On the Road; A Season Traveling Abroad as a Splitboarder

[Kyle Miller]

Here I am sitting in the Christchurch airport preparing for a full day of flights. I walk the security terminal (the first of many) separating my electronics from clothing as a guard walks up and starts a conversation about the Gopole I am carrying with me. "Great pieces of Technology,eh?" I agree with him as I gather my equipment together for a quick departure and than says "Looks like you've got a bit of use out of that case". The truth is I have been carrying around that damn Gopole for over a year now recording life along the way.

I plug my computer into the only unused electrical outlet and as I'm waiting and start writing. Over the past year I have been traveling almost non stop seeing things I could never have dreamed up. The truth of the matter is that my life has become wilder than even I could imagine and this trip report is just a piece of the puzzle that has been the past year of my life and the 2014 Season.


A story can't do itself justice without a proper introduction.


I found myself day dreaming as I cramponed my way up Fortress mountain in the North Cascades. I was in the middle of a 16 ski traverse aptly named the American Alps Traverse and while I was enduring the best the Cascades had to offer my mind was somewhere else. Over the past 10 years I had been unraveling the puzzle and mysteries of the Mountains of Washington and I was looking forward to something different.

I was realizing that life was slipping through my fingertips and I wanted to see more. I wanted to get intamiite with another mountain range so I hitched up a plan, pitched it to Eddie Bauer and got a plane ticket to New Zealand good for 5 months. Over the spring season I took time learning the ins and outs of the many ranges. It would remind me of home everyday with long approaches, big mountains and wild characters in the form of animals and people. It was great but I knew it would take a lot of time to unravel the mystery.



Chapter 1: A Taste of What's to come

It was a season for the record books but all in the wrong reasons with a thin snowpack that was quickly melting away. The months went by fast but I was able to get familiar with both the landscape and the weather keeping myself busy hiking and ski touring throughout the season. Throughout the trip I would meet up my girl friend at the time Estee who called the Matukituki Valley home, she was the Aspiring Hut warden. In a country full of special places this one tops the list.


I spent the season making the best of what I could getting my feet wet from everything from week long glacier travel missions to resort slackcountry pow days, From late August to the beginning of December I rarely put my board away. The final mission of the season was at the head of the Matukituki Valley where I intended on getting a closer look at Mount Aspiring, A 3,000 meter peak and the Matterhorn of the Southern Alps. I climbed up the Quarterdeck, a high ridge that gained access to the lower slopes of Aspiring making my way to the summit as the sun rose and the full moon fell, it was memorable in a season full of spectacular memories.

I made my way up the NW ridge of Aspiring in silence. I was by myself in an area that simply wouldn't allow a fall and here I was with ski gear on my pack and considering climbing a few exposed sections using my snowboard boots when I thought to myself "Is this worth it? Would I regret turning around tomorrow?" In the end I decided that the smart choice was to turn around. THe mountains would be here another day and it was the perfect excuse to return to New Zealand.

I said goodbye to the Southern Alps on Christmas day leaving Queenstown and once again arriving to the PNW on Christmas Day.


New Zealand 2013: Ski Mountaineering and figuring out the weather

New Zealand 2013: Hiking and Figuring out the Terrain

New Zealand 2013: Ski touring and figuring out the Access


ROGERS PASS

A week after being in the summer months I was hanging out at Rogers Pass. I had been invited by my friend Wade Gallloway to put together a slideshow of my travels througout New Zealand and wasstocked to help with the Cannuck Splitboard festival. I was still adjusting from the warm summer sun to the of Revelstoke. It was a bit of a shock.

NZ offers a lot of amazing things but one of the things it does lack is trees It was great to be among the snow ghosts, breaking trail in almost a meter of new snow


I was in Canada with my good friends John Cocci and Scott Rinckenberger finding great visibility and stable powder. Within the first day of it was far better than any pow day I had in New Zealand.


Within a hour we were breaking trail in the alpine and creating works of art along the way. I've always believed that skin tracks are a great way to express yourself for a brief amount of time until the snows cleans up the canvas.


After the Splitfest we made our way into a classic zone called the Asulkin Hut and it looked as if we had a bomber forecast. It would be my third time to the hut yet the first time that I would see the alpine. Our friend Holly Walker made the way from Whistler to join us.



Photo by John Cocci

With short days and good snow we made the best out of the daylight hours riding Forever Young and the Seven Steps to Heaven.

Photo by John Cocci

The first day up we ran into Liz Daley and Blaine Horner who were leaving the area/ but had come back with a full bottle of whiskey and a appetite for trouble on the last night.

Everyone says that Liz was special and it was obvious to see why. Sadly this would be the last time that I saw her. Here she is mid tooth brush dance party.


It's time to load the first plane from Christchurch to Auckland…..Enjoy!!

[klar]

you know it: sooooo radagascar. looking forward to the next chapters. come see us this season. let's do that traverse!

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 2; A Taste of the unfamiliar

We load a plane crammed to the brim with people. Being kind I offered to seat in the exit row promising where they promise more space only to find that now I am sting besides two obese males, If only I could use my elbows. The take off is bumpy as we stare towards the Pacific Ocean with the turbulence making typing a challenge. It seems the only time I get inspired to write a trip report is when I'm crammed in a airplane. All of those adventures in wide open land without a person and here I am crammed into a huge hunk of metal uncomfortably typing and hoping the next flight will have more space. It's going to be a long two hours.

Road Trip

Winter had been slow to bring good riding conditions to the Cascades and with a dismal forecast we took it as a opportunity to head south. Jason Hummel and I decided to take a road trip down to Utah for the Outdoor Retailer convention and make a few detours along the way home. Both of us had no real schedule so we would head home when winter returned.



JACKSON ; WYOMING

The first area we checked out was Teton Pass which in my limited knowledge was a hotspot and a place close to town. It was a unique experience ditching the skins and hiking the bootpacks that went all over the place. The conditions ranged from firm to semifirm conditions. Not so ideal but it was worth checking it out.


