Can I ski with you?

[carpathian]

Day 4: We skinned through a fog back, guided only by bat sensory.

At the crest of the roll, the sun broke through but the winds picked up.



We climbed the next stretch but it was obvious that Transformer was out of the question. Massive wind loading:




And the sun was in and out:



I got spanked for my 'progressive tele binding' remark. Took a digger off a small cliff, as my binding snapped, that could have been bad. It is in the video...



Vesna got her first run to town:

[carpathian]

Here is video for last photos

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=180206593007

[carpathian]

I had three days on the lifts skiing blower pow on these new sticks. The weather has been in and out but I have been on a nail gun all week.

The shop is in the middle of a reno and I prepare for the heart of winter.



Looking at this photo of my shop is like peering into my head. All the ideas and potential is right there at my finger tips. But the place is busting at the seems! What kind of business am I running here?

I am thinking Carpathian Ski Co is not a custom ski company. I am a boutique builder I like to build sick big mountain powder skis. I know what works and feels good under foot. I want to focus on the quality and purity of the wood and materials as I further refine and tweak my established shapes.

But most of all I want to film skiing in the mountains. Building skis is a means to an ends for me, an excuse. My true passion is in the hills, not in the shop. Filming in the mountains is like creating art and by filming on skis I built, I am further refining that art. It is kind of weird because I am starting to realize that this boards I am making are fucking sweet. The lines are clean and the construction is sound. They ride with an incredible pop and zest for the next turn, no matter which design.

So that is my 20 year business plan as of right now. I will fill these random ski orders as they trickle in but I don't feel like chasing customers. I have about 30 lines I want to ski for the camera this winter. I'll just keep plugging away with all my little projects but not forget the big picture.

Maybe if I could come up with like $50k of investor money, TGR would take that money and put me in one of their movies. My skis would be on the fast track and I would just be along for the ride. All of the sudden everyone would want Carpathians because they are sick and then Splat would buy me out for like $500k...?!

Any takers?

[carpathian]

Lovely day in the hill today!

Parking lot AM beers.



Some directions form very helpful patroller.



Oh too bad this last wind event today blew out everything. The cornices on Transformer took it to the rock. Which is good, I guess.



We kept going west and spied some new terrain. BIG terrain.



Greg sniffed out the only good snow on the mountain.



Good recon for these lines.



At the end of the day, the weather changed and dropped to cap the peak.

[rogue killer trout]

hellow tgr forum I'm new to this blogging shit so bear with me. i must say that i have truly enjoyed this thread and it's basically how i keep tabs on what your up to without talking to you. so far the season started off with a shaabaaang and thats probably an understatement cause i don't know how it could have gotten any awesomer pow right up to my arm tits straight up mind blowing shit but that is neigher here nor there. put a bunch of hikes in already this year and i'm feeling stronger on skis than i ever have. ive learned how to tap into a higher source of energy power, i call upon my animal spirit guide the rogue killer trout, which harnesses the power of the mighty river and propells me up hill to the top. i think this year i shal make a pilgermage to the north and once again climb the mighty mount Hudson and look upon the horizion with changed eyes. i hope that you may be there with me to share the day.

[carpathian]

I think the phrase I used was 'rogue killer whale' but trouts are cute too. You could be one of a handful of people... Are you from Ontario? No wait, Saskatchewan?

You can sleep in my camper. What the refrozen gnar of whistler finally drove you to the warm world of the internet?

[RootSkier]

Sweet blog.











No really. This is sweet. You should submit some shit to Powder.

[carpathian]

There is nothing slack about the 'slack country' immediately adjacent to the ski area known as Ski Smithers. The lifts and all the blue runs are perched on the broad shoulder facing east over the interior plains towards Prince George. Children frolic and parents look on.

No one really goes out of bounds because the majority are happy slaying groomers and bump runs. So any real exploring is usually up to you, there is just not a lot of info kicking around on how to get from here to there, there or THERE! It is pretty easy to take the T-bar up, ditch the pack in the warming hut, make a lap or two on the chair side and then grab the pack and head out. A lot of the time it is easier to go solo as well because if you stand around at the top waiting for a companion... they are just not there.

I zipped across the Prairie looking for a quick 1500 feet of vert up the broad shoulder above Little Simpson Gulch. In the photo you come form the far left and skin up the edge of the sun light to the high point up over Big Simpson as seen on far right. As you notice there is a lot of hanging exposure and while you are up on the edge it all rolls away to a long blind fall. Just out of view in the photo is the broad Prairie as seem in the previous post with the nice alpenglow. View from my house:



Now it is no secret that Hudson Bay mountain sees her fair share of high winds. Actually more then her share. Located on the very leeward edge of the Coast Range proper, the dying pacific storms seem to give it one last kick at the can as they roar across the Prairie and dump any moving snow into Little Simpson Gulch. There is one clean line that is 'always' safe to ski. You ski off the broad high shoulder as it descends and narrows onto a nice tree cover ramp that runs between Big and Little Simpsons.

