Tag Archive for: late spring

Memorial Day Powder & Mush

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Mother nature hit the reset button

Just last week I was telling a friend that this years season came to an end sooner than any year that I can remember.  Well, it’s not over ’til mother nature says it is and she just decided to deliver nearly a foot and a half of pow to the nearby mountains here in Northern Utah.  When the low clouds cleared out on a lazy and rainy sunday afternoon my eyes lit up at the sight of some surprisingly thick white stuff in the upper foothills.  I checked the snotel data and it was reading cold temps and 12 inches of snow and counting!

I pulled out my gear and got on the phone to some friends.. I’m all about these bonus pow days and I would feel guilty if I didn’t seize the opportunity.  At first light the next morning I was on the road, the contrast of the green trees and hillsides covered in fresh white snow made for an awesome drive.  I left a bit earlier than the rest of the crew cause I know that May powder has a really short shelf life, and it turns to muck in a hurry.

CHECK THE QUICKIE VIDEO RE-CAP!

Rolling with a quiver for some late season R&D testing
First run of the day was the real deal.  Light and dry powder
Our powder turned into coastal style muck in less than an hour but still made for some great turns

There was practically no base under the new snow so navigation on the sleds was a bit tricky.  Luckily I had tried to go riding a couple of weeks ago so I knew where the remaining ribbons of snow were at.  I buzzed up to the top and managed to hike a couple of quick laps in the upper fields before anyone else arrived.  I could feel the snow getting thicker every run.  Any direct sun this time of year puts a quick damper on the powder slashing.  So when my friends arrived we sought out the most north-facing tree runs in the area and proceeded to throw around the powder and muck.

hucking some muck around on one of the Phish series boards
The B-line into the “G-spot” is a classic early season shot.. tight entry and high speed thru the apron. We were dealing with early season style coverage so this run was at the top of my hit list.
Grassroots Powsurfers dominate in the powder and the mush.   
DeJaVu – My powsurfing season started and ended in this exact spot.

As the day progressed snow quality plummeted.  Sunny spots became sticky and unrideable and the melting snow in the tree tops began raining down on the snow below.  That’s May powder for you… it doesn’t last long so you gotta be on time.   As a powsurfer, I couldn’t be happier.  Instead of ending on a sour note (last week we were stranded by rocks and dry ground) we got a late season bonus dump and the powsurf season ended in style.  It’s going to be a busy summer dialing in next years boards and accessories so I have a feeling that next winter will be here before we know it.

MayDaze

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It has been 5 or 6 days since the last storm so I kept my hopes low for the day. We rode strapped for the morning and I scouted for deeper pow in the afternoon. Turned out we found some pow just deep enough to surf on the highest north facing slopes.
Earning my turns

I managed to grab a few good still shots with my remote trigger as the sun fell low into the sky. Too good to put on the blog… gonna have to stay tuned for those. My battery died in my remote as the light became just perfect so I was a bit let down. I managed to get some pretty nice video instead.

Slashing above the Mt. Naomi Wilderness


Aaron and I spent the morning snowboarding/skiing. There were some lines we had been waiting all year to hit. They were finally safe enough to shred, but the pow was not quite deep enough to powsurf.


We have been looking at these lines off of Mt. Magog, waiting for the right day. It could be years before they fill in good enough to ride. Hopefully we can nail this one in the next few weeks.


Mayday!

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May 1st brought bluebird conditions and if you knew where to find it, there was cold dry pow to surf as well. It’s becoming harder to find people out there that are still in winter mode.. the backcountry up here is pretty much a ghost town right now. The past two sundays I haven’t seen or heard a soul up there other than my homies and I. More powder for us to slash I guess.
I knew it was supposed to cloud up this afternoon so I showed up early and sessioned solo for a couple of hours until Craig and Dewey showed up. I managed to find some nice pow up high in the N facing slopes.


slashes and photos: Jeremy Jensen

All it takes is a little bump in the slope and it’s party time. I found this bump and popped some tricks.

Pop shovit on the “140 powderskate”
Kickflip

I’ve been finding some pretty fun shots where I can ghost my sled and get some turns. I rigged my pov cam to my sled and powsurfed behind it as it ghosted down the hill.

Bomb drop off of my moving sled

Powder plumes where kicking up pretty big for a sunny day in May


One of the little less know benefits of shrednecking is hot food for lunch. My little cooker attaches to the pipe and heats up leftovers to perfection. The menu for today: Corned beef with roasted potatoes and carrots – served at 10,000 feet. Yum.


Craig and Dewey finally showed up around noon and with them came fast moving storm clouds and eventually, a full on blizzard. It went from sunny warm and bluebird to a january style blizzard within minutes. We were forced to surf the trees for a little while until the storm passed and the sun popped back out. This cycle would be the norm for the rest of the day. 15 minutes of blizzard, 15 minutes of sunshine. Gotta love spring weather in Utah.
We had numbers now so we were able to start taking runs. We sessioned a familiar spot where we used to ride snowboards back in the day.
Craig Stevenson kicking up some cold smoke

Jeremy… getting it


Our snowpack is so high this year that we were able to do a couple of entrances that had not been filled in for years. Pretty scary drop in. Tight and steep!

