450cms in 3-4 days.. it’s called “South America SNOW Sessions” for a reason!

After a whirwind of last minute decisions and plans I found myself  in Bariloche, Argentina at the South America  Snow Sessions compound after 40+ long hours of travel.  The next morning at Breakfast I had this eerie sense of deja vu, as a large part of the coaching also call Whistler  their home.

Mr. Bowlu himself, one of the many Whistler/Pemby locals down here.

Jimmy in the house!

Kasie Stroshin and the One-eyed bandit Ryan Prentice also made it town to test skis for Folsom Custom.

Taking a walk through town, followed by dinner.. Mike and Ryan looking cute in their matching plaid!

 I also met 50+ new faces who were all super friendly and inclusive; how not when we all share a common passion for winter? I had arrived mid “Ladies Session” and I have never seen this many females at a competition, camp or in one place for the purpose of shreding, EVER. (That’s right, guys.. you’re missing out BIG TIME!)

My room-mate Victoria managed to Scorpion and give herself a blackeye in the process, what a bad ass chica.

  My first day was a bit of a tease, as I havent seen the top of the mountain since then due to the non-stop snowfall. Since then we’ve been skiing the lower mountain when possible, and finding other small hits and features to session. Drinking til the sun comes up also seems to be a popular pastime down here.

Travis checking out the snowfall at the hostel in town… a few thousand feet lower elevation than the resort.

En route to the burned down hotel down the street on a down day.

Craig going spiderman on the hotel… before hucking out the 3rd story window.

One of the longest handrails I’ve seen in a while.

Craig scoping the scene out.

Morning Tage Session

Today we hiked to midmountain,  the upper mountain is still closed due to ongoing high winds and snowfall. Luckily they put a cattrack up the side, because the moment you stepped foot off the packed track you were up to your groin in the snow!

Ms. Parker likes what she sees too!

 All I have to say is DEEEEEEEP! It’s going to go OFF down here, especially with clear skies for saturday. If you haven’t made plans yet, or were sitting on the fence… 14ft+ of new snow in the past few days is the perfect reason to get on down here!

Check them out at http://www.sasnow.com/

Photos from today to follow.

South America Snow Sessions

I’d like to extend a big thank you to Travis and Jack at South America Snow Sessions for helping get me down to Argentina at the end of this month! I was not anticipating being able to head down south this summer, but it looks like its a green light!

Check them out at http://www.sasnow.com/v3/

I’ve been down to Chile many times for pre-season training when I used to race, the skiing is phenominal, and August-September is the time to go! Last time I was there it snowed so much the T-Bars got burried, and we were basically walking through snow tunnels from building to building and jumping off 3rd story decks into snow drifts.

If you’re considering going south for the summer to ski, definitely check out South America Snow Sessions!

Here are some photos from the last time I was in South America 5 years ago.

The sky in South America is bluer and more vivid than anywhere else I’ve been.

Also, the sunsets down here are 2nd to none.

Early morning load for DH training at 4am.

Yup, thats a burried T-bar.. aren’t the cables supposed to be 20ft above you not under your skis?

Walking to and from our Condo.. simply too much snow!

Being naughty at the END of the day of training. Yes, thats right. 4pm freshies.

Taking advantage of Termas de Chillans amazing hotsprings… racer style.

I can’t wait! It still hasn’t really sunken in yet, but I’ll have updates up as soon as I get there.

Sledbetties Teaser for “Rise”

Back so soon? But it’s summer! Must mean teaser season!

Here’s the teaser for Sledbetties first full length feature, “Rise”. An all female snowmobile movie produced by females.

http://www.sledbetties.com/

Also, my friends Sally and Bruce from the Mineshaft Pub up in Bralorne have a new website, so check it out!

http://www.sledbralorne.com

Anxiously awaiting the new teaser for BRAAAP 10! Check back, should have it up soon!  Hope everyone is having a great summer.

Snow Hunny’s Teaser

The teaser for Snow Hunny’s 2010 production “Our time is now” is out! Pemberton girls represent.

More at http://www.teamsnowhunnys.com/

…and some more action shots from myself and Steph.

http://www.vimeo.com/12479259

http://www.vimeo.com/10517241

What a big year for women’s snowmobiling!

Is it spring yet?

Nope. It’s still snowing up high here in Whistler, and the sun is nowhere to be seen. Can’t complain, right? Especially after this last winter…

Photo Jeff Boyce

I went up Brohm ridge to set up/hit a giant air bag or “Acrobag” with snowboarding ninja’s Wiley Tesseo and Craig Beaullieu. It was more camping, target practice and rock trundling than air bag as the cat driver was a no-show to pull the cart up to the high alpine. None the less, we made the best of our situation. I got a chance to whip out the camera and fool around as well.

The view from our camping site, Squamish in the background.

Putting the truck to the test, 4 people, 2 sleds, gear, and 4000lb trailer going up one gnarly logging road.

Leisurely activities the next day waiting on the cat driver.

