Last week Reine and I took a trip over to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. For those of you who do not already know Mt. Washington is the tallest peak on the East coast at 6288 ft (1917 m). It is also located along the Appalachian trail that runs from Maine to Georgia and is Approx. 2181 mi (3510 km). On Mt. Washington you will find Tuckerman’s Ravine, which is probably the most popular backcountry ski spot in New England. Which still to this day sadly I have not skied only hiked up to. Anyways I thought it would be a good stop for Reine’s New England tour.

Info located at the trail head for Tuckerman's by Pinkham Notch

When we got up to Tucks there were a hand full of people skiing or riding enjoying one of the first nice spring days of the season. Although you can’t really tell from these pictures. I swear there were more out there. The hard core few that wanted to hike up with everything strapped to their packs. Although I did see one guy that made the majority of the trip hiking with his ski boots on up the dirt trail. He eventually made the switch to sneakers.

Reine and I decided to hike back down to the Lion Head trail and cut across on the Alpine Garden trail to Huntington Ravine.

looking down on Tuck's from the Lion Head trail

It was a pretty mellow hike once we hit the Alpine Garden trail. It cuts just below the summit of Mt. Washington.

When we finally arrived to the top entry to Huntington Ravine we encountered a family that had decided to turn around. They had said that the trail was too steep and they were having a hard time finding the trail. Reine went down just a bit to see if the trail really was as bad as they made it out to be. After a quick look we decided to go for it. It was kinda steep but not impossible.

Reine hiking down

looking back up at part of what we came down

As we got a little bit further down into the Ravine we did find it a little difficult to stay on the trail. Snow was covering some of the makers and from time to time we found ourselves on minor detours looking for the right direction. Eventually we made our way out of the ravine. The trail out had turned in to a stream from all the run off and we encountered a few crossings.

After eight hours of sightseeing and trail finding we had made our way back to the trail head. It was great to get up on Mt. Washington and explore some new areas that I had never seen before. I hope to one winter make it up there again and get some skiing in!

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After a fourth place finish in the Freeride World Tour finals in Verbier I was ready for some down time. My body had taken a bit of a beating from landing in Pettit’s bomb hole and some rest was in order. So I headed up north to Sweden!

Verbier Venue

It was my first to Sweden and I was pretty excited. It was also a chance to get to visit my good friend Marja Persson who was in rehab up there. She was injured at the Kirkwood comp the end of March and had finally made her way back to Sweden. It was great to see her progressing each time I saw her. Although, I know sometimes she might of disagreed with me, but she was.

I got my back checked out and discovered that I had a compressed disc. I was told I cold ski but was not allowed to jump. It was probably a good thing that I was not in Tahoe where it was dumping. Staying on the ground may have been a bit more difficult.

I got to see how the Swedes got so good at skiing by following them around at their hometown resort in Are, Sweden. While I was there I saw the Swedish Freestyle Nationals.

Easter weekend I took part in the Red Bull Home run. It took place a 5pm after all the lifts had closed on the resort. 300 people took part in a Chinese downhill down the entire mountain of Skutan in Are, Sweden. It was crazy, but so much fun. I’ll have video out of it shortly.
For photos of the event click here:
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Gallery/Red-Bull-Homerun–Putting-a-Spring-in-your-Step—-Winter-Sports-Photos—-Red-Bull-021243005181048

The following weekend I headed to Rodal, Norway for the last stop of the Freeride World Tour for the women and the Norwegian Championships. The weather had been pretty warm the last week leading up to the comp and a ton of snow had melted. The day one and day two venue had to be the same due to lack of snow on the other options.

Rodal Finals venue

It was a ton of fun even though snow was melting. I got to meet up with JT Holmes and Timmy Dutton. It was so good to see those guys again. Especially since English is their only language. They were in Norway for the comp and to do some base jumping, since Norway is a huge meca for that.

early morning crowd in Rodal day 1.

After day one I was in second place behind Janette Hargin, the 2011 World Champion. I wasn’t so concerned with the win as much as I was with making sure I stayed ahead of a few people. I was tied for 7th in the rankings with two other girls and I needed to make sure I placed ahead of them as well as the girl that was ranked 6th.  This comp was more strategy for me and when the finals day was done my strategy had paid off. I ended up in first place! On the podium for the first time this season. I was so happy to end the 2011 comp season with a victory!

