Friday, December 1, 2017

Tons of Powder, Corbet's Couloir Backflip and Straightlines! Season Edit is Live from Jackson Hole.


2016/2017: The 600 Inch Year At Jackson Hole!

Last season was one for the books, the snow was late in November and Jackson had to delay their opening. Once the snow did start to fall though, it didn't stop! We ended the season with the deepest recorded snowpack on closing day in Jackson History with over 600 inches of snow for the season.

I was going through all my footage and three quarters of it was powder days. Powder days are great for skiing, but not so much for filming. We skied a lot of deep snow, but in grey conditions. There were a couple of lucky days with fresh snow and blue skies. One of those days was shooting with Jackson Hole for the Real Mountain X-Games. My first hit of the day was airing into Corbet's Couloir, so naturally I tossed a backflip. Afterwards we headed to Alta 0 which had been closed to the public so the snow was piled up right under the Sublette chair. I took one of my favorite lines right through a cliff band with an nice banked left turn to cliff air right under the chair. Definitely one of the best days of the season.







Another epic day last season was when i got to tag along with Warren Miller while they were shooting video from the ground and with a drone. All my bluebird cliff shots and drone clips were from that day. We had the chance to get on the early tram and head up Cody peak before everyone else. I was first down Central couloir and then we headed over to No Name bowl where we sessioned the big open face and cliffs. 






After Jackson Hole Mountain Resort closed, I headed to California for late springs conditions. I spent almost two weeks ticking off big mountain couloirs around Mammoth. Check out my writeup in Freeskier about the trip. I later returned to California to ski Squaw before they closed for the summer and travelled up through Oregon and Washington skiing's a couple volcanoes with my sister Janelle Smiley.




After returning to Jackson, I ticked off a few more lines in the Tetons, skiing my last day in Wyoming on August 2nd. Unfortunately a crash from February left me with shoulder pain 5 months later, and after getting an MRI I found out I needed surgery. I scheduled it for September 25th so after my two month recovery I would be ready for opening day at Jackson. During surgery they found my rotator cuff was also torn which almost doubled the recovery time. I hope to be back skiing before Christmas, but taking it easy for the first month. 



Check out my edit "Point 'Em Straight" from the season at Jackson Hole! Also don't forget to follow me on instagram for more great photos and videos this year @o_leeps.




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