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I know, it’s been quiet here at visions as far as winter reports. It has taken some time to talk myself into opening up and sharing one of my deepest, darkest secrets.
I Snowboard. photo: Joey Vosburgh
This may be shocking to those of you who have seen me on skis for the past 8 years or so, even to the point of racing rando on skinny sticks with cross-country poles. Seems like a long time ago, but I started out exploring the mountains on a snowboard, and it feels great to be back. Unfortunately there is an under-current of animosity between some of those that choose one plank and those that go with two. Not so in my Revelstoke crew, as you may have noticed. One Love. Who cares how you get down, as long as your having fun! And as long as you’re not boot-packing the skintrack. For years I have been missioning with guys like Mark H, Joey V, Tyler M and Ian B, all strong riders breaking the barriers of the split-board system by unifying the tried, tested, and truly lightweight Dynafit toe pieces with a softer Alpine Touring Boot, and a pair of hard boot plate bindings mounted on the Voile puck system (in the pack for ascending). These boys have been shredding the gnar on this gear, and I turned my envy into ecstasy this year by investing in a sweet NeverSummer 164 splitty. Thanks Mark H. for the super deal on the complete set-up, and Joey V. for the F3 boots. Now I can get my slash on.
Oh YEAH! photo: Joey Vosburgh
- Cartier S Face. photo: Joey Vosburgh
January and February have provided copious amounts of the sickest snow in my recent memory, and I have been loving it, gettin’ back to my ROOTS! The photos above are from a birthday celebration for Joey V. and Chris P. and this is how we got to the party.
- Heading for adventure in our backyard.
One of the coolest days of the season so far. Five minute drive from town, and a five minute A-Star ride to the S Ridge of Mt Cartier with a crew of 5: the 2 birthday boys, Danyelle M., Ryan C. and myself. I am not so into the big business of heli-skiing with its questionable carbon footprint, but damn I love helicopters, especially when my skis/snowboard are in the basket instead of my planting shovel!
Traversing the West Face of Cartier. photo: Joey Vosburgh
It was a spicy day, starting off with accidentally triggering a large cornice on the ridge 5 minutes out of the helicopter, and continuing with some ski cutting activity to size 1.5. The skiing (oops, I guess I mean riding…) was superb, and we linked up a great run on the S Face with the 6000′ descent to the road via the southern-most slide path on the W Face (Greenslide side). Epic.
On the summit, looking East. photo: Joey Vosburgh
The New Years champagne flowed through much of January, and Bruno Long made this picture on one of the deepest, lightest days. It’s hard to tell, but I am on the board , about to enter the “white room”.
BooYah! photo: Bruno Long
Joey and I also headed into Mount Revelstoke National Park from the Trans Canada awhile back, an arduous grind from around 600m to the summit of Peak 2430, just above Jade Lakes to the South. I recently heard this mountain called Harry Peak, please comment if you have any info on this. To further confuse things, Google Earth identifies it as Inverness SW 4 despite it being separated from the rest of the Inverness peaks by Clachnacudainn Creek. This mountain has a SW Face that is IN your face from anywhere on the North side of Mt Mackenzie, and Joey was keen to lay tracks down it. The snow was still in good shape up high despite a few days of intense sun.
Up. photo: Joey Vosburgh
Down. photo: Joey Vosburgh
Tracks. photo: Joey Vosburgh
I’m stoked to have a splitboard in my quiver, and I’ve been grabbing it on my way out the door more than half the time. Unfortunately my camera is in the shop right now, hope to have it back soon. More Cuba Episodes coming up…
Aaron Chance
visionsofchance 