This season has been a busy one. Traveling from contest to contest on the Freeride World Tour plus a few stops on the Freeskiing World Tour. I’ve traveled to some new places as well as some old. All though I didn’t end up on top the most exciting contest by far was the Red Bull Cold Rush. It took me a little out of my comfort zone on the slopestyle day but I had a so much fun with all the ladies and the guys. It was awesome to be part of such a great contest.

I’ve wanted to go to Silverton Colorado for years now and I couldn’t of asked for better weather or a more beautiful place to be. When I arrived I ran into Shelly Robertson in the Denver airport and we made the rest of the travel to Silverton, CO together. We arrived a few days before the contest and ended out helping out some of the crew dig out the jumps and prepare them for the slopestyle day.

The first day was big mountain day and I was so excited for this day. The venue looked amazing!

Unfortunatly the day didn’t go as planned and I ended up bailing on one of my main cliffs. It was pretty big and I was unsure I was at the right spot because of how big it appeared from the top. I spent the whole day hoping for a second run and to my disapointment the clouds and wind came in and run 2 was cancelled.

Slopestyle day was a good time. I spun a huge three on my last hit and went down pretty hard. I opted to not take my second run cause of a minor injury to my thigh. I wanted to make sure I’d be good to go for day three, cliffs!

Heli rides for day 1 and day 3! I can’t complain at all. Unfortunatly I never got the front seat

We got to scope out the cliffs venue from across the way. It looked like fun but I knew what I wanted to do and was a little nervous.

I heard that Sean Pettit and Richard Permin where planing to hit the same cliff I was. I had a feeling Richard wasn’t going to first run but Sean was for sure. I heard at the top that he had sent a huge three and stomped it. I decided to stick to my plan and just go to the side of his tracks to avoid his bomb hole. I was so nervous on the way day, I’m pretty sure I skied like shit. I had hit cliffs that size before I just didn’t want to flail and explode. I went for it, and did a damn spread again, ha! I think I’m going to make spreads cool again. When I landed I nailed Petit’s bomb hole, and it felt like my spine shifted. I came to a complete stop for a second and skied away. It would of been much better if I avoided his bomb hole. And once again the impact took me out for the second run. But it was such a blast and the rest of the ladies killed it!

It’s February 23 and I just arrived back home in Tahoe for the night. I’ve been traveling the since January 12th and it’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride. I guess I’ll start at beginning. It’s the morning of the day before I head to Europe and my new Kastle’s are still en route. Holiday season and tons of new snow does not make for timely deliveries, but we did get dumped on in Tahoe so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining.

2:30 pm on the 11th of January and my boxes of new skis have arrived! Immediately I head to Elite Feet up at The Village at Northstar where my good friend Keith was kind enough to mount three pairs of skis for me on the spot.

4:30 pm last minute packing for a month long trip to Europe. Yes, you might say I procrastinate a bit.

6:00 pm head to reno and pick up any last minute items, and enjoy dinner with my good friend Danielle. Finding time for my Tahoe friends in the winter is so hard sometimes. I miss them.

January 13th Travel day! Reno to Geneva -

Two smooth flights, one plane malfunction and two lost bags.

I arrive in Geneva early in the morning and my bags are missing. For some reason they are in Frankfurt even though Frankfurt was never a connection for me. Oh well, I have a few hours til Angel Collinson arrives and then my bags. Ha ha, after waiting at arrivals for a good hour after Angel’s flight came we get in touch via facebook. Apparently there is a French and a Swiss side. I was on the Swiss and of course Angel was on the French side.

The next flight from Frankfurt comes in and my bags are no where in sight. Not only are they not there, all of a sudden they have no idea where they are. After nagging the baggage ladies for hours I decide I’m going to check every flight from Frankfurt. Finally eight hours later they arrive!

7:00 pm shuttle to Chamonix with Angel

9:00 pm meet up with Trey Cook from the FWT who was nice enough to let me crash at his place for the night. My housing in La Clusaz didn’t start til the following night.

