Targhee and we had powder turns before the crops were all in.  And then last week saw another decent cycle move through and it’s powder again!  Granted, the base is a bit thin (watch out for the sagebrush,) but it’s pretty fun anyway.  Bodie has so much fun that it’s hard not to take advantage…

It felt a bit too warm in the valley for skiing, but the parking lot temps up at Targhee were just below freezing–perfect for warm, fast skinning.

We flew up the cat-track with long strides and lots of glide (these skins from Climbing Skins Direct are unbelievable,) out towards Peaked Peak.  The majority of our local over-eager early-season skiers stay over on the main mountain so Peaked guaranteed a blank canvas, and less than an hour later we were at the top, transitioning for the trip down.

The whole trip down is pretty mellow terrain, but with 10″ of creamy powder on November 1st, who cares?  (And back on my Wagner Custom board again!  So sweet.)

We tore through the cream, laying it over until we hit the lower slopes and transitioned to rock-skipping down to the cat-track.  A second run on the upper slopes would certainly have been icing on the cake, but perhaps later in the week.  It’s awesome to start logging vert this early in the season, working out the kinks and starting the season’s base endurance.  Now, with almost a week’s worth of skinning and riding already this fall, I’m all fired up to get up high and start pursuing big descents once the alpine fills in.  It’s a good year to be a rider in the Tetons…

Skiing Magazine recently launched the Yellow Line contest which is featured in the November 2009 issue. The contest rules are found at www.skiingmag.com/yellowline.

How to participate? Visit the Yellow Line Gallery which features images of some of the best road-side skiing in North America. Three different locations (identified as X, Y, and Z) are shown in the gallery of photos. Send your best guesses for Locations X, Y, and Z to goggletan@skiingmag.com. Please include the highway number, resort or pass name, and state.

Why should you participate? The contest winner gets a pair of Wagner Custom Skis with a solid color or topsheet design graphic. The custom skis include: Bomber vertical sidewall construction. Clear grained, all-wood core for lively feel, responsiveness, and great durability. Oversized steel edges and extra thick bases for longevity. Custom-fit and optimized for YOU according to length, width, sidecut, camber, tip/tail shapes, overall stiffness, flex pattern, and material layup.

Where to get clues and see the photos? Here.

What do you think about this contest?

Made my third annual trip down to the skier’s (and snow rider’s) bonanza that is Las Leñas , Argentina. This makes me a mere rookie. The resort opened in 1984, and the Americans invaded in 1994 (including Telluride’s own Paul Russell) for a freeski competition. Since then, the gringos have been charging the terrain, pushing out into further territory, and making the most of an American summer by skiing some of the best in-bounds, side-country, and backcountry in the world.

For the third year in a row, I headed down with Johnny Lyons from Vail (this summer was his tenth anniversary trip), and we spent a little over two weeks skiing new-to-us terrain, old favorites, and scouting lines that we hope to ski in future years.


This year was my first time down there on my Wagners, and I could not have chosen a better ski for the terrain. I brought a second pair of skis, but never skied them. Las Leñas begs for longer, stiffer skis, as there are no trees (literally zero trees), and rather than turning around obstacles, you just turn when you’re good and ready. So when the conditions are right (which they were for much of our trip), you can really open it up and ski big lines at high speed, with nice, open run-outs.

Our trip started with mediocre snowpack, following a huge storm that shut down the infamous Marte lift, then the temps went up, and the winds came in (as they always do in Leñas). By the time we arrived (about 10 days after the storm), what was left was boilerplate and melting fast. Fortunately, there are always good lines to ski, especially if you’re willing to spend some time touring to get to them. And once Marte reopened, we were able to access some great terrain with only an hour or two of hiking/skinning. By the time we started to exhaust our options, the next storm rolled in with 3 meters of snow up top. Again, the winds came, so it was never the blower powder we’re used to in Colorado, but all you gotta do is know your aspects, and go find the good snow. Which we did.

Las Leñas is definitely not for everyone, as the lift-served terrain does not suit all skier types, and the conditions are not always great in-bounds (or side-country). At the same time, when Marte is good, there may not be a better lift, accessing more challenging terrain anywhere in the world… and if you like to tour, and aren’t afraid of long days in the backcountry, Las Leñas has some of the best access to touring I’ve seen (and it’s truly infinite). As good or better than my home terrain around Silverton, CO.

Thanks to Pete and the crew at Wagner for building some fantastic skis, and making this year my best yet! Enjoy the photos, and perhaps we’ll see you down there next summer…

The Edge of Never is a nonfiction book about a young skier, Kye Petersen, who travels to Chamonix to ski the run that killed his respected, big-mountain skiing father, Trevor Petersen. The story is about an older guard of skiers (including Glen Plake and Mike Hattrup) sharing their love and respect for the mountains with a younger skier.

I believe that skiing is an incredible way to share meaningful time, conversation, and experiences with friends and family. Ultimately, The Edge of Never highlights the selflessness, loyalty of family, tradition, and respect that grows the community and culture of skiing.

Bill Kerig did an excellent job with this book. It flows well and is a fast read. The book will make you contemplate and get psyched for the upcoming season, an upcoming trip, and/or your next day of skiing.

Check out www.theedgeofnever.com

Have you read it?  If so, let me know what you think.