Jacob Wester

Whew, what a day! Just got back to the house here in Telluride after a long day, started skinning by 8 am and made it to the top of our run, 3000 vertical feet later, at noon. Then we skied some steep but fun colouirs with surprisingly good snow and hopefully we got some good shots.

So what am I doing, you might ask? Well, about a week ago Oakley asked me to come to Telluride to shoot a short movie and a story for Freeskier, together with Seth Morrison and Nate Wallace. No way I was turning this opportunity down, even if it means getting into some gnarly terrain that I obviously not have that much experience of. I’m seeing it as a great chance to learn from the best, figure out my mountaineering skills, and evolve as a skier. First thing I realized today was that I was definitely not in the shape I thought I was in, after spending 2 weeks at sea level in Sweden, doing a 4 hour skin right off the bat was seriously heavy, but I made it up and still had some energy to ski back to the truck. Going to sleep very well tonight though…

Enough talking, here’s a couple images Seth and Greg snapped today:

early start

about 2 thirds of the way up. feeling like an 80 year old at 11000 feet.

dropping in through some tight rocks

halfway down the Illusions couloir. amazing snow for how warm the conditions are here.

Big smile on my face after getting through the sketchier parts. Now a 2000 vertical ft pow run awaits.

looking back up at our run from the parking lot, 3pm. hard to tell in this photo, but we skied down right in the middle of that big rock wall above the open bowl.

Alright, time to rehydrate, eat a ton of calories then sleep for a solid ten hours, before we’re doing something similar tomorrow!

Jacob

~ by jacobwester on March 14, 2013.