The long and Windy Road to Recovery (aka little cottonwood)

Last I wrote I was well on my way to diving into teaching AIARE Avalanche courses through White Pine Touring, I was looking to Shadow some backcountry ski guiding companies in the Wasatch, and I was just about to sign a contract with Telemark Skier Magazine.
Well, as life often does… I got thrown for a BIG loop and many lessons to follow.

While doing some soul skiing up at Alta with Weston D. I tore my ACL.
No, it wasn’t that simple, but it was that strait forward. Before you ask- No I was not hucking my meat or skiing some spectacular line, I was simply enjoying the first significant storm after our January dry spell. We had about 15″ of fresh, slightly wind affected snow on top of a sun/rain crust. I simply hit the icy layer underneath and sat back, giving a bit of a butt check, when I stood up POP!

Madsen and Weston D. hanging out post surgery

That was the end of my season. It took about two weeks until my denial and that of my physical therapists broke down and we decided I should go in for an MRI. Of course the outcome showed a full tear of my ACL, with surgery and the inevitable end of ski season being the outcome.
It has been exactly one moth since surgery and I have been on a wild journey of sorts. I am not going to dive into the dark places I have gone or the emotional roller coaster that has been the product of a super athletic and physical being, being kept from the only form of meditation and emotional outlet they have ever known, but I will say it has been a struggle, one that I was not really prepared for, but I guess no one ever really is.

Behind the Lense

Since tearing my knee I have managed to do a few cool trips. I went and supported the Telemark Freeskiing National at Alpine Meadows. There, I was able to catch up with a bunch of my friends that I only really get to see when competing. It was actually a really cool experience getting to go to the comp, cheer on all my friends, film a bit for Telemark Skier Magazine, and have a place in the community even though I was on the sidelines (which has never really been my favorite position).

Lunch fest at the ski test

Last week after being cleared from using crutches I headed up to the Telemark Skier Magazine Ski Test in Powder Mountain. Of course I was not able to partake in the physical test, but after expressing my need and desire to stay as connected to the goings on of the industry to Josh Madsen ( friend and editor of TSM) we decided that I would head-up the writing of the 2012 Gear Review. This meant I would take notes at each nights debrief, compile all test sheets, and create an incredible list of the most tantalizing gear you must have! It was a super fun four days of obligatory libations being funneled through a plastic flamingo lawn ornament, AKA the BeerMingo accompanied with great new faces and tons of laughs not to mention a bunch of skis, binding, and boots that I am drooling to get on next season.

Weston D. filing out his test sheets

Tony Gill feeling the affects of a late night and an early morning

The Crew

Madsen and Cody Smith Pondering life

BEERMINGO!!!!

What's a Tele gathering without some dirt musicians. Alex, Zeph, and Madsen getting after it!

Alex scerinading the crowd

Again, being in the periphery has been a challenge, but through a hopefully increasing sense of clarity I have found that if I truly love this sport, then I just have to push a bit harder to make my physical inactivity disappear behind my motivation and drive to continue being relevant through other means.
There are so many lessons and realizations that I have had through all of this. That is not to say that I have become enlightened though it, more like dumbfounded by my own habitual behavior that now doesn’t work. I have gained a new awareness, that I have to learn some new tools, because the old tricks don’t work so well when trying to bend with the braided lattice that is life. So I am on another sojourn and I am sure lessons will continue to trip me along my path, but with each stumble I will gain more balance and continue to gain strength and perspective.

Huge thanks to all my friends, family and sponsors who have been so supportive!

Photo: Re Wikstrom

Alta Patrol hard at work on the Gun tower

This past week has been a little like living in a war zone. It seems that our greatest alia , Mother Nature, has decided to wage war on the state of Utah. With huge storm totals of inconsistent snow densities, followed by ripping winds, and now sunny warm temps, it seems as though she has decided that Utah residents are going to have to learn to use some self control this season, much like our neighbors have to do every season in Colorado.

The week kicked off with an early morning wake up to beat the LLC closure and get early chair with Re Wikstrom, Paige Brady, and Pip Hunt. We were able to stand by while the Alta patrollers waged their war with mother nature. It was an incredible experience, to stand so close while they shot off round after round of chest pounding, ear ringing explosions into the adjacent mountain sides. After getting amped for the day with a little explosive energy boost, we had a great morning of shooting, powder, and as always great laughs.

Re Wikstrom letting her camera do the talking

While the backcountry remains an ominous landscape of usually popular lines that are still laying untouched, the inbounds ski has proven to be quite exceptional and if you can get to the resorts that aren’t hit as hard as others you will be hugely rewarded with tons of powder and fresh lines still awaiting a good slasher turn.

