Any way you want to do it – put the hole in the soul or the soul in the hole, it all comes out the same in the end. Every time I roll towards WY I get a bit nervous as I know what is in store just over the Teton Pass. Jackson Hole is home to some of the heaviest in bounds terrain in the lower 48 without mentioning what lies beyond the gates. After a handful of trips and a 3 month stint in 2009 I still get the ol’ butterfly’s but strangely enough, this time around I couldn’t have been more excited with my $360 round trip ticket score – thanks AA. Not only was the airfare a steal, but the copious crew already set up out there, the line up of shows and end of the season parties made the trip a must. After a 2.5 week hiatus from the snow, I was stoked to pack the bags again, and jump into the 4 AM departure.
Here’s what the first week of the trip looked like in a few photos:
Who knew Logan was so dang pretty at 5 AM?
Also kind of scary when birds attack….
Thanks to Bradsell @ Burton for shippin out a fresh set of proto’s! Got them out of the box and onto the Teton pass within hours of arriving.
We went through lots of these – although it was a first going through this particular shot into Granite
Punter backcountry – no hiking necessary.
Katchafire all the way from Aotearoa!
The only way to get the crowd to stop cheering for the encore was to fool them into turning around with fireworks – it was childsplay.
Big Sis debating whether or not to Hill Climb
If you haven’t heard of the World Championship Jackson Hole Hill Climb, you should probably You Tube that shit
Or take my word for it…this 7-month pregnant lady clearly had her eyes on the prize
And the crowd went wild
And we drank beer… (Photo HB)
I was lucky enough to catch up with a friend who I last saw walking down the road in Guatemala after a few thousand mile road trip down the southern half of North America. He was bent on shredding Central Couloir – that big ol’ white dash down that big ol’ slab a rocks – I completely agreed.
Although we were about the 30th and 31st people to go through that day (look closely, there are 3 cats in there), we still had a good time. I especially enjoyed the gargantuan bomb hole at the mando air out at bottom. Olly big my friends.
Check out Matt Tosi’s Blog to get a glimpse of what this kid was up to last summer climbing up cliff’s exponentially scarier than that we thang.
Burton also showed up in style with about 250 dealers and reps from all over the country. I was stoked to catch up with my old work mates from BVT at The Rare Gallery art showing (thanks LG and TK) and around the mountain festivities. As it was a cherry poppin trip for a couple of the crew, I was stoked to have at least a couple beers, a few shakas and methods with the boys before they departed. It was a quick trip, but they timed it well getting the best snow before it turned to SLUSH… (Photo: HB Iphone)
PS – Check out those early protos! The first one is frickin fiberglass!
The other end of the spectrum on the timeline… (HB Iphone)
As it was RPK2 (potentially snowing 6+ inches) that night we ducked out of the after party early with plans to catch an early box. Don delivered and by 8:36 AM we were at a tram’s pace racing up the mountain. This is not your typical experience and I was stoked even though the snow outside was more like snowy/ice/rain blobs… than Japanese blower pzow – but who’s comparing? Anyway – Jeremy Jones, Xavier de la Rue and their filmers had made it up to the private early morning party at Corbet’s Cabin, TGR was making moves into SnS or some gnar line down Breakneck, so we decided to get macho and take a hike out south side laying track in some tough conditions. We pulled the pin after everyone agreed it wasn’t getting any better, and ducked into some interesting turns into Green River.
We headed back for another tram lap and Don and I bumped into our old buddy TK, the Burton historian and main man behind the show above with LG. He happened to be shredding with legends Bryan Iguchi and Mark Carter and invited us along for a lap. Corbet’s -> Expert Chutes -> Paint brush -> Terje Hit -> Dick’s Ditch…. Needless to say we had some fun.
As Jackson would not be complete without the Hole, please come back for the next installment over the next few days.
Urban Exploration – Tokyo, 2010
