The Year in Pictures

2018

January Kyrgyzstan on a whim. I wasn't planning on traveling last winter. A poor start to the season and the opportunity to go to part of the world I'd never thought i would get to go to changed that plan 10 days into the year. In late January I was off to one of the furthest places from home I'd ever been to. My board bag was temporarily lost in transit and I had to ride a horse up to our yurt in the foothills of the Tian-Shan mountains. It was the trip of a lifetime. February On that same Kyrgyzstan trip, I was stuck in Istanbul for 24 hours on my way home due to a delayed flight and missed connection. Some might see that as an inconvenience, I saw it as a chance to explore one of the World's most historic cities. What could be better than seeing the Hagia Sophia at dawn and sunrise over the Bosphorus? February (Bonus) I've wanted to get this shot for a while. Bench tours are a rare treat. They are only an option on just a handful of days over the course of a winter. Everything lined up early one morning in late February to finally get the shot of someone snowboarding above the city. I'm thankful that Mike was willing to wake up at 4am and brave the subzero windchill before heading off to work just so we could get this shot. March Usually when Mike and I tour at dusk we encounter pretty terrible snow conditions. Our fortunes finally changed in late March when new snow and cold temperatures gave us the late evening pow we had been searching for. April The last pow day of the season. Dillon and I decided to run up Suicide Chute and ride down Homicide before the sun or another touring party turned the snow to shit. It ended up being one of the best runs of the season. April (Bonus) The best snow of the season came on Friday the 13th. It had been snowing all day up Little Cottonwood. That classic Northwest flow kept producing long after the storm was supposed to have ended. With how late in the year it was, if the sun came out at any point in during the heat of the day, the snow would've turned to shit. When Mike and I were driving up canyon at 5:30 pm, the snow was still falling, but there were signs that it might go blue just before the sun went down. As we transitioned on top of our go to line up Grizzly, the skies cleared. The sun began to set. The light was perfect. The snow was bottomless and blower. I snapped this picture just after 7:30 PM. Best run of the season. May No chuting season is complete without a sunset mission up Baldy. Perfect corn in Little Chute after 9 PM is hard to beat. These are usually my favorite tours of the season. It's always a good send off to summer. June I actually didn't take any photos in June. I rode Alta on June 2 for the sake of keeping the streak alive then shut it down for the rest of the month. Quite frankly, I didn't feel like there was anything left to accomplish. I was tired and needed some down time. 2018 went down as the 2nd worst winter in Utah history. All of the best riding took place in April and May. It's good to step away from things from time to time. Besides, it was gonna be a difficult task snowboarding in July, August, and September... July I made two trips to Beartooth Pass in July. I'm sure I'll be making many more in future summers seeing how you can park at the top of your line. The views are also pretty hard to beat... August Turns in August were difficult. Tanner and I decided to go to the Tetons. We missed our turn on the trail for Delta Lake and ended up riding "The Spoon" instead. Conditions were harsh. I'd never thought I would regret leaving my ice axe in the car for a summer shred mission. I did, though. It was fun watching Tanner ride this super committing line top to bottom. Sometimes I wonder why we subject ourselves to these ridiculously brutal days in the backcountry... September We went back to the Tetons in September for an even bigger sufferfest. The snow was even worse than August. We brought our ice axes this time. The only time I've ever rode worse snow was in Mexico. By the time we got back to the main trail the sun was going down. I just remember hiking down in the dark thinking we needed to make more noise in case of bears. Problem was we were both too tired to really have anything to say. The beers tasted really good after this one. September (Bonus) The season officially came to an end on Mt. Rainier on September 29. The approach was easy, we even got to skin a little. The snow was soft, smooth, and fast. It was almost too easy. I hope people in the PNW realize how good they have it when it comes to making turns all year. Shout out to Tony's brother Nick for bringing 64 oz of beer in his pack to help celebrate the occasion! October A new season arrived on October 11. Close to 2 feet of new snow made for some fun early season low angle turns. The streak turned 3 years old. We popped champagne in the Alta parking lot to celebrate. November November started dry. It was looking more and more like a repeat of last year where most slopes were bare the entire month and well into December. Mike and I found good snow on high north aspects in the Catherine's Pass area of Alta, but getting to and from there was a bit rough. Luckily our fortunes changed on Thanksgiving, and continued to improve through the end of the month. The snowpack is definitely sketchy, but low angle slopes started to offer great riding conditions. November (Bonus) The moment of the year was my sister's wedding on November 10 in Currumbin, Australia. The views from where we were staying were incredible. The sunrises were stunning every morning. I've never been happier to wake up at 4:30 AM. December December got off to a great start. The first 2 days of the month offered some of the best riding conditions I've had in the Utah backcountry. Avalanche danger remains high on north aspects, but low angle terrain is all time. Here's to riding a lot more pow and hopefully a great season in 2019.