Moonlight Basin | January 6, 2011
Took a trip out to Big Sky today to check out Moonlight Basin, as we got closer to the resort we noticed there was significantly more snow than the day before at Bridger. Unfortunately it was much more wet and sticky, still skied until 4pm and had a blast. Looks like maybe a backcountry day for tomorrow. 
Bridger Bowl | January 5, 2010
We got to Bozeman safely and immediately indulged in some fast food and cheap beer. The time zone change is a little hard to get used to but things are coming around. We got up at 8:00am and saw Bridger was boasting 7″ of 5% water content blower powder. Like every new snow day that I’ve experienced here, Bridger welcomes you with avi explosives going off up on the ridge throughout the morning. It’s a little intimidating putting your boots on in the lot and hearing the bombs going off but something about it gets the blood flowing. 
NOAA is forecasting 25″+ here by Saturday night, looks like it could get pretty ****** insane! Time for bed..
Still without a camera I had to rely on the trusty GoPro. Here is what we came up with, Day 1 of 18. Enjoy!
Alpine-Live.com | Travel Season
As I pack for my 18 day trip to Mantana I can’t help but be reminded that this time of year is awesome, pre-season is over and winter has set in – our legs are finally getting a break via Dopplemayr lift transport and we’re all around in better moods. Most ski areas are open East and West and theres snow at lower elevations all up and down the East Coast. All of the Alpine-Live team guys are traveling and it’s just an awesome time to be a skier.
Lucas just got back from his Christmas break in Vail, Colorado. I’ll add Part 1 of his video series and his .02 on the trip:
“My 2010 Christmas was spent in Vail, Colorado with family & shooting for alpine-live.com. And I couldn’t have asked for a better present. From the 24th-30th the back bowls accumulated a total of 12”-18” of fresh. I managed to hook up with a friend in town who knew the area better, and could show me all the secret stashes. ‘Getto’ didn’t disappoint, we hit the furthest point of the Vail backcountry range, Earl’s Bowl. Where we got some unreal first tracks in the morning, before retrieving our lunch & brews from the snow, and grilling out in the continuing snow showers. After eating and drinking a little too much, we decided on heading back to Earl’s for some glory turns in the fading sunlight before heading home.”
Another buddy Robby and his friend up and left on a last minute powder journey to the Wasatch, he hasn’t returned just yet but I got a few shots through e-mail that were astounding. Hope they’re killing it! Here is a little taste of what they’ve been getting into:
Andy, the other Alpine-Live partner is also headed west to CO, he will be leaving later this week and surely will bring back some documentation from the trip. Stay tuned right here to Alpine-Live.com because it’s about to get wild.
Lastly, we’re stoked to be bringing on a new friend to the AL family, Outdoor Technology. These guys produce some awesome gear. Check out their Facebook Fan site: Outdoor Technology
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!
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