Journeys: West Yellowstone Backcountry

I met Adrian Dingle at the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour stop at Moonlight Basin. I took a few photos of him during the second day of competition and he invited me out for some backcountry adventures later in the spring. April 20th was later in the spring and Adrian had a crew lined up to ski a pillow zone just off Route 191 near West Yellowstone, MT. I met up with the Storm Castle crew around 0900 and we took off for the trailhead. This first trip had come on short notice and I showed up with no snowshoes or other touring equipement. The pillow zone was not too far off the road and I was confident I could manage the hike whether I had to posthole the entire way or not.

The postholing was not to painful. I probably broke through every fifth step and without gaiters on my boots did get some snow in them. This would become troublesome later in the day. We were skinning, snowshoeing, trudging uphill and were about halfway to the intended pillow zone when we came across a smaller pillow zone. The crew decided to tear it up and away they went, dropping the pillows into scary tight trees. I cannot give enough props to these guys for how aggressive they attack their lines and how controlled they stay. Sick.

 

Corey Seemann sending it through tight trees.

We moved on and uphill to the next pillow zone. Adrian had built a few jumps earlier in the season, but wanted to focus on a gap to rock hip and cliff drop. We dropped our packs and got busy rebuilding and shaping the jumps for each hit. There were many hands and we made quick work of the jumps. Logan tested the gap to hip. There was a scary moment as he flapped his arms through the air wondering if he would make it to the snowy hip or check his skis on the rocks, but he made it to the snow. More speed needed next time. Adrian and Logan went to work dialing in their tricks sometimes spinning, sometimes just straight grabbing.

 

Logan Walker skis, Corey Seemann shoots.

Logan and Adrian finished up on the hip. Logan stuck a slow spinning 180 landing switch and Adrian locked down a smooth 360. We had two more hits the cliff drop and another pillow line in the woods that we had not seen yet.

Adrian on the cliff drop.

Adrian made quick work of the cliff drop sending it and sticking it on his first try. Then we move on to the final pillow line back in the trees. Gunnar Oliphant and I were scoping out angles while Adrian built up the kicker that would launch him toward the pillow. Adrian's plan was to boost the hit then sail 30 feet through tight trees to skim the pillow before coming back to Earth. Gunnar and I just looked at each other and said, "No way!" a few times. Everyone else was calling Adrian crazy. V...isions of Adrian coming up short and face planting on the pillow's boulder were the only thing overriding thinking about how cold my soaking feet were. The sun was sinking further behind a distant ridge and I was worried we would run out of light. Then, Adrian was dropping...and hauling Mach 10 toward the kicker. I composed for an action sequence, but as soon as Adrian left the jump I looked over the camera and just watched jaw wide open. The scene looked like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon on skis. Not enough speed? No. Adrian actuallly overshot the pillow completely and landed perfect and clean in the intended landing zone. I doubt anyone says, "Oh my god!" in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but we all hollered it in disbelief for the next 10 minutes.

 Crouching tiger hidden dragon on skis.

All in all it was an epic day. The boys through down and we had blue skies and decent lighting to back it all up. Cannot wait for the next session.