Where to start ... after the glorious days in Japan skiing overhead pow, I wasn't sure I would even get a single fulfilling moment the rest of the season. Little did I know what the worst snow season I had ever seen had in store for me. It began with a quick jaunt to Whistler, ski some storms, shoot some photos, enjoy Canada's British Columbia. After a couple weeks of this I got the call to send home to SLC for the Ski Salt Lake shootout. Although I heard most people bailed because of conditions, I was stoked for a chance to ski all my home resorts and shoot with my favorite photographer Mike Schirf. After a crusher week we ended up taking the win for "Urban meets mountain" and third overall portfolio. Thanks to a rad team (Alex Taran and Brody Leven).

The very day that show ended, the Freeskiing World Tour came to Snowbird. Stoked to see the whole crew I signed up. Day one was sunny perfect comp conditions, so I threw down on the home hill, had some magnificent backslaps, ended up in 12th and stoked. Didn't get judged too harshly for my fuck ups. Day two the clouds rolled in and almost became a showstopper. But, a show went down nonetheless. Great skiing by everyone, huge airs and stylie tricks were thrown down and I think everyone worried we might break down the mountain. My run was pretty solid, though ending in a nice crash landing on hardpack traverse. Without time to catch a break I skied home, packed the truck and rolled up to Canada to meet the Sherpas Cinema crew for a catskiing trip in the Selkirk Mountains. I could get used to how those guys roll. Five-star dining and lodging with five-star skiing right out the window. We had a weeklong trip of crushing deep pow, pillows and cliff drops. Extremely satisfying. Still not done burning gas, I headed west, back to my second home in Whistler, a little sledding, a little less skinning and a lot of fun.

Two days later I headed south with part of the Dubsatch crew to Prospecting Idaho, where Smith Optics gives free reign to athletes to sled out to zones and build stupid jumps. Here we met up with the rest of the Dubsatchers and had a fun few days, ending with a banger sunny glorious day, hitting jumps till our skis broke. Better not stop there, so I headed home, picked up my dear sister Angel Collinson who had been crushing the comp scene all year, and together Team Collinson cruised to Kirkwood for the final stop of the FWT. Another crash on day one put me on the spectator stand to watch Angel take second in the event as well as the overall tour (just a few days earlier she placed second overall on the European tour as well). Congrats big sis!!

This event brought me home feeling unfulfilled, but Angel got the thumbs up from TGR to head to Alaska with Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Seth Morrison and Dana Flahr. I ended up sitting at home, skiing Little Cottonwood and waiting for that unknown perfect end of season trip...

It has been a brutally sunny and dry winter in Colorado and the powder itch was nearly blistering. When the opportunity to head to the Northwest presented itself I packed up the Astro Van with no intent of returning home for the rest of the winter.

I met my telemark cohorts Andy Jacobsen and Paul Kimbrough of the Powderwhore films and our plan was to spend 5 days in an out-of-commission fire lookout. After trudging 5 miles or so up a logging road we began climbing the peak to the fire lookout as a storm rolled in. Avalanche conditions were bomber but the mountain was steep on all sides. That night heavy winds and snowfall ripped around our hut and when morning came we were not very motivated to explore the windslabs and exposed terrain in a whiteout, but we ventured out into the blizzard at the crack of noon. We descended the ridge as far as we could before reaching steeper terrain. Probing and ski cuts revealed deep wind slabs in some places so we retreated hoping for better visibility and less volatile conditions the next day. The next morning the storm had calmed but it was still snowing, fuel was running low (we had expected a propane stove in the hut but there was no propane adapter) so we packed up our heavy bags with our tails between our legs. When we got off the steep terrain and out of the wind we were delighted to find a couple feet of blower for our shredding pleasure.

Sun was forecasted for the next day so we lined up another mission. This time our plan was to start early and skin 7 miles up a logging road to ski some cool terrain in an area called "Skyline" divide. After miles of heinous flat trail breaking we began ascending some cool old growth forest. When we finally reached our destination the skies had closed up and we found ourselves in a thick fog. That's called getting shut down... We enjoyed some wooded powder before calling it a day. When we got to the car exhausted we better understood the practicality of snowmobiles.

