Winter Day 1

Winter came in with vengence this year.  I've been hearing the reports from Cali to Washington to Utah and so on over the past few days of some serious snowfall.  Yesterday I headed up to Loveland Basin with Nic Drago, Madison Ellsworth and Mike Casanova to see if the reports were true here in Colorado.  About half way up to the Eisenhower Tunnel the snow became nuclear.  Its was straight up pounding and it didn't stop all day.  It was hard riding the chair at Loveland looking down at all the pristine snow covered slopes that appeared more like February than October.  For the limited terrain that was open we found pow slashes, trees to bash, mini airs, and even a few rail features in the early-season park.  After double digit laps at Loveland we railed back to Breck because our homie Austin Julik-Heine had alerted us that we was in the process of setting up a jib over a river, and we should come shred and shoot it.  It turned out to be a really cool feature and we all ended up walking away with bangers.  Sometimes I have a hard time coming around to Winter.  It usually hits so early up here in Summit County and I'm always wanting a little bit more summer, or even fall for that matter.  After yesterday, I'm 100% stoked and Ready!  Bring it on....

A huge thanks goes out to John Sellers and Dustin Schaefer at Loveland for taking care of us!

SNOWBOARDER Magazine Volume 23 Issue 4

A few tear sheets from the new issue of SNOWBOARDER Magazine.  Kind of a lean issue for me, but I guess thats just how it goes sometimes....

Two ads from Collective...

SRT ACA Level 4

A week or so ago I went through a three day Swiftwater Rescue course through Colorado Mountain College and the American Canoe Association.  For all the time I've been spending on the river lately its pretty cool to have this knowledge.  However its like avalanche rescue skills, you hope you never have to use them....

Photos by our exceptional instructors, Roger and Billy.  Thanks guys!

The Dragon's Lair

It was early March and Alex Pashley from Dragon Optics pitched me an idea to do a trip to my cabin in Silverton, The Bonnie Belle Cabin.  He said that he was bringing one of his athletes from Australia, Tom Pelly and already had a story lined up for Australian & NZ Snowboarding Magazine.  All I had to do was come and shoot it and then write it.  Well it seemed like a no brainer to me, and I was there.  Along for the ride was of course Pashley, and Scotty Arnold, Zach Siebert, myself and fellow business partner and guide Skylar Holgate.  This was by and far one of my best trips of the year.  Epic shooting conditions, an unbelievable pow day of soul shredding, and some sick noboarding laps all in the comfort of my own zone and cabin.  And did I mention good friends?  Not sure how many hours I spent laughing on this trip, mostly at Scotty expense, but it had to be a lot.  Anyways peep the article below.  Enjoy....

Upper Colorado Float

The last week of September felt more like the last week of July.  Maybe this whole global warming thing is for real?  Well, I actually, like any person with half a brain know its getting warmer out there.  A lot of the time we don't see these "global warming" effects up here at 10,000ft in Breckenridge, or even down at 8,000ft here on this stretch of the Upper Colorado River.  However, this summer and fall was unseasonably hot!  This was my last float of the season (we'll see about that) and it was September 28th, but it really felt much more like July 28th.  I have to say I wasn't complaining too much.  We met some great people on the river and camped with them, which you could say is pretty typical.  They turned out to be a mix of musicians, construction peeps and the new owners of State Bridge, a live music venue that burned down a few years ago.  They are in the midsts of rebuilding it and decided that the nice weather and hard work had earned them a trip out on the river.  I couldn't have agreed more.  Good times and a great end of the summer.  I guess we can bring on the snow now....uhggg.  Yeah I'm still not quite ready.....

Franzen on ESPN

Franzen's story went live yesterday.  Really good piece that is well worth the read.  Check out the full story here.