Phoenix Multisport Aspen Snowboarding Trip

I finally made it on the Phoenix Multisport Aspen snowboarding trip this year.  Since I replaced mountain bike racing with sports car racing it's been harder and harder to find my way on Phoenix trips.  Last year I made it to Ouray, but a nasty cold forced me into isolation in my hotel room.  Mouses hot chocolate was the highlight of the trip.

This year there was no cold and I had a rad time catching up with some of the OG Phoenix crew and making new friends while we shredded some of the best ski-boarding hills in Colorado.  Aspen really is the bomb. It's devoid of the Summit County local and tourist traffic and has nearly the vertical drop of Jackson, WY.  Even a weekday snob like me couldn't find any complaints with the thin weekend traffic, lack of lift lines, and fresh tracks to be found hidden off the beaten path.

On Friday I mounted up some brand new snow tires, picked up my new friend Dave, and pushed the E30 hard, making it to Carbondale in less than 4 hours in heavy traffic.

Okay that wasn't us, but RWD + high performance snow tires + 2" of fresh on Vail Pass = Driving Bliss.  Only I would find snow tires beautiful!

The first day we went to Snowmass.  The snow was fresh and the views were killer.  Dave and I hiked a mile up a cat track to find a patch of untracked snow and avoid the T-Bar lift line.  It was a burner, I was shed to my tee shirt by the top.

Our reward was this patch of fresh.

Followed by lots of mashed potatoes.

And cliffs.

The view off the backside.

The second day we all went to Aspen Highlands.  The Highlands might have edged out Wolf Creek as my favorite Colorado ski hill.  The first thing we did was hike to the top of the Highland Bowl.  We lucked out and caught the first snow cat of the day for the bottom of the hike.  The remaining hike was steep, but a piece of cake compared to what Dave and I hiked the day before.

There was a party at the top.
(click to enlarge)

And the view at the top was worth it.
(click to enlarge)

Pyramid Peak and the Sleeping Sexton.

Stoked after an epic session down the bowl.

Lunch

Good times.

Snowboarding with Helmet Cams

I recently stumbled on this;The Go Pro Hero Wide Angle Helmet Cam.



I was with Jeff in a local camera shop in downtown Missoula, Montana when I saw a case full of them on clearance. I had some money set aside for truck repairs and quickly decided to put those off until my next pay check. Mountain biking magazines have rated the Go Pro High high in equipment reviews and feedback from the hang gliding world seems to be similarly positive. It's cheap, small, shock proof, water proof, and simple. The trade off is video resolution that's slightly less than mini DV and it takes 5 mega pixel stills, which are relatively small compared most higher end digital cameras. The simplicity and size are worth the resolution and quality trade offs. The wide angle Hero has a 170 degree lens. It comes with a variety of mounts like helmet, adhesive, bike frame, suction cup, and automobile specific feet. It takes 56 minutes of video on a 2 gig SD card or will take 5mp stills every 2 or 5 seconds until stopped. It's so light that if mounted on my glider, I wouldn't need to counterbalance it to keep the glider trimmed.

I've tested it a few times, but nothing very long. With winter in full effect last week the best sport to test the Hero was snowboarding. Doug and I headed up to Loveland on a bitterly cold day. The conditions couldn't have been more extreme. Signs at the bottom of the lifts warned that only those with extreme cold weather gear should attempt to ski that day. At the top of the lift the temperature was -4 degrees Fahrenheit with winds gusting to over 40mph. Flat light mixed with white out conditions and wind-loaded compacted fresh snow challenged our abilities to just get down the mountain, much less with any speed or style. We stayed in the protection of the trees on the north side of the mountain and literally had the mountain to ourselves. The only other people we saw all day were two ski patrollers who commented that we were crazy. Every time we got on the lift, the operators laughed and shook their heads at us from the heated comfort of their lift shacks. It was a perfect testing ground. After the gaperfest I experienced at Copper earlier in the month I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's a short video I compiled of our footage. It's nothing to brag about, the lighting was poor and I have some interface issues with Adobe Premier Pro that make the already choppy helmet cam footage nauseating. The footage repeats briefly at one minute intervals. I'm sure it's due to the inferior computing power of my old Dell. I also formatted it a little too small for YouTube which is why it's so grainy. I brought a 3M adhesive foot to mount the camera on my snowboard, but when the board flexed as I stood up it popped off and hit me in the head (last scene of the clip). I'm in the green jacket, Doug has brown pants.

