Mount Saint Elias

[philfort]

I spent 2.5 weeks in the St. Elias range in 2002 and accomplished next to nothing. We landed, set up our tens, got tent bound for a solid week. Had 1/2 day clearing, skied one peak. Then got stormed for another week.

We spent about 12 days digging our tent out every 2 hours.

I'm familiar with the hardships of the St. Elias range.

I spent 3 weeks on the other side of the Bagley icefield (about 30 miles from St Elias) in May a few years ago. Strangely, St Elias was in the clear most of that time.

[Trackhead]

I spent 3 weeks on the other side of the Bagley icefield (about 30 miles from St Elias) in May a few years ago. Strangely, St Elias was in the clear most of that time.

I think I heard, or you reported about your trip?

We were there in April.

[goldenboy]

I know that I've been too quick to judge in the past based off the media or the internet.

In this case, having heard the stories and seen the photos from a close friend and ski partner, I know that some serious ski mountaineering went down. Everything else is just style.

[gramps]

Wow, I just caught up on this whole thing tonight. Mt. St. Elias is the ultimate undone ski descent in my mind. An 18,000 foot descent to the ocean, the largest on the planet, in one of the gnarliest places on earth. I mean holy shit! Where you get dropped off, rappels, and doing a one or two day descent are questions of "style", what this Red Bull team did borders on fraud, at least to me.

A $1,000,000 trip where you are dropped off and ski the bottom half, then go back and ski the upper half two months later, getting ferried out from the halfway point? And then claiming that you just did the longest ski descent on the planet? I'm sure those guys did some gnarly skiing, but these BS claims overshadow all of that to me.

When Reinhold Messner talked about "murdering the impossible", he was talking about using technology and siege tactics to bring mountaineering objectives down to a lower level. These guys did all that, and took it one step further by not even doing a coherent descent, and then spinning it to make it sound like they did.

Hopefully, someday someone will do an integral descent of St. Elias to the ocean, and it will probably be the most impressive thing ever done on skis.

[cj001f]

I know that I've been too quick to judge in the past based off the media or the internet.

In this case, having heard the stories and seen the photos from a close friend and ski partner, I know that some serious ski mountaineering went down. Everything else is just style.

Any chance of them putting some information up publicly outside the redbull spin-o-rama? that'd be cool

[ak_powder_monkey]

St. Elias is fucking huge

[ak_powder_monkey]

I'm sure they had the ability to ski the entire thing in one go, or one descent. But I'm guessing trying to get skiable conditions not only from the summit, but all the way to the ocean is a vary narrow window.

Narrow is an understatement, probably 1 day in every hundred years would conditions allow a total desent...

[Lani]

HYPERBOLE POLICE: I'm sure it's a bitch to catch in condition for the full swipe, but once in a century sounds like a gross exaggeration to me.

What it takes is a sweet combination of timing and luck. Maybe once a decade? I doubt anyone really knows. Once the checks are cut, is the hype inevitable? I'm not saying these guys didn't kick some major ass. I'm sure they did. But for an objective like that, I'd be willing to make dozens of attempts over a decade to get it just right.

I've done continuous descents over 11k on my local practice hill.

[pdiddy]

Are these guys claiming a first descent? There is some info out there to the contrary. I think they should rescind their claim. Sick descent none the less.

http://www.wildsnow.com/

[goldenboy]

Any chance of them putting some information up publicly outside the redbull spin-o-rama? that'd be cool

Lou D. has my buddies' contact info, keep checking wildsnow.

[cj001f]

Lou D. has my buddies' contact info, keep checking wildsnow.

cool! thanks

[Lani]

But for an objective like that, I'd be willing to make dozens of attempts over a decade to get it just right.

Actually, maybe I wouldn't. Note to self: STFU. I have no desire to go sit through weather in a tent.

[alto]

Regardless of their style, they got some kick ass footage:

http://play.freecaster.com/1000023/1003029

[alto]

The vid is definitely edited to show it as if they did it in an order different to how they really did it.

And what's with hitting the ocean with your pole? I mean, twisting the order of events is one thing, but hitting the ocean? Not cool.

[summit]

Definitely a misleading cut, but still very cool.

[ALP snow]

The US version has just been released. I watched this film last night and really enjoyed it! Some amazing shots!
http://www.redbullshop.com/redbull/e...y=rbm-dvd&pi=0