K2 Dispatch: Monarch Mountain
With X Games and the SIA tradeshow behind us, the K2 crew assembled at Monarch Mountain, CO. Reggie and Zach Crist, Bryce Phillips, Luke Miller, and Shea Flynn, joined members of our K2 crew for a few days of filming and playing on the new skis from the 2010-11 K2 collection.
Tuesday at Monarch was awesome with blue sky and fresh snow buffing out the upper ridge lines. Monarch’s cat skiing area extends beyond the resort, offering above-alpine laps ranging from wide open and smooth steeps, to craggy chutes and trees.
Wednesday’s highlight came when we were nearly closing up shop on a solid day of shooting. Bryce scouts out a solid 35 ft rock, with a marginal landing. From the bottom we were unsure on the outcome, but before we could debate his air selection, he rolls out a perfect laid out back and shuts up the peanut gallery.
We closed out the day by rolling down to the Crist brothers’ party on wheels; a F450 truck pulling a state-of-the-art Airstream trailer. With the help of First Ascent and Airstream, the Crists modified the rig to serve as the ultimate ski-base on wheels. Space to sleep four, a roll-out PA, hatchback ski-garage complete with full tuning station, the whole setup drew a crowd at Monarch, so we kicked up the tunes and celebrated a solid day in Colorado.
Next up we’ll have 2009 X Games Slopestyle Champion Anna Segal, Sean Decker, Shea Flynn, and one of the youngest groms on the K2 team, Birk Irving ripping the park at Monarch.
Roman 1st edit helmet cam_contour hd
here the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjUKVIMVXVU&feature=fvsr
Japan – confirming the myth
Just came home from a great couple of weeks in Japan. Having never been to this place much written about and pictured in the ski media in the later years I wanted to go over there myself to experience it and see if the snow was as deep as I’d been told.
That did not take very long:
Hokkaido, the northern of the major Japanese Islands, gets huge amounts of snow, making resorts such as most famous Niseko a 100% bet for powder, at least in December and January when the average number of dry days are about zero. My skis were lost in transition and I feared I’d be riding on rental gear the first day. Luckily, or actually because of some years experience of air travel with ski gear, I had carried the boots in my hand all the way from Scandinavia and actually found a kind local who would lend me his Hellbents on one of the deepest powder days I have ever experienced – probably just another average ski day for him though.
Following my friend and maker of Signatures, a pure Niseko back country pow movie, Nick Waggoner, on the first run lap beside the bottom lift the myth was confirmed. Immediately everything that I had heard about the Japanese powder was recognized as indisputable truths, as I unconciously opened my mouth to let out a scream of joy and had my instantly filled with snow. I have skied a lot of good snow, and some really deep powder in my life, but nothing like this. It is not about faceshots, but air shots. The stream of snow over your head is constant, except for the valuable, short moments when you are lucky enough to pop over the surface for a breath of air and adjusting your direction between the trees.
Obviously it is not always exactly like that, even in Niseko, as the snow quickly settles after a day on the ground, but it definitely stayed soft. After cruising the hill and the slackcountry for some days, we were lucky enough to get on a cat and into some really fun minigolf terrain with lots of stuff to take air off of and even some short pillow lines. Lots of flat landings, yes, but who cares when it is bottomless?
Japan is awesome, that was concluded already on the first run as told, but also the food – sushi especially, the toilets – with heated seats and more, and the onsens – hotsprings, are part of making your ski trip to Japan unforgettable. The terrain on Hokkaido is in general quite mellow though, at least that where the ski areas are located, and our trip had another purpose; to check out the Japan Alps on the main Island and make an article obout the skiing there for Norrona Magazine. This is to be published at the start of next season. I can tell you now that we did not find the same kind of snow, but nevertheless the trip there was maybe even more memorable. Check the Norrona Blog for more about that.
Face to face with the Japan Alps. photo: JM Øvervoll / Norrøna Magazine
- See you on the mountain!
Torkel “Torky” Karoliussen, K2 Adventure Team telemarker
Gipfeltour Hochpustertal
Wer kennt das nicht. Man träumt und fährt um diese Jahreszeit von 50 cm Powder mit witzigen tree-runs im dichten Schneefall, um manchmal noch den ersten blue bird Tag mitzunehmen, von dem man noch mehrere Tage zehrt. Die Realität sieht momentan anders aus was den Schnee betrifft und ich ertappe mich faul zu werden. Also greife ich kurz entschlossen zum Hörer und melde mich bei meinem Kumpel und Weltklasse-Mountainbiker Roland Stauder in Niederdorf/Sexten zum Beine vertreten an.
