CU is contacting the students studying abroad and is awaiting more information following a massive earthquake.
CU Independent

Just over 2 years ago I was living in the very pretty but rather flat and benign world of West Sussex. After 18 months spent playing in the Canadian Rockies, the Highlands of Scotland and the Himalayas I now find myself permanently based in the French Alps and the village of Samoens in the Grand Massif.

The route to get here has taken me far and high but on reflection it always had a clear goal and direction: to head towards the mountains and always in the pursuit of adventure. I’m no Edmund Hillary or Kenton Cool but I do remember coming to Samoens in the early part of 2009 on a climbing course and leaving having acquired the knowledge of one fundamental fact right in the pit of my stomach – that I wanted more of this environment and how happy it made me feel.

I had no idea of what shape this would take but was pretty sure that if I started with only this one goal in mind, that the rest of life would inevitably play out the way it was meant to. By combining fate and free will, I knew that I was simultaneously taking control of my own destiny and in so doing would be embarking upon a journey into the unknown: in itself the essence of true adventure.

So now I find myself living in an adventure playground surrounded by mountains, cliffs and crags all affording me the opportunity to ski, climb, trek, and play outside to my heart’s content. My bloke is made from similar stuff and we have been extremely fortunate to stumble upon the coolest little apartment from which to base our outdoor life together.

You would think I’d be doing some pretty big self congratulatory thwacks on my own back right now. Job well done girl wouldn’t you say? Except I’m not. Far from it. My head should be full of fluffy powdery thoughts and my heart brimming with a sense of completeness. Instead it is rather more occupied with the overwhelmingly negative internal dialogue of I’m not a good enough skier, I’ll never be a good climber, I don’t know anything about the mountains, and basically that I’m crap.

I should know better of course. Everything that I’ve learned over the past couple of years was founded on the basis of the importance of doing your own thing driven only by that what makes sense to you. For the past 18 months I have literally taken on the role of international ambassador for the ‘beat to the sound of your own drum and you will fulfill your own purpose on this planet’ campaign and so it is extremely frustrating for me to see how easy it still is to lose any sense of inner stability when change and new things flood into one’s life.

I know that I am fortunate in so much that I can see what is going on inside and am aware of my pattern but somehow this makes the whole situation even more exhausting as it doesn’t stop me engaging with the negativity, especially when I’m hungry, tired or worse, hungry and tired. Being aware doesn’t seem to be enough to stop the relentless progress of the self flagellation express.

What has happened of course is that I’m now pitching myself in the world that I live in but am not yet a part of. I mean literally everyone around me at the moment is either a pro rock climber, mountain guide, ski guru or professional yeti. I could retreat right now and submit to the nonsense that my head is spewing out on a daily basis but that is never going to happen.

I am not a victim and I choose right now to use this as a tool for inspiration, motivation, and confirmation that I’m doing what I love. The lesson is startlingly clear: if anything in life makes you feel an extremely strong emotion, whatever it is, you should use it as an inner compass.

If viewed in this way, any emotion can then be seen in a positive light and as the most powerful inner tool steering you towards what you uniquely need from the world around you. It works in normal every day life for pretty much anything. Fore example, jealousy in relationships means that there is something missing from the connection that needs to be worked on. In this case, my feeling just a little bit useless can be translated into the fact that I want to be better than I am at the things that I love. And the only way to do that is to get out amongst it more often. Right, where’s my skis…….

Homeboy Ski Blog

World Business: The European ski season is nearly upon us, but the recession has hit the industry hard. Visitor numbers were down last season, while running costs rose. So many resorts have been looking to additional revenue streams in the off season, to offset the drop in winter income. Reporter: Chris Bockman Duration : 0:4:33 [...]
Snowboard And Ski Gear

The days leading up to the trip weren’t exactly showing promise and it wasn’t like the Sawtooths got dumped on while we were there, but  somehow we got lucky. Lets back up a bit first. This fall I sent out a bunch of emails to people who I thought might be into a backcountry powderskate trip outside of Stanley Idaho in the Sawtooth National Forrest. We worked the calender around a bit until we found a weekend that fit everyone’s schedule then set the date, February 10-13. With the prediction of la nina it seemed we couldn’t go wrong and with the strong start of winter it felt like we were in the money. While many parts of the west were having great winters though, the central Idaho area wasn’t. There were reports of boiler plate slabs and depressed skies all over the sun valley/stanley area and it seemed like the trip might be a bust. I really had zero expectations and would have postponed if any of the original invitees would have pulled out.

Thankfully no one did and the van was loaded and departed form Sandpoint with Eric, Cole, Jordan and Katie.

Its about a 9 hr drive from my place so thursday was dedicated to the highway. We had people coming from Logan Ut, Boise Id, southern California and Hood River  for a total of ten powderskater/surfers and one telemarker.

Here’s a shot of the available quiver for the weekend. With the questionable snow people bought all their options.

Early Friday morning we got the sleds warmed up and a short recon from the cabin, which is located on Fisher Creek.  I had the topos for the area and had explored in the summer but had no idea what it had to offer with respect to powderskating. There had been a pretty big fire about 3 summers ago so my hope was that the tree riding or better yet, snag riding would be fun.

A short sled ride from the cabin put us in a great location for exploring.

The snow was looking soft and the higher we got the better it got.

After the first few runs our below average expectations evaporated. The snow was great and we had three days to do as much damage as we could.

On our last day we spent the first part of the morning riding each others boards on this really fun cornice. In the background you can see the bowls that we spent most of our time in.