What the Tetons lacked in good snow conditions they up in scenery as we drove towards the Teton Range in the early morning alpenglow.



We arrived in the parking lot as the sun just started rising over the horizon but we were still in the shadows . The temperatures had dwindled into the single digits and it took a hour before we were able to warm up.


The highlight of the Tetons was getting together with my friend Nigel Steere and Jamie Weeks who makes his living working for Exum guides during the winter and fly fishing during the summer. Now that's a life. We used the resort to access the goods quickly making our way to the backcountry gate. Within 20 minutes we were blazing our own trail and making the best out of unfavorable conditions in a whiteout.



The visibility would come and go as we made our way further and further from the ski resort. Sunny for one second than gray then next. We would patiently wait for the sky to clear and quickly make our descents. Though it had been more than a week since the last good snowfall we were laying tracks down a face that was within two hours access.



Our time in Jackson was brief but it was obvious why it was favored by so many people. The access, the terrain, the vertical relief all of them on there own is a reasons why it holds up to the legend.



BIG SKY ; MONTANA

The next stop took us to Big Sky country in Southern Montana where my good friend Skier Dan had decided to spend a season as a ski bum and invited us to check it out.The conditions were grim in his neck of the woods but the forecast was calling for a storm to arrive a day into our three day trip. Knowing the weather was going to change Dan and I ripped up groomers in sunshine before the storm.


The next two days were a blur as we waited in line, charged a line as fast as we could and only to line up for another. It's funny what we do for powder inside the resort. To savior a line is to loose the opportunity to track out more.




The highlight of this portion of the trip would be a descent of the Grand Couloir accessed via the Tram. For many years I had been seen the line but here I was a signature on the clipboard for 11:30 and one of 16 people allowed to ride the line that day in epic pow conditions albeit a complete whiteout.

[Kyle Miller]

SUN VALLEY ; IDAHO

We arrived in Ketchum in the black of the night. We had been driving for what seemed like 6 hours in a arid dessert with little to see and the company of each other to keep us from falling asleep. We set up a plan to meet up with Wyatt and Yancy Caldwell (Wyatt is a fellow Eddie Bauer athlete and Yancy is a fellow K2 athelte) for our final leg of the trip and too see what the Sawtooths had to offer.

From the moment we met up with themwe knew that this place was different. We had grown accustom to silence at trailheads around here sleds were the tools for access. The engines roared as we unloaded the Snowmobiles from the trailers one by one. It's been my dream to get one for the Cascades and here I was in a group of 10 separate sleds.


The drive up lasted over an hour arriving in a the zone and skinning from there. My hands and face had become numb from the long and exposed journey. While we skinned up the slopes the sun lit up the snow causing it to shimmer like diamonds while we put in a nice skin track.


When we crested Jason and I finally got our first view of the surrounding environment and there was a lot out there. If we kept touring at the same pace we would have enough terrain to keep us busy all winter.


The snow was white smoke with each turn delivering a face shot and the silent swoosh bring a wave of weight glittering in the sunlight. This must have been what they call champagne.


The next day we stoped by Wyatt and Yancys parents house and checked out where they grew up before dropping off Wyatts truck on the side of the road.


Sun Valley was kind enough to comp us tickets and they took us to an area referred to as "The Burn" which had been torched less than a decade ago leaving behind ravaged shells. It was a really cool area.


It turned out to be a pretty dangerous place with a shallow snowpack just deep enough to hide downed logs but not thick enough to keep us above them. Without a bit of caution there was a descent chance that we would take out our ankles.


It was awesome hanging out and watching how the brothers acted and reacted with each other. They seemed to be the perfect pair, pushing each other as only brothers can. If and when this place goes off it would be hard to rival the magic that is Sun Valley.


We left Idaho with or ears peeled to the radio. It was Superbowl weekend and the Seattle Seahawks were putting on a show destroying the Denver Broncos. The moment they won the Superbowl I was white knuckled heading over a pass in Oregon in a full out snowstorm that was reeking havoc on the PNW and would be the first true pow turns of the PNW season for me.


Kyle Miller Shreds His Way Through the Big Mountain States

Now off for the long haul. A 12 hour flight from Auckland to Los Angeles

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 3 ; Winter returns in a blink of an eye

We're shoved off the airplane as they let us know that if we want to make our flight to L.A. we are going to have to run to the international terminals. I look up as I briskly walk along and look up at the starry skies noticing the crescent moon shining through barbed wire fences. As I head through security it seems my skin color gives me an obvious advantage compared to the Asian next to me who is being interrogated and having his bags ripped apart while he is wearing a face mask to stop pollution in one of the cleanest places in the world. I get a "Hey Bro take care and have a great flight" while he gets interrogated. It's not exactly fair but whoever said life is fair is a sucker.It reminds me of the reverse racism I received in SE Asia

MOUNT RAINIER ; WASHINGTON

The snowpack had went from nasty ice to knee deep pow in 48 hours with over a meter of new and it had come in cold. The temperatures had plummeted to single digit and the snow had fell from the Coastals to the Cascades. Over the next 2 days we went to the snowiest place on earth we went to Mount Rainier.

For the first day I was in good company with my friends Amar Andalkar and Hannah Carrigan lapping the easy access goods of the Tatoosh Range. It had been months since I had rod pow in the PNW.


The light was flat and clouds would come in and out as we toured along keeping reference through the bright colored clothes that Hannah was wearing. I used to make fun of people for wearing bright clothes but over the years I have found myself being one of them, It's good to stand out in nature and it doesn't create those colors.


We had a short day in anticipation for the next day which forecasted blue bird. In the end it turned out for the better. Sometimes it's well worth getting rest in exchange for favorable conditions.



