Thanks to all for the additional comments here.

Hoglord, running into that horse way up there was a very unique experience for sure. We saw some other horses from a distance down by camp but they ran fast when they saw us. I figured the lone horse was gonna jet too but he was stoked.

IrishGav, Steepy has been holding those poles in his hand for runs for a longtime now, he doesn’t always do it, but he often does. I don’t really know why. I never asked. Maybe he will answer on this board? I have not seen him on here for a while though. Regarding one of those pictures, somebody else said to me “that would be a really good pic if he wasn’t holding those poles”. So you’re not the only one who noticed. To me personally I don’t really care what other people do, that’s their trip, but I try to not ride with an ice axe or poles whenever possible. If I am sketched out about hard snow or exposure I will ride with an axe. I have had my ice axe strapped to my pack and been cliffed out on steep hard snow a few times and once I accidently found myself barely holding an edge on ice above a surprise crevasse. It is scary as shit for me trying to very carefully get my pack off and get the ice axe off and then put my pack back on. So if I ever have any doubt I ride with a blade. A lot of skiers riding burly mountaineering lines these days are skiing with whippets, but it aint no thing for them because they always ski with poles anyways. In this TR there are a couple of pics of me riding with my whippet in hand and that was because we were descending blindly down steep, rocky, exposed terrain in extremely variable conditions. I dropped in with my whippet because I did not know exactly where I was going and if I got cliffed out I would be able to quickly secure myself and figure out an exit. The other time I always ride with poles is when I am on a long meandering, flat, traversing exit out of somewhere; it’s always easier to pole your way through those slow/flat/uphill sections and just keep riding than it is to have to keep unstrapping and walking and re-strapping your bindings. That’s my pole/axe riding philosophy anyways…safety and piece of mine before style.

TEX, I tried to help make a movie once, BC Rider posted some of the clips up on this site somewhere last year (I forgot where). I have never fell into the video craze, I like photography. I am always slow to catch on to new technology. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll be posting vimeo steez. On the other topic, I do have a ‘full-time’ job but I got a lot of perks, like tons of paid vacation days, and the ability to not show up on most any given blue bird pow day, I got lucky with this gig. I don’t make a ton of cash at all but enough to be a check-to-check ski bum. Back in the day when I was a sponsored rider I was just scraping by, some gear and a little bit of cash flow, the occasional part-time night hotel job. I was living check-to-check then as well, the difference being that check-to-check I could only afford to keep it local in California and make the occasional trip to 395. My current gig I make enough to pay the bills and then some extras. I could choose to be responsible with those extras like save, invest, start a mortgage etc. Instead for the last few years I have been blowing my extras on international shredding dreams and heli runs, basically living all those dreams and goals I had for future snowboarding when I was poor on cash in Tahoe. But the thing is, to live out those dreams, I now make the choice to continue living check-to-check! Sometimes I think I need to get responsible about the future and reel it in, but I just follow my heart and it tells me that know is the time to keep shredding pow. I got a few more ideas up my sleeve and then I probably will start reeling it in. Anyways, thanks for your comments; In solidary with you my fellow ‘blue puker’; check-to-check shred bum workers of the world unite!