Jeff built a jump with no run in right off the bat, then had people fling him at it. He stuck it and ripped turns to the bottom.

Jeremy was next with a shovit.

There were plenty of boards to choose from.

We rode hard the whole trip and it was amazing. The sun wasn’t even suppose to be shinning on Sunday so all of it felt like a gift.

It was hard to take but the weekend had to come to an end sometime.

We had the cameras rolling quite a bit, and Jeremy is a pro so I expect to see some great action photos from this trip. Lets just say a certain picture triggered remotely by the rider(Jeremy) is most definitely a cover shot and will blow some minds.

I did some amature video editing of the weekend for you all to enjoy. Its a download and plays on quick time. Should only take a few minutes to load, just hit the red skate the sawtooths link below.

Skate the Sawtooths

1. Find my boots in the basement.  They are somewhere behind the bike wheels, spare tires, rags, boxes of powdered drink mixes and camping gear.  somewhere.
2. Try them on and call my bootfitter if I need to.  It’s always easier to get work done in November than the week before Christmas.
3. Find some skis, get the bindings set, wax ‘em, tune them.  We left our skis in pretty good shape after our late Spring Utah trip last year, but I also picked up a new pair and we have a bit of switching around to do.
4. Find poles.  Seems these are easy to forget the first trip of the season.
5. Dig out all the clothes, wash with TechWash, order new mittens and any layers I anticipate needing.  Particularly important this year because I lost some weight.  I know many of my pants don’t fit.  Hopefully the ones I bought in the spring on SteepAndCheap.com will!
6. Touch base with our mountain’s training and ski school directors.  I have some goals for the season.  If I let them in on it, often they can help me by providing assignments that further my goals.
7. Email our PSIA-E dev. team coach.  See #6.  I’ll ski with Matt at our upcoming training anyway, but always good to start the conversation early and let him mull things over.
8. Reconnect with a few people I met out on the road last year who were looking for specific guidance this year in their ski teaching and training.
9. Catch up on my PSIA SnowPro and 32 Degrees reading.  And tech manual review.  And start looking at some video while I’m on the stationary bike in the basement. 
10. Review last year’s notes from trainings, understudies, and clinics I led at the home mountain.  In truth, I’ve already done some of this and am starting to brainstorm how I can improve my teaching.  I was out on the road bike the other day thinking about how to get new instructors to coach movements more effectively and, in particular, how to demonstrate to them in a concrete way the differences between instruction and coaching.
11. Flip through the latest toy guide and read a couple game reviews.  Yeah, I don’t have kids.  But I get to teach them and I’m not exactly in the same movie demographic as they are.  Can’t really expect a 6 year old to connect with me over the latest chick flick.
12. Wait.  I’m really not a patient person.

Diva Ski Tips

Michael Bird, executive producer for Birdhaus Productions, is making strides to tell the story of Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood through his documentary “Jazz and Five Points.”
CU Independent

What are the characteristics of good skiing required to meet or exceed the PSIA level II standard?

Diva Ski Tips

Check out this cool event held in Tamokdalen, Norway, from 3rd to 5th December 2010.

HBS writer and friend of ours Jarkko Henttonen is one of the organisers behind the event, as well the local skier/snowboarder/guide Aadne Olsrud.

A bit more info from the events site:

Tamok Reel Ride is a gathering for action sports enthusiast that takes place in Tamok mountains and village of Øverbygd in Troms from 3rd till 5th December 2010. The festival is open for all interested in skiing, snowboarding, climbing, B.A.S.E jumping or other such action sports and especially movies showcasing these sports. The festival has two elements: hiking and riding in the Tamok mountains during the daytime and movies in the Øverbygd cinema, not forgetting aprés-ski in the local Café Brenneriet.

More info on the event site: http://www.reelride.no/index.html

If you wonder what is Tamokdalen and where it is, here is some more data from their own site:

Tamok is a mountainous area in the municipality of Balsfjord in Troms in northern Norway. The highest peak is close to 1600 m, in all there is 5 1500 m peaks and several dozen 1000+ m tops. Tamok valley, which splits the area in roughly two halfs, has it´s floor roughly 200-250 m above sea level. Because of it´s height the valley and mountains above it are quite snow secure, and usually it´s possible to ride from October to June.

Tamok valley has a road through it, and it is the best place to reach the Tamok mountains. The northern end of the Tamok road (road number 87) joins highway E6/E8 10 kilometers east of Nordkjosbotn, and 10 kilometres south from Oteren if you come from north..

Øverbygd is a small village in the Målselv valley, just south of Tamok, in the municipality of Målselv. Road 87 leads to Øverbygd both from north and west.

So, if you happen to be around go check it out! And I guess in this case “around” might as well mean the whole Scandinavia (or even broader area) – it is well worth the over 1000 km drive…(or you can take a flight to Tromsø city anyway).

If you want to know how the skiing is there, check this clip from Norwegian Missing Link productions. The clip includes Fred Syversen’s massive ski crash we wrote about in May, and lots of nice mountain faces and chutes around Tamokdalen.

Homeboy Ski Blog

Here’s a shot of a new sub I’m working on. Its 145 cm and as you can see by the sidecut this should be a good match.  The tails a bit wacky too if you haven’t already noticed but so far the test runs have been engaging. I know the camber looks crazy, I’m sure your wondering where I came up with that and all I can say is “who knows??”

Anyways check it out, let me know what you think in the comments section.

Despite not having any skiers win individual events in the Nordic races, a strong team performance by the Colorado ski team secured another meet victory.
CU Independent