The next day I met up with Rory, Carl, Tara and Jeff and did a mission up to Fourth Crossing on Rainier, enjoying the coldest snow of the season with a Artic Front bringing temperatures into the negatives.We had been drawn in by the sunshine but the wind destroyed any piece of open flesh making simple tasks like ripping skins a serious undertaking. This was the price to pay for good snow.



Trees take on a different form as they become plastered and like a single snowflake each one creates its own unique shape until the air warms up and destroys it.


With each few steps of a well placed skin track I would think to myself "That's another powder turn" making our way to the up top. Below us sat an untracked canvas of white with only our skin track making a mark. It's days like this that we live for no matter what corner of the world you are from you can relate.


Once down bottom we would look up at our tracks and make plans for our next descent. Like a Pavlovian dog I was salivating at just the thought of the turns we would get.


The ski bum culture runs deep throughout the world. You may be from a different place and social background but in the world of snow everyone is family.


MEANY LODGE ; SNOQUALMIE PASS

A few months earlier I had been invited by my friend Nigel Steere to be involved in a recreation of a race called The Mountaineers Patrol Race dating back to the 1930's. Not many people know it but the Pacific Northwest has a long history of mountaineering and being a long supporter of storytelling and keeping these legends alive I was honored to be involved in the race. I had become a Nordic Skiing Splitboarder.





It was a 30 miles traverse between Snoqualmie West and Meany Lodge following forest service roads and the Pacific Crest trail. We would get into a rhythm skinning long distances with our minds melting away into a almost mechanic motion making little room for things like conversations and resting. In the end we got second Place.


The highlight was Meany Lodge, the original ski resort of Washington with only a rope tow and a handful of people. In a day and age that the mega resorts are blossoming it was nice to see a place that was still in history. There were people staying the night at the lodge eating on the same tables that there grandparents before them had.

The place is something special.


This rope tow was unlike anything I had ever scene, it's regular speed cursing at about 20 mph and almost fast enough to rip your arm out of the socket. You learn to trust the tow and just hang on for dear life. Little did I realize that it would set me up for the Nutcrackers of New Zealand.




Kyle Miller Races Back to Rope Tow Roots at Meany Lodge

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 4 ; The Taste and Smells of the Old Familiar

As I walk through the plane to get into my seat I meticulously look at the people surrounding me. This has has been a habit I picked up while flying up and over the Ande mountains thinking about the incident now refereed to as Alive and wondering who else had skills in mountain environments if the worst ever happened. Not that it matters since we are up and over the Pacific Ocean in an area even less hospitable than the high alpine, if we plummet from the sky I hope I get eaten by a shark with a quickness. As I attempt to type on my computer the person in front of me reclines his seat making me feel like I have Tyranasuarus arms while typing and fitting the two girls next to me for the much needed arm space. I feel fortunate to fly yet very unfortunate to be stuck eating what the airline calls "Chicken" as I ponder what I will do once my lap top battery dies. Maybe I will finally watch those Lord of the Ring movies I hear so much about.

MOUNT RAINIER ; WASHINGTON

March came along with the promise of better quality snow, longer days and the opportunity to start getting out on longer missions. Rainier pulled me back. I learned how to Splitboard on these slopes over the past decade and have learned almost everything I know on her. It is through time and experience that I have learned the ways of this mighty peak and I am proud to call home. With longer days it meant longer missions.



Every drainage has a different personality on every mountain and Rainier is no different. My friend Boot and I skinned past the White River and up the Toungue of the Emmons Glacier towards the Interglacier. I have done this trip more than 20 times and have it so dialed that not a single switchback would be laid in, the area is unreal in fresh powder conditions.


I've never seen another persons in this zone during winter but sometimes as we broke trail up the 8km long glacier we would look back and hope that someone else would be catching up to help with the tedious task of making a trail. Here I am in love with the solitaire of the backcountry yet I wished that we were in the company of others.


There's something about glaciers that pull me in. Maybe it's the constant change that they undergo as the seasons change or maybe it's the fact that they are a river of ice and a reservoir. Whatever it is I lures me in everytime.

With each step the views open up more and more of the surrounding ocean of white.


Once we made our way to Steamboat Prow it was time to transition and prepare for our descent. As I prepare to drop in I turn on my GoPro and let loose riding almost 4,000 vertical feet of untracked sweet powder perfection looking at the Gopole at the base only to realize 9 hours of climbing had brought me a 2:15 second run. Sweet!!

[Kyle Miller]

As the weeks went by I set my sights on another unknown gem in the area called the Pallisades. About three years back I had done the first full traverse of a range called the Sourdoughs with intentions of riding what seemed to be a north face riddled in couloirs but once I got into the area I was intimidating and overwhelmed. I turned around then but this time around I wanted to give it a second look, luckily Ben Starkey and Rory Robinson were game



That afternoon we made our way to basecamp in deteriorating weather but made a skin track at dusk. It was obvious that the next day we be long so we focused on an area where the skin track would be the exit route the next day when we were beaten and exhausted. Sometimes it's nice just following a trail and not thinking about what you have to do.


We woke up an hour before sunrise and got our gear together. I didn't know much about how the trip was going to go other than the fact that it was going to be a long day so with a pink sky we followed the Sunrise road which was buried under 3 meters of snow . Rainier behind our back preparing to give a lightship that would be impossible to forget.


When the alpenglow started lighting up Rainier I stopped in my tracks. It seems that something that special deserved your full attention and that's what I gave her but before long it was time to get started moving again. There were a lot of mountains to climb and time was ticking away.


We made our way up to Dege Peak which is the peak height of the Sourdough Range and from our vantage point we could see Crystal Mountain in the distance. I think everyone who has been to the top of the resort has thought "I want to ride that someday" and luckily for us that day had arrived.


