Alaska weather check
By: Todd Jones | Tuesday, March 31, 2009
AK is a burly place. Volcanoes blow, 100 mile an hour winds, huge storms, you name it. We have been doing battle with the weather, which makes it tough, but the snow has remained good. We got out in a nice hole the other day and got some solid lines and deep powder. There is still a bunch of pepper lurking, so it makes line selection difficult, but it is AK after all, and there are lots of lines to hit. We look forward to more blue skies and epic lines. Check back for more updates soon.
Sage's AK training
By: Pete O'Brien | Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sage’s AK training
Story and Photo’s by Pete O’Brien
Last Friday Sage left his house at 4:30 am to film on the first sunny powder day Utah has seen in a while.
After a 2 ½ hour car ride and a ½ hour tow in with a sled he got to the zone only to find everything so buried that he had to wade through armpit deep snow in order to get to the top of each ski line.
On his third lap he chose to ski a squiggly mainline that had an opening at the bottom which was barely shoulder width wide. Two turns into the line he started to scratch rocks and decided to just point it. As he gained momentum, narrowly avoiding a rock feature on one ski, he turned his upper body sideways to make it out of the choke.
At the bottom Sage explained how everyday he skis, he considers it training for Alaska and since he was boarding a plane for Haines the next morning at 8am, this was his last day of training.
Click on the slideshow photos to enlarge them.
Line after line with Ian Mcintosh
By: Rick Johnston | Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Mid February...
We’ve had 7 days straight of bluebird, back here in Pemberton, and with Callum and Dana, off in Italy, It’s been sweet just banging off line after line with Ian Mcintosh. The snows been epic and the skiing impressive. Heres a few of the lines that have been going down.
TGR in AK the Session continues
By: Todd Jones | Saturday, March 21, 2009
Conditions are pretty solid in Haines right now. We have flown 4 out of 6 days. The snow is knee to waist deep and stable. We have been moving into some bigger lines. There is a little threat of buried pepper with such light snow, so you have to be smart in your line selection. We have a great crew up here with Seth Morrison, Ian Macintosh, Tanner Hall and Eric Roner. It's always nice to be back in Alaska this time of year. The last photo in the slideshow was a cool mission. Ian Machit a gnarly triple stage line and double ejected. We had to tow in our guide Kent Scheler and have him jump 10 ft. out to do a ski recovery.
We are poised and ready wih some nice lines on the table when we get good weather. Check back often for more updates from the field.
A Rocky Mountain Winter Storm Cycle
By: Pete O'Brien | Friday, March 20, 2009
A Rocky Mountain Winter Storm Cycle
Story & Photos by Pete O’Brien
Towards the end of last week Sage, Wiley, Dash, and Dylan hit a springtime storm cycle which brought opportunities for hitting lines in the mornings and doing kicker projects in the afternoons.
Between building a few massive backcountry jumps, everyone had time for some natural take offs and plenty of freeride laps. It looks like there’s another refill forecasted for next week : )
Back to Haines America
By: Todd Jones | Sunday, March 15, 2009
"How are things down in America?", was the first question I got when we landed in Juneau Alaska.
AK is its own world and country. It is bigger and more raw than the rest of the US. AK stands for freedom and independence. No matter how any times you have been here it never gets old.
"I wish I could be an action figure and packed away in a box at the end of winter and opened up and taken out in the spring for the Alaska season." said Seth Morrison in January as he was receiving one of his many awards for his standout performance in TGR's "Under the Influence".
This is the time of year we all wait and live for as diehard skiers. I first came through Haines in 1992 on my way to Sitka Alaska after my first season skiing in Valdez. I was with my brother Steve and we had hitch hiked from Anchorage to Haines. It was May 1st and we were sitting on a bench in downtown Haines waiting for the ferry and staring at the mountains. We had spent our first season in Valdez and had a ton of stuff to learn, ride, and accomplish up there, but we were already looking to the future. We vowed to come back some day.