Wiley getting his Cawwwww on.

We went sledding up the Callaghan valley once it re-oppened after Olympic closures.. it turned out to be quite the mission.

Skimming across lake Callaghan.

Building booters with friends, what more could ya want?

Wheee!

Steph gettin’ some.

Craig and I went 4×4′ing, as there’s really nothing else you can do when it’s raining this much…

Craig and the “Baby Killer”

Mmmm, Mud.

Mine after a good winching.

…And I leave you with some more pow shots from Jonathan Cracoft.

May = Sun, snow, sledding and… PARK?!

Yep, that’s right. I’ve found myself skiing laps in the Blackcomb park on days when I’m not in the backcountry. Never thought the day would come, but I’m actually having a blast. It’s probably due to the fact park skiing is new to me, I’ve never really had the opportunity to ski much park with training/competition schedules over the years. The progression of starting the day of with a goal in mind, and surpassing expectations by download time is one of the most satisfying feelings ever. Hopefully I’ll get some photos of me flailing around up shortly. All I have to show for my efforts at the moment are big black bruises head to toe.

As always, I never like to update without some photos, or video clips. A BIG Thank You to Justin at GoPro for getting me a GoPro Hero Camera! I’ve been tinkering around with white balance, and positioning, trying to figure out what works best. The camera takes very good stills, way better infact that my “bombproof” olympus stylus “tough” that normally lives in my pocket.

Here’s some photos from the last week or so.

Finally managing to get the sled sideways or “Whip” it in the air, similar to what you’d see on a moto.

Dirty feet at the trailhead. I love Mud!

Top of Rainbow Mountain, with Whistler/Blackcomb in the background.

James Hillier, gettin’ some May Pow!

Steph Sweezey’s Birthday up on Sproat, super awesome day with friends!

Questionable mystery meat for lunch, anyone?

I’ve probably instructed 6+ beginners this year on “how to snowmobile”, I thought I had it figured. Most people are quite hesitant on the throttle to start out, I figured I’d put Karina on my sled as it was 150lbs lighter than my room-mates sled I had borrowed.

WRONG.

My sled has a waaaay snappier clutch, and Karina had no issues finding the throttle, within 100ft of the truck she had it pinned into a ditch, out of a ditch and back into the creek, and forgot to let go till it tossed her into the water when it finally came to a stop. After assuring me she was ok, we got it out and when up Brandywine, the next day she sends me a message saying she has a displaced disk in her neck. Wow.. learned me good.

Hurrah for bonesaws? Getting muddy again..nice work Karina.

We finally got up top and it started snowing. That’s May for you I guess?

And some videos:

Some hits and playing around on Steph’s Birthday.

Whippin the sled! (Forgive me, had not figured out the White Balance yet)

Sledders gone Nascar, Chasing Chris Brown on the Predator Cam

Spring is here…

…but in no way does that mean I’ve had my fill of winter! We’ve probably got another solid 4-6 weeks of riding ahead of us, thanks to a ridiculous snow pack this year here in Whistler. I thought I’d share some photos from the past 2 weeks.

Looks like fun to me!

Beautiful day up on Rainbow

Night mission up the Ice-Cap

BBQ’s in the Sun

My friend Julie-Ann was farm-sitting for 2 weeks, so we spent a casual afternoon riding horses, mucking out stalls, playing with our dogs and ripping around on the ATV.  Just another average day in Pemberton, rough life!

The night may have ended in a chocolate fondu fight..

On top of Metal Dome, one of the deepest days of the year!

…where I subsequently put my sled into a VERY large tree well on the descent into Brandywine meadows. Go big or go home, right?

Let me reiterate again, this was one BIIIIIIIG HOLE. On the plus side, I had a lot of one on one time with the tree and my sled.

Miles, shirts and snowmobiling don’t go together. I now have probably 15+ similar photos from this season alone.

One of my favorite sled hits. On the in-run all you can see is the mountains on the distant horizon! Then the landing drops steeply away to the valley between. Not a good place to be chasing runaway sleds.

Some more hits.

I like to leave my mark on the mountain.

Ironically I’ve been skiing more than sledding lately, but unfortunately I’m not able to share the photos. So I leave you with this, for all who doubted: Yes. I do put away the sled and hike for turns.

And it was sooooooooo worth it!

Sneak Peek

A few months ago I did an article with Claire Hughes and Beanie Milne-Holme about “Sled-skiing” for Cooler Magazine. I played tour guide up on the ice cap with these two first timers, and we had a blast! Here is a sneak peak,  Cooler Magazine is a UK/NZ/European publication, it probably wont be surfacing too much in  North America so I got permission to share some of the extra material that isn’t being used.

Unloading at the trailhead.

“This is your gas…”

Braaaap!

Quick lessons on riding Tandem

…and Ghost-riding, heyooo!

Sunset laps

Thank you to Delaney Zayac for being so patient, and to Claire and Beanie for inviting me along!