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Black Diamond Athlete Will Car Black Diamond Athlete Will Cardamone and The Yurt Project—Episode #3

From: TetonGravityResearch
Description:

Black Diamond athlete Will Cardamone lives in a yurt tucked back in the mountains of Colorado. It's an idyllic location and the perfect launch point for endless backcountry missions. Will has shot and edited together a series of video shorts that beautifully detail both his life in the mountains and some incredible skiing.

Check out Episode #3, which documents his trip out to the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon with the PowderWhore film crew.
1 week ago
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Go: North Cascade Heli Go: North Cascade Heli

From: TetonGravityResearch
Description:

North Cascade Heli from Joey mara on Vimeo.

Words And Video By Joseph Mara

In a cut-off corner of north-central Washington State, a little known heli-skiing operation has been flying under the radar for nearly thirty years. North Cascade Heli (NCH), located in the town of Mazama, operates in a 300,000 acre permit area just south of North Cascades National Park. Pioneered by Harris Sanford in the early 80’s and then named Liberty Bell Alpine Tours, the outfit is now run by owners and guides Paul Butler and Ken Brooks. Their multifaceted operation now offers several different experiences ranging from a single heli-day (seven guaranteed runs or money back) and private flight time charters, all the way to extended guided touring trips at their two-story backcountry yurt. Planning a longer trip is recommended because weather conditions in the North Cascades vary drastically from day to day. The operating season is short, only seventy days from mid-January through March. Space fills up quickly so plan months in advance if you can.

NCH offers a wide variety of terrain for all ability levels. Their longest run is 3,800 vertical feet, touring through high alpine peaks, glades, and trees. Bowls, couloirs, and slide paths are also on the menu. Snow? Yeah, they have plenty of that. The Cascades receive huge deposits of white gold every year and boast some impressive totals, including the single season world record snowfall of 1,140 inches held by Mt. Baker, situated just west of the helicopter permit area. The Cascades are the most glaciated mountains in the lower forty eight and are one of the few mountain ranges in North America with active volcanoes, including Mt. Rainier rising to over 14,000 feet. This makes the Cascades one of the most dramatic mountain ranges in the world, and there is no better way to experience them than by helicopter.

You will be in good hands at NCH with some of the most experienced guides in the business. Pilot Seamus O’Daimhin, a Vietnam Veteran who flies for logging and fire-fighting operations in the summer, has eyes in the back of his head. You will buzz low over mountain peaks and watch the bottom drop out as you cross ridges between runs. With such a large permit area and a max elevation of 9,000 feet, NCH can always find the good snow, even after a big warm up. conditions. If you get lucky, your guide just might take you to Stair Step, and Seamus will drop you off on a tiny mountain peak landing that may test your faith in him.

The typical one day trip begins in the heli-barn at 7:30 AM with a review of the day’s schedule and backcountry safety protocol, followed by weigh-ins and outfitting of all guests with the necessary safety equipment. Afterwards, a short review of proper beacon, shovel, and probe use takes place outside. Once everyone has completed the safety training, the pilot will go over the dos and don’ts of riding on board the A-Star B2 helicopter. Around 9:00 AM, up to three groups of four guests each will take turns loading the bird and flying out to their first run. Seven runs with lunch provided is a typical day, and additional runs can be purchased on the spot with time and weather permitting. Expect to arrive back at the heli-barn by mid-afternoon with a huge grin and a hankering for cold beer (BYOB). If you will be enjoying an extended stay with NCH, you will be shuttled to the Barron Yurt to begin your multi-day backcountry tour. The touring packages can often include an extra “heli-bump” or two.

