Patagonian Adventure

This video from Kepa Acero via VSTR.com has been catching some attention on the webs lately. I can see why. It's pretty much the reason we go on missions like this one. Treasure! Nice work Kepa.

Joe

Eric Rife photo

We miss ya Joe.

The Denali Experiment

Check this video of Lucas Debari & Sage Cattabriga-Alosa summitting Denali last spring during a North Face expedition.

11

Kelly Slater clinches his 11th World Title at the Rip Curl event in San Francisco. Has any athlete ever dominated a sport like this?

Here it comes...

I'm not really ready for winter yet. Looks like it's coming early ready or not.

Check out the Duffey today:

Surftember

Today was the last day of summer. Seems like it barely got going and then it was done. I managed to get back to the Island at the beginning of the month for a few days of camping on the beach. The weather was perfect. Pretty much sunny and warm the entire time. Oh - and waves too. Thank you Surftember.

Ready for the hike to the beach.

Beach camp.

Mid morning beach walk.

The locals were around, but we never met.

Oh ya - waves too!

Beautiful and empty.

Five days later.

Duff!

Last but not least of the Living Legends from Push.ca - Dufficy!

Dew Bowl

Check out the bowl the Dew Tour has this year.

Holy shite! Skating is radder than ever!

The tour will be in Portland in August. Good excuse for a summer road trip.

Cool Pool Vid

Check out this pool party:

Kale Stephens

The Living Legends series continues over at Push.ca with Kale Stephens. Check it right here or over there.

WTF?!!

I love hockey games. I love Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. What the hell do these people have to do with hockey? So absolutely disappointing. Not only do we miss a glorious opportunity, but the morons of the lower mainland decide to give us another black eye. Thanks for coming out you idiots.

Chilean Volcano Goes Off

Surreal pic from the volcanic eruption going on in Chile over the last few days. This is the same volcano Shin, Lucas, Xavier, DCP and crew tackled last summer with splitboards.

There's a good collection of eruption pics here.

P.A. postscript

After the Goat Trip I hung out in P.A. for a couple days. Here's a couple shots from a beautiful evening in the Strait.

Goat Tour Pt 3

The weather changed overnight. Even with ear plugs in I could hear the dreaded drops hitting the tent. We all slowly rose from our warm dry bags to assess the wet day in front of us. The clouds were hanging low and there was a constant drizzle. After getting some coffee and food into us we made our way to the old Tubal Cain mine just above our camp. Four of us went in for a look see. There's dark and then there's absolute dark. We found the later. A little bit creepy would be an understatement.

Forrest and friend.

Yoshida considering the entrance.

I think I just saw Gollum!

We all made it out of the mine without waking any cave demons. It was totally Lord of the Rings in there. The day was drab and gray but we decided to session a patch of snow with a tree jib before we packed it up and moved down the trail.

Temple checks a line. The little guys were always close by.

Lester's puppy Laska.

Let's make it interesting. In run by Blair & Forrest.

Forrest halfway there.

Blair in the air.

After a successful final session it was time to load up and head out. Going downhill should be easier. The goats practically dragged me down the trail. They wanted to get home more than anyone. Except for one of them. One of the bigger goats (Hencho) decided he'd had enough about 2/3's of the way down and went on strike. He almost had the rest of the goats convinced to do the same, but we got them moving again before a mass revolt ensued. After unloading Hencho and securing him to a tasty salal bush we continued down the trail minus one goat. By the time we'd reached the truck, unloaded and gone back up the trail to help Les get Hencho down it was dark. Even after a good rest and being unloaded this goat was not into it. He refused to walk. Blair & Les had got him down the trail as far as they could. Mike and I joined the group and the four of us shouldered the beast and packed him out the rest of the way. That's right - we packed out the pack animal. I swear he was smiling the whole way.

How often do you get to hang with a blue goat?

About halfway down the trail before Hencho's revolt.

Hencho and Les at the end of the trail. I think Les is wondering how H would taste with a nice Shiraz.

What a mission! We were all relieved to be down off the mountain safe and sound. And just like that my snow season was over. Another day of sun would have been nice, but getting 2 in a row this year seems lucky. What a winter!

Goat Tour Pt 2

 So... we woke up to dry skies and got our train headed up the valley to the zone we'd scoped the day before. No goats today. Oh - I forgot to mention we took a couple of the goats into the alpine on Day 1 just for the hell of it. Well, for photos actually. Mountains, goats, snow shredding... you get the picture. Well you will when Yoshida's pics come out next year in the mag. Oh, and we dyed a goat blue too. He was pissed at first but I think he got into it after a while.

Smoky morning.

Break on the trail for...

...gypsy snacks from Forrest.

Blair & Sammy head up. Pic from Temple.

As does Forrest. Pic from Temple.

The mountains are green out here.

Forrest on his ridge. Pic from Temple.

The day went pretty well. The boys all got to tackle a line or two in pretty decent corn snow. The clouds held off. The views were amazing. Everybody came down smiling. Forrest even did a little pond skimming on the way out. We all made our way back to camp to find Pos & Stantech had made their way up the trail. We'd been to the Mervin Factory before we came in and they'd said they were going to try and meet us up there. "Yeah, cool" we said. "Yeah, right" we thought. But there they were - ready for anything. Well not really. It started raining that night and they were gone before we woke up the next morning. Good effort guys.

Yeah, it was a little weird. Pic from Temple.

Check back soon for Day 3.

Goat Tour Part 1

Last week I went down to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to finish up my winter season. Blair Habenicht had corralled a crew of WA bros for a spring splitboard tour into the mountains near Port Angeles for a Snowboarder Magazine story. Travis at Standard Films figured I'd be the guy to send to try and video the whole thing. Always up for a challenge, I signed on. The twist was we were going to use goats to help pack our gear into and out of our camp. Lester West had the goats, Mervin had the splits, Mike Yoshida & I had the cameras and Blair, Temple, Forrest B & Sammy had the time. We watched the roller coaster weather forecasts until a little window opened up last week. After a day in P.A. getting last minute supplies we were off to the trail head. It was a 3 mile walk to the camp site mostly on dirt and patches of snow. After setting up camp in the dark, we all hit the sack. The next morning we awoke to Lester's alarm of gunshots. Nothing like getting your point across! Time to get up and check out our surroundings. After a not so quick breakfast we were off. The valley we were camped in was steep. Steep enough that it was easier to bootpack up the snow and dirt/rocky patches than to try and skin up. Finally we were able to put the skins on and tour up the last 3rd of the climb. We reached the top of the ridge and looked across the valley to see the terrain we were after. The side we had climbed had a few interesting riding opportunities, but better things were on offer across the valley. The access looked a little more splitboard friendly too. We milked it until the sun started disappearing and headed down to camp. A quick dinner of freeze dried goodness and it was straight into the evening's most important activity - trying to dry boots. 

Night Goat.

Going up on Day 1.

View north to the San Juans...

... with Mt. Baker in the background.

Looking across to Day 2 possibilities.

Blair & Sammy.

Boot Camp.

The hazards of drying by fire.

More to come...

Living Legend - Martin Gallant