Monthly Archive for November, 2008

South America Part 2- Steaks, Tats and Bluebird Pow

Published
by
noahhowell
on November 26, 2008
in 2008 SUMMER
. 5 Comments

Let’s get back to the skiing! This is the second round of our amazing trip to South America this past Summer. All the pics are from the point and shoot camera’s of Dede O’mara, Andy Jacobsen and Dan Grolley. 

We flew into El Calafate after our week in Ushuaia. A winding bus ride took us through the classic Patagonia desert landscape to the town of El Chalten.

The town had just been plastered with a 12” coat of new snow. Weather report for the next day was for blue skies! 

We woke up early and hiked in the dark until the light started revealing Fitzroy and friends. Andy Jacobsen’s face pretty much explains the disbelief we all had. We were about to get faceshots under blue skies and one of the most notorious peaks in the world. Not to mention it was all going down in a region of the world known for it’s relentless wind and poor weather.

I won’t be surprised if I never see anything as beautiful as this sunrise on Fitzroy. Photographer Jay Beyer and I sat in the cold shooting video and stills for 45 minutes. We were giggling like little girls and giving lots of hi-5’s. 

Our goal was to ski the foothill slopes in the foreground. We still had a long ways to go.

It was hard to stay focused on moving along. We would find ourselves just sitting and staring.

Jay Beyer with another ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ look that stuck to all of our faces throughout the day. 

Dede O’Mara tracking up some of the ‘best snow she can ever remember’. 

The wizard guide Paul Turecki skinning up for more. For powder and adventure, follow this man.

Dede with that smile you can’t wipe off, no matter how many faceshots she gets. Dan Grolley looking almost as cool as when he stuck his backflip over Fitzroy in the background. No pics, you’ll have to wait for the video. 

Another stunning shot of our playground for the day!

I made my mark in some Patagonia pow as Dede and Andy’s shadows look on. We captured some amazing video and I can’t wait to put it together. Including, Andy Jacobsen stomping a front flip over Fitzroy. However, we don’t have many good skiing pics to show. They were all shot by Jay Beyer and he’s selling them for the big bucks, not giving them away for blog fodder. Look for them in a ski catalog or magazine next year.

Paul Turecki milking the last bit of daylight, as we finished the day with a 2,000ft descent down to the climbers hut.

Home sweet home for the night! 

Chillin’, left to right; Andy Jacobsen, Dan Grolley, Paul Turecki, Noah Howell.

It’s tough going to sleep after a day like this. We didn’t want the dream to end. And it did, the wind came on strong through the night. Thanks to wind and warm temps, the snow didn’t even resemble what we had known from the day before. 

The only logical thing to do was head back to town…..

for a steak dinner…..

some bouldering…..(Andy Jacobsen)

and tatoos! Pretty handy for down days when your expert guide is also an artist of ink.

Dan Grolley with his first tatoo.

Next up Jay Beyer.

Jay is clearly more excited about it than Andy.

The artwork for mine. Can you tell I wasn’t too sure about this? We didn’t get any pics of the final flesh rendition, but it came out nice.

What other way would you finish the trip of ‘all time’ than with a fiery farewell sunset.

It’s fitting this post is coming to light during the national time of thanks. All of us on this trip knows and appreciates just how blessed we were to be there for such a rare single afternoon of perfection.

Posted by NH

Final leg of the PW tour

Published
by
noahhowell
on November 18, 2008
in 2008 SUMMER and 2008 SUMMER
. 1 Comment

We wrapped up the Front Range with the Colorado Springs show. A mix of Colorado College students and die-hard fans who make it out every year. Sorry no pics, Sunday is a day of rest for the camera.

Moving up the Interstate 70 corridor we set up shop in Breckenridge at the Three 20 South night club. 

With some time to kill we strolled the quiet mountain town. Looked like some sweet entertainment was going on in town.

They say modeling doesn’t come easy?

We continued our tradition of filling up on hippy food at Rasta Pasta before the show. 

The local bad boys, Mark Tieszen and Pete Gallup showed up to say hi and check out the flick. We couldn’t manage to arrange for photo’s due to contractual agreements with their sponsors. It was fun guys, see you this winter.

Moving down past Vail to Edwards, we stopped off at what has become one of our favorite venues. The staff here is really helpful and always glad to see us. Plus they tossed us free food and beverage.

100 strong looking on.

Some weather blew in across the pass to Steamboat. A fun crowd was on hand to support the program Everything Outdoors Steamboat. I must have been getting lazy with camera, no pics from Steamboat.

Final stop on the tour took us to ASPEN. We finally got to see where our good friends and fellow Powderwhores Will and Kate Cardamone call home. 

They quickly put us to work on the woodpile. Kate gettin’ after it.

Woodsman Will in full swing.

We cleaned up as best we could and headed into town for the show. I didn’t quite feel like I fit in.

The infamous Belly Up was our host for the evenings festivities. Jonah and I always get really nervous when it’s our first showing in a new town. We manage to convince each other that it’s just going to be the 2 of us.

So, it’s always great when 130 telemarkers show up to fill the house. Here Will C and Mary take it all in on the big screen. It’s always fun to have the local athlete’s come out. Kate and Will helped pass out the raffle prizes which raised money for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

We packed up after the show and headed out to celebrate the end of the 30+ city road tour.

Turns out Aspen is a pretty cool town.

Crashing outside the Cardamone compound, our last night in the trailer. Thank God!