Dropping in


The first turn after the drop in – high speed!

A few turns later, a perfect roller to bust ollies off of

It was so much fun we had to do it again! Actually, the only good snow left was beneath the cliff bands so if we wanted the pow we had to brave the steep, skinny drop in again. It was way scarier this time with our old tracks and two bomb holes below where Dewey and Keneka had landed on their snowboards.
Craig – big slash beneath a skinny drop in
Jeremy – hauling ass thru chop beneath the skinny drop in
Craig and I tried a follow cam run.. not easy. Trying to stay close enough to keep him in the picture while getting blasted with his spray was pretty hard.



We have been pretty lucky this spring with some nice cool temps and plenty of moisture. Super stoked to be powsurfing this late in the season. Spoiled, but still hoping for more!

Big Waves and Cold smoke on April 27th

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April just keeps on dealing up the goods. A foot and a half of cold smoke was on the menu for today. The toughest thing today was deciding where to shred. When EVERYTHING is good above 8000 ft (no sled tracks and nobody around) and so much to chose from, it is like overload on the senses. After driving all over the place trying to find the best situation possible for shooting and riding in good light, we finally settled on a zone.

I found a perfect little “Ghost ride” on the way to our zone. Bomb dropping from the seat of a moving sled, spraying it with my slashes on the way down, and jumping back on while it was still moving was a pretty entertaining warm up run.
Tandem powsurf/Ghost ride

“The Knob” offers around 2000 ft of N facing steep avalanche terrain. We were a bit nervous with a fresh 18 inches on the top so we eased into it, riding the “safer” lines first. I’m not sure if safer is the right word…. would you rather get flushed down over numerous cliffs and buried at the bottom or get shredded by trees and buried at the bottom should something break loose? Anyways, we picked what we felt was safer at the time and worked our way into the more gnarly terrain throughout the day.
Behold, “the Knob”
One of the first slashes made on this fine april afternoon.

The day started of with a couple of powsurf runs down “The Lawn Mower”. The conditions were simply unreal for this time of year (or anytime of year for that matter). 2000 ft of blower cold smoke pow.


In between the pow slashing you could find rollers and lips to pop ollies off of. Our boards are built the way they are so you can ollie them… if your current bindingless device does not allow you to pop an ollie you are pretty much blowing it – it’s time for you to upgrade to a Grassroots Powdersurfer and enter a new world of bliss and endless freestyle possibilities! :-)


Ollies! One of the HUGE benefits of riding Grassroots Powdersurfers.

Backside 180’s are hard enough without a stupid pole in your hand

A view of “The Knob” from the bottom

After we’d had our way with “the Knob” we moved on to a new sector. We strapped into our snowboards and sessioned some jumps we had previously built a few days ago. I know some bindingless dudes out there hate on snowboarding… I am not one of them. Snowboarding is fun as hell and there is a time and place for it- there always will be. (like hitting giant kickers) I get bummed on the corporate blasphemies and the dorky trends of the snowboard industry, but that is easily ignored- especially when you’re shredding fresh pow in the backcountry and not paying attention to the fads and the bullshit. Enough about snowboarding – this is a powsurfing blog.

When the jumps were bombed out we bomb dropped a tree on our powsurfs, milked a couple of late afternoon powslash shots and bailed. Another epic day in an epic season.

Craig Stevenson bomb droppin’ – Photo Jeremy Jensen

Jeremy – droppin’ next! – Photo Craig Stevenson


Jeremy slashin – Photo Craig Stevenson

Craig slashin – Photo Jeremy Jensen

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

Spring Waves

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This season just keeps dishing up the goods and of course we keep on slashing away at them.

April has brought us a steady flow of fresh powder with very few breaks in the clouds. This means less bluebird days but at least the quality of powder remains light and dry. We have been forced into the thicker woods for visibility’s sake but I have no complaints. The goods are in the woods.
I apologize for all the GoPro shots in advance… The snowy weather has kept my nicer cameras in their bags for much of the season. I try to at least mix it up with some unseen angles.
Laying out some g-turns on the powsurf


Catching a breath in between facefulls of pow


Getting barreled

I love spring time in Northern Utah. Most resorts are closed and the masses have moved on to riding bikes and golfing. The storms keep rolling thru, raining in the valley and dumping snow in the mountains, leaving tons of fresh pow for me and my homies to track up.

120cm Powder Skate – Slaying the deep pow.

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I keep getting requests from people for longer boards… trust me, you don’t need the giant board that you think you might want! Our boards are designed to be much shorter than snowboards for a number of reasons and as you can see even the shortest board we make dominates the deep & light pow.

Here’s a quick peep of the 120cm slaying some April pow pow.