January Snowboarding

Andrew, Jess, Chris and Lizzy came out earlier this month for a winter visit. We planned 4 days of snowboarding in Summit County. Andrew got us discounted rooms at the La Quinta in in Silverthorne, which was a lot more ghetto than I remembered it but worth the discount. The first day we went to Loveland Ski Area for a taste of local flavor. Loveland is great because it's close, it's got steep terrain, and it doesn't attract the out of towners that the destination resorts do. It was super cold and windy, but there was fresh snow was falling. The trees on the Northside of I-70 offered the best shelter and freshest snow.

The Parking Lot



Looking Down from Cloudbase

We spent day two at Copper Mountain. It was Chris's first day on a snowboard. After giving him a lesson Andrew, Jess, and I headed off to the Copper Bowl. Intrawest has done a good job of marketing Copper Mountain as destination resort. Even though it was a week day there were a ton of vacationers and tourists there, it felt more like Breckenridge than Copper. I wasn't impressed. The best snow was actually under the lift lines and in the trees on the blue runs closest to Vail Pass. There were a couple spots where blind commitment at speed was necessary to avoid post holing and make it through the flat spots. This theory is sound, good snow can always be found in the harder sections of easier areas. The people riding there don't go on them and the people who are good are all riding the hard areas of the mountain. Example: go ride the front side of Vail on powder days because everyone is in the back bowls. Hmmm.

Lizzy and Jess

Alex and Lizzy Teaching Chris

Chris's First Run

(He was linking turns by the end)

Trees

Hiking Out from the Good Stuff

In the Clouds

Jo came up that night and we all hung out in the hotel. After eating dinner in the lobby I practiced landing the helicopter on Chris. It worked out good the first time, but the second and errant gust blew a rotor into his chin. He was a good sport about it!

Dinner

Fun with the Heli

We headed up to Vail on Friday. It was one of the best days I've ever had in Colorado. When I lived in Utah my roommate Dre and I had a 6 inch rule. We would only pay to ski if there was more than 6" of fresh powder, otherwise it was backcountry only. The snow in Colorado doesn't offer the same luxury, but lift tickets are cheap so it works out. Our day at Vail was epic even by my old standards. We met John and Allie and even though we didn't strap in until 10am, we still made fresh tracks down groomers on our traverse across the mountain to the back bowls and Blue Sky Basin (proof of my theory). It was a mission to get there we all endured a flat endless catwalk that was hell on a snowboard.

Starting the Day

Chris and Lizzy on the Gondola

Andrew and Jess

Jo and John

Andrew Riding the Endless Catwalk

Looking Down into Sun Up Bowl

Jess, Jo, and Andrew Cutting Across Tea Cup Bowl

John Throwing a Rooster Tail

The Blue Bird

Finally in Blue Sky Basin

We split up into different groups in Blue Sky Basin. Jo, John, Andrew, Jess, and I spent most of the day carving out pockets of fresh powder in the trees at the boundaries between different bowls. The powder was up to our waists in spots. At speed you could throw a 20 foot rooster tail on command. We rode straight through the day, breaking up into smaller groups until about 3pm. We all met up for a quick lunch then tried to sneak in a few groomers on the front side before the lifts closed, but didn't make it resulting in a bit of a hike. It didn't matter though, it was such a good day the sorest part of my body was my face from smiling!

A Beautiful Sign

Starting Out Above the Trees

Alex

Jess

In the Trees

The Blue Bird in the Trees

John

Jo

Jo and Her Rooster Tail

Alex and Andrew in Earl's Bowl

Andrew in the Trees

Alex in Earl's Bowl

Jo and Alex

The funniest part of the day was when Jess crashed on a small ridge. She's gonna kill me for posting this, but it is just too funny not to. We've all been there and crashed for seemingly no reason before. Listen to the grunt as she hits and then we all make excuses.

The next day we drove up to the top of Loveland Pass so Andrew and I could take a backcountry run. We didn't have beacons or shovels so we hung high on the shaded south side of the bowl, dropping into the main chute at treeline. The top of the chute was super fun, like a steep natural half pipe that went on forever. After a while we stopped so Andrew could get out his camera. Unfortunately, it flattened out significantly after that so the video isn't that great, but you can get an idea.

Loveland Pass

Warning

Our Crew

Scoping our Hike

Hikers on Top of the Proffessor

Fresh Tracks

Strapping In

The Bottom of the Chute