TR: Bro Trip 2013 - DrnknZag & Crew Does ColoRADo
 

At this point in our lives, my former PNW crew is spread out across North America: I'm still in Seattle, Sean in Toronto, Dave and Devo in Boston. Once a year we get together for a week of bro-ing down and getting our shred on. This year for our third annual Bro Trip, we decided on Colorado.

The whole idea of the trip revolved around a trip to Silverton. Along the way we added a few resort days near Summit County, and Killclimbz invited us for a tour of Berthoud Pass as well. Anyway, here's how it went down.

We started with two resort days, one at Vail and one at Breckenridge. We spent the day at Vail hiking/traversing out to some side country in the back bowls in search of fresh powder. This was my third day at Vail in the past few years, I've really come to enjoy it. Probably my favorite resort in Colorado.

The next day at Breck was an unexpected pow day. They reported 9" overnight, but there was easily 16"-18"+ at the top of Chair 6. Solid day of riding deep Colorado pow.

Now on the to meat & potatoes of this TR: splitboarding at Berthoud Pass. Killclimbz was nice enough to invite us out and show us around his playground. It was an awesome day, completely blue bird right after a series of storms. On to the pics......

Getting ready in the warming hut (left to right....me, Dave, Devo, & Gary).
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0e236e12.jpg

Gary pointing out the goods on our first ascent.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps20c917e7.jpg

Still getting used to two planks.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps906ff076.jpg

Apparently this is how you get rides back to the top.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdf624c7d.jpg

Most of the crew (me, Dave, & Devo).
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdf365c15.jpg

Taking in the scenery on our second ascent.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps189ec512.jpg

Could almost use this pic as an advertizement for Mystery Ranch.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps090e1d87.jpg

Obligatory "Wish You Were Here" pic.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...12391fad-1.jpg

Looking down the Diving Board, so many pow slashes to be had.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3d501dd7.jpg

<continued on next post>

Diving board.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps87b103f9.jpg

Looking at the main objective of the day from a ways out: Corner Pocket (chute running from the top left).
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps8aed2a96.jpg

Almost there.....elevation was definitely starting to get to me here.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1a0d4323.jpg

Scoping from above.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...psee671372.jpg

Stoke face, engage (courtesy of killclimbz).
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps19ee4698.jpg

Claiming the line.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps88c678fa.jpg

And claiming the rock that owned me at the bottom.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd12611cd.jpg

Completed tuckered out at the end of the day.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps204164f5.jpg

Overall, it was one of my absolute favorite days I've ever been on a snowboard. Beautiful weather, amazing snow, epic terrain, and an awesome crew. Huge thanks (again) to Killclimbz for taking us out there. Gary also took a ton of AWESOME pics as well, hopefully he'll post a few in the thread as well.

Now on to Silverton.

Unfortunately, Silverton had gotten some seriously high temperatures in the couple days before we headed down to the San Juans. This made for some extremely variable snow conditions. Good pow in some places up high, very interesting conditions further down towards the run outs. The terrain was so crazy. The hiking was incredibly tough, even after spending a few days at elevation. We were dead by the end of the day. The craziest part of the day was rappelling down a crazy steep chute, as it was the only way out of the zone we were in. Never had to do that before. Here are the pics....

Silverton chair, early morning.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc0f24d70.jpg

First hike of the day.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1caf2e28.jpg

Gnarly terrain all around.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps338f2fb5.jpg

Our first run of the day started to the left of the highest point of this peak.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9900c989.jpg

Devo, the lone two planker on this trip.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1d08c18e.jpg

Almost AK style mountains.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf1d23f11.jpg

About dying on this hike.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb115e50d.jpg

Bus ride on the Silverton Mountain Correctional Facility bus.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9e03171b.jpg

Overall, I was a little bit disappointed with Silverton. I've heard rumors of "powder farming" at Silverton, and we definitely experienced this. Kind of a bummer because it takes all the creativity out of your line. Basically stay within 3' of the previous line, otherwise your guide would be pissed. Still glad we went, and we did have an awesome time.

Bro Trip 2013 was a total success.

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing.

Whats your thoughts on the splitboard?

My specific splitboard, or splitboarding in general?

fucking sweet.

Holy shit that is awesome

Both :thumbsup:

I'm completely sold on splitboarding after the awesome experience at Berthoud. It's so much fun and I love getting away from it all and working for my turns. It's a whole different experience than resort riding and I love it.

My split is a DIY Ride Slackcountry. It's a lot of fun in powder. With as much rocker as it has, it can be difficult in more firm conditions and on slicker firmer skin tracks. Overall though it's great.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...C6D07AD955.jpg

what is that pictured on the right of your splitboard?