[ak] underground - [P]Al Lande

Our Pal, Alan Lande, waving to the camera on a recent visit to the Achenbach zone.

PAL is a Whistler O.G., and is still charging!

TR

Yeti sighting...

As seen on ESPN...

FYi- Britt Berg,

M.C./O.G. for the Mount Baker Banked Slalom this past weekend.

y.e.t.i.

TR

[ak] underground - Jeff Pensiero

Jeff is the owner/operator of Baldface Lodge. Kind of a hippie-cowboy-sledneck-snowboarder/rural business owner. My kind of peepl! Always great fun to hang with JP...

Peepl and their pets tend to share the same characteristics...

Alvie & Jeff Pensiero.

Have you been to Baldface yet?

Call JP direct at (250)354-7927, tell him FYi sent you, and he'll give you a discount.

TR

Baldface snow report

Latest infomercial from JP..

TR

Baldface 2010 - the yeti returns

Once again, Palmer and Alison West hosted the team Yeti session at Baldface. Pyrotechnics were toned down this year, although JP is still stressing damage to the sauna from an OC Yeti attack. Fortunately we were the only group at the time, so JP didn't have to spend time apologizing to other guests (or shooting them with his potato gun).

Despite some instability in the snowpack, we had great conditions, and found great lines throughout the trip!

Another epic session, and great time had by all. Props to Palmer for pulling this crew together every year!

More baldface highlights to surface in another post at a later date.

TR

Pemberton snow report

Shred report from Dave Basterrechea:

Dec. 1st 7a.m.

Sunrise.

The 1st day going out sledding is always a bit hectic. There seems to be so many things you could have done all summer to your snowmobile but never got around to it. Next thing you know the weather lines up and its the first sunny day of the winter. I ended up going to bed late and only got 4 hours of sleep. I actually barely even slept because i was so stoked for the next day.

I dug a pit 8ft down all the way to the ground. The snow pack looked super solid.

We went over and played in the sun the rest of the day.

Chris Ankeny slashin' it, Noboard style.

Moonrise.

-DB

Snowvember 2009

November snow report from Jeff Pensiero...

Got Pow?

TR

[ak] underground - Kumiko Inaba

a.k.a., Qoo

FYi : Coolest girl in Japan

Stance : Normal

Ameblo : qooblog

Favorite late night snack : Rice crackers

Favorite place to ride : Hakkoda, Aomori Japan

Going sideways since : 1994

Lifestyle in a nutshell : urban-mountain-fashionista-tranformer..

Our good friend Kumi is a bit like us; one foot in snowboarding, one foot in outdoor, and another foot in urban fashion all at the same time. Qoo spent 14 years with Burton Japan. She learned the backcountry riding with Craig Kelly and John Buffery.

Today she works at fragment design with Hiroshi Fujiwara. fragment defines Tokyo street culture, with work spanning product design, music, graphic design and more. We get to work with Kumi on both AK457, and the F.S.F. urban project, as both fragment design and FYi design are working together on both projects.

qoo & hf

qoo @ burton

qoo @ baldface

qoo curving

qoo climbing

qoo & sanna

qoo & sune

qoo @ montoak

FYi

The qoo-post.

TR

Whistler Blackcomb

142 cm in 48 hrs... it's on!

TR

TGR - deeper

The next level.

Although the riders get all the glory, it's the filmers that are most core...

Garry Pendygrasse was glacier camping on location for 27 days straight(!)

while hauling 50lbs+ of extra camera gear via splitboard.

Check out the behind-the-scenes on Garry's blog.

TR

Cross Country Snowboarding

East coast backcountry.

TR

Cheetah Factory Racing

Check the CFR sledneck infomercial..

http://cheetahfactoryracing.com/

TR

AK

BEFORE

Well, summer is quickly coming to an end, and it's time to start thinking & planning this winters projects. My good friend Bill Buchbauer just sent these AK dream shots last week as inspiration to put together a crew, and plan a trip to Haines Alaska. Bill and I did a spicy glacier camping trip together in Haines back in 2001. Now Bill is earning his guiding cert. at SEABA (Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures) and spending the whole winter in Haines.

AFTER

Time to start dreaming BIG.

TR

[ak] underground - Shunsuke Hoshino

[ak] underground - Narufumi Yoshimura

Another member of the [ak] Japowder Posse;

Naru-san is based in Niigata Japan.

TR

NEVERLAND

Remember when snowboard videos used to suck?

TR

Mount Currie

Mount Currie rises directly above Pemberton, and is only accessible by helicopter or by a seriously ambitious boot pack straight up the face. There are about 5 good lines that are ridable at certain times of the year.  Ironically, out of all the trips I've taken over the years - Currie is the biggest vertical drop I've ever done; It's about 7500 vert. ft. / 2,200 vert. meters, and with most of that over 45 degrees, it's one of the steepest continuous descents in North America.

Can you spot the rideable lines? You can scope those lines in more detail on the FYI contact page. Both of the diagonal couloir's just lookers left of center are good to go, as well as the 'Y' / dogleg lines to the right of center. No matter where you've been before, Currie is a special descent on a good day. It's too gnarly for heli-ski outfits to drop clients on Currie. You have to assemble a solid group and charter your own helicopter directly. You get dropped off, and you are on your own. Just you and your friends..  There is no pick-up, you ride it out all the way to the valley floor.

This was my initial introduction to Pemberton, and still just represents the tip of the iceberg with respect to the backcountry terrain in the area. 

TR

Big Wave Surfing.

This is one of my favorite snowboarding pics. This shot was taken a couple years back. That's my bro Kevin Smith out in front, with me following in the Yellow. Kev is the guy who first introduced me to Pemberton back in about 2000, with a spicy heli drop on Mount Currie. This photo was Kev's first heli drop after breaking his neck in a summer lake accident. He was initially paralyzed, and had a long, slow and difficult recovery to get back to this day. We found this huge windlip wave about halfway down, and hit it tandem. Our mutual bro, Chris Ankeny nailed the shot.

TR