Next stop: Grand Targhee for the Telemark Freeskiing Competition (no not an oxymoron). After catching first chair at Baker with 20 inches of fresh and a morning of delightful powder we headed to Targhee. The venue was plagued with difficult conditions: warm-wind affected snow, crowns, bed surface, and avalanche debris. After two runs and a tele-roll I sat in third place behind Paul Kimbrough and Mark Robbins. A heavy storm rolled in and the resort was forced to cancel the rest the competition due to poor visibility. It seemed like a good opportunity to catch some freshies on Teton pass so that's what we did, and skied the cold smoke till the sun set. After a few days of Wyoming fluff, we headed back to Baker and yes—it was still snowing.

Returning to BD’s up-and-coming new ski factory after spending a month skiing in the Alps, it was clear that the team had been hard at work.  A call to arms had been raised within the organization, and in reply a flood of special forces have been putting in hard time working to bring this new project up to speed.  From the backbone manufacturing specialists/ski fanatics; to the mad-scientists in QA; to garage-shop-ski-builders now evolved to designers and project managers; to old time ski manufacturing and composites veterans; right down to the man who wrote the book on climbing hardware design and fabrication equipment; all hands have been on deck working to distill BD’s 50 years of manufacturing prowess in to the framework for this new ski production facility.  And here I was, guiltily dragging back in from another big ski adventure…

So I put my head down and got back to work. 

The project team was given the mission to go big and develop a state-of-the-art production facility—to build skis in the same way we build climbing gear to which you would entrust your life.  So we purchased a battalion of sophisticated machines and equipment, sourced the cleanest raw materials from around the world, and got to work on the layout of our new factory.  When the right machine for a process doesn’t exist, we design and build one on our own.  To preheat the new ski presses, we are harnessing the power of the sun.  In building out our facility, we placed penultimate focus on a fresh and inspiring production space.  With a blank slate we are free to pursue radical production and design strategies, so we have founded our development on the lean flow concepts of the globally successful Japanese systems. 

Inspiring as the project may be, it’s tremendously hard work.  I find it hard to not let my thoughts drift in time.  But I’ve also found there’s a subtle difference between daydreaming about the past and using past experience to inspire…


My recent past experience saw me boarding a train in Chamonix to head south.  I was going down to stay with an old kayaking friend who was ski patrolling at Serre Chevalier and living in a quaint mountain village nearby.  My friends picked me up at the train station, and early the next day we drove over the pass to La Grave.  Yet again surrounded by mountains of staggering proportions.  The funky, mellow pace of La Grave reminded me of my years in Montana, as did the local posses of underground rippers.  We split our time between skiing, flying laps on the speed-wings, and soaking up the unique energy of the place. 

Soon thereafter one of the few storms of my trip rolled through.  We tore up the new snow on the front-country until it was beat.  Then we headed out in search of something steep and untouched.  With huge mountains all around, we had our pick and found our way in to a gem! 

Before I left town, we also took the chance to run up the local via ferrata.  Then I boarded another train, this time bound for Switzerland. 

After a long day of travel, I arrived at the Horner Hotel in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland late in the evening.  Standing out front was a profound crew from my homeland, who had plans to join up with a group of local athletes the next day.  So my first morning in Switzerland, I found myself speed-riding in the Jungfrau region with the North American Redbull Airforce and a bunch of local talent, including Olympian and Swiss freeski/board legend Ueli Kestenholz.  We ripped laps, en masse, down the steep terrain, and I witnessed how it’s done by some of the best in the world. 

For the next week, most of my riding time was spent solo, sessioning my speedwing at Schilthorn in the morning, then heading across the valley to ski the one remaining stash of dry snow tucked under the North Face of the Eiger (thanks for the beta Ueli.)  Sadly I lost my helmet cam in France, so I have zero action footage from the Jungfrau region where I was immersed in the steepest part of the learning curve for this trip. 

As my time ran low, the weather grew hot and it was clearly time to go.  I took a train to Zurich for a quick stay with Los Alamos friends so that I could look in to future opportunities at the ETH University.  Then I flashed through Chamonix to grab some gear that I left behind, and finally boarded a plane in Geneva.