NCH’s location in Mazama is why it’s one of Washington’s best-kept secrets. Mazama is relatively isolated during winter months due to the closure of the west side of the North Cascades Highway. The Washington State Department of Transportation cannot maintain the road because of the massive amounts of snowfall. Most guests come from the Seattle area and make the four and a half hour drive around. Lodging can be found in Mazama at the Freestone Inn, or The Rolling Huts if you are looking for a more rustic experience (outhouses and no sink). Nearby Winthrop is a charming old western town which is well worth a stop for lodging, hot air balloons, the oldest legal saloon in Washington State, city girls on vacation, or the rusty old cowhands and their classic cars. Make sure to check out Kelly’s restaurant at The Rolling Huts outside of town for the best Irish food around, not to mention Steve’s signature cocktails which may or may not include real absinthe (ask for the “Aviation”). For anglers, this is prime steelhead country as well. The nearby Methow River offers excellent fishing and the latter half of NCH’s operating season coincides with the start of the fishing season. The cross-country skiing is also world class possibly more popular here than alpine skiing (if you happen to know someone who is into that). This seldom seen corner of the country is more than worth a visit. Combine the skiing, the natural beauty of the North Cascades, the uniqueness of Mazama and Winthrop, and NCH’s nearly three decades of heli-operation experience and you might just leave with a new annual tradition.
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4 weeks ago
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The Yurt Project - Episode 2 - The Yurt Project - Episode 2 - Black Diamond

From: blackdiamond
Description:

Black Diamond athlete Will Cardamone lives in a yurt tucked back in the mountains of Colorado. It's an idyllic location and the perfect launch point for endless backcountry missions. Will has shot and edited together a series of video shorts that beautifully detail both his life in the mountains and some incredible skiing. Here is Episode #2, which covers the challenges of a dry winter in Colorado and the resulting excitement when the snow finally does come.

Watch Black Diamond Videos
1 month ago
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The Yurt Project - Episode 1 - The Yurt Project - Episode 1 - Black Diamond

From: blackdiamo114731
Description:

Black Diamond athlete Will Cardamone lives in a yurt tucked back in the mountains of Colorado. It's an idyllic location and the perfect launch point for endless backcountry missions. Will has shot and edited together a series of video shorts that beautifully detail both his life in the mountains and some incredible skiing. Here is Episode 1.

Watch More Black Diamond Videos

Shop For Black Diamond Products
3 months ago
Views: 16
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Resort Review: Silverton Mount Resort Review: Silverton Mountain Colorado An Exhilarating, Unforgettable Experience

From: benkoelker
Description:

You've heard of it. If you haven't been for a visit and you finally smarten up and go there, these are a few things that may happen. A four hour drive may turn into a seven hour drive. The roads out there during a dump are no joke with AWD or even 4WD. If you don't have either, find a friend who does. You don't want to die on the way in… On the way back home you may be OK with it… $139 gets you a guided tour of the mountain. With one chairlift Silverton Mountain is all hiker access off top. After you park, you are directed to a yurt where you sign in. First thing in the morning you will smell spilled carpet beer as you sign your life away and employees bellow simple instructions. If you don't own a beacon, a shovel and an avalanche probe, this is where you rent them. Behind this cozy little yurt they hide a helicopter in the woods. It's just sitting there in the snow.

This is not Vail. They offer guided trips as well as unguided depending on the day. Check their website for all the updated information, They also offer heli-trips at $999/ day or $159 for a single lap. A guide is highly recommended, and necessary during most of the season, to access all of the 1,819 acres of Silvertons terrain.. Outside the check-in yurt you will be herded into groups of eight plus a guide. Most members of this group will have duct tape on some part of there gear. Most likely they will all rip. Your guide will also rip. This is not likely, this is a fact. Your guide may say in a loud voice to your group, even before he or she introduces him or herself, “This mountain may kill you today.” You will agree and immediately understand that this mountain is much more likely to kill you if you do not listen to your guide. Your guide will make sure everyone can at the very least turn on their beacons and put a probe together, then assess the groups ability as far ask hiking speed and which terrain everyone is comfortable riding in. Once at the top of the lift your hike may take ten to forty-five minutes. You want people who can keep up with your group, the group being only as strong as its weakest hiker.

