Lochsa River rafting carnage #2

Last year I posted a link to a great rafting carnage video from the Lochsa, which is in Idaho, just over the hill from Missoula. The same fine folks, Lochsa Info have put togther another great video this year. I need to get over there and get in my kayak.



The flow is on!

New waterfall record in a kayak, 186 feet

In March, Brazilian Pedro Oliveira ran a 127-foot falls in Brazil breaking Tyler Bradt’s former 107-foot record (alexandra falls, NWT canada). There was huge media coverage worldwide about Olivia’s record. While most people imagined this record would stay for a very long time, Tyler Bradt just ran the 186 ft (nearly 60-meter) Palouse Falls in Washington State, smashing Olivia’s record by 59 ft!!!

Looks like Sports Illustrated took down their video, so the new one can be found here >>> http://kayakwaterfalls.com/

Crazy street riding - Danny Macaskill

A friend recently sent this video to me off of youtube. This guy makes me feel like an old lady on a tricycle. But seriously, this guy Danny Macaskill is flat out impressive and insanely skilled at what he does. Some of the clips that really impressed me are at 3:05 and 4:30. Enjoy.



Filmed over the period of a few months in and around Edinburgh by Dave Sowerby, this video of Inspired Bicycles team rider Danny MacAskill (more info at www.dannymacaskill.com) features probably the best collection of street/street trials riding ever seen. There's some huge riding, but also some of the most technically difficult and imaginative lines you will ever see. Without a doubt, this video pushes the envelope of what is perceived as possible on a trials bike.

Flipped on Lochsa Falls

On Sunday we loaded up a cataraft and a 15 foot raft and headed over to the Lochsa. Leaving Missoula we knew might not have the best weather, but it was better than moping around waiting for it to get better. The catraft would be leading the way with my buddy at the oars of the raft that my buddy and I would be in. Our rower had been down the Lochsa quite a few times but never actually "in charge". So going into it we knew might be getting a little more wet than the rain.

Flows were around the 3 foot range which is a good intro level for the Lochsa. A drizzle at the put in and 45 degrees, we pushed off. All the rapids leading up Lochsa Falls were run clean. We followed the line of the cat raft, dug in hard to get over the falls wave. The next thing you know, we were going over. The raft ended up pretty much in the eddy right below the wave, so we didn't have to swim too far. I somehow ended up with both paddles luckily. We righted the raft and jumped back in.

No matter the weather, its always good times on the Lochsa. These pictures were taken by Rapid Action Photography. And as you can see by the quality, I was too cheap to pay for the prints. You get the picture of what happened to us at Lochsa Falls.

Texts from Last Night

This would be the part where this blog changes seasons and possibly shape/form/taste. After yesterday's rafting trip down the Lochsa with a few buddies, I think I am finally relinquishing my skis. There is a chance I may get out a couple more times, but for the most part I am ready for water and warm weather.

So in that name, I bring you this tasteless and mindless humor. There is some funny shit in on this site if you have a few minutes to browse it. It really makes me want to bone up on my texting skills and start surprising people with my telephonic funniness.

www.textsfromlastnight.com

Here's a sample of some of the goods I found:

(662): I scissor kicked a one legged man last night.
(662): He was trying to put me in handcuffs.
(1-662): You have my attention.

--------------------------
(301): I'm sorry my penis didn't work

---------------------------
(217): I'm trashed wearing your mom's snuggie. She says hello.

---------------------------
(517): I thought I drunk dialed Adam last night and left him a voicemail. I just checked my phone. I realize I left a drunk voicemail with my son's teacher.

---------------------------

Wildlife Photos from 93N Camera Monitoring (Ravalli Hill)

These photos came throught on an email the other day and thought they were pretty impressive. Especially the one with the 2 mountain lions walking side by side. The photos are from a motion activated camera monitoring critters using one of the wildlife crossings installed on the improved Highway 93 by Ravalli, north of Arlee. Arlee is about 20 miles north of Missoula, MT.

The tunnels effectiveness were researched by UM biology Professor Kerry Foresman. You can read more about the research here. The tunnels have also been installed on Hwy 93 south of Missoula.

Hanging on the edge - sketchy ski plane "landing"

I thought this was pretty impressive. A guy over on the TGR boards posted this thread and took this great picture. He was out flying somewhere near Talkeetna, Alaska (I believe) when he took this picture from the air.



