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

 

Red Fang

Red Fang make videos that are worth making. I love this.

Living Legends

Push.ca has been posting a series of videos they call Living Legends. Each video takes a look at a snowboarder or skateboarder from back in the day who's still in the game somehow today. I've been helping them out with interviews lately. Dennis Bannock was the first to get posted a while back. Check out the latest edit with Shin:

Keep checking Push.ca for new posts every couple of weeks. Or maybe check back here. Gawd that site's hard to get around.

April Wrap

April has come and gone. Lots of time in the mountains as usual this time of year. No AK this time. All B.C. (and one day at Baker). Winter stuck around and delivered lots of late season pow. Two weeks in the Golden area was a welcome change of scenery. Got to return to Chatter Creek with BJ after 6 years. That place is amazing. Thanks Isabelle.

Can't stop winter at Mt Baker.

Leland McNamara spent most of the month up in B.C. filming for the Rome movie. Check out Debari's custom paint job on his new Cat.

Justin Baun in his zone near Golden.

Baun's new cabin and a shootin' session.

Jane loves to shoot. Her pockets are always full of shells.

Baun, BJ & Jeff P.

Truck crust.

Bubbly goodness at Chatter.

Sweet lines at Chatter.

Line review.

BJ  atop some more goodness at Chatter.

Ronald McDonald rides again! It was strange going back to a snowmobile to access the backcountry. Old Ronald did pretty well though (after Rome put in a new motor).

Sullivan Fault. This view never gets old.

End of season wack steez.

Chatter Lodge. The biggest log building I know of. Good food too.

Sunsets and moonrises.