Valhalla variabilities and ups n downs along the powder highways

[skifishbum]

yeah well i'm an add laden slacker so a belated tr shouldn't shock anyone
so allow me to spin a tale and attempts to share sum stokes
the crew assembled again to head up bc way eh
first year a long time member didn't join us
don't knows if ya still lurk but missed your presence, comradely and friendship a lot, hopes all well for yas wd
we added a used to post a bit mag splitter whose addition was great
good solid partner and hut mate R
much like ifin ya french fry when ya shouda pizzaed
mphing in the kmh zones gonna be a bad time and 1 cats learned vehicular impoundments gonna potentially harsh your down the pows highway on a back to back hut trippin

i scored a new rig last year so i gots to drive it this year standard slc-cordalanes super8 overnight

dutyfree stop over the border to nelson and some canada stuffs i likes


aint sure if rollin doobers with elan skins makes me spansered
but props to them for safety swag a bums can use
Naksup would be our lz base
cool little town

next morn showed up at the lz stoked with anticipation ducks in a row

and just needed to wait for the cloud deck to burn off or rise while getting your chopper safety briefing
well about noon the realization that the downer of not flying in for the first time in a dozen of these trip is the reality
and 1/7 of your hut trip just went up in a bunch of lz
i like stickers so i knew

so another night in Naksup at the selkirk inn and chili night
don't frett little piggies your day to fly will come

and if not its fuckin bunny's fault

and it did albeit after carlysles drop and afternoon


flew over the forbiden zone and eyeballed what would be new terrain for most of us

i'm pretty baked at this point so exiting the chopper with headphones on and this leo guy whose pretty much a dead ringer for splat, removing them for me's my dim recollections
leo and the bomber hooked us up with a rippin cougar divorcee and goddamits a brit chica who gots to be the most exstreme skier in the hut ifin ya dont gives mr tophers 1/2 the binders bonus points
both ladies were awesome professional custodians hosts cooks partiers and the kind of people ya wanna spend a weeks company with

as always the choppers last load and previous weeks occupants depart and the silence of the bc wilderness and anticipation of your week settle in

unpacked grub and libations o plenty stowed gear and gots the afternoon ups on

life coach tl and hello kitty spansered brand ambasador rj gits down

as does a tgr cat

and mrs. bum gits sum

before retiring to enjoy a mountain sunset and the cozy well laid out lodge


and i manned the grill for dinner duties

and team sar performed a evening beacon retrivial
well that night winds cranked up like shook the hut cranked up from multiple directions and took our pretty nice playing field and wells

var·i·a·bil·i·ty
ˌverēəˈbilədē/
noun
plural noun: variabilities
lack of consistency or fixed pattern; liability to vary or change.
"a great deal of variability in quality"
would be the word of the weeks
groups formed n split looking for snow qualities of lesser suckages and scoping terrain

sheltered turns and overall decent stabilities were encountered

Vallhallas gots terrain

we spun a few laps fore R and sfotex dropped lower and took a different up track
skinned up again later in the afternoon



winds were cranking and i'm pretty sure we were in single digit temps
when we topped a pass

i'm pretty good about pickin battles and despite wanting to go up n over to scope out another pass
when the better 1/2 wasn't down i agreed to ski another tree lap and head home with her
while topher cats n our caknucklehead bro johnny wasatch headed up

probably with a safe travels kids see ya back at the cribs
well bout o dark thirty we gets a radio call
john boys lost a ski were on our way home pretty sure of where were at and send team sar with a spare meet us at the base of the skinner up
team sar dons gear and heads out
i'm a couple bloodies down chucklin bout givin him shit about din settings and we get another call
seems there was a slide, full burial with a resuscitation
and for various reasons that info was chosen to be not relayed at the time
i'm not going to go into big details second guess anybodies actions or encourage anybodies mmacqbing of a situation they werent part of
and if it was me youre sure as hell dont need to worry my wife if i'm okay and progressing towards a positive outcome of a shit sit
the more time i spend doing the thing the more i realize that gettin er right everytimes, trying to outsmart mother natures spatial varibities or any level of training or certs is gonna change the laws of shit hittin a fan not totally feasible
i'm just gonna go with what steven stills said about neil young introducing him on the live 4 way streets album
johnny's "been a freind of mine since i really knew what a friend was" and we hung with the same crew back in high school he helped introduce me to the earning of the turn and mentored my immersion into bumship
and youre friends not dieing either doing what they love or nots has a sobering way of changing your prospectives
so heres my cliff notes on it
topher dropped of the peak felt/heard the slide but was not really on it or caught
johnny got caught knocked over thought he was okay but got buried by a second wave
cat self arrested and initiated a beacon search as topher booted back up
they beacon searched to the point of being able to see his outstretched arm visuial clue dig him out and remove the snow from his face and be able to breath again
which is pretty much text book shit that needs to happen in a positive outcome incident
kudos my friends and partners
well then more of us went out brought more layers and got everybody home
turns out he partially ruptured his achielles but even that didn't stop him from makin some turns later in the week
did i mention i luvs your big ole canadian ass like cheech loves chong