On this day the the avy conditions were high, like usual. There were rumors of the dreaded December ice crust and people were known to remotely trigger slides from adjacent slopes. I cruised the wide open slopes above the the treed shoulder. It is like the snow is naturally groomed by the wind. A smooth chalky texture and when you are skiing with the wind it is pretty fun. I found the entrance to the ramp and made my way making sure not to stray too far left (into Little Simpson avy path) or right (into Big Simpson cliffs).

Once you get top the first trees on the ridge the snow is usually pretty good. It might snow 5 cm up high but it blows into the 20cm down low. I saw a couple of people down below me and zipped over to say high. Sure enough it was a friend and we chit chatted briefly and then I continued. At this point you you can ski the edge of the tree line that runs right next to the huge hang fire on skiers right. The terrain is steep and broken by dense clusters of hemlocks and many rolls and gulley features. It is pretty easy to safely ski because the ski cuts are obvious and nothing is gonna go too big. I managed to cut loose a nice 30cm slab across a roll and I kind of wished someone was there to see it. It billowed out the rest of my run and I made my way out to the flats easily.

Now that I was down in the belly of the beast I could sense the potential destruction looming over head and it made me uneasy. I cruised out the bottom of the drainage to where the trees and Simpson road pick up. I figured on having a drink of water and wait for the other guys to make there way to me. I stopped and turned around to have a look and as I did I felt an almost imperceptible 'wump.' There was a second where I was not sure if it was my imagination just as I looked up hill and saw to my horrow the snow propagating some 200 meter up to the base of the giant cliffs and then propagating along the base of the cliffs some 200 meters and 2 meters deep!

I turned and power skated across the little flat knoll I was on and aimed for the supposed safety of the trees. I kept looking back and saw that the brunt of the slide was stopped by the small knoll I was previously standing on. Holy Shit! I triggered that slide across an obvious terrain feature and up to a slope that appeared to be 'unaffectable' by little old me. I looked up the rest of the drainage to the real hang fire and it was still there. I decided to cruise out a bit and then wait to make sure the other two made it out. One of the guys was a kind of a beginner and I could foresee trouble. About 10 minutes later they popped out of the trees and were glad to see me. They saw the slide and thought I was in it and we were all happy to get out of there.

It was three days later when the five of us embarked on our triple crown and encountered the shear ice at the end of the day. (earlier post in this thread). When we we climbing out of Big Simpson to the top of the treed shoulder (at right in photo) I was eager to see the extent of the slide from this high vantage point. At the top i kept looking into Little Simpson trying to see the treed knoll or the start of the road or anything familiar. That is when I realized that sometime in the last three day the entire drainage broke loose and Little Simpson Drainage literally flushed the toilet. At the bottom of the small valley their was debris piled 30 foot deep and it had blasted out the bottom and obliterated any 'safe spot' I might have tried to hide in if she had broke loose while I was there.



Anyway, the moral of the story is that LSD is dangerous and should not be toyed with. This second photo is from last week. A nice 10 foot crown as evidence of the daily snow loading. I guess this would be the time to get in there, ski some nice bed surface?

[LeeLau]

damn - that's a nice big one. I looked at Kathlyn Couloir and the 5,000 for the week we spent in Smithers but ,, you said it, windphucked

[carpathian]

So I finally went and saw the new TGR movie and had a good time. The show was held at the Glenwood Hall outside of Smithers. Any event at the Glenwood, aka Driftwood, is sure to be a classic Smithers occasion.

We rolled up at five minutes to 8, which was show time. I had a beer on the porch and then eased into a chair in the back row. This was Vesna and my first night on the town in a long while. We had a baby sitter and Vesna was busy socializing. All in all I was entertained. The jibber costumes were colourful and my favorite Haines 'getting out of the plane on the runway' shot was dead on. Sage has been training for AK again and Ian stomped some large airs.

I have to say that I was most entertained by the drunk heckler over to my left. TGR should hire him to the voice overs because it went over real well with the crowd. His dramatic gasps in disbelief and shrieks of “Oh my god! Did you see that?!” got me chuckling. The best was the more cautionary “No, don't do it, don't do it... HOLY Shit! Did you see that?!” You get the picture.

