powder day
7am. I go thru my usual world wide web morning lurking. Nate sends ” ah? so? probably stay local today. ” Ok . GM then. Meeting point sole boot with seth, nicklas and olli, Nate. I will pick them up at 8.30. Sharp. I go thru my morning routine. head to my garage. The cham sud apt complex is a huge maze and i can’t find my fuckin car. Remember REMEMBER…maybe it is stolen or maybe brett took it to geneva. For 30 min all kind of fantasy fly around whilst i aimlessly walk around the maze. I can’t find it. Its a powder day, i will worry about it later. I forget my transceiver and go to sole boot, vaguely explain the situation. We end up in brevent which will not open until way later. Rosenbarger , clark, hagen are here and we all patiently wait at the bergerie restaurant listening to soft house music, drinking coffee, talking shit, dancing, enjoying the scenics…until its too long. The hagen crew split. we wait. 11 am. they open. we go up. “UP” looks wind effected with a reasonable amount of snow …Nate , olli, seth ski the ENSA-link. Me Nicklas and Daves’s crew will ski the next one over-link. It was good, i didn’t take any pictures. I was a little stressed out. I could not erase the picture i took of Martin widen’s last turn in that same zone a year ago, precisely. My camera is in my bag the all way. Rosenbarger triggers a few small slabs here and there on a over all pretty good powder run. Olli got sluffed out by incoming skiers in the ensa. Lost a few things on the way but ready for a run up the midi. I get my transceiver and glacier kit. Head to midi. Everything looks wind fucked , we head to the rond-link . After hearing olli and rosenbarger making that heinous scratchy sound at the top of the rond and the bottom not looking that much better, nicklas and myself opted for a soft exit down the gros rognon flat glacier hoping to find soft goods. it was all enjoyable despite being wind fucked. Back at moo bar with nachos, beer hearing all the epic stories of people getting stuck, sloughed out, or having to do 3 raps in a forrest run. Every one is back alive. Rosenbarger’s crew call me from the tunnel asking if my car keys are near my car. My car being at the tunnel and they need a ride back in town. I FOUND MY CAR. Great day.
2 days in la palud
So it was overcast, snowy at time, not very good for pictures and the skiers were too fast. I don’t have many riding pictures. i skied with seth morrison (who is becoming a local. ) , met another legend tom burt –link. And hang out/skied with a lot of good friends,old, new , locals and not. So, a lot of hanging out pictures. This is what we do mostly, hang out. we ski epic runs in between, but really, we hang out. Its awesome!
tof
glen
glen
tof
L’ Epaule du tacul
It is Brett last day so I had to motivate despite the growing death in me, I’m coughing my lungs out. We didn’t go too far and luckily the US/CAN pro team in town had already carved the steps for us. Easy up, easy down. Fresh powder, scenics and sun…perfect. My coughing isn’t better, WTF.
brett lotz
brett lotz
Durier
Despite the current low tide, i was lured to the idea of spending a couple of days deep in the mountains, which didn’t happen for what seems a century. It is Bruno Compagnet bday. So we went with minna Riihimaki and Julien Casagrande. We opted for the wild and far away dome de miage area. The mountains out there are dry and feeling hostile at time …The plan des glaciers refuge is among my favorite one , cozy and comfortable in a wildly scenic area. The 2 days were well spent with good people…dolce vita. the skiing marginal.
the hike to plan des glacier refuge
le refuge plan des glaciers
the durier couloir
The Black and W album
the brightest and the darkest. Black and white.
mid may powder
Michael”bird”shaffer
May powder: a mid may morning run down the cosmique
heli ski with last frontier-bell2 lodge /elemental adventure . BC
Maybe some day i will be a rich photographer i will privatize bell2 for a shredced’s invitational. All my friends-superhero-riders /skibums will come in to ski hard and party like animals. like a real ski debaucherie of sort with DJ-turbo sound and shit. It is a perfect setting, everything is there: pillows line, giant mushrooms, endless ridge lines, couloirs, faces, manucured forrest, hot tub, party igloo, heli hot springs, lodge with 3 choppers on the parking, booze….drugs?…lost on a forrested higways miiiiiles -far far away from civilization. Ski all day howl all night. Perfect.