and i looks forwards to sharing ups n downs in pursuit of the white rooms again with ya this season brotherman

next day we headed back out for an morning of its fuckin cold lets ski in the suns fore we go on a ski searching mission
did i mention


L shows the one plank in a variability environment has its merits

and the cats once again blessed to make bday pow turns

topher and i dropped down to the lake and headed out to check out the slide


this picture pretty much defines the variability of wind effect encountered
a week ago, based on the lodges skier logs
this skinner was a foot or so deep
now its a foot elavated skinner

i guess ya only gets 1000 characters and 35 pics not to mention i aint the most creative fuckers so
tbc

[::: :::]

glad your friend had a good outcome
& thx for posting up
we're all itching to get on the snow
nice to see the pics

[skifishbum]

As we approached the slidepath i remember thinking shit thats way bigger than i thought and topher says well i guess were gonna have to change that class 1 designation



and finding a single skis gonna require some possible divine interventions

but friends dont let other friends ski gear languish under the snow without trying


topher and i were about an hour and a couple safety breaks in when the rest of the crew showed up
everybody with their own idea were it might be

i poo pooed the organized line and bout another hour in powder pondo had the magic touch got a hit that sounded promising
lost it but reprobed it

practiced some conveyor shoveling techniques and scored

the power and characteristics of moving snow never fails to amaze me


headed homes for shrooms night as our hutkeepers made dinner and miles of shroom smiles


next day r sftex toph cats n i decided to attempt the forbidden zone
if they had named it the milk n cookies or sunshine n buttercups zone i doubts we'd of gone
but verboten
oh fuck yeahs i'm in
puts on the ropes
n assessed entry

cut some cornice

n dropped






cold as fuck down on the valley floor so we headed back up n outs

[jetski]

Nice! Thanks so much for sharing!!!

[grinch]

Cool terrain. Glad you were all ok. I want to ski now

[skifishbum]

bootered outta the cold ass forbidden zone and headed back to celebrated dudes dobs with doobs in the sun


till sadly the hut radio crackled with more downers
as our gal pal had blew an acl

with a little help from her friends and a bunch of right turns she made er home
consumed greenly



next morn after a breakfast of eastern bloc nations champions

mr toasters and i decided well we should probably take what looks like the last bluebird day & check out

headeded out

when in vallhalla....

i likes to let him go 1st dudes a hellofa athelete and photo slut and i can tell how variables it is by the number of knee drops



did i mention the vallhalla terrain not suckin?


safely dugs around in the snow for a bit

id prefer my lemons in cocktails personally

watched some of them rest of the crew gitten er done across the way



skinned n bootered up to the ridge again



sent tophs out to make sure it went cleans enoughs

and roped da dopes in


n skied down the varibles vallhalla styles

[Gepeto]

relly niysce - havin yer so with ya = kooler still

did you score a ring or two, maybe more?

[Supermoon]

Great TR. Thanks for keeping it real. Glad everyone made it out (relatively) unscathed.