I saw dudes pushing the limits and some wipe outs and some hideous fashion. It is one thing to be a slave to corporate America, but to be a slave to fashion as well?! At the end of Sage's AK section, I was not really feeling the lime green suit and the half hearted rebel 'fist in the air.' Was that shot scripted or totally freestyle with the hair and the David Bowie posture...? My favorite line he skied was that super fun looking one with all the steep pillows and it just kept going and going.

I am honestly the most entertained by Seth when he keeps his skis on the ground and charges lines. I get kind of bored of the mellow line leading into the 80 foot front flip. Just my opinion...

The show ended and then the real entertainment began. There was a 'recycled material fashion show' that I decided to miss and went back to the front porch for more beer etc. The people were festive and the drunk guy was real excited about winning the raffle prize for the Heli skiing out at Bell II. He claimed very dramatically, that his “whole life would be complete if he had just one heli run, so help me god!” I pointed out that sled skiing is over all more fun, but he wouldn't hear it.

We went back inside just as the MC girl was telling everyone to clear the chairs from in front of the stage. There was a live rock band coming on in a few minutes but she apparently had some sort of game to play with the crowd to kill time. She called all the single guys to one side of the room and then all the single girls to the other side and then made the announcement that “this is what you have to work with...”

She them went down the line and made each person step out in the front as she rattled off a bunch of personal info about each person. “He's easy... she's an engineer... she's bisexual... he's super smart...”
I was really beginning to ask my self if this is weird as my buddy turned and said “This is fucking weird!” I agreed but was still impressed that the MC girl kept the ball rolling. The atmosphere teetered between awkward to hilarious to finally being relieved when the little game was over. The point? Unknown.

The time came for the drawing of the ticket to win the day of heli skiing with Last Frontier at Bell II.
They called the number. My last three digits were 460. I knew that Vesna's number was one up at 461. The number was called... 441! Vesna stuck her ticket in the air and strutted forward and everybody cheered! She went to the front and managed to get her hands on the mic as she made a cheeky speech thanking the world for her good fortune. I knew that they called another number and was slightly embarrassed that she would be so bold and try to bluff her way into a free day of heli skiing.

Some one started chanting “Vesna! Vesna! Vesna!' and the whole room followed suit. She stuck the envelope in the front of her shirt and walked back to where I was standing amidst much uproar. Just then another girl came forward and said that she had the number. Vesna was drunk and not paying attention. I was trying to to tell her that she did not win. She genuinely thought she won! The other girl was kind of standing there and Vesna was kind of yelling “No way! Not after that speech!” The MC said something about how this was 'awkward.' Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Vesna went back to the front and offered to fight the girl right there! (she has been really into KickBo lately).

Just then the owner of the heli company jumped up on stage and said “I guess there are TWO free days of heli skiing!” Everyone cheered. My buddy was awestruck that Vesna had basically talked her way onto a heli. I was proud now and it looks like I might get in the bird too.

The band took the stage and soon the drunk guy was up front really getting into the music. He was all sweaty and pounding his fist on the stage to the beat. At the end of each song he would start yelling “Don't stop, Don't stop!” in kind of a sad desperate drunk voice. His friends tried to drag him off the dance floor several time but he kept breaking free. He actually made his way on the stage and said something into the mic but I can't remember what he said. I'm sure it was priceless, if not more memorable then another year of ski porn.

[Poop~Ghost]

Just then the owner of the heli company jumped up on stage and said “I guess there are TWO free days of heli skiing!” Everyone cheered.

THAT is fucking awesome!

[carpathian]

With the temps dropping to -30C and no snow I figured I might as well go look at this avalanche in Simpsons and ski it for the first time this year. You can see Transformer Ridge off on the far left, across the Prairie. This shot is 5 minutes from top of chair.



To the far right is the Simpson Drainage. I traversed around and skied the slope above from the top of the roll and skied onto the tree shoulder between Big and Little Simpson.



This shot is from the top of the Treed Ridge looking back to where the first shot was. The top of the lift is over the rise. Look at those gnarly lines that no one has skied. I have skied in far lookers left, right along the cliff, but have never really gotten into the meat of it.



This is one of the cleanest lines and as you can see it is scary. Blind cliff entrance, and two mandatory airs in the middle. Looks doable though. Might be best to climb up from the bottom? This zone is ALWAYS in the shade.



I skied the Treed Ridge to the right and hooked up with old Simpson road for 4000 feet to town, in the far distance.



I have been experimenting with this very progressive style of facial hair. No snot build up under the nose and no nasty burned mustache hairs.