When standing on top of an untracked line there is a lot of things one must think about and one of those is the potential for avalanches. Here we were in the middle of nowhere without a chance of someone saving us so precautions have to be made and lines have to be carefully analyzed. It was decided that I would stay away from the wind loaded section and make my first turn mid slopes with Ben and Rory prepared for a potential recovery. In the end nothing happened but I always like to think "Not if but when"


We couldn't have asked for better conditions as we rode one at a time down the line to a safe meetup point. That snow told us a lot about what we could expect for the day. Within a few turns I had a good idea that the snow was going to be bomber and breaking trail was going to be vicious. My favorite.


We had little more than a map and the use of a smartphone app to lead our way through the complex terrain with our primary goal to keep out of potential avy terrain. The slopes were loaded.


But hard work can have huge rewards as we skinned and rode line after line leaving our marks in plane view of the Ski Resort across the valley.


Before long we were standing on top of the line I was wondering about. The mellow upper slopes gave a false sense of security as it stepped to a blind roller and terrain as complex as I've ever seen in Mount Rainier National Park.


When we made our way to the steeps we stopped in our tracks. A mistake was not an option and while the lines looked like they went they had blind rollers and were steep enough that they could hide waterfalls. It's situations like this where it is a battle of who is going to step up and just dive in.


It was Ben who stepped up to the plate stating that he would attempt to ride down and if we heard a bunch of yelling we would not descend. We watched him dissapear after a few turns and the world around us stood silent. "Had he made t through alright or is he just too low that we can't hear him"then I dropped in and was stoked to find that he had made a way through the complex puzzle and his rewards were first tracks of the knee deep kind.


Once on bottom our perspectives had changed. Above us was a mess of couloirs that we had feared cliffed out but from our vantage point we could clearly see that they went. The key had unlocked the mystery and I knew that if I came back there were more lines to be had.


We retraced our distance back but paved a much more direct skin track through dense woods back towards camp.

f
We would reach our skin track from the day before well after the sun had set and the only things that illuminated were our headlamps, the sky and the city of Seattle behind us. Within a few minutes of arriving in camp we were in our sleeping bags and falling asleep under a sea of stars.

[Kyle Miller]

The next morning came all too early as we packed up our gear and started heading out. There was a storm in the forecast and people had jobs to get back to but we decided a detour was in order.


We skinned up to the second Burrough before dropping our bags off and utilizing the skin track that we had just put in. I love almost everything about overnight missions other than overweight backpacks.


The day before our route was heading North but this time we went east. During the summer this place is bustling with people and you can't get a single second of solitude yet in the winter not a living thing can be found for miles


We made our way further east to the summit of the 3rd Burrough before ditching our bags and taken in the view. I have a lot of places that I love to go to but this place is within my top ten favorite camping sites ever.


Our final run took us back to the sleds but not before leaving wakes of pow in our paths. My time in the Cascades had been brief but the missions that went down were highlights of my 2014 season. By know my legs were strong and with the arrival of Spring it was time to go see something different, an area I have dreamed of going to as long as I can remember and that area was Scandinavia


The Palisades, the Burroughs and Dege

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 5 ; The seed in which we grow

My battery is getting low as I frantically type away. A part of me wishes that I had forked out the extra 300$ to get preferred seating but as a frugal spender that was a week of living in the mountains of New Zealand !

I have dreamed of visiting the Scandinavia ever sense I was young. As a child I grew up to stories of Sweden and I had always wondered what the mountains and culture were like so with the green light from Eddie Bauer, Jason Hummel and I hopped on a plane and met up with our friends Ben Starkey and Gabriel Ciafre in the outskirts of Reykjavik.

ICELAND

So sit down, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the finest bacon Bonus has to offer.



We arrived after a 6 hours flight over the Atlantic ocean to the early morning sun. Iceland was going through its annual change of daylight and here it was 6:00 A.M. just below the Artic circle.

c
[URL=http://s565.photobucket.com/user/Kylemiller411/media/IcelandD_zpsecc0d06a.jpg.html][/URLPhoto by Jason Hummel

The best plan is to have no plan as weather can be unpredictable and it is always best to be open to options. In the end we decided to head to the NW side into an area filled with Fiords and it just so happened we were there for the first good weather of the season. They were having the best snowpack in 15 years


We stocked up on food and gas in the capital of Reykjavik hanging out on the streets in down coats. It was obvious that we were from out of town as we stopped by the biggest of tourist attractions before getting back on the road.


Never in my short span of life have I seen a country with a better road grid than Iceland. Tunnels that travel 10kms through mountains and across fiords. We would be able to go pretty much anywhere we desired.


Through the power of Facebook we were able to meet up with some locals in a derelict fishing village and a basecamp for the next few days. It's funny how we frown upon technology being outdoorsy people yet its a vital resource when traveling abroad. Knowing that Iceland was an expensive country to go to we loaded up my Clif Bars and dehydrated meals for the next month and a half of travel. The food got old but it was calories and it kept the cost down


It wasn't long before we had a routine dialed of waking up and waiting until around 10 in the morning and moving out. With a delay in time we were guaranteed softer snow and a much needed breakfast, in my cause a dehydrated meal and coffee.


The scale of the mountains were impossible to read as our eyes never really adjusted to them. We quickly learned that though we swore a mountain would take 30 minutes to climb it would actually take 4 times as long but as a reward we would get 2,000 fall line runs back down to the car and ride to the ocean. Exotic, yes scenic, yes an absolutely awesome time…..HELL YES!!!


It was hard to put our cameras away. It was a new experience for everyone and a tad bit overwhelmed. It got to the point where one person saw an opportunity for a photo and a few seconds later we were like Asian tourists taking a snap shot of the same thing. Only to find that we all posted the same shot on our Facebook accounts.


The second afternoon we made the decision to sit and wait for the sun to set over the Pacific Ocean from our vantage. Up top we chatted about how are trip was going and dranking the finest of Icelantic beer.


That's when it came. Dull at first the brightness of the sun warmed up our bodies. We had been patient and it paid off big time in front off us we could see the vast ocean with the next bit of land being Greenland in the distance. I thought to myself "One day Greenland, One day"


We rode down to the setting sun as the bright red illuminated the snow,. it was a dream that anyone who has a bond with nature could relate too. Nature had been kind and gave us good weather, I soon would learn that this is not always the case.

