Whumpf

Splitboarding through frosted trees

It felt great to take the splitboard out today for the first time up here in Wyoming. We were out for about 7 hours, putting in most of a skin track and then scoring a powdery 3,000-foot descent. Due to the limited visibility of the foggy snowy weather, and sketchy avy conditions (whumpf, whumpf), we took it pretty safe and easy on the way down. This zone has some serious shredding potential and I hope to return again during clearer weather and more solid snowpack conditions.

Snowboarding the powder

Rider: Mot Gatehouse.

Too Cold

backcountry snowboarding in Wyoming

backcountry snowboarding in Wyoming

Rider: Jason King. Today we repeated the nice route that we did on Saturday. The two north-facing descents were perfect mid-winter-esque powder goodness; however, hiking up along the ridgeline involved some suffering in perhaps the coldest temperatures I’ve ever experienced. Dangerously cold. Too cold for human beings in their right minds, I think. But we persevered and scored some sweet pow lines… along with a bit of frostbite.

Training

Snowy Ridge

Brutally cold today up on a high ridgeline, with frigid winds and sketchy frozen windslabs. We hiked a long ways for not that great of a descent – at least compared to the sweet lines we’ve been getting lately. But as always the hiking and adventure were fun enough… at the least, chalk it up to training.

backcountry snowboarding

Dropping in to the line.

backcountry snowboarding

The lower runout.