9:00 am Meet up with some of the Swedish ladies in Cham for a ride to La Clusaz for the first stop for the Women for the FWT. Hmm, just kidding. Turns out there won’t be room but they were nice enough to arrange for a friend of their’s from Finland to meet me a half hour later.

Finally after two days of traveling I arrive in my first destination La Clusaz, France. There was barely any snow!

La Clusaz, France finals venue

There was talk of the finals maybe not happening due to snow conditions. After a some what heated riders meeting the decision was made to hold the contest. Most areas on the venue were closed and there was a nice layer of crust on top. My first option was to go lookers left. After word from one of the men who had skied that side of the venue I made a last minute decision to go lookers right. Unfortunatley the route I chose did not work out so well. I made a right turn where I should of gone left and ended up over a sketchy double with not enough speed to clear it smoothly. I knew I was going to end up skiing some rocks but would still make it through safely. Just probably not on my feet. I was right, I got through the rocks with a core shot on my brand new skis and managed not to tumble til I hit the snow.

FWT stop #1 – DEAD LAST

I went in the top ranked female and came out somewhere far from the top. Next stop Chamonix

The group arrived in Chamonix a few days after the La Clusaz event. We had just been hanging out in the town of La Clusaz until the arrival day in Cham. Conditions were so bad it was hard to justify buying tickets to ski the piste.

The men of the FWT met up with the women for the 2nd stop for the women and 1st stop for the men of the FWT. Condtions in Cham were even worse then in La Clusaz. So bad that the organizers of the FWT had to move the contest to Courmayuer in Italy.

Courmayeur venue

Compared to the anticipated venue on the Hotel Face in Chamonix this looked amazing. The group was a bit skeptical of snow conditions. It was low tide in Europe, line choice was so important.

With a heli lift to the top and what I thought would be a good line in mind I was at the top of the venue looking to redeem myself from my first fail in La Clusaz.

My view from the start gate

I dropped in and was happy to find that the snow was pretty nice. As I approached my first drop I noticed another guy had been there before me. My take off was now rocks and I had to make the call to bail on that drop. Trying to make up for the first mistake I got below the cliff only to find that every other turn I found myself skiing rocks. Damn!! Meandering my way down the gut I dropped of a tiny rock and clipped another rock in my landing. Once again I found myself tumbling down a venue.

FWT stop #2 – DEAD LAST

Two contest down and luck was not on my side. I stood at the bottom and watched the rest of the ladies come down the venue. Looking at options I should of chose over my own. I love to send it, but sometimes I have to play the game. Ugh, the competition game. Play it safe and make in on the podium, at least that’s what I’m told to do.

Hochfugen, Austria the site of the third stop for the women on the FWT. With two falls in my past staying on my feet became my main focus. It was no longer about picking the line that looked like the most fun with big fun hits, now it was just time to go to work and come home with at least one good result. I’ve won two big mountain comps in my past and both times I was at the bottom knowing that I won. That’s what I do, pick the line that is pretty much a gauranteed win if I nail it. For this comp it was time to swallow my pride, pick an easy line and not fall.

Hochfugen venue

Normally I’d look for the biggest cliff and pick my line of that. This time it was all about finding some ten footers, maybe something a little bigger and not fall. Making sure I followed all the advice I was being given I took it down a notch and picked my line, right down lookers right. AKA, the boring side. I skied my run, hit my cliffs, found a few rocks that slowed me down a bit but stayed on my feet! Finally, I didn’t fall. You’d think I’d be happy, instead I was wishing I had done more. Waiting all day for the results wondering if I had done well enough to make podium.

FWT stop #3- 4th place

Hmm, 4th. I’ll just keep my thought’s on 4th to myself.

It’s February 23rd and I’m at home for the night before I head to Kirkwood for the 4th stop of the FWT. I’ve moved from 25th or 29th place in the rankings (not really sure) to 9th. 9th wont get me to the finals in Verbier, so I’ve got some work to do.

This time I’m going to find something that looks like fun!

I didn’t realize August 6 was the last time I’ve updated my site. I’ve been up to many things and I have been updating it all at www.unoficialsquaw.com It’s all under my team page. But since you are here I figure a little update is long over due!

I’ve been to So Cal, Utah, Argentina, Chile and many North Face adventures the last few months.

