Steep Camp

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noahhowell
on March 3, 2010
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Sorry for the posting drought! It’s been my goal to add something of interest once a week, but that hasn’t been easy this winter. The thin and scary snowpack has made it difficult to safely attempt much. The tick list on my dry erase board next to the computer is still fat with projects. After being caught in 2 sizable avalanches I figured I’ve added enough to this seasons tallies and I’ve been taking it easy.

This winters stats as posted on the Utah Avalanche Center-

This brings our record-shattering season total SO FAR this season to:

261 unintentional, human triggered avalanches in the backcountry

59 caught

23 partial burials

5 total burials

11 injured

3 killed

Today the avalanche conditions dropped to mostly moderate, time to play. Courtney and I wanted to get on something steep, but backed out of our ‘big’ idea  and opted for the North Couloir on the Pfief.

Good booting on the apron……

gave way to thin, rotten and rocky going.

Steepness was achieved!

Neither of us had been on anything over 50 degrees for the season. That first turn is always the hardest, hands downhill, knees supple, commit, hop, edge holds. Do it again.

Courtney working through it after I cleaned out most of the snow.

Not too many rules in ski mountaineering, just climb up however you can and then descend the best you are able.

It’s not always pretty.

Ahhhhh! The relief of the apron.

We worked over the ridge into Hogum to tick off another mini chute.

I’m not sure the inclinometer is working correctly. It didn’t feel that steep.

‘Ivory’ is a super short, but nice run.

Conditions were nice for hop turning.

Those are some supple looking knees if I do say so myself.

Courtney exiting into the mind blowing landscape of upper Hogum.

The turns out Hogum were a spotty mix of creamy and crusty with the mandatory creek crossing to finish.

And my favorite photo of the day.

It’s nice to be back in the mountains.

The Big LePowSki 2010

Published
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noahhowell
on February 15, 2010
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Glad to see this fun event coming back to the Wasatch Mtns! The basic idea is to come ski and learn from the ‘pros’ in a relaxed atmosphere (it’s at BRIGHT ‘ON’ after all).  I’ll be doing a ‘gorilla style’ filming class focusing on filming in the BC or resort with emphasis on going light with inexpensive gear, but still capturing a quality image.

Check out the website for more info on available classes/instructors/date’s/registration/cost.

http://www.ready2climb.com/wePages/content/The_BigLePowSki_Brighton/workshop.php

Doing it at night!

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noahhowell
on February 9, 2010
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The idea of skiing at night with lights first started when mad scientist, Andy Rosenberg purchased a high powered mtn bike light for use on dawn patrols. After working in the office all day I borrowed it for an evening lap at snowbird. I was skeptical you could get enough juice out of these small portable lights to ski at speed in the dark.

Geared up for initial test run in the restroom of the Hidden Peak warming hut.

After one run I was sold on the idea and it made me think we could even film with them. Rosenberg sent me in the direction of the Trail Tech HID lights.

These are light weight, really bright and have rechargeable lithium Ion batteries. Jonah wouldn’t approve the purchase with Powderwhore funds (he was more skeptical), so I offered to pay for it and if it worked out PW would reimburse me. After our first night out I cut myself a check from PW and we ordered another! The results were pretty cool and very different from the night skiing we had previously seen, where it’s done with generators and it’s mostly just one turns from the skier.

Click HERE to view the ‘dream sequence’ from our last flick ‘FLAKES’.

Jonah and I shot that segment over the course of 3 nights with the light strapped to the camera he was shooting. We came home with some good footage and tons of ideas on what else is possible with these lights. Sounds like I’m selling the product, but we have no affiliation, just psyched on the product and it’s potential.

Mountain Hardwear

Published
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noahhowell
on February 1, 2010
in Uncategorized
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I’ve been ‘living the dream’ for some time now. For me, that means existing simply and doing what I want to do with my time, my imagination and my skis. It appears there are those who like what I do enough to help out along the way.

I just signed onto the Mountain Hardwear ‘Team’ at the last Outdoor Retailer show.

Mountain Hardwear has been a major sponsor on the last 2 Powderwhore projects and they will continue to do so. This new arrangement will allow me to travel and focus on personal expeditions and skiing projects. I am surprised, thrilled, humbled and grateful beyond words to have this company backing and supporting my adventures!

Please don’t pinch me, I don’t want to wake from this.

Avalanche in Days Fork

Published
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noahhowell
on January 21, 2010
in Uncategorized
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So, this has been one of the slowest starts to winter I can recall. Pretty frustrating if you’re committed to making a ski film from a production company named Powderwhore. Maybe we should have gone with something else that would have put less pressure to deliver the, all up in your grill, blower.

Snow has finally started to fall in earnest and lines are filling in! We headed out into Days Fork today to check things out.

The mountains were in and out of the clouds.

Paige Brady always seems to know the perfect time to visit the Wasatch.

Paige is so strong on the uphill and the downhill, it’s great to ski with someone so motivated.

The first line into Days brought smiles and washed away the fear that winter had abandoned us. Actually Paige is always smiling.

Andy Jacobsen quickly drops in with a little weather window.

Skiing Pow is #1 in his opinion

Paige followed and skied really well despite forgetting to lock down her free pivot bindings. Hate it when that happens.

I filmed from above and then cleaned up the leftovers

Tagged some rocks, lost some base, but skipped to safety! Notice the avalung is out, that will come into play shortly.

