Backside of Pebble Creek

Nice front side face. I rode a line skiers left of the big open face.

Summit shot on Mt. Bonneville.

Stitched photo of Mt. Bonneville's est aspect.

From the saddle of Upper Green looking west to Chesterfield. Mt. Bonneville summit is on the right side of the photo.

A poor man's snowboard-cam. Check out the weird screaming wind banshee noises coming off the camera.


By now, cabin fever is in full-on global-pandemic mode. I haven't had a chance to play in the snow for quite some time so this past Tuesday I played hookey from work, grabbed the splitboard and headed to Pebble Cr. and it's smorgasbord of backcountry delicacies.

The weather was ideal – clear skies, crustless snow and nary a breeze. The cool thing about Pebble Cr. and it's backcountry stash is that you can either hike the ski hill (the lift operators don't mind) or pay the fee for a one time ride up the lift. I chose the latter. It saves about 45 min. and also saves energy for that extra run on the backside! Plus, there are always skin tracks back there so skinning back up after each run only takes about 25 min. of easy climbing.

I was solo on Tues. so I kept it relatively safe by staying where there were tracks from the weekend. Beleive me though, there were some rad untracked lines nearby but the angles, slope configuration and aspects made me uncomfortable being by myself. Better to play it safe in the open trees and mildly tracked-up runs.

The angles on the backside of Mt. Bonneville are pretty mellow for the most part, averaging about 30 degrees. There are steeper lines to be had and that's what's sweet about the backcountry of Pebble Creek – you can make as easy or hardcore as you want.

After about 3 runs I was ready to bail and so climbed back up to the Upper Green saddle. Usually I just drop down the Green to head back to the parking lot but I couldn't help but notice the big open face and cool looking shots through the rock bands that make up the north boundary off piste. As I skinned north from the Upper Green saddle to the top of my west facing objective, my draw dropped as I skied past what looked even more rad than what I had being on all day. There were some steep cliff shots, convex open/tree shots and more. I had never been this far north when I've skied back there. It made me believe even more in the radness that is Pebble Cr.

Anyway, I found killer conditions on the upper face (see photo 1) and through the rocks and then crazy, Indiana-Jones-jungle-adventure riding down low. My line spit me out just at the top of the beginner's lift which means more turns until about 20' from the car. Rad.

Read more...

Dog Days of, uh…Winter

Coming in from the cold for lunch

Kota's paw

Kota dog takes time to pose with the Westside TeNgaio's

Our kids with the Reymann's kids

Matt R. skijoring across the finish line. Great soundtrack to finish by, eh?

Today we headed north to the great tundra of Ashton to check out the Annual Dog Derby Race. We've never been to it before and thought the kids might like it. How can you go wrong with so many dogs everywhere?

Out friends Matt and Mindy Reymann have been involved with the dog sled race for a few years now. They proposed and got a skijoring race to be included with the other dog races last year. Skijoring involves skiing behind a single or number of dogs and looks like quite a thrill I tell you. You're tethered to the dogs so when go, you go! I'm gonna hit them up to take me out sometime this winter for sure.

We met a dog named Kota that I swear is a bear in disguise. Being a Malamut, the dog was already destined to be large – but holy crap, this guy must have gotten the Andrea the Giant gene. The owner told us that he won the dog pulling contest last year by pulling something like 1,500 lbs!

This dog sled race has been held every year since 1917. It's really cool that the event is 100% run by volunteers. That's a lot of dog lovers and they get our kudos.

Read more...

Interlude

Bedtime ritual

Snack time ritual

Read more...

Sunday Skiing

I took Ethan up to ski at Kelly Canyon today. This was his first time up there (his 4 week ski lessons were previously at Pebble Cr.) and he crushed it.

Runs like Slithery Dee, Ernie's Exhibition, Upper Bowl and even The Face were no sweat for him. Pretty rad for a 6 year old with no poles and only his 5th time skiing. Plus, only one fall all day to boot!

As we soaked up the sun on our multiple chairlift ascents and talked about boy things (boogers, farts, etc.) I kept watching a few different parents teaching their kids how to ski (3-5 yr olds). A couple of parents were using the leash systems as they skied behind their kids while keeping the little nippers speeds in check. Not sure how I feel about the effectiveness of the leash system. None of the instructors at Pebble Cr. used those systems while teaching the kids while Ethan was in ski school. Mind you, he was one of the bigger kids in his class but there were kids as young as 3 in his ski class and they seemed to learn just as fast as he did just skiing on their own sans the leash thingy. Whatever, I guess.

For Ethan, learning at Pebble Cr. was the right choice. The instructors there were mature, patient but firm in keeping the kids on track. Plus, with Pebble being steeper, Ethan found Kelly's to be a breeze.

Skiing The Face…pretty rad, my boy.

Read more...