Before heading home I stopped in for a few days of riding in Switzerland. The weather was mixed, the winds where vicious and the temps well below zero. The riding was limited but I did get to ride one amazing coolie. The temps were so cold I only pulled my camera out twice. Once on a peak and once in a valley. These photos are taken over a couple minute period where I watched the mountains do a high-speed time lapse right in front of my eyes. It was one of the more radical days I have witnessed in the mountains. Although I did a cool chute, the highlight was just watching the mountains do their thing.
The shots below were taken from one peak. It gives you an idea of the amount of mountains that are all over Europe. Lifts access most of Europe and if there is not a lift then there is a series of mountain huts to stay in. It is all about usage in Europe and they take full advantage of the tools they have.
Nice pictures, but i think without that black/white filter it would be even better. Anyway, good work.
Comment by Dexter March 4, 2009 @ 8:01 pm
nice blog, and sweet photos! The gray scale make them there mountains look pretty magnificent!
Comment by Skiing the backcountry March 5, 2009 @ 3:30 am
Awesome photos! Love all the pics and blogs. I’ve been following your career since I started boarding years ago. Your love for the mountains comes through in your pics and the way you pick your lines. Thanks for the inspiration. When are you coming back to Haines?! I recently relocated from near Grand Targhee to Haines about 4 miles up the road from 33 Mile and a 3 mile hike from the Jarvis Glacier. Actually had a 33 Mile Burger yesterday. I can’t get enough of their fries and pie! Hope to see you in AK soon. If you feel the need for a home-cooked meal while you’re here . . . drop me a line!
Comment by Allgood March 8, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
Dead Jeremy
It’s good to hear you say how great the Alps really are. Funny thing is that in Europe people talk about the snow and mountains in the US and how great that is even though we have various great free riding areas in Austria, eg St Anton, and Switzerland, Davos. Your pics say it all. regards, Giliam
Comment by Giliam March 8, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
Hi Jeremy
I enjoy reading your blog a lot, especially since I learned here that you’re also splitboarding regularly. Those photos you posted are in a familiar area, so I’m pretty curious what you were up to there. Did you ride the long western-facing gully down from Piz Corvatsch? That one’s a real eyecatcher when you’re in the Furtschellas area.
And how did you end up in the Val Forno, in the last picture? That’s one of my favorite places. If you’d like to see some pictures from our last trip there, look at http://picasaweb.google.de/georgeforehand/TorroneCentrale#5194718652538070546 . I’m planning to go there again soon, so if you can tell me about the conditions or have some more photos of the north faces, I’d be more than happy. Since the south of Switzerland has received huge amounts of snow this winter, I’m optimistic. This year, even the unthinkable happened and the spine gods dropped some of their goods on us. Now all I’ve got to do is figure out how to ride those things.
Have a nice time and hopefully a lot of good and stable snow.
Mathias
Comment by Mathias March 10, 2009 @ 1:22 am
Mathias,
I am hoping to be back this spring to sample some of the spine gods handy work. I would love to see some pics of spines. Good Luck!
Jeremy
Comment by admin-jeremyjones March 15, 2009 @ 1:02 pm
Jeremy,
here’s some photos of the spines I mentioned: http://picasaweb.google.de/georgeforehand/Airolo#5317281690574965874 . A very unusual sight for switzerland. There’s now as much snow as in 1999, the last catastrophic winter in the alps. But the avalanche situation is fortunately not as bad as it was back then.
We went to the south of switzerland again, not for spines but for some epic gullies. I put some pictures of that on http://picasaweb.google.de/georgeforehand/ScioraKletterferien#
That place is actually very close to were you have shot the pictures in this post.
I’m looking forward to see some serious shredding by you in the Tordrillos. Good luck with the weather.
Mathias
Comment by Mathias March 26, 2009 @ 5:51 pm