Ahhh....winter!!!

[bushwacka]

yet another video not in POV.

After the weekends huge storm we have received another 12-18 inches on top of that with not as many people trying to ski it. Time to get creative and head to stowe's enormous and labyrinth like sidecountry. We did 3 runs in one day all of which were all pretty damn epic.
 
 
Thanks to Erik Suvanto and his really fast editing skill for making this the same day. camera work by me and him.  skiing be me, him , Liz, and Akokskis.

[Gary]

Holy moly Bush...you and your posse are a crazy wild amazing bunch!
I thought I heard war drums at the beginning of the video..

Gotta hand to you guys...gutsy skiing back in there but it always amazes me how effortless and worry free you all make it look.

As always...it's always nice to see others living on the edge..you all make it look like a piece of cake!
For those of us watching and considering more backcountry...can you share :

how do you plan where your going to ski
how long does it take  you before you get to the line you want to ski
how well do you know the terrain or how often you ski those lines
what factors to you take into consderation before attempting new lines and trails
how far are you looking ahead in those tight situations
do you have tree/rock skies for bushwacking
any problem or how long  getting back to civilization once  you're finished in backcountry
and is it hiking back, skiing back or a little of both.

Thanks for sharring...g

[jbotti]

BW, did you promise your first born? Looks like this is developing into a dream season. Enjoy!!

[bushwacka]

Holy moly Bush...you and your posse are a crazy wild amazing bunch!
I thought I heard war drums at the beginning of the video..

Gotta hand to you guys...gutsy skiing back in there but it always amazes me how effortless and worry free you all make it look.

As always...it's always nice to see others living on the edge..you all make it look like a piece of cake!
For those of us watching and considering more backcountry...can you share :

how do you plan where your going to ski

honestly mostly we wing it and try to find area that are unskied still, we also take in to consideration how safe a slope whether that be avalanche potential and of snow so hard a fall would cause a slide for life.

how long does it take  you before you get to the line you want to ski

some of these are right off the lift, but you have to beat back forest and have a nearly editic memory to get to them. Some of these are an hour from the lift. Some like we hit today are shielded from above due to unskiable cliffs above it took about an hour to skin up for about 1000 vertical feet of untracked.

how well do you know the terrain or how often you ski those lines

everything in this video I had skied before, but at some point in time you do not know the terrain and most people are pretty tight lipped around here. Ever notice how I post these videos and never name a run? IT takes alot of time and effort to find these runs I am not just going to tell people on the internet exactly where to go. I waste alot of run be screwing up trying to find things sometime being foreced to go back uphill. Untill you willing to do that you will never be able to find anything that noone else knows about the EC nor will you be able to play with a buddy show me your and ill you show mine. If you have no secert stashes yourself noone is going to show you anything to special.


what factors to you take into consderation before attempting new lines and trails


I normally take pictures and zoom them in when I can. I also have an editic  memory (aspergers syndrome)and can look at a face and memorizes it really fast. Who would have thought social awkwardness would have been such a godsend for skiing BC. Lastly I will carry skins with me incase i need to go back up and have been know to carry a harness, ropes and slings incase I get in a real jam. I have even found some rappel in stuff.

how far are you looking ahead in those tight situations

while skiing? when your watching my POV your seeing what I get if I have the camera pointed up. quite frequently we are skiing on pure reaction. the clip at 2:16 of me is purely reaction. I havent skied this line over a year and it was totally changed since last time I skied it.  Think like and act like Jedi and you should be fine skiing these lines, which is easier said than done.


do you have tree/rock skies for bushwacking

nope. my powder skis I expect to get a little dinged up. The rossi I am on have crazy strong bases. Plus you do not need edges in powder anyways.with that said you would be surprise how little they get dinged up.

any problem or how long  getting back to civilization once  you're finished in backcountry

easy to get back. these all drop you out on a snow covered and usually packed route 108. Backside of spruce is roughly 20 minute skinnning to highest point of the road. Once on top you have 15 minutes of gliding/skating back to the resort. Many run put you on the downside of the road towards stowe.

and is it hiking back, skiing back or a little of both.

once on the high point of the road its all skiing/skating. From the backside of the spruce its either hiking or skinning. Skinning is slower to set up but is much less tiring and saves the legs for more trips.