[Kyle Miller]

The next day the weather wasn't looking the greatest so we decided to take a bit of time hanging out with the locals and learn about the culture. During the Summer the area was a bustling tourist town but the only people to be seen was a handful of locals and the semi wild Icelantic Horses who live in the highcountry until spring when they return to the farm in hopes of food.


We also spent a bit of time checking out our friend Harkur and Vidas living situation. They had put up a Mongolian yurt and were living in a beautiful valley.


Later in the afternoon we went back to the car and couloir hunting where we came upon this gem of a line. it had slid over a decade earlier taking out most of the town below but since then they had put up a barrier to protect the place. From our eyes it was hard to turn our attention away from such an amazing run.


The thing that I would come to love about this place was that the pitch was consistent and that a car was more than sufficient to get out to the goods. Within a few hours we could knock out a few thousand vert and be driving out to hot pools if we so chose.


I've seen a lot of different places but this place is as unique as it comes.


Like everyone else I had a few goals laid out for the trip and I wanted to ride down to the Pacific Ocean. I was pretty stoked.


It was decided that we need to check out the zone most noted for there mountains. The Central North part known as the Akureyri area and more specifically the Valley of the Trolls.


Once again everything was so well interconnected that we would just drive around until something grabbed our attention. This area was starting to get more publicized for obvious reasons and we would hear the occasional helicopter hovering above us.


In the end it would be this peak that according to our eyes looked small but was well over 3,000 vertical feet. We didn't know what to expect but that just added to the excitement.


It wasn't until we got to the ridge line that we saw how awesome this place was. Instead of long plateau covered in couloirs this place was surrounded in peaks that reminded me of what Alaska must look like. We were kids in a candy shop and we were already buzzing from too much sugar.


There's something special about riding fall line down to a remote Fiord village. This was the case in Iceland. It was a corn snow lovers dream and the snowpack was abundant on every grade and aspect. Simply put "Choose your poison carefully"


We walked through town as colorful as a rainbow making the locals squint and wonder who we were and where we were from. They had watched us ski down and though they thought we were crazy I think a small part inside of them wished that they had a bit of craziness inside of them as well.


The last day of the trip took us to another zone on the Eastern Edge of the Valley of the Trolls tunnel where we met up with Reggie Crist and Will Wissman for a second before heading on our way. You can always tell that you are on the right path when you run into professional skiers and photographers.


That afternoon we climbed another peak and watched the sunset from our vantage point viewing both the ocean and the mountains.


As time went on the slopes started to change from orange to pink to purple and then red.


Iceland had gone above and beyond what we were expecting. The people, mountains, culture, food and everything else that surrounded us simply blew us away. For a country with a population of only 450,000 people they sure do have it right.


The group parted ways as Jason and I drove through the night to the airport to catch our plane. We had made the decision that a full day of skiing was well worth the loss of sleep and we could attempt to do so on the plane. We had to catch a flight to Northern Norway.


corn in the land of fire and ice--iceland!!

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 6 ; The excitement of something new

After a 12 hour flight I find myself back in the United States looking down at a mega city that holds more people than the entirety of New Zealand. Soo much concrete so much arid desert. I'm reminded that I am back home as I walk through the security terminals and am asked to take everything out of my pockets and take off my shoes. In 3 hours I will be back home among the massive mountains of the Cascades and the warm smiles of friends. I pass by the Norwegian Airlines terminal which is empty and I wonder if winter has started in the high North. It seems like well over a year since I was in Norway but it was only 7 months ago. Time flies when you spend every waking moment in the alpine.

Now sit down, grab some bacon, brown cheese and waffles and enjoy the show

[Kyle Miller]

LOFOTEN ISLANDS; NORWAY

We arrived in Lofoten under gray skies and the word that we had just missed a near perfect weather window. It seemed that while we were enjoying sunshine in Iceland they had been getting it out in Northern Norway


People refer to Lofoten as there Gem of Norway and a vacation hot spot and it is obvious to see why. The mountains literally jut out of the Norwegian Sea and it's become a fishing and outdoor utopia.


Our friend Bret Shandro was working as a guide for a company called XXLofoten and they were excited to show us what the place had to offer. In the end they hooked us up with shelter, Kayaks and enough gear to keep us warm. Our crew had decades of mountain experience between us with Lea Hartl and Lorenzo Rieg from Austria, Brett was originally from Canada but residing in Norway and Jason and I from the Cascades.


Our original intent was to create a traverse using Kayaks, bike and skis over two weeks but the weather had other plans . We were back to the drawing board and coming up with something that would work with the weather.



We loaded up our Kayaks with ski and camping gear and enough food to last for a week. Stuck in a huge storm? No problem I have a week of dehydrated Lasagna.


We set off into the ocean and within the first few minutes I was freaking out. I fear water and I was in a sea kayak for the first time in the ocean with rolling waves up to 10 feet tall and the not so distant crashing of waves on the rocks. I focused on the task at hand and not the things that surrounding us.


We chose to port in a cirque that had slopes on numerous different aspects, flat grounds and access to running water. The views were of another world.

Photo by Lea Hartl

We skinned through thin coverage making a route through trees until making our way up into the alpine. We were stoked at the looks of everything up high until we found out that the slopes had been rained out than refreezed. The skiing would be some of the most horrific conditions we would encounter.


What the skiing lacked the views had more than made up for.



Photo by Lea Hartl

That night we set up camp on the shoreline and took in an the sunset/full moonrise. We would make the best out of whatever conditions the mountain brought to us.


We fired up our Jetboils and enjoyed the finest Finnish Vodka.

