We had some great weather up here in the PNW this weekend. We also had some low avy danger so i figured it was time to take my sister and her boyfriend, Travis, for their first BC tour. Both are gnarly trad climbers and it was only a matter of time before they started hitting up the winter side of the back country.

it was a typical weekend nothing really burly ridden, but Travis has been lurking here for a while so i thought i would get him to sign up by introducing him with his first S/B tour.

saturday i took Emmy (my sister) and Travis up to teach them all about beacons. here they are digging up what would of been a very suffocated me…

next it was time to head up the hill and learn about hasty pits and snowpacks. unfortunately for them, the snow is really well consolidated right now so they didn’t really see any layers. i was also way too lazy to dig a 30 foot deep pit to demonstrate what rotten snow looks like.

there was pretty bad viz, so no action shots, but shuksan poked out just before we left.

nice sunny day with cooked snow. manditory baker porn.

Travis works at the local B/C shop and was nice enough to let me demo the shop Mojo. this thing is a freakin 154!!! yes, you heard right. now, i am a small guy, but my normal resort board is a wide 159 (NS Legacy). my freakin park board (Burton Dominant) is a 154…..and here i was on a 154 split. my other splits are a 166 and 170. i have never used approach skis, but i would imagine they skin just like this thing. it was totally weightless, and i could kick turn like i had snowshoes on my feet, so far the way up is pretty rad, but we will see how it is on the way down…..

getting ready to drop into some blown-out-breakable-crust-baked-windblown-chunder….with a short ass board.

here goes…

nothing like 6 inches of tail

and Travis gets a killer picture

….ready to fire surface-to-surface K9 missile

heat seeking guidance activated…homing in….

next Travis totally fails at powder farming

some tele skier out there is crying

this might have something to do with his user name….

back to the Mojo–determined to demonstrate why a short BC board would suck, i pretend i am on my 170. and you know what i found out? as long as its not deep, short splits kick ass!!!!! this things shredded so hard, and it was really fun poping around because it was so light. i definitely need to get a split in the 156-158 range next season. apparently, a short board can point it pretty damn well.

dog stoke

do those bindings look huge? oh, the board is just really small.

steepgnar

the snow started sticking to the skins really bad…Travis gives up

sure we could of toured up the ridge like those other tracks, but then the new guy wouldn’t of gotten in all that nice kick turn practice..hehehe. the orange dot in the back ground marks our first drop in.

hmmmm….hot, late in the afternoon, for the first time in a long time….hope that cornice doesn’t kill me…

my last drop in for the day. see foxy in the upper left?

looks like she decided not to follow me down….

more pointing it on a short ass board

so fox got really sketched by the crust on top of that little shot and wussed out…good job, now you are cliffed out hella bad. the inset in this photo is from below the red dot.

she found the easy way down after some serious doggy brain power. good work fox. here, Travis gets a nice turn in.

the dog was so tired she passed out right on my lap the whole way back. mission accomplished. for those of you wondering who that 16 year old cancer patient is……yeah that me….all the hair had to go, even the side burns….damn the man….

well, i think you will be seeing the likes of Travis around here now, as he is hooked on splitting. all he needs now is his own split and beacon!!! 😉 ..and a little more steeze could help 😉

as for the Mojo 154: it was unbeatable on the way up, and it shredded hard on the way down. because it is so short i cant comment on the taper, it barely had any. i was surprised how stiff it was for its length (in a good way), and i really think a short board would be a great thing to have on days like this. the 170 is still where its at for bottomless days, but its just overkill for sun, corn and crust. i will be adding something short to my quiver next season for sure.