Expect random explosions throughout the valley as the helicopter bombs for avalanches. Expect the hike to have some scary in it. Sometimes you will use a guide rope so that you don't fall to your death. Your guide goes first. Every single time, employee benefits. On most runs you drop one at a time for safety. The guide will say, for example, “count to ten after I disappear over that ridge and then the first person can drop.” First? Did he say whoevers first? Who's first on the first run of the day?? Nervous shuffling... No worries if you are courteous, there will be plenty of snow. Runs at Silverton include wide open powder fields, cliff and cornice drops, tighter tree runs, chutes, gullies and pretty much anything your group can handle.

Your group, your guide and the snow conditions dictate what is skiable. Avalanches are common, but to date no one has ever been fully buried. We spoke to a skier in the lot who was partially buried that day. He apparently didn't listen to his guide. Listen to your guide. It's possible some skier in your group may break out a bottle of breakfast champagne to pass around on the traverse back to the base, where Silverton's bus will shuttle you back to the lift.

At another point you may find yourself in Two Smokes and use a rope to slowly side slip down rocks and logs jammed into a choke in an avy path. With the right group expect four to six of the best runs of your life. Regardless of how much you hike at your home mountain, this mountain eats up your legs. Back at the yurt at the end of the day you will find all sorts of characters who feel the same way. Tired, thirsty and satisfied. You realize the employee who laughed about 'herding cats' as he tried to get your group set up in the morning is having a beer and laughing with friends next to you. Your guide may slap you on the back as he rolls up to take a seat with your group (did i mention you're all fast friends at this point?) and have a beer or five. Our guide on this trip, Pedro, was getting in his beers and veggies together with PBRV8's. After the day you've just had, you'd probably be willing to give your guide a lift to middle-of-nowhere Montana if they asked you, pay for the gas yourself, and thank them when you got there.

Silverton Mountain is a truly a different, exhilarating, intimidating and most importantly, unforgettable experience. According to Skyler Holgate, one of Silverton Mountain's guides, who's a guy who can be found guiding/ shredding the gnar from Silverton to Bariloche to Alaska, the best thing about Silverton Mountain is that with tons of terrain available, and only about 80 people a day there is never a threat, or crazy powder rush like you get at any other ski area. You can just chill and enjoy the day and shred fresh lines alllll day. On a side note, check out the Bonnie Belle cabin (www.bonniebellecabin.com). It is the only backcountry cabin in CO or in the lower 48 that offers private heli skiing/ shuttles into the cabin, located at 12,000 feet above sea level in Picayune Gulch, overlooking the Animas River headwaters and the historic ghost town of Animas Forks. It's 15 miles outside of the town of Silverton, and is owned by Skyler, mentioned above. You can ride some of the San Juan's sweetest mountains with the best guides in the business!

Just book it, then you have to go.

Written by Shane Santana and Ben Koelker
Photo by Ben Koelker

Book Silverton Mountain Discount Lift Tickets and Silverton Mountain Ski Deals Online
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3 months ago
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Jalpak Tash - A Kyrgyzstan Epi Jalpak Tash - A Kyrgyzstan Epic By The North Face

From: thenorthface
Description:

Kyrgyzstan is a place many have no idea about, and before The North Face athletes Leah Evans, Izzy Lynch and Mike Hopkins arrived to ski in the Tien Shan mountains, neither did they. In a country that is 80 percent mountains, skiing is offering glimmers of hope for the future. The crew embark on a trip that is part of a project to help generate employment opportunities for local Kyrgyz people after the collapse of the Soviet Union crippled the economy in the early 90s. Ski touring out of a traditional nomadic yurt, skiing perfect powder and first descents became a bonus at the end of an epic cultural adventure through the heart of Central Asia.

Click Here To Watch More Videos By The North Face
6 months ago
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Williams Peak Yurt Trip: Shred Williams Peak Yurt Trip: Shredding The Sawtooths In Style

From: johnkaiser
Description:

Skinning in to the Williams Peak Yurt in Idaho's Sawtooth Range.

