Oregon Backcountry

Been doing some more exploring around the backcountry the last few weeks. Lots of long approaches around here make the skiing tough to get to unless you have a snowmobile, although a tow rope and big thumb usually gets you to where you want to go....

Top of Lookout Mtn in the Ochocos

Top of Tam McArthur Rim... "don't go that way"

Yellow submarine team

My buddy Ben from CSU came out for a visit.

An old mine in the Ochocos

We took a full moon run down Mt. Bachelor's cinder cone!

Heading to Whistler next week... more to come!!

Paulina Peak-Hail thy presidente

For president's day weekend, a crew of us sledded into some backcountry cabins on Paulina Lake, about 40 minutes southeast of Bend. Now, I wouldn't say we were roughing it at this cabin... electricity, running water, and the option to grab a steak dinner at the main lodge of the snowmobiler's paradise made for luxury accomodations. Not to mention, the sleds made packing easy... bring it all!

The spring like weather made for an unexpected February corn ski fest!

Top of Paulina Peak

Chute into East Lake

Get your corn!!

Snow Day!!

178 inches of snow in January... most since 1972, or so the locals say! It just kept coming, and we thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it....

Mmmmmm

Alex in a snow cave

This one was in my neighbor's driveway!

Larry Moe and Curly

My bros Brett and Ken came out for a visit in January! Although they came during the one break in the snow for all of January, the sunny weather made for some fantastic views.

Mt. Bachelor Summit

Smith Rock

Road Trip!

For the holidays this year, I took a few weeks and made the road trip back to Wisconsin. I saw several friends along the way from different walks of my life....

Streeto at his new home mountain... Big Mountain in Whitefish Montana

Had almost 2 weeks of cold and snow at home in WI... glad I brought the skinny skis!

Staying warm for this family pict....

Hit the road with Lara around the 29th, headed west. We swung through Wolf Creek, CO for a new years celebration with my old roomates Jen, Jason and others.

We caught a good storm followed by sunshine... love those San Juans!

Farewell cabin

We beelined for California to beat the storm of the year in.

Barely even stopped through Canyonlands Utah, Moab, or Nevada.

We beat the storm over Donner Pass literally by about 30 minutes. Shortly after, high winds and snow had the roads shut down and power out for 2 days! We hunkered down with friends Becky and Grant near Grass Valley until the storm cleared... turned out to be a good one! Some Tahoe resorts reported 10 feet when the dust settled. It was bottomless!

Abdul, Nick, Becky and I ripped it up at Sugar Bowl.

I finally got Lara to her new place in SanFran!

The snow was so good, I had to stick around a few extra days.

My friend Erin enjoying the snow at Sugar Bowl.

My last stop was through Mt. Shasta where we got a little backcountry action with the Helmet Camera Central.com crew, Chad and Eric.

7th Heaven

Well, I'm a little bit late with this, but I wanted do a "year in review" post for 2007, as it was a fantastic year full of new things for me... new knee ligament, new town, new home, new friends, new adventures!

My bros came out to visit in January for a look around the Tahoe Sierras.

We stayed a few nights in the Ludlow hut and managed to find some descent snow.

Tim & Jess' Wedding, Jackson, MO! 3 weeks after surgery, and I was doing the 1 legged hop on the dance floor!

On our way from climbing with my friend Aubrey at Smith Rock

Mom came out for a visit, and we toured around Oregon from Bend to Crater Lake, down the Umpqua River to the coast. Nice job camping Mom!

I got up to the British Columbia interior (Kamloops) for a little work and a little play.















Okay, this should have been it's own post, but the next few photos are from our Memorial Day Alaska trip... the first semi-annual "Cooper Landing Ski It If You Can" festival.

Captn Ron and his plane with "Junior" chutes in the background







Base camp for our approach to LV Ray.















"Centerfold" had a 20' + cornice overhanging!













Crescent lake from the top of LV Ray

















Flex capacitors assembled.... let the bushwacking begin

"Young and Dumb" We skied/snowboarded some of the most epic terrain of my life on this trip. On this one, our buddy Chunk took the narrower chute on the right while the rest of us took the wider main chute to the left... yahooooooo!

This is a video of Chunk pulling a flip onto this 50+ degree prone chute... crazy!

Came back from AK all charged up, so my new roomate and old friend Alex went for the South Sister summit on the last weekend that it was skiable continuously from the top. This is my new backyard in the Cascades!

My buddy Jeff and I met up with some friends in Hood River to do some boating on the White Salmon River.

I guess this was a class V waterfall... maybe at higher flows. Anyway, my buddy Jason in the back got tossed into the front row of the boat while cracking Jeff and I unsuspecting in the back of the heads... this is why we wear helmets!

A little camping trip on Hosmer Lake with Mt. Bachelor in the background

For the 4th of July, some old friends in California and I rendezvoused for a backpacking trip in the Sierra's Hoover Wilderness.

I made it back to my old stomping grounds in Fort Collins, CO and just happened to catch a world record bike parade for New Belgium Brewery's "Tour de Fat"











Of course, the trip to visit Ryan in the Dominican was unforgetable....

Anxiously awaiting the snow fall, we took a trip to the coast.

Bridge in Newport, OR













Alas, the snow started to build late November... and it hasn't stopped since!

Broken top mtn on a ski tour.