Photo by Lea Hartl

The next day we were back in the Kayaks and heading towards the Troll Fiord. During the summer the place is a hotspot but at this moment it was as quiet. Just to be making our way up the steep sided Fiord was enough to make the trip worth it. I was Sea Kayaking for the first time ever and it just so happened to be in one of the most dramatic places I have ever seen.


We made it to the shorelines and made our way towards an alpine hut as the weather deteriorated.


We woke up to sunny skies but yet horrifyingly strong winds. The snow was bulletproof ice but we decided to go check out what was out there.


it wasn't safe to ride down slopes that had the potential to cliff out. We took in the views and went back to our hut.


If only we had more time.


The next day we made our way back to the Fiord content with what we did. Sometimes the mountains are on a different schedule than us there was many lessons to be learned.


We looked like the Beastie Boys.




We ported more than 30kms from our original drop off point where one of the owners of XXLofoten was waiting for us. It turned out we were working with the currents the whole time and if we would have waited until later in the day there was a good chance we would have been stormed in for the next few days.

[Kyle Miller]

The 7 day forecast was dreadful and the decision was made to head East in hopes of using the rain shadow to our advantage. We booked a rental car and played car tetris fitting 5 peoples gear for a week in a mid sized car.


We passed by the city of Narvik heading south towards some massive fiords after purchasing a guide boot written in Swedish.


This beautiful line goes for 4000 vertical feet down to the water. We wanted it pretty bad


Our first attempt would have us walking on a gravel road after listening to a Sami radiostation which was the only one that worked.


We watched the clouds come in from a distance and before long we were stuck in a white out. We did what we could trying to find the drop in but with 4 couloir entrances and only one of the lines going we waited for a few hours for the weather to clear and retraced our steps back to the car.


Feeling defeated and hungry we went to the nearest gas station to get some food. Both Jason and I had been a little bit confused about the currency conversion buying a hamburger at said gas station for 25$ each.


With one day of solid weather in the forecast we went back to Lofoten and focused our attention on a Sea Kayak couloir descent that was in Brets backyard.


He had stared at this line for years and it was good to have one final Kayak mission with the crew


If we couldn't do a gnarly traverse at least we rode a rad steep couloir next to the ocean.





Ut på tur, aldri sur.

[MakersTeleMark]

Holy fuck. Pure awesome.

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 7 ; The Light at the end of the Tunnel

I'm sitting at the terminal waiting for time to pass as I start typing on my computer. For the last few months I have been living on limited amounts of coffee but now that I am back home for 3.00$ I've got 20oz. In the states we complain about prices but we are spoiled rotten. When you pack for a trip you always wonder what you forgot qnd I forgot my electricity adapter for my Macs power source.

Everybody went there separate ways and I still had 2 weeks in Norway so I decided to go to the Lyngen Alps. With 2 buses and an overnight stay in a World War 2 bunker I was off north.

[Kyle Miller]

TROMSO ; NORWAY

I once again used the power of Facebook to get in contact with anyone in the area and was put in contact with Zach Paley who worked as a guide in the Tromso area and was kind enough to put me in contact with his friends Marianne and Fabio.


They were some of the kindest people that I have ever met while traveling. They amazing chiefs and we would keep each other entertained for hours.


After a few days in Tromso Zach was done with his guiding season so we packed our stuff and drove like a wild man to the ferry terminal making it only seconds before it departed. It wasn't until we were on the boat that it hit me "We were heading to the Lyngen Alps!"


THE LYNGEN ALPS ; NORWAY

We stayed with a local ski tourer named David who has a farm at the base of the mountains with his family and is a local guide of the area. With his knowledge of the area and hospitality we had the time of our life.


It had been snowing in the high country for the past two weeks and was starting to clear but it was a slow process. Our first day in the Lyngen was a typical whiteout but we made the best out of conditions.


With deep snow and no visibility we focused our attention on a steep and deep couloir putting steps in that went up to our chest. It was a great opportunity to test how the snow was.




The snow was epic with face shots upon every turn and the rock walls allowing for limited visibility until we arrived at the apron. For the next 4kms we were at the mercy of a foot of new snow and low angle slopes. Not exactly fun but not exactly horrible.


The moment the weather forecast called for clearing we were high up in a valley and setting up camp. We put up a 6 person tent and were in the company of Zach, Pete, David and his 9 year old son.


The next few days were the highlight of the Norway trip putting in skin tracks and enjoyed 20 hours of light and 4 hours of dusk riding line after line back to camp.




One of my goals was to ride a line at midnight without the use of a headlamp and these tracks were it. Sometimes I felt guilty not bringing my headlamp in my pack but it wasn't needed.


Our eyes were set on this beautiful face holding cold, stable powder.




When looking straight up it was hard to tell if the route would go but we quickly to push on until the route was no longer feasible.


The climb up was a transition between ski touring and mountaineering as we donned crampons for the last bit of the face


Though the Lygen Alps aren't the biggest range they do pack a huge punch for how small and complex they are.


We would ride North facing pow lines in the morning and evening and South facing corn lines in the heat of the day putting skin tracks in all directions.


Thought the slopes would bask in sunlight all day the snow was in bomber conditions. It was really really hard to leave the Lyngen I wanted to stick around for more a few more weeks.



I took the ferry back to Tromso and said my goodbyes to Fabio and Marianne before loading onto a plane.


Tromso, Norway


Narvik, Norway


and the dreaded couloir that we tried to ski from above.


Heading home was a long but cool process. It took 3 different planes but along the way I could see lines that I rode in the Lyngen, Narvik area, Iceland, Rogers Pass and the American Alps as it partially cleared on my final leg home. I had a blast meeting so many people and hanging out with old friends.

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 8 ; The comforts of familiarity

We load an Alaskan Airlines flight and they have an adapter that will work with my computer. I look out the plane window and notice it is dark at 5:00 a 5 hour stretch from the spring time. The take off is bumpy as I watch the lady next to me clinch with fear. It seems there are three types of people on airplanes, The ones who are in fear the entire flight, the ones who only get nervous on take offs and landings and the ones who know that it is out of there control and are just along for the ride. I fit in the third category and I like to think that if we went down I would remain calm to the final second. There is no reason to worry about things that you have no control of.

