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CultureCloser Look: Winter 2012 Cover
Closer Look: Winter 2012 Cover
Cover photo by Jeff CriccoPhotographer Jeff Cricco is based in Vail, Colorado, but he snapped the cover shot for Mountain‘s Winter 2012 issue far from home near Haines, Alaska. Cricco was on assignment with Denver, Colorado-based Level 1 Productions, shooting stills for their 2009 release, Refresh. To get this shot, Cricco set up on a ridge opposite an area known as Sexy Spines, and caught Wiley Miller in action. That was my second Alaska trip with Level 1 and our first time to Haines. It was an amazing trip. Wiley is a super confident kid, really comfortable doing…...
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CultureThe New Canadian Haute Route
The New Canadian Haute Route
Erica Laidlaw, Jeremy Benson, and Jeff Annetts topping out at the Lyell Hut. Heli-assisted backcountry skiing in the BC Interior. By Frederick Reimers | Photographs by Doug Marshall Descending from Diamond Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, I’m following our guide’s ski tracks because the air is so thick with falling snow they’re the only things visible. We’re 25 inches into a storm that’ll eventually deliver 80. Powder billows over my gloves as I slice downhill, but otherwise all I see is white. Suddenly, the tracks end. I stop, squint, and make out what appears to be a cliff. A muffled…...
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CultureOuch. That was a nasty crash.
Ouch. That was a nasty crash.
Please scroll to the bottom of the page for related video. One of the most talked about film segments from the current crop involves a horrific crash by freeskier Ian McIntosh. It’s captured in high-def in One for the Road from Teton Gravity Research. The Canadian broke his femur when a cliff jump went awry while shooting on location near Juneau, Alaska. Check out the video at the bottom of the page (that’s McIntosh at 1:25). And here’s what happened—in his words. My first moment of concern was right when I saw the crux on my last turn before I…...
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CultureSoloing Denali—in January
Soloing Denali—in January
Lonnie Dupre on Denali, January 2011. Courtesy photo What’s Denali like in January? Think negative 50 degrees—or colder—and winds at 100 miles per hour. But there’s a bright side: six whole hours of daylight. Most people would pass, but not Lonnie Dupre. “I’ve never cared for the heat or summer,” says the polar explorer. On December 21, he’ll embark on a climb via the West Buttress and attempt to become the first to notch a solo summit of the 20,320-foot peak in January. “It’s a personal challenge,” Dupre says, “and also a way to bring attention to the world’s…...
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CultureLife Turns
Life Turns
Max Mancini (left, in orange) with a Life Turns group. Photo by Jen SchumacherIn 2007, professional tele-skier Max Mancini was driving his truck with his pregnant girlfriend when he lost control of the vehicle and went into oncoming traffic. The ensuing accident left him alone in a hospital bed, his skull in pieces, brain filled with blood clots, and most damaging of all, his girlfriend and their unborn child didn’t survive the wreck. Mancini was devastated, and after the surgeries, the rehab, and the emotional and spiritual damage, he returned to the one thing that hadn’t been taken from…...
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CultureMountain Gift Guide
Mountain Gift Guide
Danner Boots, Portland, OR They cobble together an entire line of supple leather hiking boots that will last you a lifetime, but our art director swears by Danner’s Grouse Hunting Boots. Of course, he’s a grouse hunter, but the combination of full grain leather, Cordura, and Gore-Tex does make them worthy mountain boots no matter what your pursuit. With a leather lower and fabric upper, these Gore-Tex-lined boots don’t give you hot foot during warm hiking days, but still work well as the weather turns foul. Standing eight inches tall, they are a bit taller than most conventional hiking boots, which…...
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Culture
Talking With Nancy Greene Raine
Talking With Nancy Greene Raine
Skiing is the story of Nancy Greene Raine’s life. At three years old, she stepped into skis at Red Mountain, a resort in British Columbia where her parents helped to build the first chairlift. She competed at Olympics in Squaw Valley, Innsbruck, and Grenoble—bringing home gold and silver medals in alpine skiing from France. On a trip home to Red in 1968, Greene Raine won her second World Cup championship (she won the inaugural World Cup in 1967). Retirement from ski racing meant a second career in ski resort development, at Whistler Blackcomb until the mid-1990s, and…...
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CultureUpdate: To Link or Not to Link?
Update: To Link or Not to Link?
The proposed route of SkiLink, running from The Canyons in the northeast to Solitude in the southwest. Click on the map to see a larger image, and visit skilink.com for more information on the project. This story first appeared in the Mountain Logbook, our weekly email newsletter that delivers news, gear reviews, video tips, and more to your inbox. Sign up to receive it here. Many a chairlift conversation in Utah this winter will revolve around SkiLink, the proposed—and suddenly controversial—eight-person gondola connecting The Canyons in Park City to Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Last week, The Canyons…...
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CultureEarly Season Wake Up Call
Early Season Wake Up Call
Kent Scheler digs a pit to assess snowpack layers in The North Face’s “Know Boundaries” web series on avalanche safety. The rising fever of winter anticipation broke abruptly on November 13 with the death of pro skier Jamie Pierre. The father, husband, and new ambassador for Moonlight Basin in Montana triggered a slab avalanche while snowboarding at Utah’s Snowbird Resort. Pierre suffered fatal trauma after being swept 700 feet over rocky terrain. The ski area had not yet opened for the season. Pierre and a friend wereriding in uncontrolled, backcountry conditions. The Utah Avalanche Center reported 17 other avalanches on…...