Page Brady (Right) Pip Hunt (left) enjoying the sounds of war

Yesterday, I went to Brighton to shoot with Steve Lloyd. It was the first time I had skied in sun shine since before my journey up to BC about three weeks ago. The skies were crystal clear and Weston Deutchlander, fellow Trew rider, Colter Hinchliffe, and I were out trying to get the shots.

We skied some killer sunny sky powder and Weston and Colter sessioned a sick natural kicker. The day ended with a sweet 35 footer  onto a relatively flat, but deep landing, or shall we say splat/ hot tub zone.

All and all a great week to be back in Utah!

My day started at 7:30am when my phone started going off with friends eager to share the powder stoke. Thank god for those calls, because I had forgotten to set my alarm and was in bed sleeping the morning away.

I was a little tired from a late night, but the minute I opened my eyes and saw the snow piled over the porch, my lack of sleep was no match for my insane excitement.

I pulled on my clothes, went outside and started digging out of the house.

Whitney pulled up at 8am and we took off heading towards Little Cottonwood. We had survived the sketchy drive down Parley’s and up Little Cottonwood.

It was about 9:30 by the time we pulled up and to my surprise and excitement they weren’t loading the lifts yet. It seemed as though mother nature was trying to see how messed up she could make our snow pack and with a fully upside down pack every rollover was cracking. So we got our rightful place in line for the Wildcat lift and waited till they opened the lift at 11am.

It was well worth the wait! The snow was bottomless and not your typical Utah blower. It was a little firmer, which allowed it to feel as though you were getting a ton of energy out of each turn.

Everyone was popping off little hits, some were biting it. others were stomping everything.

It was a rad day to be on the hill! Can’t wait to do it all over today.

(Sorry for the lack of photos, I lost my camera but will have another one soon to keep the B log interesting)

Well, it had been a week since I last got to feel the cool touch of the snow graze across my face as I slash turns into the Wasatch white, but with a new deposit of 12″, I was feeling like it was time to return to the mountains and once again ramp up for the winter season.

Last week I had started early with my good friend Whitney. We hiked up Collins, hit Baldy shoulder, then continued on up.

For those of you who have done the skin to Main Chute, you may know that it is the last 500ft of steep, wind scoured, sharp kick turn, switch backs that really kick you in the ass. I, however did not know that was the case and this being my first Main chute approach was sorely disapointed to see and feel the continual reminder of my inept kick turn abilities.

But after many slips back wards, awkward ballet esque moves and the many swear words muttered under my scarf, we made it to the top. I would like to say we did all of that hard work for first tracks, or even fresh tracks, however that was simply not the case. Whitney and I reached the top and peered over the edge to see a skied out first 1/3 of the chute.

After figuring who would drop in first and taking the oh so important “summit” photo I dropped in. The top left much to be desired, in terms of soft snow, but the trade off of knowing that the chute was well filled in and snow sharks would be less prevalent was a nice reprise from the past five outings, where every turn made was another chance at getting your cores ripped out from under you.

Gun Sight

All and all Baldy chute ended up being quite tasty and as I dropped into the last 2/3 of the chute I was actually hitting some pillows of fresh powder that reaffirmed the worth of the rough skin to the top.

No sooner was I feeling my oats and starting to feel good about the snow pack, I entered into the Ballroom apron and with a shit eating grin on my face and “WooHoos!!” uncontrollably pouring out of my mouth, I was loving the seemingly deep snow. It was then that I was torn from all my glory and thrown cart-wheeling world hitting rocks and snow alike.

I came to a stop and as a lif a light bulb went off, realized how little snow there really was and how incredibly dangerous it was to ski under these limited conditions. I guess one could say the tumble got me scared enough to realize that possibly I had been a bit over zealous. So with my tail tucked between my legs I decided to head down and wait till at least another 12″ of fresh blanketed the Wasatch.

Weston Blowing it up!!

So, last night I watched the slow moving system approach and realized that the Cottonwoods were looking at receiving 10 inches (which was close enough).

I jumped into to my truck at 5:15am met up with my buddy, Weston Deutschlander and we headed over to LCC.

Me, Just Loving life Photo: Jim Harris

The Alta website said they were closed to uphill traffic, but that the summer road would be open as well as Greeley bowl. So we headed up that way. Ran into a large group of backcountry.com employes getting some turns in before heading to work for the day. One of those people was my friend Jim Harris. We all skinned to the ridge of Gun sight. Weston and I decided to hit the Chute while the others skied the open face skiers left.

photo: Jim Harris

As we de- skinned and geared up for the descent, Weston and I discussed the avalanche conditions and decided that our real concern was not the snow pack but the likely hood of Sharks and recognized that we did not want this to be a season ending run, so we put our tele pride to the side and decided to make alpine turns.