I didnt get any sunny days whilst there, yet i skied everyday …
The staff at last frontier heliskiing is awesome, from Joss giving a perfect race tune to your skis to the hot bartenders , the cooks making amazing food, the heli pilots fast and smooth, Jamie Whiteside the guide who plays guitar ,sings song and is just awesome, Michael Brackenhofer the Austrian head guide who will show you how to ski with good style or Mike Gajda who is cutting trees ( sorry weeds) on the ski runs so it skis better….
I was hired by dmitri volkov as his personal photographer, on the first 2 days his skiing was sloppy, i was getting very annoyed. By the 3 rd day his turns were getting sharper and his style was improving. His skiing was much better. if you want to improve your skiing you can hire me, i am pretty affordable…
Until then, here are some pictures. Most of which of helicopters my new found passion. Those things are sick!
La Palud.
2 laps on a perfect marbree with good people was a great way to end my winter13 part 1. part 2 will be heli skiing in canada and then… …Haines . Not much hiking/booting so far or in the next future aside from coke chute (east side cali) in november!!!! It feels OK! Not many ski pictures today. too cold-too fast and it is february the crowd is arriving, they are here….!
A good day in la palud starts with coffee
Seth Morrison is among us
This is Luca pandolfi and Davide Capozzi doing the avalanche control
Seth enjoying his first Marbree
A good day in la palud always ends with pasta under the sun or a giant pizza in town. red wine-beer -coffee and cigs…optional!
and this is Manu sporting some Gucci
are you guys bored yet? of endless powder runs pictures? because …ha…i am not.
Those pictures were taken in the cosmique and rond.
porn
One of those days where you expect the angry inch and you get overhead blower. top to bottom. We did 3 runs.with Mina Riihimaki, Andreas Fransson, David rosenbarger and Oli Herren . This is the first lap. we did 3.
andreas fransson, david rosenbarger, oli herrer, mina riihimaki
vallee blanche
chamonix, france
grand enver
grand enver
chamonix, france
valley blanche
grand enver
valley blanche
ThE DaY THe WoRLD ENDED 21/12/13—with david rosenbarger-luca pandolfi and christian cabanilla
david rosenbarger
luca pandolfi
christian cabanilla
aiguilles rouges
to any astroman-niac climbers , the aiguilles rouges are just a pile of shiat. It is. However , this is also the best leisurely not committing- sunny side -with a view -sport climbing- alpine-cragg- in the world- that i know of. Also, a lot of the routes out there were open by Piola himself and the rock is at times surprisingly good. This round however, for my 2 days off, i had 2 goals: stay away from the crowd, get confident in placing gear without being scared of falling head first on a sharp flake . i chose to go on the tour des crochue and the aiguille de perseverance. 2 easy routes on nice looking pillars, almost un-equipped (a few 1920 charlet pitons here and there) . The route finding was fun and placing gear in grassy crack pretty entertaining. (does it work really, i dont know , i didnt fall) , but best of all, aside from a couple of chamois and marmottes , we didnt see anyone.
tour des crochues
i started with Anna on the tour des crouchues, voie escande de Galbert (1970). (right side straight up)
anna on tour des crochues
anna tour des crochues
and then with luca on perseverance , arete sud integral
luca pandolfi on perseverance
luca on perseverance
luca
a beer at lac blanc refuge
aiguille d’entreve
We wanted to climb the west face of the aiguille d’entreve but upon our arrival we realized it was more due North and being pretty cold and cloudy that day we opted for the leisurely traverse. Me and Pete had never being on it before and it was a nice surprise. It is a very esthetic ridge walk, very exposed. The surrounding being the Italian side of the mont blanc massif , it is obviously wild and beautiful …I highly recommend that traverse over the cosmique ridge on busy summer days…
thor husted , pete gaston
Cedric Bernardini 