POWDER Magazine's Photo Archives
Last April, the Whistler/Blackcomb marketing department had an idea—to create the ultimate contest among skiers and snowboarders, park riders and big-mountain competitors and call it If Ullr Was A Girl. The Scandinavian god of justice and dueling, who was quite savvy on snow, was their muse. One girl, either a skier or a snowboarder, would be crowned the Ullr Girl...Click here for the complete story!
Ted Mahon, Neal Beidleman and I met up with our friends Kip and Andrew from Squaw, who had skied the Ford/ Stettner route on the Grand on Tuesday, and skied into Garnet Canyon at 6:30 a.m. Friday morning for a recon tour. As we passed the meadows the weather closed in on the Grand, but we climbed the headwall to the Middle Teton Glacier anyway, just to get a little higher. At the foot of the glacier there was a foot of new snow, and the skinning was perfect, so the five of us climbed up the Middle Teton Glacier, arriving at Dike Col around noon.
The ultimate hangover came from the last night at the athlete 80s Prom where everyone who had gone big that week, went even bigger at the Westin Ballroom until about 1 a.m. Then they went for more at Maxx Fish until the dance club closed. Many of the athletes had dates, even if only for fun, like Dyer and Peter Olenick. Of course, there was also Rory and Sarah.
Nick Greener folded over a ten-foot outcropping after tumbling down The Amphitheater in North Baldy
April showers really do bring May flowers in the Pacific Northwest with a little help from Vegetate—an annual ski and snowboard competition hosted by Mt. Hood Meadows. This unique event is unlike most in the industry. Of course there are the key elements needed for any comp, including a perfect half pipe, a creative rail garden, lots of prize money, and a continuous flow of beer, but the meaning behind Vegetate goes beyond the competition. Vegetate was started twelve years ago to celebrate the native grasses and wildflowers on Mt. Hood and the ski resort’s efforts to preserve them.
Photos by Re Wikstrom
The last year of Jon Olsson Invitational took place in Sweden and will officially go down in the record books as a groundbreaking event! The airtime was as impressive as the line-up of 29 invited riders from seven different countries.
The BMX biker popping a wheely on the hood of Joaquin pointed the cruiser north from Tahoe. where we ended up in the greatest state in the union, Washington, and, more specifically, the music mecca of Seattle. Purring at a stoplight en route to the Modest Mouse show, two 12-year-old kids shouted at me, “Whoa, is that Joaquin?” Once I spread the word of POWDER TO THE PEOPLE by distributing a roll of Powder mag stickers to the stoked groms hanging out their car window, Ullr quickly responded by blanketing Seattle with rain and the nearby Cascades with nearly a foot of snow—a timely gift of Powder karma.
On Thursday, March 1st I received a call from Dave McReynolds to tell me that John Byrne III, the new owner of Alyeska Resort, was coming back to Girdwood for some heli-skiing.
For a while there, it looked as if Powder magazine’s annual ski demo in Jackson Hole, a celebration known as Powder Week, would be Ice Week, or Hard Pack Week, or Let’s Drink Beer To Toast One Last Time To Our Ever Warming Earth Week. And then, a day before we were to meet the most influential players in the ski industry—namely damn near every ski manufacturer in the country—it started. A few flakes. Then bunches of them. In the millions. Fragile crystalline figures falling from the sky, burying Jackson Hole with the best storm of the year. And we were there to get it. Thus, Powder Week became Powder Week in the truest sense. All told, more than 30 inches piled up over the course of four days.
ALL PHOTOS BY LEE PONZIO
There are a number of resorts in the Niseko area, but the one that receives the most attention is Grand Hirafu. Someone can put a full 12 hours of skiing in at Hirafu and continue to party at Wild Bill's, Red Bar, Mash Up, or any of the other 12 bars afterwards. The lifts at Hirafu run from 8:30 to 8:30 every day with the majority of the 1,000 acres of terrain remaining accessible until the lifts stop.
The four-day streak of climbing started with Sun God, lying north of Pemberton in British Columbia. Though skied by few people, it is a favorite peak of ours—offering 3,600 vertical feet of steep skiing, moraine and all. Jon, Jack and I climbed up the south side quickly, having the rested the last three days due to weather. The conditions were quite variable, with freeze-thaw cycles infecting the lower elevations, and high winds ripping over the higher elevations. The key was finding the perfect middle ground of consolidated snow. Sun God had it—it was skiable, albeit firm.
On Day 2, we had Mount Ronayne in our sights. I considered it a rest day because Ronayne is a sled lap. Besides a bit of hiking to get to the top of our lines, the ascent is completely ridable on a snowmobile. A beautiful mountain across the Tenquille drainage from Sun God, Ronayne offered copious options for descent. Jack and I chose the steepest chutes we could find, two parallel numbers on the north side. Finishing up with a little billy-goating at the bottom, Jack and I smiled to another 3,500 vertical foot descent in 75 minutes, thanks to our sleds.
Face Mountain was next on the list. Though I had never seen it, I heard about it from Jack and Jon. They came across it on an exploratory mission when some bad weather forced them off Samson and Delilah, two neighboring mountains to Face. Face has a serious ski descent, and as the clouds moved in on our party, we kicked into gear. It is not a mountain that can be skied in dark conditions. After sniffing out the entrance, a tiny launch pad sitting in the middle of the peak’s knife ridge, we had to negotiate some spiny snow hanging incongruously over large cliff. Skiing diagonally off the exposure, we worked the spines down to the glacier, skirting around the side to the moraine. Safe and back in the trees, we watched with big eyes as the black sky enveloped Face Mountain. Surly our luck was about the change, we thought, figuring we were relegated to the couch for the day tomorrow.
