December 30, 2010 | White Mountains Backcountry Trip
Andy and myself got together yesterday and decided it was about time for some backcountry riding. I had skied at Cannon earlier in the week and knew that the snowpack was pretty deep and there would be good cover in the Notch. We got in the car at 6:00am and headed up to check the scene. We scoped a few different lines, most of which were wind scoured and icy or rocky, although one aspect facing Cannon looked pretty good and it was just a quick hike from the Tram lot. After some pretty solid bushwacking and the discovery of a snowshoe trail we made it up to the bottom of our intended line. 
Literally as we reached the bottom there was a ton of snow moving, mostly from being in the sun for too long. The snowshoe track ended at the base of the line (obviously right?) and we attempted to continue on upwards. After we had reached the halfway mark we decided it was certainly necessary to do a little bit of snow stability testing. Considering it was such a short trip and the line didn’t look large enough for danger from the road we opted not to bring gear. Improvising a little bit and pushing aside the technical snow testing methods we went for a little bit of an isolated column snow test, which resulted in serious instabilities towards the bottom of the snowpack. It seems as though there was a weak facet just above the rock floor that was triggering the release of our column after only 2 solid taps from the elbow (none from the wrist, starting with elbow & with a glove instead of a shovel). From here we decided there was way too much snow coming down around us and it was time to go down. We still managed to grab a few turns without anything releasing and headed back out through the wildery (yes, wildery) NH White Mountain woods. 
Turned out to be a great day and we’re really excited to get back up there….endless opportunities in all directions. GET OUT THERE!!!
Holidays at Sugarbush
Alpine-Live.com partner Barret Cox spent his Christmas up at Sugarbush, VT. Barret got some sick turns in as well as some technical help from John Egan. Check out the photos…
John Egan – going hard to the paint
God I love the Green Mountains
December 28, 2010 | Cannon = 30″+
It’s all there, no exaggeration on the resort’s behalf this time. I headed up to Cannon a little late this morning, I was up til 1am finishing the Sunapee edit from yesterday, check that out below. I met up with a college buddy who is super familiar with the area and he showed me around.
The Tour Guide
Had an unreal day, bluebird sky, 30″+ and much, much more in the woods. Seeing the sun was nice, it allowed me to see across the street to Mt. Lafayette, it’s serious terrain up there but I spotted a few excellent looking gullys. We’ll be getting at that in coming days/weeks, we haven’t quite posted an edit yet that had sun it in it so enjoy.
I knew that if I listened to Pandora Radio long enough on the ride home I would find a gem to put in today’s edit. Finally as I’m pulling into the driveway this song came on.
Closing Photo: Bryan Buried
Yesterday
While we were playing around at Sunapee yesterday, Cannon and the Notch were getting hammered. This was shot by Ryan Larson, check out his site below for more photos of yest. @ Cannon.
More Ryan Larson Photos
Post Christmas Blizzard | Sunapee?
Well it ain’t VT but it’ll do! Went up to Sunapee! today….got up really late and joined up with Ryan Dunfee of SASS Global Travel and his buddy Rob who we will call Henrik for all intents and purposes.
It was a tough decision this morning – we heard Cannon got close to 20″ overnight and it was still nuking and Magic was supposed to get around 30″ by this evening. It was a crap shoot and we just went for the hill with the best base snowpack and located closest to the larger totals. Bruce, the Marketing Director over at Sunapee was kind enough to hook us up with some day passes as well as drop a rope for our arrival. 
Unfortunately my DSLR is still at the Nikon factory getting rebuilt but I did bring along the trusty GoBro. Enjoy! Oh ya — get out there!
Bolton Valley | December 23, 2010
Had an awesome family trip today up at Bolton Valley with my father and brother, they received 7″ of snow since yesterday and were also offering 15 dollar holiday lift tickets. I had never quite experienced the crowds that this smokin’ deal brought in and it was a bit shocking at first but A few good powder turns and some friendly smiles from the lifties made everything numb again. There was a sense of anxiety coming from everyone that you could feel in the lift line but once the skis were pointed downhill again, you can bet your ass it was back to the white room.
I want to give a huge shout out to the Bolton employees for staying patient and friendly all day long, there was some serious crowding issues and they carried themselves professionally and friendly, for that I am appreciative. Next time you get on the lift, give the guy a hello and a thank you, a little smile goes a long way. 
Lucas is headed to Vail! Have fun bro, don’t mangle those JJ’s anymore than they already are……(more information/photos to come on this topic) Here’s a little more Bolton stoke to add to the archives, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and pray for this weekend’s coastal snow event to pummel the mountains!
Here is Part 1 of today’s video, Part 2 up soon:
For best viewing, click the youtube logo and watch in 1080hd
Decided to make the last run into it’s own video, Part 2:
I posted Youtube and Vimeo to contrast which one looked better, any thoughts? E-mail us.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/18142375?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=c9ff23
Sunday River Trip
We got skunked, the 6″+ that NWS predicted didn’t fall and we ended up just enjoying a night on the town and some fresh groomers this morning. Unfortunately the DSLR is still out of commission but the GoPro is a decent stand-in.
This is the trip through Franconia Notch on the way home, getting crushed right now.
Hopefully a few more inches tonight and tomorrow up in Vermont and we’ll be headed back in no time.
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