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Video by me, skiing by my lawyer, Davide De Masi. He got me out of that Siberian labor camp amazingly quick!

After a torrential storm dropped almost 20” of rain in the Cascades below 7,000′, and something like 15′ or 20′ of snow above that level, I went on a tour with Amar and Kat on Mt. Rainier. The road to Paradise washed out partially, so we started from the much lower Rampart Ridge trailhead at Longmire. We did a tiny bit of skiing and a lot of walking, but we saw the signs of some really large recent avalanche activity and got some much needed sun.

Rainier! The red line shows the Eastern Success Couloir, maybe later this season?

Mt. Adams to the south.

Amar next to some substantial destructive force.

Amar skinning overrain runnels from the recent storm.

Rainier at sunset. We were still a few miles from the car, and it was a fun trip through the dark forest wondering if we were lost.

Skiing the sometimes overused and thus often grotesquely-misnamed Slut Couloir, near Alpental Resort, Snoqualmie Pass, WA.

Took this video on Washington Pass of the North Cascades Highway, WA. Filming by me, still photos and snowboarding by Kyle Miller, music by Andrew Bird.

I think for most of my friends, Barack Obama losing the 08 Presidential election would have been a tragedy too profound to even imagine. So when he won there wasn’t so much surprise, but rather relief.

And then excitement. And then excitement blocking traffic. And then a parade. Through the streets of downtown Seattle. Check out the sweet sequence of events:

Victory party in the Showbox at The Market.

The Showbox begins to empty out, and Barack supporters begin to fill the sidewalk.

The crowd swells, overflowing the sidewalk and sprawling into 1st Ave.

The parade begins pretty much spontaneously with thousands of people marching through downtown. The police responded incredibly quickly, baricading and rerouting traffic ahead of our path.

The march ended in Capitol Hill, where we filled an intersection and chanted and sang and toasted and so on.

Similar gatherings were occuring elsewhere in the city, this one had a brass band leading the crowd in song.

Hooray Barack!

Did a few great day hikes around the Seattle area recently. These are basically the closet mountain areas to the city since I’ve been short on time.

Went up to the Mt. Pilchuck shelter above the Mountain Loop Highway with Mia. Late start and early sunset meant we had the normally crowded summit to ourselves.

Wildlife in the parking lot!

Beautiful Glacier Peak

Amazing Mt. Baker

Lovely Mia

City sunset the same week.

My parents visited and we had some great times with them.Winchester Mountain near Mount Shuksan. There is a cool shelter up here too behind the photographer.

Went up on the 11th in blazing sun and over glazed ice. Penetratable with ‘pons no problem but the ski down looked a little grim. We had a summit attempt in mind for the morning after sleeping at the Muir shelter, but when the 4AM departure group came back in at 6AM when we were getting up because they got blizzarded off, we changed plans. With the .5-6” (hard to tell with the winds) of snow we suited up and lapped the upper Muir. Glazed ice gone, whipped Philly cream cheese in. As we packed to leave and descend in the continuing white-out, the Paradise parking lot all of the sudden became visible as the cloud deck lifted to just above our camp. It left us with sunshine, incredible views, and a spike in the temps that left a small window to shralp the Philly before it turned to tapioca. We passed several ski groups ascending the Muir as we skied down, and even more coming up as we hiked down the last couple miles of trail. I lied and told all of them the snow was light and dry rather than the unskiable glue that it had actually turned into in the final few minutes of our run. But maybe I just had the wrong wax?

Anyway, it was my first time on Rainier. That mountain is one of the reasons I left my home in Utah and moved to WA. It did not disappoint and despite the fact that in some spots on the Muir, “you can drop a bowling ball and it will actually roll uphill,” it was still a powerful experience. I’m in love (and fear).

Graduation meaning, leaving home for the first time in my life. I packed it up and came to Seattle where I joined my lovely lady Mia who had already been here dancing for a few weeks.

Mikey and Ty at my going away party with the gifts who my attendees were blessed with. Style.

I bought a nice new used car to drive up here, and promptly totalled it. Yes, things were going well.

But then I remembered what Washington had for me. The North Cascades. I’ve been skiing twice so far, both times on Mt. Baker. It was awesome. Here’s a few shots from those two trips.

Toe of the Coleman Glacier.

Sky Sjue, nearing the summit of Mt. Baker. Deming Glacier below. 

Mt. Baker, Colfax Peak, Lincoln Peak (R-L).

Best year of my life? I think so. I will start in May of 2007, and work my way to the present.

Mid-May, nine days in the Wind Rivers with Tyler Sterling and Davide De Masi. Tyler looking at the north couloir of Mt. Helen.

A long (three month) summer followed. September finally arrived and it was time for the flight to Santiago, Chile. Again with Davide. We roamed for five weeks climbing mountains. We were limited in scope only by the need to have a discoteque nearby.

High and dry near Mendoza, Argentina. Davide.

Low and soggy-wet near Termas de Chillan, Chile.

Decompression. Airing out our skiboot feet near Valparaíso, Chile.

Got home to Utah and it was snowing. Oct. 21 in the Wasatch with David “Gramps” Shiembob.

But snow melted and things got desperate. Skiing runs like this fueled thoughts of global warming.

And not long after that, it was time to spend the winter on the road. The Eastern Sierra, near Mammoth, CA.

A couple days at home and it was off to Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, for vodka and backflips.

Home to Utah. Time for a quick weekend in Capitol Reef with some friends. Nothing like a national park to yourself.

And good snow conditions for a memorable run down the East Ridge of Mighty Mt. Timpanogos.

But enough sitting around, back on the airplane. This time to France. Heli-accessed big mountain freeride competition on this, the north face of Le Buet? A good way to separate the men from the boys. I unfortunately fell into the latter category.

Southern France, St. Christof, a tiny village near La Grave.

The high life, lived in Tignes, France. Part of the Espace Killy, which also includes Val D’isere. Argentinians Oscar Sosa and Estanislao “Tato” Vasiuk. I may be visiting them in their home town of San Martin de los Andes, near Bariloche, this coming September.

Looking down the competition face in Tignes. See the finish?

Then to the party spot: Verbier. Verbier Xtreme! Trying to be a rockstar.

I was accompanied by my lovely girlfriend Mia in Verbier, and from there we train-hopped our way south into Italy and to the Cinque Terre for some notskiing. It is beautiful down there.

I grew tired of all the notskiing, so returned to Chamonix. Mia went home, and I was then joined again by my associate Davide. We dabbled in deep powder skiing. (See full story on this below.)

And also in some ski mountaineering in the Argentiere Basin.

Home again. This time for a week. But what’s that? Oh right, must go to Alyeska, Alaska. The road from Anchorage to Girdwood.

Alyeska is beeeyoootiful!

Miles traveled: 2,000,0000,000,000,00
Overall ranking on the Freeride World Tour: 4th place
Highlights: 2nd place Russian Freeride Comp, 2nd place Verbier Extreme

Our friend John Nicoletta passed away on April 11th during the World Freeskiing Championships. Rest in peace, John. http://www.shinelineproductions.com/nicoletta.html