But the fourth and the final day, brought Mount Meager. I had been looking at Mount Meager for a long time. It looms over the Lillooet River, conspicuous within the panoramic views offered in Pemberton. Its approach is nothing short of long, with a 39 kilometer sled-ride, a three hour skin and two hour climb. I was determined to get to the top, even after road conditions and Susan’s sled breaking down seriously hindered our pace. Despite ferocious winds, we pushed on. Following suit to the yin and yang, the sun went down over the distant peaks right as I got to the top of Mount Meager. It was 4:40 in the afternoon. Although the sun had finished shedding its light on our path, the day’s journey was far from over. Jack and I had successfully scrambled up the last 300 feet to the top in a huffing fury, but we still had to get down the couloir, across the Bergschrund, over the glacier and through the trees to our sleds, in dwindling light. It was proved to be interesting, and luckily the moon was almost full. Upon reaching the truck at close to 10 o’clock, my jello-filled legs breathed a sigh of relief and we drove home in silence.
While a bit relieved that tomorrow was bringing bad weather, I hoped there would be more four-day streaks to come. -Laura Ogden
Domo Arigato Japan! A 5 hour bus ride to the Nirita airport on Monday marked the end of the first annual Nippon Open, an event held at the Joetsu Kokusai Resort February 15-18th. Top riders endured long flights for a chance to nab part of the huge $60,000 prize purse to hold the title as the first winner of the Nippon Open.
When we showed up at the Green Plaza Hotel there was far more dirt than snow, but truckloads of snow were on their way to build the pipe and the slopestyle course. Veteran rider Mike Douglas was in charge of building the course and was forced to abandon the plan of multiple jumps in favor one large one.
The weather took awhile to cooperate, but when the conditions held steady with cloudy skies and flat light, the slopestyle ran and Charles Gagnier and Sarah Burke emerged victorious. The Japanese tradition of "Breaking of the Barrel" was incorporated at the awards and cupfuls of Sake rained over the crowed as Sammy Carlson flung one after another over the cheering crowd.
The next morning a heavy wall of hid the pipe from all but the closest spectators. Giant flame throwers lit up the eerie mist as they flared in beat with the techno music along the side of the pipe. Although conditions cleared a little as the day wore on, competitors and spectators still struggled with visibility to the very end. As expected by the crowd. Simon Dumont and Grete Eliassen walked away on top. - Julian Fohrman
Final Results
Men's Slope style
1. Charles Gagnier
2. Andreas Hatveit
3. Sammy Carlson
4. PK Hunder
5. Mike Wilson
Women's Slopestyle
1. Sarah Burke
2. Kristi Leskinen
3. Vanessa Colletta
Men's Superpipe
1. Simon Dumont
2. Mike Riddle
3. Kevin Rolland
4. John Symms
5. Colby West
Women's Superpipe
1. Grete Eliassen
2. Sarah Burke
3. Mirjam Jager
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Grant says. We’re sitting on Mount Baker’s chair 6 ascending through a multi-inch an hour blizzard. There’s about a foot of fresh below us, and over 180 inches of base beneath that. It’s hands-down the best day I’ve had all season. I nod in agreement. Grant then cranes his head skyward, staring up into the white out. “Well, except maybe tomorrow.”
Such has been the story for Baker this year. While most of the U.S. has been wallowing in a dry spell that would make Bud Bundy look like a player, Baker has been balls deep most of the season. Aside from a January rain event, Northwestern Washington has been in the goods since Thanksgiving. With a base already pushing 200 inches, Baker boasts up to 60 inches more than even it’s Washington neighbors.
The quality of skiing at Baker is evident in the people who have suddenly materialized in town. PVA Breakthrough Skier of the Year Ian McIntosh migrated down from Whistler to shoot with local photographer Grant Gunderson. Filmer Eric Iberg cruised up from Oregon to shoot for his movie project on Andy Mahre, Pep Fujas and Eric Pollard. In addition to those three, he had Kye Petersen in tow. Local snowboarder Nathan Lind was all over the mountain snagging footage for his new flick, Sentimental Values, and his entourage included local legend Tex Davenport, who recently relocated to Austin, Texas. Tahoe-based photographer Hank De Vre’ made the trek with skier Spak Robertson to shoot a spread of Palmer skis. Even the venerable Joaquin, the Powder cop car, made an appearance in town, then followed the storm west to Montana.
White out conditions persisted through Tuesday, so we spent the first two days poking around the trees on the lower mountain, including a few pillow lines some locs showed us on the condition they remain anonymous. (The baker locals are quasi protective of their stashes. A few beers in the tap room, and they’ll show you anything you want to see, while in the same breath bashing everyone for “selling out the mountain.”)
By Wednesday, the skies broke, and so did the trail out the Shucksun Arm. From there the free-for-all ensued. Good turns were found in Elf Chutes, while local sickos such as Zach Giffen and Zach Barnett hurled ridiculous airs off a stadium cliff in clear view of the top of Chair 8.
On my last run of the day, after tromping out a traverse called The Hemis, I stop to marvel at the views of Mount Baker, Mount Shucksun, and the North Cascades. “Isn’t this place amazing?” Grant says. I nod in agreement. “Too bad,” he continues, “all it does is piss rain here.” -Derek Taylor
On Saturday, February 17th Alyeska Resort opened The Headwall for the first time this season. Taking Chair 6 and booting for a short 25 minutes awards 1,000+ vertical of above tree-line, big mountain skiing. The Headwall has it all, from big open ramps, to chutes, cliffs and smooth run-outs. It's above the highest lift and rarely opens, so the stoke was very high this weekend! Simon Evans, Clint Butler, and I decided on a couple laps. A storm brought 12 inches of dense snow a few days ago which made for some consistent, smooth skiing and perfect landings. -Jason Scheben
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