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i couldn't decide if all those bad pictures i took last week were worth their own TR thread... thanks for helping me decide scott! they stay here. it still counts as "weekend warrior" riding if you only have the weekdays off because of some silly holiday.

well the week was not off to an auspicious start when the "light snow" reported by alpental turned out to be more like "heavy rain and fog".


so i learned my lesson quick and called up scott, who of course knew where some real snow was.


well that was the last we saw of the sun for the rest of the week. but the knee deep pow made up for it!



we went down to leavenworth for a few beers and decided to "camp" when it started to dump snow again.


new snow greeted us the next morning.


starting our tour with a safety meeting at the old train tunnel.


scott breaks a cool trail.


pow!


slash!


i was supposed to go home that night, but, well... i went back to train country instead!


the approach was long...


and there was a lot of trail to break...


but our effort was soon rewarded.




back for another lap, in the trees this time.


we probably would have done another lap, except that it was already getting dark, and we were miles from anywhere.


the exit wasn't all log crossings and stairs, but it sure seemed like it!


after a quick day off, it was back to steven's pass.


where we somehow found some snow.


hooray for 4 days of pow!!!


as always, thanks scott for sharing your local knowledge!

headed back up to steven's pass for a few more turns yesterday. the midweek rain had compacted the deep snow we floundered happily in last time, so we went a little further.

scott enjoys the approach


looking back at the face we were on last time


cool lines in the fog


too bad we didn't bring a rope


summit tunnel


the descent started a little rough


but soon became rad



if we hadn't gone back for that second lap we might have a litte more light for the exit run...

Great to see someone enjoying some good times on soft snow!!

Great pics Ben!! Always a pleasure. Anytime.

You should be out lappin up some pow right now. I'm sitting in a convelesant home watching some mid west snow, wishing this flat place was a bit more vertical.... or had I brought my board for a 99 words jib session.

Hope you all warrior it up this weekend. Catch ya when I get back!

sorry you missed a pow weekend scott, but i'm sure you've made up for it this week! things were pretty stormy and unstable over the weekend, with a couple feet of blower rapidly deposited on ice. i ended up just riding the lifts at snoqualmie.

the snow started at sea level on saturday morning.


i made it up to the mountain in time to take my first night time resort turns in over a decade.


after a long night partying with the other lot 3 campers, it was an early morning to catch first chair to the alpental "backcountry".

(note: this streambed was about the least dangerous thing that i came upon unexpectedly all day)

you know the run you just took was steep & exposed when you find yourself apologizing to the ice climbers that you hit with your sluff.



i arrived at work on tuesday to find that this little storm had kept everyone home. with the real snow forecast for the next day, i figured it was time to head back to the mountain.


sorry for all the resort photos, but i was pretty stoked on pow laps at a deserted resort. bonus was calling into a teleconference from the lodge so i could get credit for "working from home" all day!

Ha.. I love riding classic ice climbs.... our smoker has about three feet on it right now.


Flying squirrel trees where off the hook today! Sure you don't wnna go work the skin track tomorrow?

after a few days of riding lifts, i was excited to get back into some real powder, so i called up ale_capone & jcocci.

skinning at daybreak.


scott had put the skintrack in a couple days prior, but it was still almost completely buried.


thanks to john for subjecting his camera to the elements in order to shoot some great pics of scott and me.








now if only this weren't in our way...



i still hadn't had my fill of powder, so i headed up to snoqualmie the next day


fortunately there was plenty of snow there, too.


two days in a row of people i just met busting out an SLR in a snowstorm to get pow photos of me. i feel lucky!


thanks leyland!

Did a little ditty with the warrior of weekends. I'll leave the story up to BS. friday am pre dawn start=early morning sunshines on sparkplug...



Hey Sunshine!!



our destination, Sparkplug's NE 1/2 couloir down to Suprise lake that we dubbed "the shocker"...




front point with a splitboard?



Stomp that shit!!!






shocked.....

ski cutting on belay. love it. need to do more of that...if someone else carries the rope of course

oh, and you guys and your powder can suck it

Nice was just talking about Spark Plug yesterday.

thanks for all the great photos scott! you do pretty good when you remember to take your camera out of your pocket!

this day was so fun (and resulted in so many photos), i think i'm going to give it it's own thread.

was just talking about calling you about doing something in that area tomorrow, but then was reminded you are not within the country....

thanks Ben... a little blurry, but i helps that your mind can sharpen up the edges since you where there.

I'm within country but heading out of town tomorrow (Vegas, well Henderson actually) for the week. Enjoy if you head out.