After our audit, we determined that we will be working with Garrett on his design "Gnarly" to incorporate into the 09/10 Bluehouse fleet.  Congratulations Garrett!!  Thanks again to everyone for participating in this year's ski design contest!  Don't forget to keep the designs coming for the weekly tContest as well.

I had a great chance to use my new Mavens last week. Eight inches of fresh powder at Mary Jane was an awsome revelation in powder skiing. Great in the bowls and suprisingly nimble in the trees.I found I could initiate turns much faster than I thought. Even though I was at Mary Jane, no time spent on bumps. Two days later, 16 inches of powder and the back bowls at Vail. Poor visablity but great deep snow. Again great in the trees. Also had fun on the frontside. Chopped snow was a little bumpy but I felt very stable even at speeds that are fast for me. Good control on groomed   runs also. Only near the base where the snow was packed did the Mavens not shine. Overall I was very pleased and feel the Mavens are very light for their size. They turn suprisingly fast and are very stable at speed. The build quality seems very good. No scratches or divots on top. The graphics are classy and distinctive.

I can't wait for the next storm. May have to go to South America this year.

I haven't spent much time at The Canyons this year, a mountain that I know like the back of my hand, including the immediate backcountry.  So when LCC was closed this past Saturday morning and I needed my fix, I headed for 9990 with a few friends and had what I believe was the best day of my season.

After spinning a couple of 9990 lift laps of untracked knee to thigh deep powder, we headed up and out the gate for another couple quick yo-yos.  It was snowing heavy and the snow was stacking up deeper and deeper.  For my third yo-yo we skinned up Dutches and dropped in on Cone Head which was face shot after face shot.

After high fives and pole clanks we headed for Square Top, hitting Desolation to get a 2 for 1 on the deal.  Square Top used to stay fresh for a couple of days after a storm but lately it seems to get eaten up in a day, the day of the storm most often.  While I've had a number of runs on Square this one was top 5 for sure - choking all the way down with and untracked swath all to myself on the skiers left.

After refueling we headed up 9990 again to session Desolation Lake for a couple of laps. My camera crapped out so I missed photos but my friend Jim took these two of me.

For finishers we once again tagged Square Top to end the day in memorable fashion.

The Districts served me well, in and out of bounds.  I still contend that they are some of the best all around skis I've ever clicked into.

Date: March 24, 2009 - April 3, 2009

Location: Snowbird, UT

Featuring: Me (Jake Kirshner), Nik Aksamit

Low-Res Vimeo Version:

High-Res Version: http://www.jakecast.com/helmetcast/helmetCast14.m4v (right-click > save target/link as...)

Nothing says spring skiing like 15 feet of snow in 2 weeks...

Cheers & Pray for Snow,

Jake

Snow-wise, it's been a pretty eventful week. I think Alta has had 150 inches in the last 10 days. It has delayed the biking a bit and it has delayed the spring ski objectives I had been looking forward to, but who can really be ungrateful for powder?

On Monday, my brother Aaron returned home from the motherland (Japan). In the movie "Steep," there is a scene where Glen Plake says something like, "As soon as I got out of broken legs, I went skiing. As soon as I got out of jail, I went skiing. That's where I had to go to make it all right." The first thing Aaron did was go skiing. Here he is with SLC in the background:

 

Last night, I skiied up around Alta, and it was deep. So this morning when I checked the weather and saw that Alta had received yet another 14 or so inches over night, I headed that way again, this time with Mike. Unfortunately, we got turned around at the mouth of LCC. The sherrif was setting up last night as I was coming down and it looked like he had been there all night. So, we went up the other canyon instead. Breaking trail was tough. On sidehills the snow line was above my waist, and I was on some big waisted Districts as well. My hair froze on the up track.

 

Here's Mike wallowing up a slope. I didn't see his skis all day, and they were fat too.

 

On a easterly facing high elevation aspect, I kicked off a new snow slide that propagated around the ridge. We were on high ground so, not too much danger.

 

On the up track, we were pretty stoked about the conditions. After a run off the top, we were slightly confused. We weren't sure whether it was really good or not-so-good. The snow was super deep. Every turn snow would billow over the head and into various orifices. I skiied several hundred feet completely in the white room. I also skiied several hundred feet without oxygen. Mike skiied with his avalung in his mouth, not because he was scared of getting caught, but just so he could breathe. We sheepishly concluded that maybe it was too deep.

 

As we decended below 9000 feet, we came out of the clouds, the powder got less deep, and we had a couple epic runs. I once though that the Districts were fat enough, but today they weren't.  Not even close.