Weston dropped in first and with deep pitched hoots and hollers I could see that it was going to be good! I dropped in next and it was deep. I got face shots even while making alpine turns! It was beautiful and tasty.

The next pitch was equally bottomless. Weston and I got to the bottom, looked at each other and in a no brainer of a decision threw our skins back on and went for another lap.

Weston getting the shot at the cost of sacrifice a very sacred area. Photo: Jim Harris

The second lap was great and Jim Harris was kind enough to join us and shoot some pics.

All in all it was a great day... well morning really, as we were back at the truck by 10:30am. But none the less, another day that has left me chomping at the bit for mother nature to burry our mountains.

photo: Jim Harris

Today Snow   Hi 16 °F

Tonight Snow Likely Lo 11 °F

Thursday Partly Sunny Hi 17 °F

Thursday Night Slight Chc Snow Lo 17 °F

Friday Chance Snow Hi 32 °F

Friday Night Slight Chc Snow Lo 26 °F

Saturday Slight Chc Snow Hi 46 °F

Saturday Night Mostly Cloudy Lo 24 °F

Sunday Partly Sunny Hi 46 °F

I am about to head over to Little Cottonwood to see for my self, but I’m expecting to find snow totally of around a foot. Stay tune for fun photos and much more…

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT
332 AM MDT WED OCT 28 2009

...COLD AND WET STORM ACROSS THE REGION...

.A STRONG EARLY SEASON STORM WILL CONTINUE TO IMPACT THE REGION
INTO TONIGHT. SNOW WILL PERSIST IN MAINLY THE MOUNTAIN AREAS AND
ACROSS EASTERN CENTRAL UTAH THROUGH THIS EVENING BEFORE TAPERING
OFF.

UTZ008>010-517-281800-
/O.CON.KSLC.WS.W.0013.000000T0000Z-091029T0500Z/
WASATCH MOUNTAINS SOUTH OF I-80-WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS-
WASATCH PLATEAU/BOOK CLIFFS-CENTRAL MOUNTAINS-
332 AM MDT WED OCT 28 2009

...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM MDT THIS
EVENING...

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS REMAINS IN
EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM MDT THIS EVENING.

THIS WARNING IS FOR THE WASATCH MOUNTAINS SOUTH OF I-80...THE
WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS...THE WASATCH PLATEAU AND BOOK CLIFFS...
AND THE CENTRAL MOUNTAINS OF UTAH.

ONE TO TWO FEET OF SNOW IS EXPECTED IN THESE AREAS BY THIS
EVENING...WITH GREATER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE IN AREAS FAVORED BY
NORTHERLY FLOW.

SNOW IS BECOMING WIDESPREAD AGAIN TODAY AS ADDITIONAL MOISTURE
SPREADS INTO THE AREA. THIS SNOW WILL LIKELY CONTINUE INTO THE
EVENING BEFORE TAPERING OFF LATE.

IN ADDITION TO THE SNOWFALL...STRONG NORTH WINDS WILL CONTINUE
CREATING AREAS OF BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS A MIXTURE OF HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG
WIND IS EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. DRIVING CONDITIONS MAY BE
HAZARDOUS. USE CAUTION. BE PREPARED FOR SUDDEN RESTRICTIONS IN
VISIBILITY DUE TO BLOWING SNOW. KEEP A WINTER STORM SURVIVAL KIT
IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

FOR WINTER ROAD CONDITIONS FROM THE UTAH DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION VISIT...HTTP://WWW.COMMUTERLINK.UTAH.GOV OR DIAL
511.

&&

$$

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT
412 AM MDT WED OCT 28 2009

UTZ001>016-019>021-517-518-WYZ021-291200-
CACHE VALLEY/UTAH PORTION-NORTHERN WASATCH FRONT-
SALT LAKE AND TOOELE VALLEYS-SOUTHERN WASATCH FRONT-
GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT AND MOUNTAINS-WASATCH MOUNTAIN VALLEYS-
WASATCH MOUNTAINS I-80 NORTH-WASATCH MOUNTAINS SOUTH OF I-80-
WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS-WASATCH PLATEAU/BOOK CLIFFS-
WESTERN UINTA BASIN-CASTLE COUNTRY-SAN RAFAEL SWELL-
SANPETE/SEVIER VALLEYS-WEST CENTRAL UTAH-SOUTHWEST UTAH-
UTAHS DIXIE AND ZION NATIONAL PARK-SOUTH CENTRAL UTAH-
GLEN CANYON RECREATION AREA/LAKE POWELL-CENTRAL MOUNTAINS-
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS-SOUTHWEST WYOMING-
412 AM MDT WED OCT 28 2009