As I said, there’s a subtle difference between daydreaming and using past experiences to inspire.  Back in the present moment, we just boxed up the first two pair of AMPerage 195’s ever pressed in Black Diamond’s new factory and sent them out the door.  In two days time, they’ll be on the feet of BD’s athletes and skiers so that the feedback cycle can begin anew.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert is pushing a lawsuit against the federal government that seeks to give Utah counties control over 25,000 miles of so-called roads that traverse most of Utah's Wilderness-quality federal land. According to Conservation Alliance grantee Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance:

"The vast majority of these routes have never been established or maintained, and they don't really exist on the ground. They are but cow paths, old seismic lines, dry stream beds and one-man joyride trails. This is not really about transportation at all. Utah is simply using an old mining law, Revised Stature 2477, as an excuse to undermine future wild lands conservation and to open these special places to development, extractive industry and off-road vehicle assault. If they succeed, such lawsuits will spring up throughout the West, and our last wild public lands will be lost forever."

Following is a map showing the extent to which these "roads" (in red) would intrude on Utah's wild public lands. 


Take Action!
Ask Interior Secretary Salazar to defend Utah's public lands today! Click here to send a message to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking that he vigorously fight the State of Utah's lawsuit.

This lawsuit is one of a growing list of efforts and proposals that elected officials are making to undermine protections for public lands in Utah. In March, Governor Herbert signed into law a bill that authorizes the state to do everything within its power to transfer title of federal lands in Utah to the state.

Also in March, the BLM authorized nearly 1,300 new natural gas wells in Utah’s Desolation Canyon wilderness and other remote areas. In approving the so-called Gasco development project, the Department of the Interior rejected calls by the Environmental Protection Agency and tens of thousands of citizens from across the country to approve an alternative to Gasco’s proposal. This alternative would have allowed for significant development while protecting the department’s plan to designate Desolation Canyon as wilderness and reducing the overall footprint and impact of the project.

It is disappointing to watch Utah—which benefits economically from outdoor tourism and from the outdoor industry's twice-yearly trade show in Salt Lake City—work so hard to diminish the wild and natural places in the state.

Here at Black Diamond we have been really enjoying Instagram as a way to take and share photos with our friends, and we can now be found on it at @blackdiamondequipment. If you know about Instagram, we don't have to tell you how rad it is; and if you don't know, well, it's basiclally an awesome way to share photos from your mobile phone with friends and build a sense of community. You guys, our fans, are our community, and we want to see the images from your spring inspirations and adventures: shredding corn, bagging peaks, climbing at your favorite crags, or whatever springtime means to you.

Here's the deal: Take a great spring action or lifestyle shot between Monday, April 23 and Monday, May 14, 2012, share it with us on Instagram (tag it with #blackdiamondspring AND @blackdiamondequipment) and you could win a $300 or $100 Black Diamond gift certificate or one of many daily poster prizes.

How it works: Upload sweet spring photos to your Instagram feed, make sure they are public, and mark them with #blackdiamondspring AND @blackdiamondequipment. Each day we will select a daily winner who will recieve a fresh BD poster. At the end of the contest, an internal panel at Black Diamond will gather and filter through all of the photos hash tagged with #blackdiamondspring AND @blackdiamondequipment and decide the winners based on both technical and thematic execution (as well as general awesomeness). You can enter as many photos as you want, but they MUST be taken with an iPhone or Android device (i.e., no DSLR or regular camera shots), MUST be taken within the time frame of the contest, and MUST be public and marked with #blackdiamondspring and @blackdiamondequipment on Instagram.

Prizes:

-First Prize: $300 Gift Certificate for Black Diamond Equipment.**

-Runners Up (2): $100 Gift Certificate for Black Diamond Equipment.**

-Daily winners: Black Diamond poster (climbing or skiing, winner's choice)

**Gift certificate value must be spent in one order. Any balance will not carry over.

The Fine Print: No purchase necessary. No automated entries. Enter as many photos as you like. This contest is open only to legal U.S. or Canada residents who are 16 years of age or older, possess a valid ID proving age, and personal Internet email address. To receive the prize(s), the potential winner must reside in one of the fifty (50) United States or Canada. The winner may make no substitution or transfer of the prize(s). The prize(s) may not be redeemed for cash or anything else of value. Noncompliance with any of the Official Rules and Regulations will result in disqualification. Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd. is not responsible for any typographical error in the printing of the offer, administration of the contest or in the announcement of the prizes. Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd. reserves the right to modify these Official Rules and Regulations at any time and without notice. Any modification to these Offical Rules and Regulations will take effect immediately upon posting in the Sweepstakes area of our website: BlackDiamondEquipment.com.