If you look closely you can see the plane on the left, holy crap. The story as near I can tell goes something like this:

"these guys are way fucking lucky, they had intentions of skiing, but messed up the landing big time...Coming from the direction that they did, you land on a fairly steep incline and it kind of rolls over to the edge of this cliff, and as the picture shows, you cant really see the edge until it is too late, the plane is held there by the wing in the snow and one ski....A good stiff wind (like the one blowing last night) would send this thing 4,000ft straight down the cliff to the bottom...I still cant think of how they got out of there without tipping that thing off the mountain.....The pilot actually crawled back in the plane and radioed for help, this is just outside of town so a helo was dispatched pretty quickly..."

Freedom Riders

While I'm not quite sure my brain is fully accepting the fact that winter is over, I can say that I am ready for some warm weather. The forecast is calling for near 70 temps in Missoula by Sunday. Lower elevation trails are drying out for riding. My first mtb ride was last week up the Sentinel trail. I'll need to get my biking muscles back before I can truly enjoy it.

Anyway, I ran across this over at the backcountry.com blog, The Goat. KGB Productions is premiering their new mountain bike film, Freedom Riders, tonight at Sea Otter. It’s a true story of a core group of riders who formed an against-all-odds relationship with the Forest Service and created the first freeride specific trails on public lands in the lower 48.


HD High Def Freeride Mountain Bike Movie DVD Trailer from Freedom Riders The Movie Freerid on Vimeo.

Surpise attack - The Canyons

Last week we seized the day and made a last minute trip to The Canyons down in Utah. T's sister was taking her family on a spring break ski trip at The Canyons. Turns out it's much cheaper and easier for that matter to get from FL to UT rather than MT. Without her knowing we loaded up the babies, lots of gear, put in a DVD to distract the kids and headed out. Dry roads meant smooth sailing for the eight hours down I-15.

We arrived and tried to figure a way to surprise everyone. After all was said and done, my nephew was floored when we answered a knock at the door and found 2 little cuties standing at the door. T and I got a day to ski together with our nephew and we sampled some great snow. The Canyons had rec'd 11" the day before, 5" the day we skied and 5" more the second day we skied. It's a different world skiing swanky 6 pack high speed lifts when you are used to 30 year old slow ass Riblet chairlifts (see Snowbowl).

The second day I met up with a local shredder and got the ultimate tour of The Canyons. We headed up the hike off the 9990 chair and skied some great snow on the four runs we did. I had a binding malfunction on my 8 year old Fritchi Freerides on the first slackcountry run, so the rest of the day I busted crud on the Pro's.



Thanks to everyone! Thanks M and T, Toby, T, and Black Diamond for great customer service.

Slednecks highmarking set off huge avalanche

I came across this crazy video of a sledneck making a insanely stupid highmark somewhere in Canada. I'm not sure of the outcome, but it appears that he made it out. Watching the 'bilers at the bottom beating feet out of there is kind of comical in a scary sort of way. One thing I am sure of, that guys pants are stained with brown.

Massive crown in Gulmarg, India

Holy balls. I stumbled across this image which was taken at Gulmarg, India. From what I can tell they recently had a pretty big storm.

This puppy let'er rip. I couldn't find many details, only that it was a 18 foot crown! Not sure on whether it was natural or done under control work. But all I can say is, WTF?

Gulmarg came onto my petty little radar about a year ago. I think the Euros probably have been going there for quite a while longer.

If you haven't heard of Gulmarg before, here's a few links etc to get started. Myself? I'm doing some research and am thinking that this trip is in order, sometime in the near future. There is something really cool to me about traveling to a 3rd world setting and shredding some pow.

Who's in?

Info/beta

The Line of Control <<<< href="http://www.gulmarg.org/">Gulmarg.org

Ski Himalaya

Gulmarg facts

Lets go.........Matt, Steve and Nate I'm talking to you!

Full Tilt boots

Huh, maybe I've been asleep at the wheel, I 'm really not sure. This boot company slipped by me, probably somewhere along the line while I was worried more about where my daughter's snuggie was.

Anyway, my buddy Sammy just sent over a link to me to the Full Tilt website (see http://www.fulltiltboots.com) where these guys are putting out some sweet looking boots. As many remember Raichle was pretty damn popular, cult status to many. I however, have never experienced the supposed luxury of these boots personally. Perhaps after the Technica's give out, I'll give'm a whirl.

