You’ll go to Taos, New Mexico, for the 55-degree steeps off the West Basin Ridge, but you’ll stay because of the burritos smothered in green chile stew (try The Fattie at Eske’s Brewpub in downtown Taos and wash it down with a pint of their homebrewed green chile beer). This weekend, we went to Taos to find some powder and compete in the Helly Hansen Big-Mountain Battle, a competition where teams of two go on a scavanger hunt around the ski area in a race to make it to the finish line first. The Big-Mountain Battle had its first stop in Taos this weekend and will be heading to Squaw, Fernie, Sun Peaks, Revelstoke, Stevens Pass, Smugglers Notch, and Aspen in the next two months. Here are some photos of Flylow’s Dan Abrams and our Kiwi friend Jess Smithers (seen in Powderwhore Productions’ Flakes) from Taos.
The snow was so deep that you would lose visibility for long enough you feared hitting a tree. So you just had to do your best to memorize where they were before you went in for your next submersion. By far the deepest powder of my life and a good introduction to Utah powder snow. The Powderwhores got the whole day on film and said it was the deepest powder they had ever filmed, and I think that is saying something. Here is a little teaser from their site of the day:
SheJumps is a 501c(3) nonprofit founded by FlyLow athlete Claire Smallwood. The mission of SheJumps is to increase participation of women in outdoor activities. They create outdoor programs for women all over the country by connecting passionate outdoor women with others who might need a little push or inspiration to get things done. This video is all about encouraging women to get out there and enjoy the new day! Athlete Claire Smallwood stars in this video that is a shout out to all the great SheJumps sponsors (FlyLow included!). She even gets after it with Alpine Trekkers! Now if that isn’t inspiring, then what is? Check out the website at www.shejumps.org and ladies, join their online community to get connected in your area at www.shejumps.ning.com
This weekend, the Freeskiing World Tour makes its third stop (the first two were in La Parva, Chile, and Revelstoke, BC) in Telluride, Colorado. Several Flylow athletes will be there competing—good luck to everyone. Here are some video previews of the big-mountain comp by Mountain Sports International. For more info on the event, check out www.freeskiingworldtour.com.
www.FreeskiingWorldTour.com Competitors get pumped for the 2010 Subaru Freeskiing World Tour Qualifier in Telluride Colorado for the 3rd stop of the tour.
It’s been a slow and painful ski season here in Southwest Montana. The lack of snowfall has forced us to either entertain ourselves at Bridger, or hit the road. Here is a short writeup I did for Coreshot about the last 2 weeks searching for powder: The Search For Snow
Last night things got crazy at the 2010 Winter X-Games. Newcomer Bobby Brown made X-Games history with a perfect score of 100 in Ski Big Air. 18 year old Brown threw a switch-double misty 1440 over the 85-foot gap to earn himself that perfect score. Seasoned skier T.J Schiller scored silver after throwing a 1620, and Elias Ambuhl earned himself a bronze. Bobby returned to the slopes today to win gold in slopestyle as well. Check out Bobby’s record breaking run.
Yesterday I headed up to Alta with my good friend and photographer Brian Mohr to get some shots of the new B.A Puffy and Stash Pant in action. We ended up planning the day perfectly, we hit up Wildcat in the morning and then made it to the High-T just as it opened. Despite the hords of people we were still able to snap some sick shots all over the mountain. Here’s one from the morning, there will be more to come.
We also checked out the big slide that buried two Alta patrollers on Sunday. Thankfully they were both ok. It was the biggest slide I’ve ever seen, the crown was easily over 8 feet in spots and propagated across almost the whole bowl. Things have been coming alive in the Wasatch, we spotted many other naturals on different aspects throughout little cottonwood.
A patrol member walking up to the crown to start a profile.
Mt. Superior across the canyon.
Check out Brian’s new interactive site adventureskier.com for more of his sick photos and stories of his adventures around the world. -RMD
We rolled out of Carbondale the standard 30 minutes behind schedule,
Maté in hand and Steel Pulse bumping. Cloudy skies and about 2 inches
of fresh snow greeted us in the parking lot as we headed up the
familiar trail. It feels good to be able to roll up at 9:30am on a
weekend and still have the pleasure of breaking trail albeit only two
inches. Can’t help but love Colorado! (Or at least where I live, don’t
know what it is like for you Front Rangers) Then things started to get
strange. The sky turned blue and the snow started to get deep, really
deep. Not too much of a surprise really, Marble tends to be epic,
especially when you least expect it. Aspen reports two, Marble gets
twenty, but this day was really bizarre. Only two inches of fresh
covered the skin track until we reached the final bowl leading to
Marble peak. We started breaking trail through maybe twelve inches
when we started up the bowl, but it was not long until the snow was
hip deep and I was hoping someone wanted to pass me. We did laps until
we could not walk. For a pow-starved soul this is just what the doctor
ordered.
Posted by flyowdan 