Since posting from the Pacific Northwest earlier this spring, I spent a month in Zhuhai, China working to develop BD's new ski production facility. While the challenges of a "ground-up" development operation such as this are often overwhelming, it's empowering to have a blank slate and know that all focus is on creating something on the cutting edge; a facility that will enable faster design evolution, with a tighter feedback loop, among other benefits.

When the month was up I flew home to North America, just in time to blast off to Montana with my girlfriend and our dog to catch a ski wedding of epic proportions at the old stomping grounds of Bridger Bowl. Then we busted a U-turn, made the haul back home to Oregon, and I had just enough time to pack a bag and then catch a flight to Europe.  No rest for the weary—time to go skiing in the Alps!

I crashed into Chamonix with a big bag full of gear and very little plan. Jon Griffith graciously offered me his couch, and with huge appreciation I tucked myself in to the corner of his small apartment. The ski world may not be familiar with Jon Griffith, but alpinists around the globe have come to recognize him as one of today's premier alpine climbers and photographers. He's known for being one of the few alpinist photogs strong enough to haul the additional load of full photographic equipment high into exposed and committed alpine environments.  When I arrived, he had recently finished shooting the images for BD's 2012 Alpinism Digital Catalog, which is a digital evolution of BD (and Chouinard's) iconic catalog publications.

With a bit of guidance from Jon and his roomates, I began to explore the Chamonix valley. The magnitude of the peaks and the incredible access via the network of trams, gondolas and telepheriques was overwhelming, and it took some time to wrap my tired mind around the possibilities of the place. As it turned out, the incredible winter in the Alps had turned off about 3 weeks prior (and the snow had moved to the thirsty Rockies just as I left...) so what snow remained was going through a heavy diurnal freeze/thaw cycle. The resulting ski conditions were slide-for-life-ice in the big terrain, hammered bumps in much of the lower freeride terrain, and a relatively small softening window each day before turning from ice to soup.

As my tendency is to gravitate to big terrain, I found that I felt much safer skiing with my speedwing and speedriding; and therefore much of my descent was a combination of skiing and flying. This results in incredible access to some of the most radical terrain imaginable, and I was able to stack laps off the North Face of the Aiguille du Midi, touch down and carve through the bowls at Brevant, and buzz seracs while flying laps down to the Argentierre glacier at Grandes Montets. When a storm did finally come, I unfolded my Compactor Z-poles, put away my wing, and milked the last drops out of the powder days, following locals and making new friends skiing in this freeride and ski-mountaineering mecca.

As a lifelong skier for whom skiing has been a defining factor of my existence, it was an eye-opening experience to spend time in the land of origination of modern ski culture, heritage, and design. From the masterpieces of engineering accomplished in the tramways spanning to the summits of 'insurmountable' peaks, to the cutting edge of ski equipment design, Chamonix is a breeding ground and a testing ground for everything skiing (as well as climbing). As an engineer currently involved in ski design and production it was particularly interesting, and I took every opportunity to absorb the ski concepts and designs and their associated user groups. For example, while a skier from the southern Rockies such as myself may opt for something as big and powerful as Megawatts for everyday skiing, the largest skis chosen by the majority of the Chamonairds were significantly smaller and better suited to steep, often firm conditions. The Scandanavians tend to have a preference for large skis similar to North Americans, whereas through the tunnel in Italy on a sunny day almost everything I saw was of the radical sidecut, carving ski variety.

A fun experience on one of my last days in Chamonix was to come across cinematographer Seb Montaz and his crew, filming on a high-line for a Brazilian TV company. I watched in awe as they walked the line in the gusty winds, and captured as many of my own images of the spectacle as possible.  Later on, I chased Seb for a lap down Brevant on my wing.