Full Tilt boots managed to get the coveted rights to the old Raichle Flexon, even though Dalbello's been making the Krypton boot for a few years. The new Full Tilt boots are exactly like the old Flexons with only a couple changes (mainly the liners been upgraded with more modern material). Full Tilt actually acquired the original Flexon mold.

Yurtski yurt trip

This year myself and 3 other buddies reserved the Yurtski yurt up in the Swans for the third year in a row. It seems to becoming an annual tradition, one we all look forward to. The yurt sits at about 6900 feet and very close to great skiing. The peaks and ridges around yurt top out at 8100 feet with most runs being in the 800' vert range.

We have been pretty fortunate each year we've been on the snow conditions. In 2007, the snow was great too, check out this video from that year. The 2008-09 winter in W. Montana has been a bit hit or miss this year, but we timed this trip pretty good. After a long dry spell, we arrived at the yurt with sunny skies. They morphed into a pretty constant snowfall for the next 4 days, nothing huge but enough to soften things up.

Two of us got into the yurt at about noon the first day and wasted no time getting out to sample the goods. A friend of ours had the yurt for the previous 5 days, so he lined us out on where the good skiing was. He also had a keg of beer which we did our best to help lighten the load for the ride down.

The next 3 days were pretty fricking nice. Each morning we'd wake and cook damn good breakfasts (sorry Nate for having to cook on your birthday) and get right after it. Most of the ski time was spent off the backside in the dark north trees. The sun hardly touches this snow, so its always consistent. Avalanche danger was moderate, but the south slopes were very sun affected with a nasty crust on it.

I put together a little video from the trip. Bear with it, there is not a lot of variety just good mellow tree pow. Like I said we spent a lot of time in the trees where the snow was good and the visiblity managable. Enjoy


Dark Force from O.P.I. on Vimeo.

March powdah

This last week has been filled with some highs and lows. But mostly highs, especially today's 16" of fresh March powder. Mid last week I got a call from some friends that were headed to Alaska Rendezvous Lodge outside of Valdez, Alaska. Turns out a couple that was going with them cancelled, thus losing their very $ deposit. It looked like I might be able to "use" their lost deposit. I scrambled at the chance, looking at last minute flights etc. I had even contemplated renting a car in Anchorage and driving the 5 hours to Valdez and then possibly sleeping in the car, existing on bar food-- all just to keep it $omewhat reasonable. Well, in the end I realized that I was not a doctor or dentist, only a lowly fireman that should probably just stick with the local Montana backcountry, at least until I win the lottery. Enter today...

Storm warnings had been issued and we finalized the logistics for the day. I met up with a buddy in the Bitterroot and we headed south. White curtains pushed hard against the peaks surrounding the valley. Huge flakes dropped out of the sky and we made slow time going up the pass. Did I say huge? We contemplated parking out on the highway, the lot was looking a little too deep. But alas, a quick bit of courage showed us the way and we unloaded the sleds. Finally, winter was back. It seemed like it had been too long.

Off the backside, we delightfully devoured deep deliciousness. Upon parking the sleds there was about 8" new. The skies continued to dump all day long, with the wind helping to fill in our skintrack on each run. By the time we got back to the truck, 8 more big ones had stacked up. Sixteen inches of March powder followed by Bitterroot Brewing IPA, come on. Does winter need to end?

**Slideshow, if you don't have Flash you may only see a white box below

Proposed Avalanche Danger Scale Survey‏

If you have a few minutes and care about avalanche forecasting, take a look at this email from the West Central MT Avalanche Center:

This morning I posted a link to a survey that asks specific questions
regarding the current and proposed language in the Avalanche Danger Scale
used in the US and Canada. A group of avalanche forecasters met last fall
and basically agreed to the change (with some tweaking) which you'll see
within the survey. This survey is a focus test of the proposed scale. It
takes about 15 minutes, is kind of fun and is your chance to weigh in on
the avalanche danger scale. You'll also have a chance to win a prize!

Here's the link:

http://surveys.globalepanel.com/wix/p319164581.aspx

Thanks!  Give me or Dudley a call if you have any questions regarding this.

Steve Karkanen
Director
West Central Montana Avalanche Center