Road Trip

A trip across the expanses of time....geography....is a thing to behold. A road trip is a brilliant event marked by experience, expectation and newfound experience.  As in all seasons there must be a marker thrown down on the ground to identify the change......a change in seasons marked by the falling leaf of fall.  Our season is now marked by the fallow bike gear in the garage in place of the wax iron stinking up the closet......a closet that now smells more of melted P-Tex and wax as opposed to Stans's Sealant and ATB lube.......the search for the crystal.....the zero-gravity mass which lifts us up......the cloud of frozen Hydrogen and Oxygen in a 2:1 ratio....it awaits us all.....

The darkness of a straight road cuts below the pregnant low clouds of a leading low-pressure system presuppose a healthy dump........

The climb on the first day up Alberta Peak, against the helmet of the man before me,  reminds me that the race is on......never slow in your search for powder....for there will always be another before you.......strive to be the first.......

.....the mantra to be first is etched in my toes of winter.....with every step I take, I peer down and realize my own commandment.......climb....CLIMB......Never stop climbing.....never stop attaining what you dream of.....never stop reaching........for this is the goal....the fight, is the goal.....and you'll never get there......Climb Dammit!!.....and if you stop.... well.....then...you're probably dead....

.....but never forget, that climbing blindly will result in folly.....climb with caution, climb with knowledge, climb with certainty......climb as an educated individual and all I know......will climb with you......

Turning my eyes to the lens, I spot a shot where the light of early afternoon backlit the chunder of an oft-used corridor of powder......the powder in this shot was heavenly......Cholla shows the cush.....

...in a rare moment.....the photog gets his backpack and glass snagged.....and gets a pic in.....

......or two...........

The afternoon celebration, steeped in stories of frozen crystal clouds, bails and near-misses is captured in the stoke of brilliantly glistening bottles of microbrew.

The next day dawns with a focus on improvement.....improvement requested........you're lookin good bro....just get that positive pole plant out there to increase your upper body angulation which will result in better control on the steeps........outside of that....your flask of aged Jameson makes me happy.....

On day two....I revisited the shot we were in before....the light angles necessitated it.....and so did the powder...the later being the dominant factor.......

The splash off of the bow of board.... illuminated by a shaft of light from an early winter horizon fascinated me......

......shadow of rider, and brightness of effect became what I sought......I no longer cared for a face shot......

......I wanted illumination of frozen water.....a crystalline expression, frozen in time and space against the body of force....,,,,

......a force which made it all happen.....a force driving forward.......

......a force which can reverse itself.............

At other times....this force drives higher......

High enough to the point they stop shit talkin' because they can't catch their breath.....

......for but a second.......

The vision of what is possible....me encouraging a path forward is defined.......

On the way out....the skiing over.....more beauty and experience is captured.....

One can't drive the expansive void without thinking of nothing for at least a few moments....this is one of those moments......

........and yet, another........

As I think back on this seasonal roadtrip with friends, it is not the times with friends I remember as the marker for the season.  Rather, it is the last turn I took....in hip deep powder.....and the ABSOLUTE absence of thought that occurred when I did so.  My mind at peace, present and focused:  I was living in the moment......I'm glad to have found that in the middle of good friends.  There is nothing like a powder day.....NOTHING.