The background:
I've been snowboarding east coast since I could walk. I didn't have a ton of money growing up, and my parents didn't care too much for me sending it big, considering they wanted to see me survive childhood (in their minds). After years of living in NYC, with the mountains far away, and the urge to go somewhere, I jumped on my first out-west trip to Utah last year. I did snowbird for 3 days, Park city for 1, and Snowbasin for 1. It was an incredibly eye opening experience as to what I could actually do with the right terrain and opportunity. Day one of snowbird I was feeling comfortable and had rode the more difficult double blacks with relative ease. By day two we had done (2) hour-long hikes on some seriously steep terrain / sketchy chutes with fresh pow, and got dumped out on the rode afterward where we hitch-hiked back to the resort. Really couldn't have asked for anything better. I discovered that I liked hiking, exploring, and finding fresh tracks with sketchy terrain the most enjoyable.... and riding longggg pillowy glade runs was a close second.
Whistler
THIS YEAR, I hit a few local resorts and then my friends invited me out to Whistler, BC. After looking at the photos, the terrain, the hype.... I was really excited to go and take my riding even further. I had 3 days of riding planned for the long presidents day weekend.
There were basically 3 different weather patterns consistently changing; the bottom (raining), middle (crusty/mild weathered), top alpine (snowing/windy/overcast) The weather conditions shifted in mere minutes to a completely different experience multiple times throughout the day. You'd be having a great bluebird day, then a mist would roll in that would make visibility near impossible. A visibility so tough that if you looked down, you could barely see your feet to know what you were riding on, which made letting it loose a death wish. The snow conditions were mostly dust on crust, and in the steeps it got very icy. This Resort would be great on a pow day, but if you don't get freshies then the entire Resort feels like a constant frustration / struggle. this experience made me reconsider how I plan my trips, rather doing them a few weeks out, planning a trip the weekend of or around storms to make sure I don't get there and I'm riding pure garbage. not sure if there is a perfected strategy to doing this or a resource that can help.
I also didn't realize how important hiking and the ability to choose my line really meant to me, after being somewhat spoiled in park city and snowbird. The freedom I had there didn't translate over to my Blackcomb. When you come up to the top of the mountain, you see all these gnarly peaks, and then you find out that these areas are all permanently closed, with passes revoked if you are caught riding them. Whereas snowbird was just "rider discretion or open/closed dependant on avey danger." I found this a real bummer that there was such a vast amount of inbounds territory that was completely off limits to me. There was extreme couloir and spankeys ladder and few bowls that I lapped all three days. However, the total ALPINE experience seemed really small for me personally, despite there being so much visible space to ride. There just wasn't that much trouble I could get into, it felt very self contained, safe, and kind of castrated the mountainous hard-on I had when I looked around. I hired a private guide for day3 to take us to the gnarly spots, and find us cool shit, which was a 6/10 experience considering I had already found all the stuff he showed me the prior days, and the conditions weren't complying in the new spots. Not to say you can't push the limits inside bounds, which I did, but there is something inside me that pushes me to the backcountry gates, and the literal boundary edges of what's safe or ridable, and that's simply where I prefer to be and all how I want to use my time.
What's next?
Day two after looking out on the horizon at the top of the mountain, and pointing across at some insane chutes and powdery terrain, I said "that's the shit I want to do." My friend chuckled and said, you'll need a splitboard, skins, and avey gear.
After having returned yesterday and feeling kind of blue-ballsed from the experience, I'm thinking that he's right, and that I should get a dedicated backcountry setup and search out trips that can satisfy me.
I'm now looking for some advice on what I should be doing. I don't want to ride with a ceiling, I want the option to go as big / steep / fast as I want. So the question is, what do I have to buy, and what can I rent? What do I have to do? and Where do I have to go? Any tips or help considering where I'm at now so that I can get to the next level would be much appreciated.
I've been snowboarding east coast since I could walk. I didn't have a ton of money growing up, and my parents didn't care too much for me sending it big, considering they wanted to see me survive childhood (in their minds). After years of living in NYC, with the mountains far away, and the urge to go somewhere, I jumped on my first out-west trip to Utah last year. I did snowbird for 3 days, Park city for 1, and Snowbasin for 1. It was an incredibly eye opening experience as to what I could actually do with the right terrain and opportunity. Day one of snowbird I was feeling comfortable and had rode the more difficult double blacks with relative ease. By day two we had done (2) hour-long hikes on some seriously steep terrain / sketchy chutes with fresh pow, and got dumped out on the rode afterward where we hitch-hiked back to the resort. Really couldn't have asked for anything better. I discovered that I liked hiking, exploring, and finding fresh tracks with sketchy terrain the most enjoyable.... and riding longggg pillowy glade runs was a close second.
Whistler
THIS YEAR, I hit a few local resorts and then my friends invited me out to Whistler, BC. After looking at the photos, the terrain, the hype.... I was really excited to go and take my riding even further. I had 3 days of riding planned for the long presidents day weekend.
There were basically 3 different weather patterns consistently changing; the bottom (raining), middle (crusty/mild weathered), top alpine (snowing/windy/overcast) The weather conditions shifted in mere minutes to a completely different experience multiple times throughout the day. You'd be having a great bluebird day, then a mist would roll in that would make visibility near impossible. A visibility so tough that if you looked down, you could barely see your feet to know what you were riding on, which made letting it loose a death wish. The snow conditions were mostly dust on crust, and in the steeps it got very icy. This Resort would be great on a pow day, but if you don't get freshies then the entire Resort feels like a constant frustration / struggle. this experience made me reconsider how I plan my trips, rather doing them a few weeks out, planning a trip the weekend of or around storms to make sure I don't get there and I'm riding pure garbage. not sure if there is a perfected strategy to doing this or a resource that can help.
I also didn't realize how important hiking and the ability to choose my line really meant to me, after being somewhat spoiled in park city and snowbird. The freedom I had there didn't translate over to my Blackcomb. When you come up to the top of the mountain, you see all these gnarly peaks, and then you find out that these areas are all permanently closed, with passes revoked if you are caught riding them. Whereas snowbird was just "rider discretion or open/closed dependant on avey danger." I found this a real bummer that there was such a vast amount of inbounds territory that was completely off limits to me. There was extreme couloir and spankeys ladder and few bowls that I lapped all three days. However, the total ALPINE experience seemed really small for me personally, despite there being so much visible space to ride. There just wasn't that much trouble I could get into, it felt very self contained, safe, and kind of castrated the mountainous hard-on I had when I looked around. I hired a private guide for day3 to take us to the gnarly spots, and find us cool shit, which was a 6/10 experience considering I had already found all the stuff he showed me the prior days, and the conditions weren't complying in the new spots. Not to say you can't push the limits inside bounds, which I did, but there is something inside me that pushes me to the backcountry gates, and the literal boundary edges of what's safe or ridable, and that's simply where I prefer to be and all how I want to use my time.
What's next?
Day two after looking out on the horizon at the top of the mountain, and pointing across at some insane chutes and powdery terrain, I said "that's the shit I want to do." My friend chuckled and said, you'll need a splitboard, skins, and avey gear.
After having returned yesterday and feeling kind of blue-ballsed from the experience, I'm thinking that he's right, and that I should get a dedicated backcountry setup and search out trips that can satisfy me.
I'm now looking for some advice on what I should be doing. I don't want to ride with a ceiling, I want the option to go as big / steep / fast as I want. So the question is, what do I have to buy, and what can I rent? What do I have to do? and Where do I have to go? Any tips or help considering where I'm at now so that I can get to the next level would be much appreciated.