Damn who knew the skiing in Washington State could be so good. Last week we ventured over to Mazama, Washington for some pow turns via North Cascade Heli Skiing. I was blown away by the scenery and rugged topography that this part of the Cascades holds. They actually call this the Alps of North America.
Our crew consisted of snowboarder Jeff Yates, Skiers Tommy Frey, Dan Rihm, John Richards and Bob Legasa and some sweet video work by Justin Miller.
Day One was greybird and a little wind effect so we won't even talk about it, but that night the storm blew in early and started dumping late afternoon. By the second morning we woke to temps in the single digits, clear skies and 8" of Cascade Cold Smoke.
Game on for day 2 as we made our first runs down Silverstar which had about a 3000 ft vertical drop and was surrounded by incredibly Granite Spires and walls. Throughout the day we chased the sun and kept hitting Money!
Near the end of the day we ventured into a basin which had three huge prominent rock walls. Our guides told us a few years back Eric Roner base jumped off of these spires for a TGR film. I would have loved to witness that.
This day was certainly money in the bank and we celebrated with a few Jaeger shots, good local beers and some damn good burgers over at the nearby Freestone Inn.
We were primed and ready for Day 3 when it was Bluebird once again but unfortunately there was some wind effect over night creating some less than stellar conditions at first but after a little hunting and pecking different aspects and basins we found the goods once again.
North Cascade Heli skiing offers all sorts of packages from Day skiing to multi day and their Guides, top notch! Check em out.
The proof is in the pudding, here's the video! Enjoy.
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