[XXX-er]

So did you ever sit in with the ski hill house band "The Ski Bums " on your trumpet , it looked like you were downing a whole lot of brown pops to get in the mood for the 2nd second set ?

I was really curious how you were going to work in a trumpet but decided to exercise discretion and head down the hill instead

Rosco tells me you've had that trumpet in the trunk for the last 4 yrs ,wtf?

the beer can mute is a nice touch

[carpathian]

I've played the ol trumpet for 17 years now. Well, all through school then dropped it for awhile then picked it up again about 5 years ago. I am in Van right now looking for one of those snazzy silver ones.

The Ski Bums have wanted me to play with them for about a year now but I have always been reluctant. I like jamming with no real pressure of performance so the show last week was a break though. I was nervous all day. I knew we sounded good in practice but getting up front is a different story.

I was actually thinking of slinking away from the parking lot when Rosco yelled down to me that they were waiting and repeatedly announcing that they had some special guest, me.

Too bad you left. I can play with and emphasis the beat/rythym or add to the melody. For one song they shoved me up front as CG and I dueled back and forth with him on lead guitar.

Every one was dancing and I like performing now. I will miss the Boxing Day performance at the Hilltop but will make some turns in Spanky's to make up for it.

[XXX-er]

wow sounds rockin , nobody ever dances at those apres ski gigs but way to broaden your horizons into the Bulkley valley music scene AND now you are a real Ski Bum

frankly you did look ... reluctant

boxing day at the Hillside eh ?I could crawl home from there cuz Tele-babe lives just a few streets down

[DeeAre]

Good God, I'm doing it all wrong.

[carpathian]

Doing it wrong? I have often though the same thing. That is the trouble with 'it.' There is no defined right way to do things so it constantly feels like pioneering a new path and it is scary sometimes. Some paths work for some people but don't work for others. Seems to be an evolving, ephemeral concept more then anything.

The goal? Feed the family, first and foremost. If I can do that will living and breathing sport in the mountains, that is great. I am fast closing in on age
30. Looking into other options for making money and perhaps relegating extreme sports into realm of recreation.

Keep doing what your doing and it will work it self out. Second guessing is part of the game sometimes.

[XXX-er]

I did alot of things completely wrong but they seemed to have turned out right

[DeeAre]

This is my new life-coach thread. Picks me up and I simply love it.
Carp, dig the media you post and your takes on life.

[carpathian]

I am just trying to pass along everything I have learned through skiing.

I will bill you at the end of the month.

[carpathian]

I have found that in order to push my limits on skis it helps to broaden horizons into other sports and then apply those skills back on skis. Cross training at it's best.

This is my first bike TR ever! Thought I'd make it a good one.

First off, here is a prerequisite Whistler video stoke from back in 07:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-iCz6cdCDc&feature=channel_page"]YouTube- CrankWorx 2007[/ame]

So needless to say that I have been deeply inspired by riding my bike in Whistler. For the last 6 weeks I have been trying to remember and feed off that energy as we are building a new trail here in Smithers.

These ohotos cover the first 2km of trail. We finished the entire 5k length in October but it was too wet to really ride. In total there are about 100 jumps, a ton of wicked berms and an enormous wall ride at the bottom that has already munched a few bones. We did do one sweet ride after it all froze but then it was time to ski anyway. We had two excavators, a bunch of pulaskis, a few rakes and a shovel or two.

Last weekend in September the Ride Guide came for a tour and I think they enjoyed our work!

These guys look like U2





Be safe out there, boys!



Warm up series:




Getting serious:





Rolling into 'the Money' Sequence:






CHAOS!

They really liked this berm for some reason:


Can you say 'railing' ?



This guy got a little too excited:


And his friend is like WHOA, BRAH!


I love the skinny jeans and the tall tees and the sheer determination in his face as he jibs the downed bike!


And then he is like "No friends with booters like this!"





This is the Fish Hook Berm. A full 270 deg...



...that rolls right into a sweet hip.



These guys could really tweak their bikes:




Nice Three Pack:







This is the 'berm to step-down to berm to step-up' section:






Oh! This guy liked this huge hip:



Right around that corner is a sweet six pack... and then a huge 1,2... and then a...

So, this is half way about here. The bottom is gonna be even sweeter I think. I am working on full video sequence for next time! Hope you enjoyed!

[carpathian]

Ahhh! There is nothing better then spending Christmas in the city of Vancouver with all of my lovely inlaws and their screaming children all packed in a house buried deep in the suburbs.

The grass is green and the Sikhs abundant. I would have to make do and bide my time until we could make a quick dash north to Whistler for 36 hours of awesomeness.