Six years later we called our friends at Coastal Helicopters and had them bring us in a bird. The crew was Steve, myself, our other brother Jeremy, Gordy Pfiefer, Kent Kreitler, guides Jim Conway and Scott Sunberg. It took us a while to get it figured out, but we ended up scoring the goods and Haines quickly became one of the top riding locations in the world.
It has been a long time since those early days. Alot has changed, but one thing remains the same, the mountains. It seems as if they were built for what we do. Manicured and sculpted for skiers and boarders to ride lines beyond our wildest imagination.
We just arrived for a seven week trip that will take us from Haines, to Girdwood, to the Tordrillo Mountains. The early team is myself, Josh Nielsen, Seth Morrison, Eric Roner, Tanner Hall, Ian Macintosh, Jim Conway, and Mark Fisher. The snow is deep and good. We got out for a snow assessment and a few shots on our first day. It is waist deep and epic.
Check back for more updates from the land of white!
Freeride Paradise
By: Adam Clark | Thursday, March 12, 2009
With Rumors of massive snowfall amounts in Italy’s
Alps, Adam Clark decided he better go check it out. With an invite from
TGR to go to Alagna Italy it was a mandatory YES. Just being in Alagna Italy is an amazing
experience by itself. A humble mountain village in the heart of Italian
Alps. The small village just oozes old ski mountain culture and is at
the base of the great MontaRosa-The largest mountain in the Alps. The
resort only has one Gondola, one Tram and a small lift but accesses so
much in-bounds and easily accessed backcountry you could spend a lifetime
adventuring its many couloirs, faces and valley’s. Much to our delight
it snowed 3 feet the night we got there and another 4 feet while we
stayed. An Italian dream comes true. Alagna’s resort is dubbed Freeride Paradise and there were no arguments.
Cody Townsend
By: Pete O'Brien | Monday, March 09, 2009
Cody Townsend
Story and Photos by Pete O’Brien
Cody was having a Blue Saturday last week when he blew up his brand new sled, knocked himself silly, and butted heads with 100’s of slednecks in the zone we were trying to work, on one of the best days of the year.
Obstacles overcome, he got some good skiing in...
Is Alagna, Italy Freeride Paradise?
By: Dustin Handley | Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Is Alagna, Italy Freeride Paradise? - We think so.
Italy's quaint mountain village of Alagna Valsesia lies bellow Europe's second highest peak Monte Rosa. This small town serves as one of the bases to the incredible Monte Rosa Ski Resort Area (which encompases 3 valley's). Skiers Dash Longe, Callum Petit and Dana Flahr rolled in with Still Photographer Adam Cark and TGR cinematographers Steve Jones and Dustin Handley.
The boys rolled in to some of the deepest conditions Alagna has seen in over 10 years. At one point it snowed over 3 feet in 24 hours. The terrain was unbelievable and the local hospitality was incredible.
Story By: Dustin Handley
Photos By: Adam Clark
Last Frontier Heliskiing: Oakley and TGR session in Canada
By: Todd Jones | Sunday, March 01, 2009
We just wrapped up an epic trip to Last Frontier Heliskiing in northern British Columbia. The TGR Oakley team mission was incredible. I think the final thoughts on the trip were, "Wow there is a lot of terrain here and it is insane. We need to get back asap." We saw endless amounts of mountains and lines that will take years of work to shred. The province of British Columbia in general is big and raw. Flying home on a sunny day is jaw dropping. I sat next to Dana Flahr on the plane and he grabbed my digital camera countless times to shoot different lines. It seemed like we were on a location scout. Kye and Seth were on the other side of the plane. Seth was showing Kye lines he had ripped in Bella Coola while discovering new ones they wanted to go and bag.
The mountains are an amazing place. They teach us so much about life and its possibillities. To watch Tanner, Seth, Dana, and Kye session together is unreal. I only hope our cameras can touch, if only for a brief moment, the magnitude of what these guys do.
Huge thanks to the whole crew at Last Frontier Heliskiing; Angelica, Geoff, Michael Brackenhoffer, Mike Watling, George, Jean Yves, and all the staff at Bell 2 who quickly became our long lost friends from the North Country. We miss you all and can't wait to come back.