Tag Archive for: easter

Easter Sunday Offerings

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Waking up to bluebird skies again caught me by surprise. I had not got home until 10 pm last night. Yesterday’s 12 hour powsurf session worked me pretty good. I was too tired to call anyone that night and I just crashed. So I got busy this morning and called around to everyone I knew to find someone to go shred with- No luck. I couldn’t let a bluebird powder day in late april get away from me so I embarked on a solo mission.

Strapped with 3 powsurfs and my camera gear, I set off into the backcountry. It wasn’t long before I came across a zone I’d had my eyes on earlier this season. I found a perfect natural roller and some cold pow pow to land in. So the session began.
I sent the roller a couple of times and it was pretty sweet and bigger than I had anticipated. Made for some decent still and video shots.
The shadows from the trees were moving quick with the sun, so I let this dictate which features to hit. The roller was obscured by shadows so I milked a couple of pow runs nearby.

Another nearby mini roller was good for some slashes and some ollies

The sun had kinda gotten to this pow but it was still slashworthy

Backside 180 on the mini roller
I found a little diving board with a nice steep landing. Perfect set up for getting tricky off of. A did a couple of kickflips to pass the time.

Before I knew it my roller was back in the sun and ready to hit a couple more times.

This Easter was a memorable one. Riding solo for the day wasn’t so bad, it is hard to push yourself because there is no one there to stoke you up and you don’t want to get hurt up there. But I had plenty of time to get creative with framing shots and really think things thru. I’m stoked that I didn’t let this powder day get away from me.

Happy Easter!

Easter Weekend Offerings – Day 2

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So much powder to slash – so little time

Day 2 of Easter weekend greeted us with blue skies and nice cool temps again. We rallied up to a familiar zone and bagged a few long north facing lines to start off the morning. Slashed a few lips, popped some ollies, shredded some ditches and dropped some rocks. So much fun. RC had to bail out early but I decided to stick around and grab a few shots I had been thinking about.

whip slash in the middle of “ditch fest” – one of my favorite low consequence powsurf runs


I sessioned this little wall hit for a few airs before moving on to a new zone. Good for a few ollies and a backside 180.


This area is well known for its numerous caves and sink holes. There are 3 huge sink holes and a big cave near this area. I got brave and didn’t bother to wear a leash or anything for a few jumps.. This resulted in the near loss (forever) of one of my boards. I slammed, the board went flying down the mountain and literally rode the wall of a bottomless sink hole a few hundred feet down the mountain. Note to self… wear your leash.

My runaway board literally rode the bowl around this sink hole. You can see it’s track at the bottom of the pic. I threw some stuff down this hole and I could not hear it hit the bottom… I was super lucky not to lose my board for good.

The weather warmed up a bit so I moved on to another zone a few miles away and a bit higher up to find some colder snow to ride. The light was fading fast so my options were pretty limited but I found this hump that was begging to be slashed. Notice the gloveless right hand – I snapped this with a remote shutter controller.

I took a nice break on the upper peaks, looking around for some features and making some plans for the late afternoon light. This is one of my favorite spots in the world to chill. I’ve been coming to this spot for over 20 years and it never gets old. It really makes me appreciate the beautiful area I am so lucky to live in.


As golden hour approached pieces of sunshine became more difficult to find. I managed to find a decent NW facing slope where I could ghostride my sled down and make some late evening turns.

High powered slash


 Head plant… from trying to slash too hard.

The sun got even lower until I was limited to the very tops of the ridges for sunlight. I set up a few shots hoping to catch some golden light. (these are NOT the shots) these are frame grabs from the video I was shooting…. of me shooting the shots – if that makes sense. The light didn’t pop much in these frame grabs.

Here’s a shot of me getting a shot of me
As the sun dropped farther into the western skyline I scrambled to find a zone where the “golden light” would be shining. My options were limited this late in the evening but I managed to find a few features that were surfable before the sun set. It was a dark and cold trip home, I was pretty beat down from the 12+ hour powsurf session.

Easter Weekend Offerings – Day 1

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Fresh snow and cooler temps kept the powdersurfing conditions epic throughout the Easter weekend. We actually had 3 bluebird days in a row! I think that is a first for this season. (it’s been snowy as hell this winter)

A few powsurf first descents went down on friday on some bigger and more exposed lines. “The Knob” was our first zone to kick off the weekend. “Check your pants” and one of the “Triplets” were my choice of lines to start off the day. 1500 vertical foot runs of deep cold smoke… it doesn’t get much better than this.
Behold “The Knob”
Lines from Left to right : “Check your pants”, “The Lawn Mower”, “The Triplets”, “The Flux”, and “The Skinny”


Choking on pow turns on the upper section of “Check Your Pants”.

Poppin ollies over trees
After checking my pants I moved over to the first of the “Triplets” and gutted it proper from the top. There was some old slide debris in the chute that made things pretty challenging but there was just enough fresh on top to make it doable.


Power slash in the hanging snow field just above the choke in #1 of “The Triplets”


I feel funny complaining this time of year that the snow is too deep… but this was the case today. 16-18 inches made blazing trail on the sleds pretty difficult, so we had to change our plans up a bit. As soon as we arrived to our zone my sled decided to die… the key quit working and I was pretty much stranded. We made do with just one sled for the day and managed to score pretty well considering our situation.
Chalk up another epic day of powsurfing in the Utah Backcountry