Now it the time to experience the greatest thing that the U.S. has to offer.


I arrived home to the familiar site of a Starbucks and with coffee in hand made my way back to Kent, Washington.


NORTH CASCADES ; WASHINGTON

My girlfriend from New Zealand arrived in the PNW just a few days after I had returned from Scandinavia and I laid out a plan to show here the mountains. That meant we had to head up to Highway 20. Deep in the North Cascades.


We made our way up to Black Peak col as the mountains started showing there personalities. The thing is that each one is unique. It's not the alpine faces that keep people away, it's the approaches.


That night Ben Starkey, Estee and I camped up at Washington Pass and took in the alpenglow.





The Cascades have a lot of similarities to the Southern Alps of New Zealand and they both never seem to get the respect they deserve. For example here is Big Four which is only a 5,000 foot peak but could rival almost any 14er.



You simply can't go into the Cascades in the spring and not checkout the volcanoes so when we got the invite from my friend Amar Andalkar to head south to Northern California for a week of volcano riding I thought it was a great opportunity for Estee to see corn season in the Cascades.


CASCADE VOLCANO ROAD TRIP

Our first stop was up around the slopes of Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park.


That afternoon we made our way to Mt. Hood where we camped at the Timberline lodge before climbing Hood the next morning.


The climb up Hogsback ridge was uneventful making our way to the summit a little after noon and having a 5,000 foot run back to the car.


The morning had been busy as climbers had made there way up to beat the early morning heat but by then there was no one in sight.


The next volcano on the list was the South Sister of 3 Sisters Wilderness via the SW flanks. A straight foreword climb that has a huge reward for such little effort.


In the distance we could see Mount Bachelor and the landscape that makes up the Oregon Cascades




The next trip was up Mt Shasta's Eastern Slopes getting 3,000 feet of fall line steep corn


This line is a Cascade Classic and some of the best fall line that the volcanos have to offer. With a minimal amount of crevasses it's a great place to just open up.


The allure of fall line skiing made us leave the normal path but with a little bit of adventure we were back on the trail and at the car.


The furthest we would go was Mount Lassen where Amar decided to ride the North Facing devastation zone. The night we arrived we witnessed a beautiful sunset then camped at the Bumpus Hell parking lot.


From Bumpus Hell the climb to the summit was a little over an hour and Estee decided to take a break while Amar and I checked out zones to ride.


The north side looked good but not great and I didn't have much interest in descending it. That is until Amar skied down and I realized he would have to put a boot pack up the face.


After we rode back to the parking lot we drove the car around to the North side to see what we had rode just a few hours earlier. This north face never disappoints.


Our final trip was up to the summit ridge of Crater Lake on the Watchtower. We started skinning in the late afternoon and hung out until sunset.





I always cherish those volcano road trips with Amar.

[Kyle Miller]

MOUNT RAINIER; WASHINGTON

After the road trip it was time to head back to Rainier to show Estee more of my home mountain. Ben and I hatched up a plan to camp on the quiet eastern side for 2 nights and lap up the corn with a scenic backdrop and long spring days. Our main focus was to make our way up Whitman crest.


While most people usually drop SE our radar was on the SW side where we would go down the Ohanapecosh glacier.


I always find it amazing how easy it is to get away from other people and with a few hours skin we had a beautiful remote place to ourselves.






With a week to burn of good weather I put together a 4 day traverse on Rainiers wonderland trail hiking on dirt in the lowlands yet riding lines in the high alpine. We started the trip at the Carbon River entrance on the NW corner and exited via the Eastern border. It was a great way to say goodbye.

With a handful of hundred year floods in the past decade the Carbon River road is no more but the valley is one of the most vibrant and scenic places in the lower 48


From our vantage point we had an up close and personal look at the Northern side of Mount Rainier and the Willis Wall.






The second afternoon I made my way up onto Curtis Ridge and sat there watching the sunset before descending 3000 feet back to camp.






This would be my last trip to Rainier for the season. It had been great touring on her beautiful slopes and I looked forward to the many missions that the next season would bring.


NORTH CASCADES ; WASHINGTON

The last trip of the North American season was up Cascade River Road to make a late season summit of Sahale Mountain with my friend Boot. The view from the summit is hard to rival.










The last few days were spent in the city as I packed my bags for a different kind of adventure. Over the next month I would be traveling throughout SE Asia with mountaineering gear in hand. Knowing that a month later I would be landing in the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

[Kyle Miller]

Chapter 7 ; The value of perspective



The plane is starting to descend towards Seattle and the pilot is speaking a mixture of a mumble and distortion in the speakers. I speed up my typing as I see the flight crew going aisle to aisle telling everyone to put there tray up and electronics away. I can see the lights of Seattle shimmering below me and it makes me smile. I am home after a Kiwi season and conditions in the PNW are going to be that much sweeter..

Now sit down, get some bacon and some epic Vietnamese coffee


It was bittersweet leaving the Cascades as it was the heart of spring season and there was good skiing to be had. As I flew away Rainier shined above the clouds as if to say goodbye.


It was a month after Scandinavian when I landed in SE Asia and it was the complete opposite of what I had become accustom too. I had literally gone from the mountains were I didn't see a living soul to small towns that held a population of over a million people.





HO CHI MINH CITY ; VIETNAM

We arrived on a Friday night as the air clung to our skins. The humidity was almost unbearable but the thing that really got my attention was the mopeds and how the people drove. The rules are that there are no rules. Hesitation will get you killed and it's as if it's a school of fish not what we call traffic.

It was





We were there for my brothers wedding and we had the good fortune to stay with his wife Becky family. We wouldn't have to pay the standard tourist taxes.


