C'est la vie

In transit, en route to NZ.!  The annual pilgrimage to Aotearoa.
Thanks for stopping by.  Crazy to watch the 'ol underground web log reach head scratching audiences (a couple hundred thousand views over the last year).  Haha.  Hope you all don't take this URL too seriously.. but find a bit inspiration (in the landscapes :)  Take care.!  Look forward to seeing you all this winter.

(sneak peak at some Surface ski prototypes :)

Just watched a grizzly bear swim across the Lamar- which was the color of chocolate milk from all the  recent rain and volcanic sediment.

Discovered a really cool new ski route today too.
The crux is about 80 feet long and 220cm's wide.. -just enough for some careful turns, with the right snow conditions. (through the tunnel)

Ski touring in Yellowstone Park

Backcountry skiing in Yellowstone Park, adjacent Cooke City, is a world-class experience.  Please take a few minutes to check out the new Winter in Yellowstone page and consider joining us/ Beartooth Powder Guides for an unforgettable ski tour in some of the most pristine and beautiful country on planet Earth.

From x-country wolf tracking tours in the fabled Lamar Valley, to first descents of remote couloirs in pristine powder :),  Beartooth Powder Guides would be honored to take you there safely and in good style.

dinosaur hunting

elkasaurus rex

Anyone else wax their skis today?

red, yellow, green or blue?

It's snowing in the local high hills right now..

And I'm not sure exactly why, but I feel really inclined to juxtapose these 

boxes of 'beels with my cache of Nutella...

Is it just me or is September FLYing by?

Instagram, Powder mag, and NZ

photo by Adam Clark

Recently picked up an iPhone and an Instagram account. 

(even though Cooke City still lacks cell phone service :) 

So if anyone would like to exchange photos..??

Also, anticipate an enthusiastically fun run of stories and images from New Zealand on the Surface feed as well.  (late Sept. through early Nov.)  #NZchronicle  

And if you are keen, check out Adam's recent feature in this month's Powder mag, in addition to this short video he whipped up, chronicling a few of last October's adventures.

yesterday atop Cloud Peak.  sub 3 hrs. at the turn...  (reconning couloirs)
First time in the Bighorns!

going commando

Donning the new wetsuit, one can't help but go commando.
It simply puts you in a different state of mind.  Aqua-Man.  Navy Seal style.
Occasionally a tourist will catch a fleeting glimpse-  a snorkel on the edge of an Alpine lake, a black figure darting through the lodgepole forest.. a strange creature circulating in the eddy below a big waterfall.. What the?!   

good morning

Laundry Room bivy = a trip to New Zealand

The first month or so, camp was down in the 'wine cellar'.

The last couple, it's been plush- livin' in the 'studio apartment' (the old laundry room at the High Country Motel.)

There's been quite a few baths in the Yellowstone this summer.  And probably 50 solar showers or so- down in the thicket, next to the Soda Butte Creek (with an especially pungent smell of iron the last few weeks).

It's actually very comfortable summer digs, compared to the eight recent summers I've spent camping in the backcountry while working for the FS.

Sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do,
in order to spend a couple months each year in New Zealand.

T-minus:  three weeks.