Thanks for sharring...g

I bolded answers.

I do not think we are living on the edge. We are picking fairly safe slopes to ski and as the group leader my expectation from myself is to bring back everyone in one piece hopefully smiling but I would everyone have shitty days if it means we get to do it again on a better a day.

This is not easy stuff we are putting large amounts of works in to ski runs that require solid skills as well tons of energy to ski. Most people will not have the energy for it or the tolerance for the amount of messing around there can be. sometimes skinning is easy though and you ski untracked top to bottom with out messing around you do not get those awesome runs with out many screw up though.

[Liam]

Great video and skiing as always, Bush.    You and Your crew are something else.

I have a gear question for you.  Let's say you got stuck in bounds at stowe and had to spend the afternoon skiing the cut up remains of 36 inches of snow...not seamless strands of unbroken woodsy powder (sigh): Do you still want the Rockered Rossis as the go to ski?  I know, you'll always be willing to go the extra mile to sniff out the powder...but it's not always something I can do.  For instance...

Yesterday we had a nice 16 inch storm to play in (yeah!), but I was scraping in the woods by 10:30 to sniff out the remaining unbroken lines (people are so hungry for powder right now they were like a pack of snow-eating piranhas...usually we get a few more hours on a weekday to soak up the powder), and by noon, I was playing in the deeper cut up crud piles for the next 5 hours.  Which was fun, too,I was just wondering about fat rockers and how they handle the chowder as well the powder (I still use a now near three year old nomad sft..same as your boy Eric as my all purpose soft snow tool...might get something new this spring to play with as well).  Something about those Icelantic Gysies gets me dreaming.  That Walrus is boss.

[bushwacka]

The sickles and Nomad SFT have exactly the same dimension despite what the companies say. The Rossi are easier to ski in skied out places due to the rocker and being slightly stiffer.

The sickles are pretty good at skiing skied out runs its part of the reason I got them. With that said the skier being good at skiing skied out runs is more important than the skis being good.

with that said I do switch to "the ones" on days like today if I was skiing inbounds all day I did not ski inbounds one run today though. I use to have ski buddies with out touring gear, I no longer have those though.

[Liam]

If you don't mind the thread drift..for stowe BC-do you use an AT boot and dedicated AT bindings, or and Alpine boot with a hybrid (Marker Duke, etc) binding?  Or some other combination thereof?  What are these new binding your roommate Eric is using by Salomon?

[bushwacka]

We do not have the Salomon Guardian binding in our possession yet.

I personally use Dalbello kryptons with Dukes. Naxos and freerides suck for actually skiing on and there is alot of lateral play in them while new and they just get worse they also tend to prerelease alot. I owned Naxos and I hated them.  Dynafit are great but require a dynafit boot which I am still not happy with any out there. Even dalbello dynafit boot is to soft and does not have the adjust ability I would want. the tecnia sidecounty boots are not a cabrio design so I do not want them, the dynafit vulcan is the closest so far.



but it is not out yet. I really want to run dynafits dues to the lightness but untill that boot comes out all dynafit boot do not fit what I feel a boot should be like.

The thing about skiing stowe's sidecountry and backcountry is that most of the lines you are coming up to are like skiing in a resort in difficulty if not harder and you do not want a bendy flexible unresponsive setup for it.  there can due or die turns above cliffs/waterfall, places where your hoping turning and your traveling 15 foot each hop, and airs into dicey places. I do not trust anything but Dukes or dynafit personally.

[Gary]

Thanks BW...nicely responded to...

Great to see you're using ALL the gifts the good Lord has provided! 

Conditions continue to look amazing...enjoy.

We're headed for Banff next week with family friends...hoping to get some.

g