Panic started to set in. We had a seven day stretch of bad weather and we find ourselves calling “40 % chance of snow” a good weather report. Desperation led us up the pass the last few afternoons in hopes of a sucker hole opening up. Ground hog day was finally interrupted when around three 0′clock the clouds parted and we stepped gingerly into a new snow-pack caked with 5 feet of new snow. After cutting and dropping two big cornices and not getting anything to pull out we wasted no time in getting to work.

It is all about new lines and new terrain for me so I was stoked when the weather forced us into one of the few corners of the range I have never been to.

I was standing on top of my line contemplating whether I should hit two 15 ft airs or go around them. Seth dropped in, straight-lined to this diving board and stomped a 60+ ft front flip. Not bad for a warm up. I decided to hit my airs and was greeted with waist deep landings and darkening face shots.

Roner feels the effect of seven days in a hotel room. Seth and my track are on either side of him.

It was so good my brother Todd forgot he had a 40 pound camera pack on.

Double Trouble. I hit the slopping ramp in the middle to what I thought would be a ten foot air. The air ended up being more like 20 ft and my sluff clipped me in the air. That sent me over the spine air head first and led to my worst fall of the year.

Seth said it best. “We showed up today and did think anything was going to go down. Well things went down.” Here is a view to our afternoon runs. They were short and steep with good outruns so it allowed us to start riding right away with limited avalanche assessment.

Put it on the hit list!