Andrei's First Backcountry Skiboard Trip

[jjue]

One of the newest members of our Shredfest family is Andrei who many of us met at the last Shredfest. Andrei is engineer by trade and an avid hiker, backpacker , snowshoer , and snowboarder. He has been on skis maybe 7 times in his life and has never been on skiboards. He ran into my buddies Billy and Jeff and I during one of our backcountry trips . He was with a group of snowshoers and was very intrigued by our short skis /skiboards. He contacted me on SBOL and inquired about how to learn more about skiboards and especially backountry applications for skiboards and short skis. I told him about Shredfest and he decided to attend. He came out to the meet and greet on Saturday night and spent Sunday morning with our group at Heavenly . He rented some ski boots and tried out Fightingforair's Sherpa . He amazed all of us as he rocked those Sherpas on the Heavenly groomers and in moguls. No way did he look like a first timer . He was eager to go on one of our backcountry trips and was eager to try the Rockered Condors with his snowboard boots. I invited Andrei along on one of our backcountry adventures yesterday. Remember, although Andrei is a skilled snowshoer and snowboarder he has never ever ridden a skiboard other then the Sherpa and certainly is not experienced on short skiboards. He has also never descended in powder or backcountry snow on skis or skiboards but was game for a first time experience on the RC in the backcountry! I did warn him that the RC has something of a reputation as an expert's skiboard especially in challenging backcountry conditions and is not the most stable of ski boards. Since he had done so well on the Sherpa I offered him a Fritschi mounted Sherpa for his first backcountry trip ... but he was very eager to try out the RC and I was happy to oblige . I have a second backcountry RC set up and accompanied Andrei with my own RC set up .. My buddies Jeff and Billy are experienced backcountry riders .. Jeff is on Fritschi mounted Sherpas and Billy on a telemark mounted Hagan 130 .. Billy is our head guide and also my backcountry mentor ! My son Jordan also joined us ... Jordan is an experienced backcountry snowboarder and skier and for this trip chose his splitboard (snowboard that splits into skis for the ascent and goes back together to snowboard downhill )
Andrei did fabulously for his first time out on the RC , he climbed and descended in steep tree filled intimidating slopes in challenging variable pow conditons.
Andrei you get my backcountry hero award for this season ... to climb and drop the kind of backcountry slope you did being a total first timer was nothing short of amazing ! Great job !

Here is Andrei on the climb ....


Here is our crew near the summit of our climb ...



Here is the video of our adventure .....

[Bluewing]

Way to go Andrei! I had the pleasure of meeting Andrei at Shredfest and seeing him on the Sherpas at Heavenly. Nice guy and very daring - his first skiboard experience was on Sherpas at Heavenly - not an easy thing to do. He did great on them - spectacular if you consider it was his first time on skiboards and he was on the biggest boards out there.

Great stuff in the backcountry - Andrei rocks for jumping in and being on the RCs in what looks like some tight backcountry terrain. Way to go! I will say that I noticed Jack had not given you an ice ax or a set of whippets - from what others have told me it isn't a real backcountry trip with Jack unless he hands you one or more implements with a dangerous pointy end with the instuctions "if you fall get this into the snow somehow to arrest your slide or you could die".....

[slinger]

It was a real pleasure meeting so many of you at ShredFest, it's wonderful to come across such a friendly bunch!
FightingForAir was incredibly generous, he let me try out a brand spankin' new pair of Sherpas as my first skiboard experience - I couldn't have hoped for such a primo primer! FightingForAir: you rock!

As for this trip with Jack and his crew, it all adds up to "WOW"!!!
Great company, perfect weather, a fantastic guide (who took us to some), unbelievable snow stashes (even as the rest of Tahoe melts and dries up), and sweet powder boards to ride on. Can it get any better? Jack was beyond kind to let me borrow an entire Rockered Condor setup, with Rocker bindings, skins, ski crampons, the whole shebang. And, with his helpful advice, I think I cut my faceplanting in half

Without you guys, I'd have no idea how much fun skiboards are.
From this happy convert, a million thanks!



Jack: when I wasn't busy not falling, I got this short clip with you: https://vimeo.com/62659591. Maybe you'd like to add it to the video you made.


-Andrei

[jjue]

Thanks Andrei ! Looking forward to our next adventure ...
Here is Andrei's video

Backcountry Skiboarding from octagone on Vimeo.