Will had his hands full with some “fresh” roadkill. 

We didn’t want to test out how ‘fresh’ the road steaks were.That was our cue to hit the road back to SLC.

The tour is a really fun part of this “job”. We are lucky to work with such great people all along the way. Sufficiently warn down and out from 29 days on the road out of the past 2 months. It felt really good to be heading home to transition into our favorite part of the job, the skiing and filming. 

Thanks to everybody who helped out along the way. It takes a lot of planning and effort to pull this off effectively and we really appreciate everyone for coming out to support what we are doing. With your help we are able to keep dreaming the dream. With close to 8,000 people attending PW events we have helped raise over $30,000 for local non-profit organizations. 

See you all next year!

The show must go on. PW tour continues to Colorado.

Published
by
noahhowell
on November 10, 2008
in 2008 SUMMER and 2008 SUMMER
. 0 Comments

Usually when it drops 3 feet of snow in the mountains we don’t quickly head out of town. However, the fanatical Coloradans are in need of the pre-season ski vid fix, so off we go.

Andy Jacobsen joined us for the long slippery drive.

Plenty of open road to talk about lines to be skied and future PW plans. The roads were really bad, but we made it safely to our destination after avoiding several bad wrecks.

The Fort Collins crowd seemed excited about the movie. Or maybe it was the free beer that New Belgium provided? We raised money for Diamond Peaks Ski Patrol and gave away a ton of gear.

‘World Telemark Champion’ Megan Michelson was kind enough to host us in Boulder.

The Dark Horse Bar has housed the movie for us for the past 3 years and it’s become one of our favorite and funkiest stops on tour.

Even Associate Editors of large ‘Skiing’ publications have a tricky time with reading comprehension sometimes.

180 dedicated fans showed up despite a Bronco’s football game, an action film festival and some guy named Warren Miller all playing that night. The Backcountry Snowsports Alliance raised money for the cause through a great raffle of prizes, including a pair of T1 boots provided by our friends at Scarpa North America.

Denver has always been a special showing at the classic Oriental Theatre. We had record numbers of nearly 450 folks at what has been our largest venue every year.

Good training for lift lines I guess.

The packed house of backcountry enthusiasts showed their love for the Friends of Berthoud Pass and Colorado Avalanche Information Center by raising several thousand dollars for the non-profit organizations.

Thanks to Shan Sethna for organizing this massive event. See you all next year!

Our great friends and hosts Dan Abrams (the man behind Flylow gear) and Megan Michelson (World Champion) helped us celebrate the evening.

I cut myself off while Jonah considers another beverage.

Get a room!

The Front Range crew took us on a beautiful ride through the foothills before the Golden show. This was Jonah’s first time on a mountain bike. He preformed like a champ despite his choice of apparel.

Team PW/Flylow setting up shop at another great Colorado venue.

We wrapped up on Saturday night with our movie being part of an evening of fund raising for the Backcoutry Snowsports Alliance. Thanks to everybody who came out and helped give the backcountry users of Colorado a voice in what goes on in the their mountains.

We wrap up the week with Colorado Springs, Breckenridge, Edwards, Steamboat and Aspen. Check back for an update on those shows. Then it’s home to the Wasatch where we can get back to blogging about skiing.

Posted by Noah

Scramble On

Published
by
noahhowell
on November 3, 2008
in Uncategorized
. Closed

It’s snowed and it’s currently snowing in the mountains here in the Wasatch. The forecast is calling for more early this week. I’m guessing and hoping this will be the patch that sticks and starts the snowpack for the 2008/09 winter season. It’s been a long Summer and Fall and this year I was able to get out to train and play in the mountains much more than usual. Last week I was able to get on two classic rock scrambles while it was still dry.

The South Ridge of Mount Superior is a classic ramble along this nearly 3K foot ridge. The route follows the ridge to the Superior summit and then down the summer trail via pole line pass.

Plenty of great holds and exposure. Dylan Freed working one of the knife-edge don’t fall ridges.

Nice enough views.

Glad to be out and about after almost a month of driving around the western states. One of the warmest endings to October on the record books.

S. Supperior is long and consistent, but mellow enough to really move along quickly. It’s a good strength and cardio outing.

The final push is a nice ridge walk in the sky.

We ran into this guy on the upper slopes of the Cardiff Drainage.

Beautiful beast!

The mountains have a funny way of fulfilling desire, but they also leave me wanting for more. I had climbed the West Slab of Mount Olympus for the first time this summer and it’s been calling me back ever since. Halloween seemed like a good time to spook myself a little with a solo of this highly exposed face.

This is the taunting face of Olympus that quietly watches over the Salt Lake Valley.

The bushwacking trail/gullies are always a route finding treat, but this time I linked it all up without bumbling around.

The jumbled mess of rocks and blocks create a great staircase to the slab. Spent some time checking out a goat carcass and chatting with some young guys who had just come off the face.

25 minutes from the car I Switched over to rock shoes and began climbing the “slab” proper.

I love this type of climbing. The holds are plentiful and there aren’t any “lines” or routes to follow. You can just focus on the foot and hand holds “at hand” and go fast pulling and stepping up.

Almost made it from car to top in an hour.

Almost 2500ft of vert.

Almost stroking out above the valley floor.

Now it’s back to life on the road. The people of Colorado need their ski stoke. Hopefully I’ll return to play in the mountains with a skiable snowpack in a few weeks.