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE WESTERN TWO THIRDS OF
UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A WET AND COLD STORM SYSTEM WILL AFFECT THE REGION THROUGH
TONIGHT. MOISTURE WRAPPING WESTWARD ACROSS CENTRAL UTAH WILL
PROVIDE THE GREATEST SNOW TOTALS IN THE UINTA MOUNTAINS...BOOK
CLIFFS...AND THE MOUNTAINS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN UTAH. VALLEYS
FROM THE UINTA BASIN SOUTHWEST TO CEDAR CITY WILL ALSO BE AFFECTED
BY ACCUMULATING SNOWFALL. SEE THE LATEST WINTER WEATHER STATEMENT
FOR INFORMATION ON WARNINGS...ADVISORIES...AND FORECAST SNOWFALL
AMOUNTS.

GUSTY NORTHERLY WINDS WILL REDEVELOP TODAY ACROSS WESTERN AND
PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN UTAH...LIKELY AFFECTING WIND SENSITIVE
OPERATIONS.

COLD OVERNIGHT TEMPERATURES WILL CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY AND FRIDAY
MORNINGS. FREEZING TEMPERATURES MAY AFFECT OUTDOOR PLANTS ACROSS
ALL OF SOUTHERN UTAH INCLUDING THE ST GEORGE AND LAKE POWELL
AREAS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY

A WARMING TREND IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN THIS WEEKEND WITH A RIDGE OF
HIGH PRESSURE BUILDING BACK INTO THE REGION.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER
CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.

$$

ROGOWSKI

FOR MORE INFORMATION FROM NOAA/S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE VISIT...
HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/SALTLAKECITY (ALL LOWER CASE)

First, on the agenda was taking advantage of the rare early October Dump. That was what got me going at 5:30am. I love the feeling of those first snows, when the alarm goes off and you are startled into remembering that it is a powder day, or (as it were) the first ski day of the season. Nothing else quite gets the blood pumping like the anticipation of putting those boots on, stepping into those bindings, and dropping into that first turn. So, it was with that type of anticipation I hurried through my morning routine, jumped into my Tacoma and hit the road to Little Cotton Wood Canyon.

The road was slick, and with no sand bags in the back of the truck and my very bald, too many long highway road trips, summer tires on, my truck was wiggling like a fish out of water. But that slight tense feeling of gripping the wheel extra tight only added to the fullness of the first snow experience. As I veered off on 6200 south all of last seasons epic memories came flooding back. How many times had I been up Little Cotton Wood Canyon before dawn? It was far too many to count and way to early to get any deeper into thought about it.

As I pulled into the Wildcat parking lot at Alta it was all I could do to contain myself. There were about five other cars there and I was working hard to distinguish which ones were the vehicles of dawn patrolers and which were the ones of the Alta staff. At any rate, I was stoked to see others up there getting after it.

As I got out of my truck, I turned around to retrieve my skies from the back,and was suddenly faced with the most welcoming image I could ever imagine. There, gracefully hanging above a snow dusted Superior was a full moon. As if to illuminate the path of the season to come. It was at this very moment that I took a huge breath in as if to taste the energy of the winter ahead.

Breaking trail

The next two hours was filled with skinning, boot packing, and in general huffing and puffing to get the best of every last vertical foot I could gain before my 8:15am turn around time. The time when I would get to slash my first turns and make my way down to the office to meet up with Tyler and Connie to discuss the up coming season and find out whether I would, yet again get to be part of the Alta athlete program.

Not Bad for October

8:15 hit just as I had reached the top of one of the many shoots around the Eagles Nest. Looking around it was hard to believe that it was only October 5th, but then again we do live in Utah. So I hopped into my skis threw on my goggles, thanked my new friend Nate (who I met at the base) for breaking trail and took my first turns, and that’s when it happened. The snow was light and deep. It swirled around me as I entered the steeper choke of the chute and just as I dropped my knee the white fluff enveloped my face and kissed it, as if to say “welcome back, Shaun”.

With about 700 vertical feet of powder skiing behind me I headed into the Alta office to meet up with Connie and Tyler. Then it was off to Ogden and Snow Basin to meet up with Chad Spector to work on this last minute photo shoot for Mountain Sports & Living Magazine.

The tracks

The afternoon was spectacular. Meeting new people, running around in the mountains, laughing through cheesy photos and remembering why we all live the lives we do, was an incredible way to start the season.

As I headed home, exhausted from a fun day of play and a little bit of productive work, I began to think about all that lay in the season ahead… I can’t wait!