 

And they say there is more snow on the way next week. . .

First off, we would like to thank everyone for their participation in this year's ski design contest.  There were some excellent submissions (click here for the final list of submissions).  It would really be nice to produce many of your designs, but.....it's just not feasible.  The contest was exciting right down to the last minute.  For those of you following this contest this evening, things got really exciting when votes started skyrocketing. In the end it appeared that the most ambitious competitors were vying to see who could create new Bluehouse accounts the fastest and vote for their favorite design.  Consequently, although we had intended to name the contest winner this evening, we will be unable to do so until we have had a chance to audit the votes of the top six to eight entries to determine which votes were actually legitimate and which votes were added by gaming the system.

We expect to have our audit done within one week, so check back soon to see who is named the official ski design contest winner.

Thanks again for sharing your creativity.

I'm still gathering footage for a full edit (HelmetCast 14), but to carry over the space between here is some B-Roll footage from Alta on Monday.

One quick lap through Eagle's Nest-

Low-Res Vimeo Version:

High-Res Version: http://www.jakecast.com/helmetclips/03-30-09-eaglesLap.m4v (right-click > save target/link as...)

Enjoy =)

Jake

The ski world lost a true hero this week. Shane McKonkey tragically lost his life in a ski BASE jumping accident in the Italian Dolomites. Someone posted on TGR that "this is not supposed to happen. It's like hearing that Superman died." I agree. I met Shane last summer at Portillo, Chile along with his wife and daughter. Although he would never remember who I am, I thought it was the coolest just to see him in person and ski in his shadow. He was an inspiration to many, many people. His humor was unmatched, his infamous talent and ingenuity admired, and contagious love of life was ever-obvious. Condolences, thoughts and prayers to his family, friends, and the entire ski world. RIP Shane.

The theme for contest #23 is: SILENT.

From here on out we would like the contests to be focused more on shirts that you would be stoked to wear that are not Walking Bilboards... We are encouraging you to NOT use the BH logo or name in your design.

To kick off the new direction of the contests, we have provided a theme that has a few rules, they are listed below. As always, be creative, give criticisim, and take criticisim well, and have a blast.

DON'TS FOR THIS CONTEST:

- NO WORDS ALLOWED PERIOD

- NO BH LOGO ALLOWED

DOS FOR THIS CONTEST:

- CREATE A DESIGN THAT YOU WOULD BE STOKED TO WEAR ALL THE TIME (not just when skiing)

- DO NOT USE THE BH LOGO (that's a do...)

- BE CREATIVE AND PUT SOME TIME INTO YOUR DESIGNS

THIS CONTEST WILL RUN FOR 2 WEEKS!

We will start taking submissions today and the contest will stay open until Wednesday, April 8 at 11:59 PM. Voting will stay open until Thursday at 11:00 PM. We will announce the winner and the sale will begin one hour later at 12:00 AM Friday morning. The winning shirt will go one sale for $5.95.

If you're new to the Bluehouse tContest, here are a few helpful links:

tContest Instructions.

Jump on the tContest forum and start brainstorming and collaborating.

Submit and Vote for your favorite designs.

NOTICE:

When creating a design you should avoid using our name and logo at all costs. Design a shirt that is dope. It is not necessary for it to deal with skiing.

If you are forced at gun point to use our logo, follow the following guidelines:

- When using the name "Bluehouse" you HAVE TO use our logo, no other fonts can be accepted.  You might be tempted to ask: "WHY?!?" ... One simple answer: Our Lawyers! ... there were lots of big words as to why... just use our logo! (link to download Bluehouse logos)

I returned from France to 70 degree weather and dry ground.  I thought that maybe winter had ended.  But it hasn't.  I think LCC has received close to five feet this week.  When the clouds cleared this afternoon, the mountains looked nicely refreshed.  This storm should extend spring skiing for weeks.

About France -- I went over to France with the US Ski Mountaineering Team to participate in the Pierra Menta, 4 day stage race that climbs and descends a total of 30,000 feet.  We ran the race on what Bluehouse would consider to be skinny skis.  In fact, if you took a District and split it in half, one half might be close in size to the skinny sticks we were on.  I was definitely wishing for fatties on the way down.  I consider the race a success since I finished.  My teammate and I finished 82nd place (out of 156 teams). 

One of the coolest things about the race was the all-out enthusiasm for skiing.  The spectators were all on skis -- many had actually climbed up the mountain at 5:00 am in order to get good "seats."  They yelled and cheered and rang cow bells.  The scene was really amazing.  I guess if you live in a village in the Alps, skiing is going to be a part of your culture.  It was cool to experience.