Yesterday I got to go riding in the backcountry with some great friends, Dan, Ken and Ani. We left the lodge at 8:20 and took the fist lift up to about 2000m where we started our hike. The weather was actually not all that good when we left but by the time we got up mountain it was sunny and beautiful. The first thing we all did before leaving the ski area was activate our Avalanche Transceiver which in the event of an avalanche could help us locate a person who was buried in snow.

We took about 3hrs to hike up and then dug an avalanche pit to check the snow pack for safety before going above the timberline. I am starting to learn more about avalanche safety and getting this kind of experience was really cool for me. Learning how to read a snowpack and seeing the layering and bonding between the different snow types is so interesting. 

I will post again soon with some video that I shot yesterday.

Norikura Backcountry

Dropping

Norikura Skyline

Hiking Up

Fresh Tracks

Shadows on the snow

Hiking together

Hiking

Wrist Watch

Dan Junker

Winter Trees

At the timberline

Dan Junker with his Gentem Stick snowboard

Ken making a nice turn in the power

Copy that

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Cruzing

Getting some freshies