Nach 2 Stunden Fahrt sammle ich Roli in Niederdorf ein und wir steuern unseren Ausgangspunkt zum ersten Gipfel, den 2840m hohen Dürrenstein an. Es ist knusprig kalt und keine Wolke am Himmel. 1400hm Aufstieg liegen vor uns und Roli geht es wie immer sehr gemütlich im Plaudertempo an, welches bei Normals schnell zur Schnappatmung führt. Es geht in einem schattigen Tal mit lichtem Baumbestand die ersten 600hm mäßig bergan. Die Szenerie wechselt schon bald in hochalpines Gelände. Somit wird es auch steiler und ich merke wie die Hangabtriebskraft immer mehr an meinem Rucksack zieht. Zum Glück habe ich den schwereren Coomba im Auto gelassen und auf meine Allzweckwaffe Mt. Baker vertraut. Roli (wieso hab ich dem nicht den schweren Ski gegeben?!), der hier bekannt ist wie Hansi Hinterseer in Kitzbühel muss bei fast jedem überholten Tourengeher einen kurzen Plausch halten. Gut für mich, ich kann mir wieder einige Meter Luft verschaffen.
Die letzten 400hm legt man in einem gewaltigen Kar zurück. Leider hat eine riesige Nassschneelawine vor einigen Tagen das gesamte Kar durchspült, was die Abfahrtsmöglichkeiten sehr einschränkt.
In Gipfelnähe eröffnen sich dem geschulten Auge des Geländeskifahrers viele interessante Möglichkeiten von kurzen, steilen und zum Teil noch nie befahrenen Rinnen. Ich beschließe kurzerhand nochmals hierher kommen zu müssen um diese Aufgabe mit meinen Amigos anzugehen. Oben am Gipfel angelangt blickt man in die imposanten Bergkulissen der Drei Zinnen und der Trofana.
Roli eröffnet mir gleich das Programm für den Nachmittag und zeigt auf einen gegenüberliegenden Gipfel mit dem allseits beliebten Namen Rosskopf mit 2560m. Damit sich meine Anreise auch wirklich gelohnt hat, will ich dem Gastgeber seinen Wunsch nicht ausschlagen. Wobei das nur die halbe Wahrheit ist, denn ich will mich nicht schon nach einem Aufstieg geschlagen geben.
Nach kurzer Gipfelrast erfolgt die Abfahrt entlang der Aufstiegsspur. In den nordseitigen Hangausrichtungen findet man sogar etwas uralt Powder und einige Schwünge lang kann man es ordentlich paffen lassen. Mit dem erreichen der Baumgrenze geht es im kupiertem Gelände wieder zurück zum Auto. Damit die Systeme erst gar nicht wieder herunterfahren können, geht es sofort mit Skischuhen ins Auto (nicht empfehlenswert, aber möglich) und wir steuern ins nächste Seitental zum neuen Ausgangspunkt.
Mittlerweile ist es kurz nach 13 Uhr und es ist schon fast frühlingshaft warm geworden. Wir stellen das Auto auf etwa 1300m Seehöhe ab, um die ersten 600hm im mäßig steilen Wald zurückzulegen. Wir gelangen an ein Hochplateau mit einem typischen Südtiroler Gasthaus und mir schwebt mittlerweile eine Radlermass auf der Sonnenterasse vor. Roland zieht aber stoisch daran vorbei und doziert über die Möglichkeiten des Höhentrainings auf der angrenzenden Skatingloipe. Die lebende Langlauflegende Ole Einar Björndalen, der um die Ecke wohnt holt sich hier seinen letzten Schliff. Bei mir ist mittlerweile fast Schluss mit lustig und ich laufe schon auf Notstrom. Aber ich wollte es ja nicht anders.
Die letzten 300hm steigt man auf einer riesigen schiefen Ebene zum Gipfel auf. Der Schnee ist brutal windgepresst und harschig, was eine ambitionierte und wenig genussvolle Abfahrt erahnen lässt. Oben angekommen bin ich einmal mehr dem besonderen Charme der Dolomiten erlegen. Solch bizarre Felsformationen findet man eben nur hier.
Ich lasse den Blick schweifen und entdecke in allen Blickrichtungen spektakuläre Lines die offensichtlich auch mit schweren Freerideplanken zu erreichen sind. Kurzhand vereinbare ich mit Roli nochmals ein Guiding im Frühjahr. Man müsse nur noch den Rücktransport von den jeweiligen Routen mit einem Geländewagen organisieren. Das sollte aber nicht das Problem sein.
Kranjska Gora – BMW X1 Live Tour, powered by K2
Hey,
just got home from Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
Mike Hauser (Factory Am Team), Roman Rohrmoser (Backside Pro Team), Alex Walch (K2 Snowboard Teamrider) and myself (Dani) went there for this weekend. The BMW X1 Live Tour had a stop in Kranjska Gora, so we went there to ski a bit and do some action + interviews for TV crews.
People had the chance to go there, register, do a testdrive with the X1, and test K2 Skis.
We had a fun weekend in Slovenia!
Hochfügen (Zillertal) with Roman
Yesterday I spent another day skiing with Roman Rohrmoser, the weather was good so I brought my camera and took a few pictures, these ones turned out to be pretty good!
Make sure you check out his video with his new Contour HD helmet camera
Take care,
Dani
The end of Charly´s X-mas vacation…
Christmas and New Years was a quiet time for Charly, and he deserved it as being on the road over past 3 months was more than hard work – Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Germany – over 20.000km overall. But as soon as the new year started he got very restless, wanting to get out again.