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CultureChairlift Food Doesn’t Have to be Miserable Stuff
Chairlift Food Doesn’t Have to be Miserable Stuff
So here’s the deal on chairlift eating, gleaned from my years of reporting on sports nutrition and skiing through lunch. Those sugary gel blocks and gooey energy shots that provide instant power when you’re biking or running at high intensity are of little value when you’re at the ski area. It’s pretty simple really. When the body is at its aerobic limit, most of us just can’t stomach the fats and proteins of real food. And even if we can keep such food down, it doesn’t make much sense to divert energy to the digestive system when we should be…...
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CultureAccess The Goods
Access The Goods
Alaskan skiing pioneer and one-time extreme skier Dean Cummings stopped off in Boulder this week to talk about his heli-skiing operation, H20 Guides, his new film, The Steep Life, his traveling avalanche education program, Be Snow Smart, and his latest venture, a line of skis dubbed Access The Goods or ATG. We caught up with Cummings at a coffee shop—though he doesn’t seem to need caffeine as it is. One moment he’s shuffling coffee cups and press materials to build a working model of an avalanche slope complete with safety zones, the next, he’s running to the car for a…...
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CultureMountain’s Early Winter Cover
Mountain’s Early Winter Cover
The lone skier silhouetted against the sun on the cover of Mountain‘s Early Winter issue prompts more questions than answers: Is it the end of the day, or dawn patrol? Where is he headed? Photographer Adam Clark puts a few of those questions to rest below. The pages behind Clark’s photo offer more answers about the gear, resorts, and news shaping the season ahead. That “extra chubby” line at the top isn’t just cute copy—this is our biggest issue yet, chock full of photography and storytelling to inspire your adventures this winter. Click on the cover image (left) for…...
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BikeAngel Fire Freezes Over
Angel Fire Freezes Over
Snowy conditions added an unpredictable element to the USA Cycling collegiate nationals. Photo by Jonathan DevichEight inches of snow greeted Paul Mayes at the USA Cycling collegiate national championships at Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico on Halloween weekend. Angel Fire typically offers some of the nicest (if largely unknown) mountain biking in the West—even this late in the season. But an early storm made the downhill track look like a vertical cyclo-cross course. The conditions put an unpredictable spin on the event, with slick, snowy courses and frozen ground that thawed to mud. “The downhill course was pretty…...
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Culture
Down with the Dams
Down with the Dams
Three hundred outdoorsy people are gathered in a tent at Wet Planet, a whitewater outfitter in south-central Washington. Their eyes are turned a live video feed from the Condit Dam, several miles downstream on the White Salmon River. An alarm sounds. An engineer shouts “Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!” A volley of explosions follows, then a puff of white smoke. A roiling black cloud of silt and water bursts through a breach in the dam. The Condit Dam began operations in 1913. But it’s not coming down because it was failing. Federal relicensing in the…...
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CultureSurfs Up in Tahoe
Surfs Up in Tahoe
Brennan Lagasse surfing Lake Tahoe. Photo by Ryan SalmFor surfers living in Lake Tahoe, getting up on a wave can mean a trek to the California coast. But there are days—usually in advance of a winter storm—when high winds bring surf to the lake. This happened last week, and surfers clad in wetsuits paddled out from Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista, and Incline Village to session the waves. “It was as good as Tahoe gets,” says Scott Gaffney, who was out for two hours. “The water was still relatively warm, and that combo is a unique thing.” Gaffney says there…...
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Culture
Closer Look: First Descents
Closer Look: First Descents
Cheers echoed through Boulder Canyon on a sunny morning in late September. Ropes fell from cliff tops, and first timers roped in, using rubber soles to smear the rock and pulling themselves higher, one hold at a time. A group of about 20—campers, a nurse, guides, counselors—craned their necks to follow the progress of others up the rock. First Descents brought the group together to teach 15 campers how to rock climb. They were all between 18 and 39 years old, and they were all cancer survivors. Some had been in remission for years; one had just finished her…...
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CultureA New Plan for the Ski Industry
A New Plan for the Ski Industry
Members of the MRA pick a line on Manitoba Mountain, Alaska. Photo by Tom WinterFounded in 2010, the Mountain Rider’s Alliance is a company focused on building ski areas owned and operated by skiers and riders. That’s not all: Founder Jamie Schectman wants these mountains to produce their own energy, create jobs, and access great terrain. It may sound too good to be true—but Shectman and the MRA are in the process of making it happen at Manitoba Mountain in Alaska. Pick up a copy of Early Winter for more on that project, and keep reading for more from Schectman…...
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CultureLooking Further
Looking Further
Forrest Shearer talks Further in Denver last week. Photo by Johnny GreenhamA preview of the Jeremy Jones snowboarding film Further, slated for release in 2012, brought a crowd to Denver’s Patagonia store last Wednesday night. Snowboarder Forrest Shearer—who also appeared in Deeper, Jones’s first human-powered snowboarding film—introduced the Teton Gravity Research trailer and two webisodes filmed in Japan and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Watch the Further trailer here, and it’s pretty obvious that the boundaries of backcountry adventure will be pushed once more next fall. In Japan, high winds and sketchy weather conditions challenged the TGR crew. In Wyoming, Jimmy…...
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