My time in Chamonix finished with a couple of calm, beautiful days to session the Aiguille du Midi, just as the snow was melting from the run-out and it could no longer be skied back to the tram. I have since vacated Jon's couch and headed down south to stay with an old kayaking buddy near La Grave. Stay tuned for an update from the second half of my trip around La Grave and then heading north to the Swiss Alps to finish in the Jungfrau region.

[All fishing photos courtesy of Drew Stoecklein, all skiing photos courtesy of Garrett Grove.]

Once again it was time to leave the arid Salt Lake City desert and head to the Great White North in search of an adventure. With the Wasatch suffering for snow, I decided to head over to Washington's Olympic peninsula in search of the renowned chrome winter steelhead.

Washington is one of the few locations that one can catch 40-inch chromed steelheads and ski 40-degree waist deep powder in the same weekend. The rivers and the mountains here are truly unique.

When I landed in Washington, my good friends Jess and Bobby picked me up from the airport and we set off to test our luck on the river. Arriving at the coast proved to be a beautiful sight. The vibrant emerald rivers were engulfed by lush rainforest. Emerging from the thickets, the river poured into the raging ocean and somewhere swimming in these massive rivers were the mystical winter run steelhead. Most anglers dream about one day catching a chrome winter run Steelhead on the OP.

After two days of relentlessly dredging the river with our flies in the pouring rain, Jess finally hooked one. As Jess erupted with excitement, Bobby and I dropped our gear and rushed over to help him land the fish that he had been fighting for the past 20 minutes. Bobby waded out and tailed the fish so Jess could set down his rod.  Eagerly, Jess grabbed the measuring tape and laid it down on fish's side. The wild steelhead buck measured 35 inches and was perfectly chrome with a hint of color. Its scales were micro mirrors with traces of sea lice. It had fought like a wild badger, but now it lay tranquil. We all admired it. Not only was it an amazing privilege seeing one of these wild beasts up close, but it was also a thrill fighting with one on the end of the line. This was truly a fish of a lifetime for Jess. For me, it was so incredible to be a part of that moment and see the fish intimately. That night we celebrated the great catch in Forks, and the next day Bobby dropped me off to go skiing with photographer Garret Grove.

After having an unforgettable trip on the Olympic Peninsula, Garret and I drove from the Seattle to the small Bavarian town of Leavenworth.  I knew that it had been snowing in the mountains due to the torrential precipitation we endured on the river. But I didn't realize what was in store for us. On our first morning, we ventured to Stevens Pass. After hopping off the chairlift, to my surprise, there was 3.5 feet of cold smoke powder. I had no idea that Washington could get such light snow. All of us where suffocating as we ripped through the mossy trees, creating long smoke trails. With each turn, I had a grin from ear to ear. This was truly an epic trip that could only be experienced in Washington.

The next day we returned to Stevens Pass. The parking lot was packed, yet there seemed to be few people at the resort.  The vibe at Stevens was friendly and mellow. It was great to be at a resort with no rat race. And despite the unbelievable snow, people were pleasantly easy-going. The powder was even deeper, however slightly more dense. Never the less, we happily barreled through it, snaking through the tight, steep, Washington trees.

Our third and last day at Stevens was greeted by even more snow. It seemed as if the precipitation in Washington was relentless. The snow pack felt bottomless. We shredded the side country all day, enjoying every turn to its fullest. At the end of another mind-blowing day, I hopped in the car and rushed to the airport to fly back to Salt Lake City. As I was sitting in the airport thinking back on the trip I could not believe how the all the stars aligned to create all those wonderful memories in Washington.

I traveled alone to Barcelona and then I met my climbing partner, Enzo Oddo. He is 16 years old and from France. We found climbing together very good and for sure I couldn't complain about social atmosphere during the trip. The other great thing was the Spanish weather. It is complitely crazy. 3 minutes of rain in 3 weeks... no complaint.

Only thing that was worth to complain about was my climbing shape. After long sessions on boring plastic in my town, I forgot how to move on the real rock. By the way, when I was in Siurana I read great report from Alex Honnold about climbing gyms in Poland. He was on our climbing wall and it was very nice to read that someone’s seing the cool side of our dirty climbing walls. Coming back to Siurana I needed a couple of days to remember the rythm and balance. Unfortunately, when I thought that I was ready to try climb harder, I got a finger injury on a good, crimpy 8c route Pati Noso.