[skifishbum]

sum gotten

headed back up to enjoy what would be the last of the bluebirds and banner sunsets




and another to da lodge vallhalla variable downer


no matters whats the skiing was like that day the last few steps back to the point of departure are always memorable to me

and the hut trips always have plenty of things you get to limit the varibilities and just cut to the goods


there may be shenanigans or they may be life coach lessons


ya may be kickin it


or dish doggin that night

if ya aint stoked and enjoying that part of the experiance
ya may be doin it wrong
snows fell graybirds sang ups n downs commenced again



found sum mur fuckin hoars



another peaceful snowy night

and you awake pack your shit clean n help with chores


i'll take full responsibility for this polishaninagin

and go eat a bowl of trump dicks if yur triggered

pack down the lz and await your flight back

some of us hopin the graybirds would prevent that yellar bird from flying for a redemption day
but fore ya know it


your in the air

some day i'm gonna get outta one of them birds and ski down somethin good but for now i'm content with getting out at any safe lz

[gimpy]

Yeah dibs!!!! Thanx fir sharing

[skifishbum]

sose for yas know it your back at the lz

ya help unload and load the next flight

ya say good byes and make plans
after last years score at revelstoke and fernie i had planned a couple days on the powder hwy
topher had the rest of the month off and planned to stay and since johnny was hurt sfotex joined and mph in the kph cat wasn't getting the impounded rental out sowe headed out to get him to cranmore

pukin pretty hard at that point eh and

our team always rolls green
rodgers pass was closed for an hour or so and some more powder filled miles thru the pass and we rolled in to golden bout midnight
met the cats crew somewhere off the powder hwy sent him off and wished him luck on his next hut adveture
woke up and saddled up for a kickin horse pow day
was super sunday

ascended stairways

bit of graybird flat light but the sun poked thru

cheered on the jr extreme groms

got high on the horse

sfotexsharplerspow

got our terminator boot on

we lost a partner and friend a few seasons ago in a slide outside the resort
so AL this ones for you

may we be blessed to continue the this in what we do
topher drops



sfotex scores


consumed sums

and headed back out

the amount of terrain = mindboggling


belled to belled one great day hit the road stopped in golden
and even though theyre a snowboard shop

and evidently they dont know where to score poutaine or a sense of humor
must be a dying sport thing
started puking again and we hit the highway o pow
big fat cold smoke blower dendrites falling in a hypnotizing dump
you would be in the white room for a few second anytime a cross traffic car would pass
some serious white knuckle white room driving and them blizzack snows proved to be worth every penny
stopped somewhere to watch the pats super come back
made it to cranbrook that night

just kept dumpin

woke early to try and figure out how we were gonna score turns from ullrs gift
road to fernie was closed at that point
hell i think the storm closed amtrack outside whitefish
the closest resort was kimberly so we loaded up helped push out a few stuck vehicles and hit the hwy again in a quest for pow
early morning pow day line up was fun pretty chill vibe place reminded me of the beav

pretty funny hearing the best day of the season/ever and don't get me wrong 48 cm of fresh pows killer
but being utarded wasanglers well ya know weve scored that dump in inches
they only had a 50" base at that point so there were some signs of overskied terrain we refer to as moguls
big ones
sfotex said you could ski cut em
only one thing to do crank that shit to 11 and try n just ski the tops of em thank jah the snow was soft and deep enough
for my old man avoid them bumps ass to pull it off and i chuckled knowing my ill advised yeti zipperliner would smile
kind of a funky layout
if ya got off the easter trip

ya ended up lower mountain and an old school moving at spark 2 joints speed double

had a scare as i came into a cat track hot and a lady in front of me decided to stop before drop
i remember thinking no dont and think i got a warning out and she was braced for impact as i fright trained her
thankfully a broken pole was the only damage
she kept apologizing and i kept apologizing as i was the uphill skier
this was her 1st day back after an early season acl surgery and i'm stoked beyond belief that we both skied away without much damage.
finally caught back up to the crew and we

pretty funny as both topher and i seperately
found the only extreme mini golf pillow lines buried in the middle of a couple blue squares
but
by then we needed to git back on the road
thankfully we stopped at the bar and got the road closed bypass short cut from the tender
said goodbyes, safe travel, good cougar hunting and ullrs blessing to mr toaster and sfotex and i started the road home
rolled into Missoula late and whooped sucked down the bong waters and substance

hit the road again and sfotex and i took turns white knucklin down the hwy o pow till it turned to slush around pocotello
with a jmcm soundtrack

till we made er home
[/story]

[happytimefunbox]

Fucking epic