A few words from Karhu friend and telemark pioneer Dickie Hall this afternoon…
Peter wasn’t the only one out skiing last week. Brian Mohr at EmberPhoto checks in with his transition from fall to winter mode:
Weeks of surfing beautiful ocean waves on the coast and running/biking through the brilliant colors of fall in the mountains were finally capped this week by our first day of skiing this season.
If you’re a Pacific Northwest backcountry skier, you probably rely quite a bit on the weather and avalanche forecasts of the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center (NWAC) or have heard about the education outreach of the Alpine Safety Awareness Program. Well this weekend offers a great chance to come out and show your appreciation for the fine folks at NWAC and ASAP and all the services that they offer, at their Fun Raiser this Saturday in Bellingham, WA.
What: ASAP & NWAC Fun Raiser
Where: Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro, Bellingham WA
When: Saturday, October 25 from 5:30 to 10:00pm
How Much: $10/person or $30/family (all-ages event)
Why: All money raised helps cover the insurance for ASAP to offer their youth and adult avalanche and safety awareness programs with NWAC.
The Goods: All-you-can-eat fish tacos, ASAP/NWAC Ale, music by Bentgrass, and lots of backcountry skiing raffle/auction items.
Surfing around last night, I found a great video of the changing seasons in VT. Filmed around Vermont’s Mount Mansfield, the footage and editing are superb, and it really captures the feeling of fall in Vermont building to the first snows.
Falling into Winter
(Falling into Winter from Nathan S on Vimeo.)
Want to contribute to get some pre-season hiking, earn a free day of skiing, scout out new lines for the winter and contribute to the stellar skiing at a great local mountain? Come out this Saturday, October 25 for the last Mad River Glen Mountain Work Day of the fall.
From Mad River Glen and Treeskier.com
Purpose: The purpose of Mountain Work Days is maintenance of tree skiing. This involves cutting lines as well as setting aside areas for new trees to grow. Everything is done with hand tools. Work days are organized and led by Jay Appleton in consultation with ski area management. Mountain Work Days are a great chance to get out on the mountain, discover sacred ski terrain, and learn about northeastern mountain forests. It is fun and satisfying to see a ski line take shape, and see how trees can grow with some care.Turn Dividends: Each person who works a full day receives a complimentary day pass voucher for each day he or she works. The voucher is good during the upcoming 2008/09 ski season. You can work as long as you like, but plan on working the entire day to get a day pass.
9am, rain or shine at the MRG base area. Bring a hardy work ethic, warm clothes, lunch and some sharp loppers or trimming tools (no power tools, axes or hatchets).
(Riding up the MRG Single Chair in March 2008. Photo by Graham Gephart.)
With cold temps and a flurry of snowmaking activity, the race was on to be first ski area in the US to open. Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Pass ski areas both lifted up one lift and one run this morning, marking the start of the lift season. The cover’s thin, the run’s narrow – sometimes earning the nickname the “White Ribbon of Death” – but there’s no complaining about turns in October.
From Ski Press:
Arapahoe Basin ski area will officially open for the 2008-2009 ski season tomorrow, Wednesday, October 15, 2008. For the past two years the ski area has been the first to open in the nation and this year A-Basin continues that trend.
The Exhibition chairlift will open to the public at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday. Skiers and riders can look forward to an 18-inch base on the intermediate High Noon run and some features in the High Divide Terrain Park. There will be no beginner skiing at this time.
Webcam footage of the runs here:
A-Basin - http://www.arapahoebasin.com/ABasin/snow-conditions/web-cams.aspx
Loveland - http://www.skiloveland.com/themountain/reports/snowreport.aspx
Elsewhere in snow country, heavy snowfall blanketed the parts of Montana over the weekend. Great report and photos away from the lifts after some early season backcountry over on TelemarkTips
Scattered snow continues to fall across the mountains, and this weekend brought enough in spots for the first couple turns. Tom Carter emailed us over the weekend with a couple photos to jumpstart our imaginations…
First snow, those old Karhu Lookouts come in handy!!
This is Saturday at 7:00 AM. I call them my "wildflower tours", dried flowers and stalks still poking out of the snow. Beautiful, and like I've always said, "That's what's been missing - glide!"
A little humor out of Norway this morning, where some ski pioneers are redefining both tree skiing and ski jumping with their own upstart sport…
Ski Tree Jumping
A successful stick still requires quite the dismount.
Yesterday brought 4 inches of snow to a drive over Berthoud Pass in Colorado. Today I’m back in Washington, and the snow level is lowering overnight. From the Seattle NOAA forecast…
A COLDER AIR MASS WILL INVADE THE REGION BEHIND THE COLD FRONT ON TUESDAY. SNOW LEVELS WILL PLUMMET INTO THE 3500 TO 4000 FOOT RANGE BY LATE IN THE DAY. ELEVATIONS ABOVE THE 4000 FOOT LEVEL IN THE CENTRAL CASCADES COULD PICK UP 1 TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW BY THE ENDOF THE DAY TUESDAY. THUS DO NOT BE SURPRISED TO SEE SOME SNOW IN STEVENS PASS. ACCUMULATING SNOW APPEARED UNLIKELY IN SNOQUALMIE PASS.
(Charlie and Elizabeth Lozner prepare for last year’s first run, early in the winter before the lifts turned at Hyak. Photo by Graham Gephart.)
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