The Wild West (Side)

By:  Greg
January 17, 2010


I just got back from my western trip, and to be honest: it didn’t really snow a whole lot. I managed to pick a string of days in which downtown Burlington outperformed Little Cottonwood Canyon. How often does that happen? Oh well. I can’t complain about low avalanche conditions! More on that trip later when I can get my thoughts organized after that whirlwind tour.

In the meantime, to clear my head after a long stretch on the road, KC and I decided to head over to Bretton Woods where we heard that their backcountry terrain was filling in really well this year. We rolled into the parking lot at the crack of 9am, checked in with patrol at the bottom of the tram, exited through the gate…

…and headed out into what is undoubtedly the best backcountry of any ski mountain on the east.

The frost had been doing interesting things as we passed 3000 feet.
Frost on a branch

Uh-oh-undercast!

Get the camera ready…

Someone got the choice line already. Shucks… we’ll just have to keep pushing on and hope plan B is still fresh.

Guess the name of hut in the clouds.

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Read about the author:   Greg
Enjoy this TR? Read another: TR: Slackfest 2010 — A(nother) Trifecta

Related Stuff:

  1. TR: The Wild West (Side)
  2. SPA Trip #6: Run Out of Ammo in the Wild West

22 Comments

  1. Harvey44
    wrote on January 17th, 2010 at 9:53 pm  
    1

    Greg – Hard to tell if you are a better skier or photog.

    It’s cool when it just you two …then all the pics are of KC. :)

    Sweet pics. Keep on Chooglin.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  2. Joanne
    wrote on January 17th, 2010 at 10:01 pm  
    2

    Thanks for the update on the BC @ BW. Found plenty of untracked snow in some of glades in the BW BC on Friday… West side definitely has the snow this year.

    Nice frost show BTW!

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  3. Toph
    wrote on January 17th, 2010 at 10:41 pm  
    3

    WTF how the hell have I never heard of this until I saw your pics on t4t forums, where do you exit BW to get to this?

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Skimtwashington
      wrote on January 17th, 2010 at 11:11 pm  
      4

      you’re missing the ‘joke’ ….

    • Toph
      wrote on January 19th, 2010 at 8:33 pm  
      5

      I must have

    • Greg
      wrote on January 20th, 2010 at 10:14 am  
      6

      Toph: email me from my profile page if you want the scoop. Sorry, but there is a bit of a joke going on here… In the tradition of keeping favorite backcountry destinations loosely guarded by a veil of “locational misinterpretations” and “faux treasure maps” (see some of our old Trip Reports–especially President’s Weekend in Shambala or Valhalla Wood), I included a few vague and awkward description of our locale. This isn’t necessarily to throw everyone off–on the contrary, I’m generally open to meeting and skiing with anyone at my favorite backcountry spots, and furthermore hope that the avid backcountry skier might be able to read between the lines of this report and use it as quality beta–but is instead intended to prevent search engines from finding, indexing and classifying information about backcountry locales and thereby make the information too easily accessible to too wide an audience.

  4. Skimtwashington
    wrote on January 17th, 2010 at 11:00 pm  
    7

    Soo…….A snowcat towed you in to the trailhead or something… Otherwise, I’d commend you for the long approach into the base ..Hmmmnn….

    Great Pics as always, Greg. You’re the Ansel Adams of MW and BC skiing! Best BC ‘stimulus package’ and report in a long while on MW frosting report at TFT.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • MadPatSki
      wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 12:02 am  
      8

      Ansel Adams? He’s the 21th Century reincarnation of Winston Pote.

  5. Porter
    wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 11:38 am  
    9

    Looks more like mild, than wild. Boy, I remember stopping a slide for life on the wild west side. That rime ice sure looks to provide excellent schussing conditions.

    Make sure KC holds that camera too.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 11:55 am  
      10

      Also, there certainly wasn’t any sarcasm in this TR ;)… had to respond!

    • K_C
      wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 2:47 pm  
      11

      Greg carried the camera the entire chairlift ride and he wanted to take most of the photos so I didn’t argue :)

  6. Skimtwashington
    wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 2:36 pm  
    12

    Still think a few here are curious about the your trip ‘start’….and finish ,Greg….sure you’ll keep us guessing!

    Winston Pote would be be geographically a better reference but not as well known as Ansel by the readers, MadPat.

    I noticed some additional pics today. Any more to add Greg?

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 2:39 pm  
      13

      I thought it was pretty clear! We legally left and re-entered the resort through the gates ;)

      That’s all I believe for the photos. It’s nice to have your own website you can edit whenever you feel like :D

    • Skimtwashington
      wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 3:06 pm  
      14

      I’m gonna revert back to the snowmobile theory ’till I can figure it out( thinking:..car shuttle east and West? helicopter?..plowed rd because of some work near Peppersass ‘studio’?…Lost in Space jet packs?…. )

      West side in winter…ahhhh! Upper scrub tree skiing, ravines, brooks, ice bulges, and even Peppersass’s old ‘run’. What’s that hut called? Ski My Roof Hut! Yes. what a nice alternative to east side…and ya can ski Bretton Woods once you come back in bounds. Bretton Woods: Our Off Piste makes other areas Piste Off!

      Honestly, greg…. I almost never meet women at the top of snow filled gullys..

      thanks again for all the pics.

  7. MICKY O
    wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 3:03 pm  
    15

    haha funny stuff and some great photography. The shot with the skis in the foreground and skier in the background is amazing.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 3:51 pm  
      16

      oh shoot, that was KC’s picture. I’ll need to edit the copyright!

    • K_C
      wrote on January 18th, 2010 at 4:48 pm  
      17

      You best fix that G, stop trying to steal my chance at a cover shot. That photo is a physical manifestation of what I planned in my incredibly creative mind, the placement of my skis in the foreground was NOT an accident.

  8. Ben
    wrote on January 19th, 2010 at 12:02 am  
    18

    Welcome back to the east coast! Some pretty amazing shots there…

    I just got back from a 5 day trip in the, errr, extended sugarloaf BC this evening. I’ll try to get a TR up in the next couple days, but the skiing did not suck up there either…

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  9. chris
    wrote on January 22nd, 2010 at 4:03 pm  
    19

    very funny stuff, what’s even funnier is how most people have nooo idea where this is, even with all the hints and if you look at the pics there are big time giveaway’s!!! Greg your a funny Dude! Keep on goofing and skiing

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  10. Pennie Rand
    wrote on January 31st, 2010 at 6:47 am  
    20

    These are amazing photos!! The one with the red skis in the foregrounds gives the pic great depth. And the B&W with the clouds rolling over the top of the ridge is spectacular! You have a special eye…not only for photography but good ski lines too! Keep at it.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  11. Peter
    wrote on February 1st, 2010 at 8:59 am  
    21

    meh.

    everyone knows the only good backcountry in New England is at Jay Peak.

    ;)

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • K_C
      wrote on May 1st, 2010 at 6:59 am  
      22

      SHHHHH!!! It’s Bolton!

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