Skis BLOG POSTS

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…

I just spent 10 days in the Tetons teaching an instructor training seminar for NOLS, doing some really amazing riding while training a new generation of backcountry snowboarding instructors. With all the time we spent skinning and riding, my trainees were pretty impressed at the performance of my Wagner Custom approach skis, and how easy my transitions were compared to their splitboards. 50cm of new snow graced us over the first few days, and after seeing the start to our season’s snowpack it was really nice to see stability improve around here, opening up the big lines that were too dangerous before. On our last tour day I went down the far north ridge of Treasure Mountain with five of our riders to explore an avalanche path up there.

We made our way along the heavily corniced ridgeline under overcast skies, cutting one HUGE cornice to test the slope below–no reaction under hundreds of pounds of impact made us feel pretty good about the situation. Test pits near the starting zone of our intended path confirmed good stability, so we punched the gut in fast powder, riding one-at-a-time from safe zone to safe zone. (Practicing good down-guiding technique.) Big rooster tails ripping through little trees in steep terrain had everybody grinning and whooping, and the turns just kept coming. We finally reached the bench at the “bottom” of our run when I realized that we were standing at the top of a shot that I had been eyeing for a couple of years from the skateski track below. It was pure luck that we ended up right on top of it, with perfect conditions and a group of strong riders. Awesome.

The Boy Scout Couloir is so named because it is the only clean line through the 400′ limestone cliff above the Treasure Mountain boy scout camp. Steep, narrow, and perfectly plumb, the couloir is a deep and beautiful cleft through towering rock walls. Ultimately, the reason that I hadn’t ridden it before was because of the long access and the difficulty of finding it from above. But with us camped on the summit of Treasure Mountain, we were perfectly set up for a descent and didn’t even know it. It would mean a long skin back to camp, but what better way to wrap up this trip?

After describing the couloir to my tour group they jumped at the chance to ride it, so I took over the down-guiding and we rode up to the lip to scout the entrance. We found a little sneak above some rocks to access a dozen 50-degree turns into the meat of the couloir–beautiful. Once everybody was grouped up inside the couloir, I rode firm, fun powder to a good spotting zone just above the rock portal at the exit and gave the team the thumbs-up to ride it out one-at-a-time. They made fast, controlled turns, leaving cold crystal rooster tails, opening it up once they hit the fan at the exit. Once they were safely through and into the forest below, I aired off my perch and rode out to join them. Big smiles, lots of high-fives and general giddyness ensued.

We rode down through a bit more forested terrain to the bottom of the canyon and transitioned for the skin back up. After 8 days of winter camping, everybody was a bit fatigued and really hungry, but super stoked to finish the trip with a line like that. The 5-hour skin back up (splitboard skins can be a nightmare) took a circuitous route up Eddington Canyon and past the Eddington Chutes. (We had ridden those a couple of days earlier.) We watched the sun set over the Big Holes just as we climbed a bootpack through the rock band at the top of the Treasure Mountain massif, the sky turning lava red. Dusk fell into dark as we rolled back into camp, spent but happy, ready for a huge dinner feed and looking forward to going home to family and friends.

Skinning out of the mountains with our camp in the sled behind me, I became acutely aware of the caliber of the backcountry snowboarding program that we’ve created at NOLS. If you’re a snowboarder and you want to take your riding to the next level in the backcountry, I would definitely consider taking a course–you’d be amazed at the experience.

Wagner Custom Factory Team Rider, Chason Russell, took third place at the 2009 Subaru Telluride Freeskiing World Tour Qualifier. Some of the best freeskiers in the world faced hardpack and boney conditions at the Telluride event. I was relieved that no one was seriously injured given the challenging nature of the course and snowpack.

The competitors and audience were stoked to see the finals take place on Telluride’s 13,300″ Palmyra Peak. Mark Welgos of Aspen impressively won the event with Arne Backstrom of Squaw Valley taking second place. Chason’s protege, 17 year old Michael Gardner of Ridgway Colorado, finished in fifth place. Claudia Bouvier of Vail won the women’s event. Results and more information regarding the event can be found here.

Placing third in the competition earns Russell a spot in all 2009 Freeskiing World Tour events, as well as the honor of recognition as one of the top freeskiers on the big mountain circuit.

Congratulations Chason!

The next Freeskiing World Tour event takes place in Crested Butte February 19-22. For more information, check out www.FreeSkiingWorldTour.com.

For more info on Chason’s skiing, check out his summer of 2008 trip report from Lanin Volcano in Argentia

The Why Couloir January 11, 2009 — Words and photos by Brad Foley

Knowing that the skiing out the backcountry gate had been hit hard over the last two days and wanting to ski soft snow for Scott’s birthday we headed to the east side of the Bear Creek valley. The forecast was for blue skies and the Why had looked good from across the valley as we headed to the gate.

Dan, Ryan and I had yet to ski the Why Couloir and Scott having only skied it once before we decided to go. Adding to the spaghetti string of tracks on the way to the skin route we were excited with the idea of soft snow and blue skies. Climbing quickly we made the ridge just as the weather began to deteriorate. With wind increasing and snow now starting to fall we negotiated the intricate ridge to the entrance of the Why, wondering if we had made the right decision. A little billy goating and we were in the main couloir. Since it was Scott’s birthday it only made sense that he drop in first and we hoped the snow was soft and the falling snow made for an amazing scene.


Skiing conservatively down the steep couloir, we found a mix of dense powder and some wind board in the middle section of the couloir. With three large cliff bands at the bottom we traversed out to the exit couloir and found turn after turn of perfect light, dry San Juan powder, the best skiing of the day.

The clouds were lifting and our spirits high, we were all feeling lucky to have been able spend the day together in such a magical place. It was Scott’s fortieth and my first time in the Why, I hope it was as memorable for him as it was for me. Why not…

Last winter Wagner Custom skis and snowboards picked me up as a factory team rider. It was pretty wild – I was standing on the podium after placing 4th in Telluride’s freeskiing competition when Herb Manning of Wagner Custom suddenly handed me my first pair of Wagner Custom skis and informed me that I’m sponsored. Damm was I excited!!! I had myself a pair of the sickest skis on earth.

The first time I took them out I was ecstatic. Instantly I was in awe at their performance and incredible endurance. I used those skis for the rest of the winter and took them to 3 more freeskiing competitions after Telluride where they outperformed every other pair of skis I’ve ever owned. Before riding on Wagner Customs, I went through 2 pairs of skis in less than 2 months including one pair I wrecked after just 3 days. Then I obtained the Wagner skis and they held up beautifully throughout the rest of the season. I remember seeing other competitors at the freeskiing events with broken skis and foot long strips of p-text hanging off there skis and all I could do was laugh because I skied my Wagner’s super hard and nothing would happen to them. I would jump off of cliffs onto rocks, even ski over rocks, without even thinking twice about it. When I would get to the end of my runs I would look at the bottom of my skis thinking that they would be wrecked and to my surprise there wouldn’t be more than a small scratch.

Eventually I was purposely trying to wreck my skis to test their durability and I couldn’t do a thing to them. Wagner’s are by far the best skis I have ever had the pleasure of skiing and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
-Travis Hart Wolfe