I hiked  the Pacific Crest Trail from Donner Summit to Squaw Valley…

Later on I took a trip down to South America. First stop was El Colorado Chile for the first stop of the Freeskiing World Tour. The comp didn’t go too well for me but Chile is pretty amazing. Below is my view of Santiago from the sweet pad The North Face provided for the team…

Then I took a 17 hour party bus from Chile to Las Lenas Argentina to ski some rocks.

That’s the second time I’ve had bad luck in Las Lenas. I’m hoping the third time is much better!

Still a good time with good people!

Then I flew back to the States and headed over to Park City UT for the last week of water ramping to work on some back flips. Apparently I still need some work, but I must say I’m pretty good at fronts! Oh and my good buddy Rory Will came by to ramp for his first time in ten or so years. Don’t call it a come back!

I watched my friends get their first turns of the season a few weeks ago up on Mt. Rose. It was an early, early season pow day. Can’t wait til we get some more snow!

Right after that I headed to Chico, CA for BEER CAMP at Sierra Nevada Brewery! Sierra Nevada and the guys from the Freeskiing World Tour invited a few of the athletes to head over to Chico and see how things were run! Needless it say it was a great time with great people!

And this past week I spent sometime camping with The North Face crew in Santa Cruz, CA in Scott Schmidt’s back yard! Good food, good discussions over a sweet camp fire and some bike riding. What more could you ask for?

Earlier this summer I travelled down to Santa Monica with my good friend Iris Lazz to meet some new good friends! We camped down by Mammoth at a place called Buck eye Hot springs. It was my first time enjoying a natural hot spring. I’ve only been out  west for 6 years and I just finally made it to a hot spring. After randomly running into some Moment Skis guys strangely enough at the same campsite we continued our way down to So Cal.

Six hours in a Jeep with a soft top and no AC in June through central California is far from pleasant by the way. Iris and I couldn’t decide if it was worse to leave the windows shut and bake in a sauna like environment or to open the windows and endure a fantastic headache caused by my soft top flapping in the wind. The jury is still out…

We eventually found ourselves in Venice just in time to witness 15 cop cars racing down the street. Apparently 70 seventeen year olds had some riot over something extremely important I’m sure!

We then spent the next few days trying to surf and driving further south. I officially SUCK at surfing!!! I probably just need some practice, ha make that A LOT of practice. We made a few visits along the way. Iris checked in with her board sponsor Signal Snowboards and I went to the Electric offices to say hello and grab some gear. Then we went down to Transworld Mag and got a tour of their offices. It was pretty sweet to see where all the action goes down.

Finally we headed back up to Santa Monica for the main purpose of the trip. I was invited to join the marketing meeting for TOMS shoes. They set us up with a great place to stay and we got a chance to cruise all along Santa Monica and check out the area. I had been so nervous the entire week before because they had asked me to do a presentation. Which, if you know me you are aware of how bad I am at public speaking!!! I had written stuff down only to disregard it all and just say what came to mind.

Public Speaking!!!

It turned out it wasn’t bad at all. The People at TOMS are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met! It was so good to meet them all and learn more about what TOMS is all about.

To learn more about TOMS and their one for one program go here:

and here:

http://www.toms.com/

After meeting the whole crew and joining them for dinner we had to bolt back to Tahoe for work!

A few weeks later I was also signed to a new team!!! I’m now skiing for HiBall.

These guys are out of Northern California and they make great energy drinks! I personally love sparkling water which is what they started with, but for those that don’t they have a new line of sparkling juices that are sooooo yummmy!!! To learn more about Hi Ball go to:

www.hiballer.com

So it’s been a while since I’ve been on the snow and online. Tomorrow will be August first and it feels like the summer is just flying by! I was supposed to arrive in New Zealand a few days ago for the World Heli Challenge. Unfortunately that didn’t happen but I suppose spending time in Tahoe during the summer isn’t all that bad.

Since I got back from Europe I’ve been running around California. Immediately on my return I was invited to go to The North Face actions sports summit in San Leandro, CA. It was my first of hopefully many team summits for The North Face. It was really cool to get involved and see just how important athlete feedback was to them. That and the team trip to a shooting range was pretty sweet as well. Seeing Ingrid Backstrom and the rest of the ladies firing away was quite a site!

