THE DAILY

over the border and thru the woods...

...and into the alpine. That was our first few hours in British Columbia...and it only got more interesting from there on out on day one.

Snowmobiling is definitely a chore, I've written about it before on Blottophotto.com, but accessing the alpine in Western Canada via the snow machine is on a completely different level! It's fun as can be, you get to see some amazing places and scenery, but you always have to be prepared for breakdowns, avalanches and injury. Luckily for us, no injuries were incurred but a close call at our very first spot had us a bit shook. We were scoping (and potentially going to ride) an area that avalanched from the mere fact that Jussi was just standing near this windloaded spot. A small section of cornice broke off and caused the slope below to break four feet deep (1.22 meters) across most of the area.

After this close call, we moved our personal avalanche meters from considerable to extreme and really took it easy, tip-toeing around any and everything we approached for the rest of the day. With the powder and weather so good, we had to dig deep not to be lured into slopes that "looked really good for filming" and keep our focus on spots that had no real hazard if they slid.

Patience paid off and we managed to locate a really cool glacier area with stable snow and an interesting jump, which worked out for the most part. What didn't work out was our fuel levels because we spent so much of the day full throttle through the powdery flat sections and going from one zone to the next looking for safe terrain that we were litterally running on fumes and still 30 miles (48 km) out in the backcountry. The saving grace was the fact that Mikkel's borrowed sled had a 3-gallon jerry can installed. We spred the petrol between the snowmobiles with the least amount of fuel and started our journey home. Everybody made it back except Corey, he ran out of gas with 2 miles (4 km) left to go. I doubled him out, we grabbed a spare jerry can, ran back, fueled up and headed home for real.

What started with a 5AM wake up, ended with a 7:30PM return just in time to catch the Mens Olympic Snowboarding Halfpipe finals. What a day I tell you! Blotto