Vietnam is a wild place where they will paint stripes on horses in hopes that people will come to see the "Zebra"


We were invited by a local family to watch a song and dance that broke down the history of the local tribes but there was one problem, the whole thing was in Vietnamese.


We also had the opportunity to see the jungles and lush forests of "Nam"




If it wasn't for the humidity Vietnam is a lovely place with great food and nice people but damn was it hot.


While in Da Nat we took a boat out to a place called Monkey Island.






During the wedding we dressed up in traditional Vietnamese attire and the locals laughed at the tall white boy.


A Vietnamese wedding is a mixture of a traditional wedding and a Las Vegas show with Violinists running around under a spot light with fire dancers and the occasional graffiti cannons. The only thing that was missing was a Tiger, I really wanted to see that Tiger.


It's crazy to think that now I have family in Vietnam and although we could speak very little of each others language we communicated through tone and smiles.



My last day in Vietnam was a productive one as I made it out to Shila Bags where Eddie Bauer produces both prototypes and final product backpacks. I was out there designing a special ski touring pack for the 2016 line. I'm insanely excited for what we came up with and look forward to seeing how the general public reacts to it.

[Kyle Miller]

Now lets take a brief intermission and lets stop by the Six Eleven.



Grab some Cambodian Bacon


and wash it down with a 3 Liter of Jack Daniels


SIEM REAP ; CAMBODIA

Never in a million years did I ever think I would be in SE Asia so I decided that I would make a few stops along the way to New Zealand and the first of them was Angkor Wat in the back of a Tuk Tuk.



It is the biggest religious structure in the world with intricate carvings from 1100 to 1300 then in laid abandoned for over 500 years.


It's stunning to see what people can do when motivated


While traveling I had learned a few tricks and one of those is that it is always smart to carry cigarettes and a few dollars in change. It can be the difference between making a friend or just being a standard tourist. I found out that although the upper most sacred section of Angkor was closed off until 10:00 a.m. a US 5 dollar bill would change there mind into letting me hang out up there by myself and watch the sunrise. I did it 3 days in a row.










No trip to Cambodia is complete without checking out the ruins where the jungle is advancing.














Eh, Seems legit?


The last day I was there I got a fish foot massage, a slice of happy pizza and a cold beer for 2 dollars. If you want to live cheap Cambodia is the place to go.

[Kyle Miller]

Now for some delicious Thai street food.


By now I was getting pretty spot on when it came to bag weight restrictions.



BANGKOK ; THAILAND

My next stop had the weirdest vibes that I have ever experienced. 4 days was more than enough and it was a place of contrast.


On one corner you had a religious Temple


and on the next corner your on Khao San Road the epicenter of sin.


Another Religious Temple


and a toilet right next to it.

The highlight was a mini version of Angkor Watt


If you were willing to shell out the cash you could buy a 20 foot tall photo of the King. Thailand is a weird place.


BALI ; INDONESIA

For the final leg of my SE Asia journey I highly recommend sitting down and eating some Chicken Heads?


And washing it down with some Starbucks Coffee


Nearly a decade earlier I had the good fortune to meet another like minded ski bum who was working at Crystal Mountain named Avalon. Over the next 3 years he would talk about his homeland of Bali and tell me I had to check it out. It just so happened that the stars aligned and I found myself in his backyard for a week.




It felt weird burying my feet in the sand.


Indonesia is a crazy overpopulated being 95% Muslim but Bali is special and 95% of the population is Hindu.


I was able to make some new friends along the way


On the final morning my friend Chris Rojas and I took a tour up to Mount Batur. Never in my life had I seen a bigger shit show with a few hundred tourists crammed on the ridge. We were able to get away from everyone and when a local started yelling at us we just gave him a few cigarettes,all of a sudden he couldn't care less, we made a new friend.







By then I was tired of the tropical heat and it was time to head back to New Zealand for a second consecutive season. I had purchased a ticket to be there from Mid July until the end of November and I had already started to figure out how the mountains and weather worked. The first season I had only scratched the surface but this season I jumped head first into what would become some of the coolest/wildest adventures of my life.

[dschane]

Fucking spectacular year!

[406]

EPIC!

[sal the salmon]

wow. read every auto corrected word and loved it!

[Kyle Miller]

The second half of this trip report is focused on the Southern Hemisphere season. The previous season I had focused on the Otago area climbing around Wanaka and Queenstown but this season I spent more time in places like Mount Cook Village, Arthurs Pass and the club fields. From July 17th to November 27 I made the best out of what people would call dismal conditions without a car and for the second half without a home.

Chapter 8 ; Back in the Pristine


Within 12 hours of hanging out on the beaches of Bali I was admits winter in New Zealand.


The first few days were spent waiting for snow to fall and getting setup with my Licence to Chill Pass


and checking out the views of the Canturbury plains from Mt. Hutt



It wasn't long before we moved into a small house in Fairlie at the edge of the Mackenzie country and our local ski field Mount Dobson started getting snow.


This season it would be all about getting used to T Bars and Nutcrackers.



And we were going to have to deal with quite a bit of local traffic.



Our house put us two hours away from Ohau Ski field





But the snowpack was still quite thin



So we hiked around and checked out the Mackenzie area.




We were told that the resorts down south were doing well so we took a detour.



But Cornet peak was still quite boney.




and the backcountry wasn't faring to well.



By now it was late July and we were waiting patiently for the snowpack to arrive.



I was enjoying our time in Fairlie underneath the Dark Sky Reserve





And generally hanging around


But there was no snow so we started to pray



and all was answered


20 cms had dropped in the Two Thumbs Range and finally Mount Dobson had a good enough base to check out the backcountry.


I was pretty stoked on the options in my backyard


And the snow was starting to show up.



If and when the Two Thumbs Range went off it had 3 ski fields that my pass was good for.
Roundhill to the West, Fox to the East and Dobson to the South.



And there was no one else around





For the next week we explored the backcountry and waited until things improved.