I had to stop pushing hard, but I didn’t mean, that my trip was worse. I tried to develop my other skills ☺. I learned a lot of French, practised my photography and of course I tried to discover fthe antastic culture of Catalunya. I must admit, that it is absolutely different than Polish one. From my point of view Spanish people live much slower. No rush. No stress. Just mañana.

I was able to climb on routes which didn’t forced me to use very much my broken ring finger, so I choose the best classics of sector El Pati like amazing Kallea Borroka or Migranya Profounda, both 8b+. Both are beautiful and uniqe. Actually, almost all routes in Siurana were admirable. Maybe not my style, because many long reaches, but I had great fun doing them.

For last four days we moved to Margalef, which is about 1 hour from Siurana by car. Everything changed. This was the next thing, which made on me big impression. During the drive, firstly I was watching limestone cliffs, than sandstone and finally conglomerate rock, which make up the Margalef sectors. Many intermediates holds = good for short people, like me. My finger was much better and I didn’t have to crimp here, so I found cool project for finish of the trip. I choose L’espiadimonis (8c) in sector Crova Box. This is very nice endurance route with crux in the middle. I really liked it and after one unseccssfull day of tries, I decided to try one more day. I rested for one day and did route first try on the next day. So great feeling! Good finish of the trip. ☺

Greetings from cold and rainy Poland!
Alex

What really defined Steve, however, was his infectious love for the sport of backcountry skiing. The conversations last week remembering the great times with our good friend inevitably steered towards his undeniable excitement to be outside on snow, no matter what the conditions. In sharing his passion, Steve became a beacon in the Jackson Hole, Wyoming community. He was simply one of those people that made a profound impact on most everyone who was lucky enough to meet him, if even just once.

Knowing Steve meant learning a lesson about life. Steve never wasted a day, or an hour, and he was leading the life he dreamed for himself, which is the most any of us can ever aspire to. It's easy to see he died doing what he loved, but Steve Romeo's real legacy is that he lived doing what he loved. Live to ski—that was his motto. Thanks for the times, Steve. You will be missed.

-Your Friends at Black Diamond

A public memorial will be held for Steve Romeo and Chris Onufer at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 13 in the Village Commons (behind The Mangy Moose) at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Donations in memory of Steve and Chris can be made to the Bridger Teton National Forest Avalanche Center, Teton County Search and Rescue and the Jenny Lake Rangers of Grand Teton National Park. A Facebook page has been set up as a tribute to Steve and Chris and is a great place to write your own tribute and read other's.

— Evan

From:     John Collinson
Subject:     Japan
Date:     February 7, 2012 12:36:17 PM MST

As everyone knows, the weather in the lower 48 hasn't been extremely beneficial for skiers this season... well, the ones that like soft snow, that is. So, as any one else would do, I accepted an invite to head over to Japan for three weeks in January. Grant Gunderson shot photos, and the other athletes were KC Deane, Carston Oliver and Adam U. We basically just choked every day, all day on the overload of snow. I really had no idea it could snow that much that fast. We were skiing three feet of new snow everyday, and it wasn't dense, watery snow… it was fluffy, dreamy shit. We basically spent three weeks living the dream. Deep snow every day, good food every night, and doing it all in a pretty cool part of the world. I definitely want to head back there sooner rather than later and explore more of what Japan has to offer.

As for now, I'm back on the storm chasing boat. Heading up to BC for a few weeks, try to get some filming done, and then crossing my fingers for an Alaska trip! I'll keep you updated on what I'm up to!

thanks man,
Johnny C

During the first week of 2012, I had the opportunity to travel to Nelson, British Columbia to shoot a feature article for Swedish magazine, Aka Skidor. Without a flake of snow in sight I packed my bags and headed to the Great White North to meet up with photographer Garret Grove, editor Tobias Liljeroth, and athlete Chris Rubens. After pounding the pavement for 14 hours I arrived in Nelson. For the next 5 days I experienced the incredible terrain at White Water Resort along with some great snow conditions. White Water has a great, small-resort feeling that’s combined with an endless amount of backcountry adventures. After a week of shredding I was bummed to leave, and I can’t wait for the next chance to come back to White Water and ski again.

— Drew