So after calling everybody we know from La Grave to East Austria to find out where the good snow is to make Charly´s first trip in 2010 worthwhile we decided to head to Pontresina to visit some former K2 team members, Martina (K2 Snowboarding Women Alliance) and Anselm (K2 tech rep) Tscharner in their new home up on the Bernina pass.
After skiing Diavolezza one day with good (but windpacked) snow we went ice climbing in the canyon right in the middle of town at night, had a great dinner with some beers in the evening and did another ice fall the next day, but only after sorting out a small detail – after realizing that Charly´s fuel (diesel) was frozen due to minus 25°C during the night we were not able to get the car running, so we only had 2 options: either doing it Russian style and amking a fire under the tank (to scetchy…) or waiting for the sun to rise high enough to warm up the car. We choose the latter and after some hours in´the sun we were able to get going. Good to know that some gas stations do not sell winter diesel when it´s cold…
Charly at the Diavolezza parking lot
Coming down the backside and taking a railway line back to the lift
gear chaos in the back
Pz Palü background
Ice climbing
home sweet (and warm) home
A west coast powder chase
Just flew all the way over from Scandinavia to Seattle, WA, to get a taste of the far-famed west coast powder, but had to escape northeast to interior BC in order to get to the dry goods.
photo: Mikael Pilstrand shooting a couple of K2 Darkside bases grasping some air at Mt Baker
After seeing reports from a bunch of happy riders enjoying the good seasons start in Washington state and coastal BC I got on a plane together with Swedish photographer Mikael Pilstrand for this seasons first long haul ski trip. With the radar showing a big storm moving in from far out in the ocean we were optimistic but at the same time skeptical, as a metrological pasteurization of the mountains had been done in the mean time, turning all the pre-season powder into a solid layer of ice. Our man in Mt Baker, fellow K2 adventure team rider Adam U, went surfing and assured us the freezing cold water at west port would be about one thousand times more fun than the cold frozen water in the Cascades.
photo: This is what Adam U was seeing when getting out of his car and into his wetsuit (quite fast probably) not on the parking lot at Mt Baker this day
Neither myself nor Pilstrand being stragers to cold water and just as interrested in the blue as the white room, we were more than tempted to join Adam´s waiting game solution but after hearing rumors that Revelstoke Mountain Resort had survived the meltdown and was offering deep dry Canadian quality powder. After a 12 hr drive in snow storm conditions we were up to our knees in confirming the rumours, doing what we came across the big pond to do. Missed surf and fuel burning damage done to the environment all forgotten.
photo: The petroleum-for-pow program, support your local gas dealer in the fight for global warming!
photo: And ski as much pow as possible before it is all turned into liquid for ever!
Full of fresh optimism after some good days in Revelstoke´s awesome terrain we got back in the car and headed west to meet the storm that was plastering the Cascades with a new thick layer of softgoods, ignoring the obvious risk that it would be too warm again. Barely made it out of the gamble all right, winning one day of good but wet riding as well as good times staying and skiing with Adam, but putting in the long drive down there and realizing the best thing to do was getting right back into the car and straightlining from the Mt Baker parking lot to the one at Whitewater, BC. That drive however, was a secure investment and once again we were well compensated in Canadian currency. Whitewater is another BC source well-known for high return rates and we definitely did not feel any effects of the recession while we were there. I have been to a very limited number of ski resorts with a more chill atmosphere than here.
In this kind of conditions the frozen white version of H2O is just as good as the blue one to be roofed by.
Finally reality catched up with us and we had to discontinue the Adventure and get back to families and Holiday celebrations in Norway. However, getting to stop by the K2 Headquarters in Seattle was an obvious bonus as we were flying out of “Grunge City” the express way over Iceland straight from American burgers to traditional Scandinavian Christmas food in only 14 hours of inflight beers and movies.
Afterski at the K2 bar.
Happy New Powder Year fromTorkel “Torky” Karoliussen, K2 Adventure Team telemarker.
BMW X1 on the road!
Hello everybody,
After driving the BMW X1 for two weeks, I can honestly tell you: “It is the coolest car I have ever drove.” The X-Drive function is awesome. I never got stuck !
I took it to Arlberg, Obertauern, Zillervalley and many other steep and snow covered roads and it is not problem for the X1. Every ski area I have been to, people always want take picture of the BMW X1.
Check out some pics and also my homepage where you can follow my season and the X1 http://www.roman-rohrmoser.com/blog.html
X1 on 2000meter above see level
one of the good days 
Stoked to have the X-Drive system!
on the top
all pics by Lukas Scheiber thx bro
more pics and storys soon!
cheers roman
BackSide Telemarker Jani Johansén in the Polar Night
This time of the year the sun doesn´t rise at all above the Arctic Circle. So what does K2 BackSide skiers do. They go skiing.
Jani Johansén did some trekking in Tamok and Lyngen, North Norway. The sun went below the horizon in the end of November. It returns in mid January. The time between one can see fabulous colours in the nature: tender colours of pink and purple. The shadows are deep marine blue. The moon gives enough light so you don´t need a headlamp.
photos: Tomi Hurskainen
