TR: December.

**alberta_hoser** · 01-08-2008, 10:26 PM

Cold. Dry. Weak/Dangrous snowpack. Limited big terrain open. Breaking another pair of skis. It was an interesting month. I haven't been writing many TRs this year because the season has been a little ho hum for pictures. Spending more of my time skiing then being a photo slut. I'm having a lot of fun and I'm a better skier than I ever have been but it's hard to justify skiing both days in a weekend just to spin laps of the same cliffs off Standish or laps of the shoulder. However, the season is starting to pick up with the last series of pacific disturbances reaching us. (I'm getting a head of myself though...This TR is about December.)

12.2.07
Finally got my touring gear set up (06/07 gotama’s and dukes). A storm was coming in and bringing lots of wind with it so we went for a lap of the classic Wawa ridge before the stability went to shit.

Nothing exciting, just a nice short pow face. I actually had FUN skinning for the first time though…who would’ve guessed?

picking up speed

Tom dropping in.

12.8.07
Sunshine slack country again, the storm dropped enough snow to go check out the backdoor cliff band. I was up there earlier in the year and it wasn’t quite ready to be hit with the snow pack we have. Soft snow and blue skies got me in the mood to send it.

Wind and fire. On the bootpack.

Jeff sizing up the cliff

Jeff was the guinea pig for this cliff. Took it small this time but had a clean stomp.

My first big huck of the year, took me a little while to psych myself up for it.

bombing the landing

Jeff sending it the second time, the big side this time. This was the biggest he’s ever gone and he pretty much skied out of it. He was stoked! Landing out of frame btw.

My second air, form was a little better.
Reaaallllyyy fun day. Nothing like a big cliff to make you feel like you accomplished something at the end of the day while driving home.

12.9-21.07
We skied sunshine a few times before chirstmas but no pics

12.22.07 – Panorama day trip
We were skiing with a friend of mine who loves to ski but doesn’t get out much. He trains full time for speed skating at the Olympic Oval here in Calgary so I knew he had the leg strength. We took him on what I thought would be an “easy” run through some glades. Apparently you should make sure the people you’re skiing with know how to turn before skiing trees. Since he only skates around the oval in one direction he could turn left very well but he was terrible at his right turns. It was fun trying to get him up to par though. By the end of the day we had him ripping turns through bumps, I have never seen such an improvement in one day. He paid for it in bails. Unfortunately he wouldn’t let us get any pics of him skiing.

Tom taking it deep in Tayton.

Little carve in the trees

12.28.07
No pics, but this is the day that I cracked a second pair of Armada ANTs. Exactly a year to the day I had my boots and helmet stolen in Calgary. Maybe I’ll take this day off in 08?

12.30.07
WIND! Huge gusts were windloading some aspects to the extreme. Not a day to venture out into the backcountry (hasn’t been a good season for that so far, especially with the recent avalanche at Louise) so we stuck inbounds again. This was a day to know the mountain with the wind filling in tracks in between laps on the right aspects.

If you ski sunshine, learn the fence lines. They deliver.

Jeff on the shoulder

tom in a pow field that tends to be fresh almost always. Nice little hike out to pay for it though.

same place…

and finally me on the shoulder

Side note: The dukes are pretty bomber so far. Since I’ve skied them hard inbounds after my ANTs broke I haven’t had any problems. I also like to straightline bumps and they held up so I’m very happy with them.

oh and January has been REALLY good so far, I'll have another TR up soon.