In early April, I skinned and snowboarded some classic lines in Idaho’s Sawtooth Range with 10 shred friends. We scored a last minute cancelation reservation at the Williams Peak Yurt, operated by Sawtooth Mountain Guides, planned a menu and pulled together a crew of riders including Wyatt Caldwell, Spencer Cordovano, Taylor Carlton, Cory Smith, Pat Lee and Jeremy Black.

The three-hour approach went smoothly with blue skies, sunshine and easy skinning. Everyone took shifts pulling the 60-pound food sled up the 6 miles to the Yurt at 8,000 feet. We spared no expense in our prep for the three-day trip fresh fruit and veggies, steaks, chicken and of course enough liquor to drown out the loudest late night lumberjacks.

The Williams Peak Yurt set up.

Our porter, George, arrived with the other 40 pounds of food, joined us for a couple Bloody Marys and told us about recent weather patterns. One week earlier they had gotten rain up to 9,500 feet, but since then, it had stayed cold and had snowed about a foot. George headed back out to civilization and we headed uphill for a quick tour in the Marshall Basin. After digging a pit and getting some solid warm up turns, we headed to the yurt for an early dinner and a late night sauna.

On day two, we got an early start as far as snowboarders are concerned, and were skinning by 8 a.m. Our group naturally split into two squads, the fast moving and short tempered “Team X”(X-treme) and the mellower, frequent break taking “Team Y”(Yurt-team).

An hour of skinning put us in Profile Basin where we found a single skier about a quarter of a mile ahead of us. There was some frustration in the group that we had blown an opportunity, were missing freshies and were getting scooped by a solo skier. Where the hell did this guy come from anyway?

We watched the skier begin the boot pack up the cooler coulior called “Redemption,” so we decided to go after the two other main chutes, “Jesus Christ” and “Whats Up Dock.”

After a quick plan about camera placements we split up and started toward our respective targets. Three groups climbing the couliors, three cameras off to separate angles, plus one camera on Taylor Carlton, who was jibbing a boulder the size of a house down by the lake.

The three couloirs from left to right: Redemption, Jesus Christ, and What's Up Dock?

Rock to fakie … no pun intended.

By the time I was in filming position at the other side of the frozen lake, the unknown skier had already blazed to the top of Redemption and schralped back down to the lake in tight and symmetrical turns, farming the vert for as many mini-slashes as possible. Our group at the bottom struck a conversation, “Nice turns, how was it up top?” A woman’s voice responded, “Thanks, it was nice. Good snow.”

Holy shit, Han Solo skier was a woman! It turned out that she had skinned in from the road (6 miles) and was going for several couloirs that day. …The Redemption couloir was her warm-up and she was up and down it before we could even get a tri-pod out. This woman was crushing it.

Our three groups of riders got up and down their respective couloirs with smiles and high-fives at the bottom. Spencer Cordovano was clearly the most puckered in the group, “That was as close to God as I ever want to be,” he said. It was a big day capped off with banquet beers and another sauna session.

On day three we woke up to some howling winds and a few inches of fresh snow. We stayed low and safe, skinning back over to the Marshall Basin to take a look up at KB’s couloir. It was “a little breezy” at the top, so we decided to post up for a couple hours in hopes that the skies would clear.

Shredding What's Up Doc?

It's a steep one!

We found semicircle of small trees, used our snowboards and MTNApproach skis to form a wind break and built a small campfire. A little lunch and two hours of hopeful stalling by the fire and we had to pull the plug. Visibility was terrible and not showing signs of improvement, so we took one-lap down to the lake and then skinned back up to the yurt for grilled cheese and naptime.

Getting warm.

The Scrabble board came out after a badass steak dinner and we finished the day off with another sauna session.

Scrabble.