Here’s where things got interesting. We had put in 5 tracks on this NE facing slope without noticing any avalanche concerns. The slope was skied one at a time with everybody pulling up in safe zones. We wanted to move down the ridge to the next are so we skinned back up a sub ridge which was a very safe terrain feature. Andy Jacobsen was breaking trail and we were once again spread out working to ’safe’ zones (trees and below cliffs) while skinning. Jonah and Jay were going to wait below (that one’s for you Jay).  The ridge became too rocky to ascend so Andy cut out into the small bowl we had just skied. Paige and I waited and watched and Andy made the ridge without incident. I started out and crossed a thin rocky area when heard the slope ‘thud’,  and then watched it release in a big way. I yelled avalanche and tried to work back to the ridge, but it was clear I was too far out onto the slope which had fractured about 250ft above me. The avalung was easy to grab and place in my mouth, I bit down hard and swam. Right at that moment I was submerged, grazed some trees and surfaced roughly 300ft down from where I triggered it. I yelled ‘I’m OK’ and Jay came down to make sure. He was convinced I was jacked up having seen me strained through the trees. Nothing but a bruise on my elbow and the loss of both ski poles for making a poor call.

Looking back we should have just avoided that aspect for the day, our vision was clouded by the drought we’ve been having. No excuses though, rule #1 is don’t get caught and we failed. Got away lucky on this one.

Thanks again to Jay Beyer for documenting the day with the lens.

Posted by NH

Southern Utah Video

Published
by
noahhowell
on January 11, 2010
in Uncategorized
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Jonah has been chomping at the bit to start working with footage for the next flick. He put this nice little edit together from our trip to Bryce and Cedar Breaks. There wasn’t enough snow to really ’ski’ much, so it was primarily ‘one turn wonders’ as we call them or ‘buttering the muffin’, where you come in hot and smear one turn. This is something we frown upon for video and rarely do, but it was our only choice due to the terrain and snow depth. That type of shot works well for still photo’s (a picture tells a thousand lies), but it’s a real challenge for video. Enjoy the vid and hopefully we’ll get some snow and we can do some real skiing.

video HERE.

Yellowstone-American Beauty

Published
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noahhowell
on January 3, 2010
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Happy New Year Everybody! Enjoy the 2010 winter season and all it’s beauty. This is a short edit from a recent trip to Yellowstone over Thanksgiving.

“And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.”

Quote and soundtrack from the movie American Beauty click HERE to view

Southern Utah Exploration

Published
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noahhowell
on December 28, 2009
in Uncategorized
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Skiing in the Wasatch hasn’t been off to the best start, so we headed South to explore Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. We have been talking with Jay Beyer about doing some reconnaissance for years and now seemed like the perfect time. The southern part of the state had just been hit pretty hard by 1-2′ of snow and Brianhead area was reporting a deeper base than Alta.

We weren’t able to recruit anybody besides myself, Jonah and Jay for this last minute excursion.

When entering a new area it’s always important to test the snowpacks stability. Jonah has developed a new and very unique method, he said it was ‘good’, so we skied it.

We arrived mid afternoon and Bryce was looking Nice!

Conditions were much better than expected, almost skiable even. The plan was for Jonah to capture video, Jay on the still camera and I would destroy my skis attempting to make it look deep.

It was mostly one turns for the camera, or ‘wearing high heels’ (modeling) as a good friend disparagingly puts it. Simply amazing place to be no matter what you’re doing here!

The snow settled QUICKLY as the day was warm at this latitude and low elevation. We made the Navajo Loop trail with only seeing two other folks, I doubt that’s possible in the summer season.

Cedar Breaks is only an hour away and faces west. Sounded like a good place to play around and catch the sunset. The road along the rim of Cedar Breaks is closed and unplowed, but a quick skin gets you right to it.

We toured around the rim in awe at the colorful contrasts.
Even found some patches of snow deep enough to turn in.

And some patches not quite deep enough. The thrill of the early season is you never really know until you commit.

I really like this fish eye shot. So did Jay, until I pointed out his jacket in the lower left corner.

We don’t often have a moral to the story besides ’ski as much powder as you can before you die’. But you do learn bits and pieces along the way sometimes. Never pass up a chance to watch the sunset. Never pass up a road trip to new locations. Never forget your helmet and knee pads.

And never pass up a hot spring on the way home!

As always, many thanks to Jay Beyer for the still images. He captured some amazing stuff and shared the B-roll with us.

Posted by NH

Powder Magazine Photo Annual

Published
by
noahhowell
on December 21, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

A long time dream of mine was recently fulfilled with the release of the Dec issue of Powder Magazine.

Thanks to the eye and talented lens work of Jay Beyer we made a pretty picture for the photo annual! With knowledge and experience you try and put yourself in the ‘right’ place at the right time to capture the best conditions and light for filming video and shooting still photo’s. And then sometimes you’re just lucky. The following shot came as a surprise as we were heading home after a tiring and somewhat disappointing day. Skinning back out of Cardiff Fork the shadows ran long over the virgin slope and I huffed it up to try and beat the sun from setting over Cardiac Ridge.

Jay’s skill has increased every season in dramatic fashion! I was going to write that it’s fun to ‘work’ with Jay, but we don’t ‘work’, we play. We are some lucky bastards indeed to be able to do this. Congrats Jay! Let’s go play some more.

First Day BC

Published
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noahhowell
on December 11, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

The backcountry snow has been thin so we’ve been skiing Alta and touring up Snowbird for training. With the latest storm we were drawn outside the boundaries for the first tour of the season. 

We’ve picked up some new helmet cams and we’ve been itching to get them out for a test run. Our previous helmet cams had many issues which didn’t give us much on snow perspective in last years flick. It’s a little early for a full review, but here is a taste of what the VholdR Contour HD cam provided from a surprisingly nice afternoon on Cardiac Ridge. No post production work was done and I’ll clean the lens next time (if it’s not sub-zero temps).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8mzldpMzek