I returned to Tahoe to enjoy the second summer I’ve ever spent up by the lake during the 6 years I’ve been living in Tahoe. Tahoe received and amazing amount of snow towards the end of the season. Unseasonably low temps kept the snow around much longer than usual. My good friend Iris Lazz and I decided to take advantage of all this snow and hike Mt. Tallac over on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. It’s one of those peaks that you just have to do if you venture out into the Tahoe backcountry. We decided to turn the trip into an overnighter. We drove out to the trail head and packed all of our gear and threw it on our backs.

Iris with a full load...

With all our camping gear and riding gear on our backs we hiked 1.5 miles in to our camp spot. That was probably the heaviest load I’ve ever carried. I really could of used a light touring setup on that trip.

morning at the camp site

There was no snow at the site and we were not sure how much longer we would have to hike til we could start skinning and snow shoeing. We decided to drop most of our gear and grab it on our way down. It was probably about two miles til we hit enough snow to skin on. We were so excited to finally hit snow. Our day packs were maxed out with weight.

This was not the last time I saw this look on her face!

So as we soon discovered this was really only a giant patch of snow amongst many other giant patches of snow. We soon hit dirt, and then snow and then some more dirt. After a brief moment of relief with my skins on and boots off my back I soon discovered that would be short lived. It was much easier to just leave the gear on my back and hike in my shoes. Had I known that I probably would of brought much lighter skis and left my skins at home. Oh well…

I really wish I had snowboard boots at this moment.

After about six hours we had finally reached the top of the peak! We had decided it would be best to ski down the front side and make a loop out of our trip. That meant dropping our skis and board off at the car and hiking back in to retrieve the tent. It sounded like a great idea at the time.

View of Lake Tahoe from the top of Mt. Tallac

We met some critters on the way down…

Finally it was time to go skiing! This was by far the best moment of the day. It seemed as if all our hard work was worth it.

The ride down...

Iris and I both thought we were on our way home til we ended up here.

Oh FUN!!!

So this part just sucked! From here on out it was a miracle we both made it out alive. I think our patience was beginning to run thin and our bodies were starting to hate us. We made it out of the boulder field probably a half hour later only to find ourselves bush whacking through manzanita and sliding down through lose rocks. I think it took another three hours after I took off my skis to make it back to my car. That would of been great if we didn’t have to hike an additional 3 miles in order to grab the rest of our gear at the camp site. It was definitely one of those adventures you are happy you accomplished even though you spent a large portion of the time wondering why!

So I should be on a plane to Norway at the moment but that is not the case. Instead I’m still in Germany awaiting my new flight back home to the east coast next week. It’s been a bit since I’ve really gone skiing. I think although the rest is finally boring me to death it was good. My body, including my shoulder seems to be all healed up. Ok, maybe not 100% but it’s getting there.

I was supposed to be on my way to Rodal, Norway for the first Freeride World Qualifier of the 2010-11 season. I hope those guys have a great time up there! I’ll make it to Norway another time.

My friend Sebastian Hanneman, whom Janina and I have been staying with in Germany had to head into Munich the other day. We decided to tag along for the ride and check out the city. That place is pretty sweet! There’s all sorts of amazing architecture, like most European cities and a year round outdoor market.

Exiting the train station to the city center of Munich

The first thing Janina and I did was check out the market of course. Great food was to be had everywhere!

I don’t remember what this fruit is called but it was amazing. I guess Janina used to eat it all the time growing up in Indonesia. I believe it’s from Thailand. It looked bizarre but tasted great! Munich was the last place I thought I would run into an exotic fruit like this.

Mmm Thailand has yummy fruits!

Later on we met up with the boys and headed to The Hofbrier House. I’ve heard Janina speak about this place for months now. Even though the boys are German they had never been and we found that Janina the Kiwi was our tour guide through Munich.

Look at the excitement on her face!

I swear beer drinking it’s Germany’s national sport. Everywhere we go there are beer gardens and massive drinking halls with massive beers!

Weight lifting in Germany...

This morning Seb and I dropped Janina off at the train station. She’s headed back to New Zealand! If all goes as planned I’ll be meeting up with her again in a few month’s. Safe travels Janina!