Boarder Patrol / Sneakin up and getting the wave off.

Ski Patrol / Board Style

Snowboarding under the lights.

Arctic Cat 660 4 stroke Turbo / Wide Track

Training

-2 Degrees

Cold Smoke

Wyoming > January 09, the Story

Dang, I dig this powder!

The trip started out at 12:30AM Monday morning with an all night drive to Wyoming, 990 miles. Arrived Monday afternoon, got settled in.

Day 1. Fueling up Tuesday morning in town and ready for the 2 feet of fresh powder from the storm over the week-end. The morning started out with a refreshing temp of -20 degrees. Glad I brought my serious cold weather clothes. The sleds were a might stiff, but popped off after a few pulls. The sun was out and the snow was great. It was cold smoke powder, and deep.

The climbing Mountain Cat, M8.

The 900 RMK Beast.

An afternoon lunch fire,

The sun was out and the temp stayed cold all day.

The sleds ran great and we found good snow.

The gang after a good day in the mountains, ready for a burger fest.

Sometimes ya just gotta roll the critter to get unstuck.

Day 2, found temps about 35 degrees warmer, at about +15 degrees. With it came some fresh snow. Now it is shaping up to be some serious deep powder. We went into an area with some awesome powder and began descending through the trees. We entered several openings in the forest where we would explore the area and then regroup and move on to another untracked opening in the trees. The whole time it is snowing and making for an epic day and getting deeper.

Deep...

Yours Truly, riding the Dragon.

This is what mountain riding is all about, boonedocking and cold smoke powder.

Lunch fire while it kept on snowing.

Using a pine branch grate to get the grilling done.

Deep in the woods, the sleds were snow covered during our lunch. With snow all day, our tracks from the morning were pretty much covered and it made for a challenging ride up the mountain through the woods to the trail back to the trucks.

The winds had been blowing hard all day, 50-60 MPH, so it made for a true mountain experience. That is what draws me to the mountains, it is the rawness of the weather. It is interesting how the weather can be raging up in the mountains and 6 miles back to town it is a toned down weather experience.

Day 3, as we drove up toward the mountains the clouds were hanging over the peaks, giving us the clue that we would be in for even more snow. The mountains did not disappoint us, the winds were howling at over 40 mph and the snow was falling. As we rode up the trail, with the snow swirling we made our way to an area that we had ridden in on day 1. As we dropped into the valley it was apparent that we were experiencing incredible deep powder conditions.

This was truly an epic day to top off an epic 3 days of backcountry snowmobiling.

Yeah I found the powder and we had a great mountain experience. Everyone came home safe and we pushed our powder sleds to their limits. GOOD TIMES!!

It is riding with mountain snowmobile riders like I have had the experience to ride with on 2 trips in January that help make me a better rider and able to access some of the snowboard mountains I want to reach. Anybody who wants to use a snowmobile to access backcountry mountains to snowboard, needs to take the time to learn to ride through the trees and ride in the powder and climb with your sled. You will get stuck and you will wrestle your sled, you need to have the know how and skills to get moving again and to know the snowmobiles capabilities so you can have a good time and get back to the truck at the end of the day.

These snowmobile trips will lead to me returning with the snowboard and snowshoes to these areas this spring for some great backcountry boarding. This is the on-going ground work for future adventures.

Wyoming > 09

Wyoming > January 09

I'll have a story and more pictures up later. It was a great trip with much powder. Found a couple mountains for later snowboarding trips. Have a good week-end... later.

Wyoming This Week: Backcountry Snowmobiling

Leaving tonight at 11:30PM, making the drive overnight. 8 of us. Destination Wyoming. Major storm this week-end, the National weather Service is saying up to 24" by Monday morning.

Should be another awesome powderfest. This trip will be on the snowmobiles, although I'm bringing the snowboard, ya never know. Pictures and story when I can. Have a great week.

January 9 - 12, 2009: Northern Colorado Sled Adventure

This was a backcountry sled trip in northern Colorado that we experienced some awesome snow conditions. The group included 6 other riders and myself. This was my first adventure with this group, a very seasoned group that enjoys the challenges of exploring new terrain. This group makes its own trails. They ride up out of West Yellowstone on most of their trips. This was new territory for them.

I rode and explored this area back in December 08' on my first trip of the season. The game plan of this adventure was to go to the best snow out west. The Snowies in Wyoming was the original destination, but as I tracked the storms and conditions during the week, it seemed as though the biggest snow was going to be south or north of Snowy Mt. Range, in Wyoming. On the drive out we decided, so Colorado it was.

It did not disappoint, as a storm dropped 20 inches the 2 days before we arrived, and it snowed the second day and dumped overnight on Sunday with another 14-18 inches. It was that powdery light snow that made for some incredible conditions. Each day we explored a different area of the mountains. We had some great lunch fires roasting sausage and hot dogs. We all nicked a few trees boonedocking. Some harder then others. Our goal was accomplished, we found awesome powder snow, great riding in the trees and everyone made it back safe.

Powder!

Taking a break deep in the trees.

A lunch fire. This was deep in a ravine that we dropped into. The challenge was the climb out along a steep ridge through the trees after lunch. It was a great 1st day.

The 2nd day brought more snow. We spent this day in some steep terrain in very deep snow. We all worked our way up which included guys getting stuck, digging out, climbing higher. We were able to climb to an opening in the trees on a mountain-side with a great view of the valley. Several of the group continued on up traversing back and forth through the trees attempting to gain the top of the mountain. We were in deep forest, so it was no easy task. One of our group did make it up to the top, to the rocks. This day my front bumper did meet a tree on one climb through the trees. On the throttle uphill and I zigged instead of zagged and boom, broke the bumper but nothing else. I think most of us nicked a tree or two this day.

Lunch fire the 2nd day.

This looked bad, but all turned out OK. A frozen stuck throttle and sled meets tree without rider, knocks snow out of tree.

Da Moose!

Da trail opener! This was our path in to the trailhead on day 3, we followed him in. We had all the powder to ourselves this morning.

Da rig! Seven men and seven sleds

Cresting a mountain. It was wind blown and we were hitting rocks in the shallow snow.

Back in the powder on the south side of the mountain. We were in awesome untracked powder the rest of the day. Many miles from the truck.

So deep it took two sleds to pull one out of the powder.

Yours Truly, enjoying another adventure in the mountains... GOOD TIMES!!

RIDE HARD