Winter is back... again!

Last weekend brought Utah more snow.  I’m happy for many reasons that the season has finally kicked in.  It’s nice to get the turns in now.  Plus, it means less drought this summer. Win win.  

This is my favorite drop in Rock Gardens.  You creep out into the rock face that is skiers left of the main chute.  Then you get this lined up.  It’s about an 8-10’ drop into a mini chite that then dumps into the main chute.  I was able to chomp off on it twice with no other tracks around.

16" of Freshies for Presidents Day 2018

Edan and I woke early to get up the canyon before it was too late.  With the increasing traffic at Brighton, this means leaving Salt Lake no later than 7:30.  We did and the snow was fresh. 

**Please excuse the Dad editing skills

Evergreen Shred

At least here in Utah, the snow has been sparse.  Brighton stands at about 160” for the year with the Milly bowl yet to open.  With the lack of snow, a bunch of rock features are exposed making for a unique terrain park.  Yesterday we got about 2" of fresh and ended up lapping Evergreen the whole day.  He are a few friends of the farm sending it.

Edan Fletcher about to be pummeled, while John Blume looks onward.  Some how he came down to his feet, but didn't ride it out.

Eli Hays high speeding off a rock bump

Corinne Pasela sending off a block of ice.

Restarted

Over Thanksgiving Ben Farrell and I met up with the rest of our family on Cape Cod.  It was a special gathering as I met his son Wendall (Wendy).  I sense much adventure in him, kind of like his dad.  Yesterday I took a few runs with Torrey and we chatted Ravens and Animal Farm for a minute.  Maybe it is time to restart this blog.  I miss seeing my friends (we live in different places) and this blog helps keep us together.  I hope everyone's season's start with a pow bang.  -Rich

Torrey Lyons FULL PART!!!!!!

Torrey Lyons from John Blume on Vimeo.

Just found this and it is gold! Nice job Torrey you da you da best.

Living Room Resort

Psycho Limbo

Lock, Stock and Two Alpine Snowboards (Russian Extreme Slalom) from DoctorFilm on Vimeo.

Sled hill snowball ollie. Ramp building skills from Jayne and Marisa.

A day in the backcountry

I ventured into the backcountry with new farmer John Blume yesterday. We found bowls, chutes, cliffs and even jumps. It is really incredible to be able to access places like this so close to our doorstep. We lead privileged lives. This day we filmed my first ever "big mountain" line. It was scary and exciting. I hope yesterday's adventure leads to more of this kind of boarding in my future.


 

Wolverine Cirque from the top of Milly


 

Corontosa Peak, this is where the line was


  

 John Blume III, one of the many talented Animal Farm Lensemen


 

Me turning my back to Alta


 

 Looking into the line


  

 Next on the list- Three Chute

Paul Nelson back again!

Took a trip to Alpine Valley again with my buddy Paul who used to ride Bristol with us during the RIT days. 7 years away and he's still got it!!

Read This Farmers!

Dearest Farmers,

I don't know who still keeps up on this thing. I probably check it more than most since I am marooned in Chicago with icy rope-tow parks and very few boarding buddies. I just finished reading this NYT article Snow Fall (click here!) about an avalanche in Stevens Pass that killed three people. Everyone in the group was better than and more experienced than we are. If you have an hour to spare I would highly recommend reading it, and if you don't have that long you can watch the mini-documentary that was made to accompany the article here (click!). I hope to be boarding with all of you well into our later years, and this article has made me promise myself that if I end up living somewhere with backcountry access in the future, then I will take steps to be more careful and educated.

Can't wait til 2020.

-Josh

P.S. The Bens, call me and let me know what your situation is in Baker, I want to come!

Fist day at the Buff

Finally made it out to the old Raging Buffalo yesterday. Took a couple pictures of the set up. As usual it was more fun than I anticipated when I arrived.

Bone Zone the Movie

Good memories here! Torrey got really good shots, and Lucey with the backy! I've still only ridden one day, the midwest sucks a big one (sorry midwest pride people).

Bone Zone 2012 Full Movie from Snowboarder Magazine on Vimeo.

Foreground Props

Mustico with some foreground props in Airblaster's Single Cork...

Pages Keep Turnin'.

I've been swimming in fields of upstate New York for nearly a year now. Working on an apprenticeship with Sacred Seed Farm. It looks looks like this:

Winter winds blew out the heat wave that graced my second to last day in the fields. Ole man winter stopped by the following day. As the seas are rolling thick these days, so will I. Bound for Mt. Baker, and as their snow report reads this morning, "With 80 inches of snowfall in the past 7 days and over 160 inches of snow so far this winter, things are STACKING UP AT BAKER. Our snowbase of 99 inches is the DEEPEST FOR DECEMBER 6 since our World Record Year of 98-99. That means we currently have the deepest early December snowfall in 14 years" Sounds like it could be a nice winter.

FDOH Midwest: Alpine Valley

It was 70 degrees and sunny today in Chicago, and the city seemed to smell like feet everywhere I went. Maybe it really is the end of the world in a few weeks. In any case, I made it out to Alpine Valley this past weekend before the warm weather hit (even though it was 55 on hill). Here is a picture and a few screengrabs of girlfriend filmed videos.

Looking like tip-top conditions.

First attempt at some sort of maneuver, not successful.

Rebate?

They had like zero snow so the only thing in the park were super wobbly rails like 4 feet off the snow. I stuck to the greens that had all kinds of fun snow chunks and side hits.

Animal Farm on eBay

Was just surfing ebay and saw this board for sale. Good taste in stickers.

Pow Day at the Rail Gardens

Last week was an awesome way to kick off the season in Utah.  The mountains received 4', while the valley received up to 12" in many places!  We decided to get out and play in it.

Torrey

We'll See from WhatCoast on Vimeo.

Snow Craft, Episode 1

The video isn't even embeddable but I'm just going to put up a link because it's so fucking good. Part 1 of a three part documentary series on people who shape and build their own snowboards:

SNOW CRAFT EPISODE 1: LOCAL INNOVATION