On Boxing day we drove straight down 152nd all the way to the White Rock Pier. I have to admit that it was pretty darned nice out there.


It was warm up on the beach but a bit chilly out on the water.


Look at all the happy people!

Baby's first holidays were going all right.


I could not ignore the call of the mountains. Baker in the distance:



On the 28th we made our move for Whistler. I had not been there in exactly a year, since we moved north to Smithers and was excited to see how everything was packaged up for the upcoming Olympics. The first thing I noticed was the sweet new Sea to Sky highway. For the two years we lived there the road was under constant construction and it could easily take over three hours to make the drive. With the new double lanes it is like a video game as you S-turn along the ocean, heading to the snow.

Rolled into town around 4pm and went straight to the Rec center. It was time for baby's first swim. I know it is cliche but it is invigorating to see the world through the eyes of an infant. As she made goo gaa sounds in the kiddie pool, I stared dreamily at the panoramic view that sweeps from the Wedge to Blackcomb and Whistler. I remembered why this place is so sweet.

We stayed at a friends house on Easy Street and I had to go to bed early if I wanted to make the most of my one day on the hill.

I met my guide Bougie at the patrol shack at 7am. He was a little late because he was 'tied up in bed' with a first date from the night before.


We jumped on the Wizard chair and zipped up the mountain in the dark.
After the morning patrol meeting we rode 7th up to the top. Bougie randomly had another friend visiting in town who was also from Alaska! We met at the meeting and as it turns out knew all the same people but didn't know each other, so that was fun. Bougie would be busy all day and I had a new ski buddy.

By 8:30 we were at the top of the glacier, ready to go


First stop, DOA. The snow was variable and kind of sun affected but I had never seen the top filled in so good. Dropped in at 9am and got back on the chair by 9:15. Just in time for coffee.


For the second lap we went for Hasume. The snow was slightly better.


For the third lap we did Corona. Best snow of the day so far.


We had to make it back around to the GLX by 1pm to meet up with Rogue Killer Trout


He was glad to join us since we were planning on hitting the Stairmaster for the last lap. Here is top of the hike in white out conditions:




So by the end of it, I was tired. I felt like I packed a whole season into one day. Good bye, Whistler see you again some day!

[carpathian]

Vesna started the day up on the hill in the morning while I watched the baby in town.


It was her first day on these new skis I made for her.


She met up with Bill the Russian, also on Carpathians:


A little air


Ves is loving the new rides


Here is a local patroller by the name of Taylor throwing down the tweaked out daffy. Nice Factions, Bro!


The baby had had enough of me so mom had to ski to town and we did the baby swap and I got to head up the hill.


I skinned up to the moderate bench horizontal from my finger. Was gonna go to the summit but the snow was so nasty, it was hard to keep moving up when I knew I would have to ski down.


Tranformer Ridge has finally healed itself for the first time in a month. My fingers point to the last two unskied entrances. Lots of lines in there.


Two hours of skinning and the summit seems no closer anyway. It is another hour to the tippy top from here.


Looking down the sweet snow I got to ski.





Looking back at tracks. Not so bad.


More turns


Another lone soul. Town in far distance


More tracks


I was trying to get back to the resort for a beer and poutine, aiming with the poles


I knew Bill would be in the sun pit. I could not make the traverse from on high so i had to drop to the T bar and then go up again.




Last ride on the t bar. I was right on schedule.


Sure enough, Bill was sitting there as if waiting for me. Quick safety meeting and off to the bar!



You know me, always pushing the limits. Did you know that for exactly $20 you can get two huge beers and a plate of poutine? No tip for the waitress though...


Time to ski to town



There is the bottom of the lift, all done for the day


There is town


Almost home when you hit the rail road tracks.


Home sweet home! Good job skis.

[XXX-er]

I always hear people always refer to "Bill the ski bum" cuz he is the lead singer of the "ski bums" and Taylor is the drummer for that matter

The ski bums are rock stars ,I notice the women are all over you guys ... does the band all have drug habits yet ?

There is a good reason they call it "the praire " cuz its all fucking windblasted ,thats where they filmed the disney movie "eight below" which was sposed to be set in the antarctic ,see if you can pick out the terrain...BTW this is really wholesome so you can view this at work

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXkoGlxVbLY"]YouTube- Eight Below Trailer[/ame]

[carpathian]

My favorite part in that movie was when the lead guy is all sad and driving around in supposed New Zealand as he laments his lost dogs still on Antarctica. He was driving on the High Road and you could see the ski runs in the background.

I just wanted say "Your dogs are right up there!"