On day four we cleaned up and went home. With one solid day of pow-filled couloirs in the sunshine, we all felt that the trip was a huge success. Wyatt Caldwell summed it up, “Man, all I need to be happy is a little slice of dirt and a sweet lil’ Yurt.”
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1 year ago
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Sawtooth Couliors Sawtooth Couliors

From: johnkaiser
Description:
left to right = Redemption, Jesus Christ, Whats Up Dock
1 year ago
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Scrabble in the yurt Scrabble in the yurt

From: johnkaiser
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Scrabble in the yurt
1 year ago
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Campfire in the Sawtooths Campfire in the Sawtooths

From: johnkaiser
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Campfire in the Sawtooths
1 year ago
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Williams Peak Yurt Williams Peak Yurt

From: johnkaiser
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Williams Peak Yurt
1 year ago
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Williams Peak Yurt trip Williams Peak Yurt trip

From: johnkaiser
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Williams Peak Yurt trip
1 year ago
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News: Red Bull Third Shift Ski News: Red Bull Third Shift Ski And Snowboard Extravaganza At Snoqualmie Looks Sick

From: media-75233
Description:

Red Bull and The Summit at Snoqualmie proudly present an insane new freestyle ski and snowboard event, Third Shift. Check out the layout!

Red Bull is looking for the top 30 skiers and top 30 snowboarders to take part in the freshest push in urban night riding. This industrial course is built like no other – expect big airs, buttery moves and a snow bar. You won’t want to miss seeing this go down.

Qualifier No. 1 was Saturday Feb. 11, but Qualifier No. 2 is Friday, Feb 17. This will be last chance to qualify for this event. Registration will be in the Central Park Yurt from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.. Helmets Required. Waivers required and parent signature required if under 18 (original waivers will need to be signed by parents in a red or blue pen and will need to have a parent’s cell phone number for verification purposes). Open to skiers and snowboarders.

After the qualifier, riders that make it into the Main Event on Saturday Feb. 18 will be announced.

Click Here For More.
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1 year ago
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Prospecting Idaho: EP 2.11 Prospecting Idaho: EP 2.11

From: idarado
Description:

Snowboarders Josh Dirksen, Mike Basich, Spencer Cordovano, Pat Lee, and Cory Smith tour into the Williams Yurt to ride some isolated Idaho powder.

Produced by Cory Smith and Smith Optics, Edited by Mark Oliver
1 year ago
Views: 56
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Prospecting Idaho: EP 2.9 Prospecting Idaho: EP 2.9

From: idarado
Description:

A legend rolls through. Bjorn Leines rolls through from Salt Lake to see for himself just how much fun is beind had in Idaho. Yurt camping missions and three feet of fresh add to the fun

Produced by Cory Smith and Smith Optics, Edited by Mark Oliver
1 year ago
Views: 40
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Video: Josh Dirksen, Mike Basi Video: Josh Dirksen, Mike Basich, Spencer Cordovano, Pat Lee and Cory Smith Rip Idaho

From: media-75233
Description:

In season 2 episode 10 of Smith Optics' "Prospecting Idaho" web series, Josh Dirksen, Mike Basich, Spencer Cordovano, Pat Lee and Cory Smith leave the two-stroke engines at home and embark on a true adventure into the Idaho backcountry. In this video, the crew takes their splitboards to the Williams Peak Yurt in the Sawtooths for a self-propelled, three-day session in the pristine mountain environment.
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2 years ago
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Video: Bjorn Leines Shreds Smi Video: Bjorn Leines Shreds Smith's Smiley Creek Lodge

From: media-75233
Description:

In season 2 episode 9 of Smith Optics' webisode series titled "Prospecting Idaho," a legend rolls through the company's private cat skiing zone, Smiley Creek Lodge. Bjorn Leines rolls in from Salt Lake City to see for himself just how much fun is being had in Idaho. Yurt camping missions and three feet of fresh add to the fun.
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2 years ago
Views: 141
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