Steelhead and Spines - Volume Two

In the spring of 2015, we began another pursuit for big lines and wild fish. Once again, our direction was north to Alaska, just as it was 3 years ago on our first trip to capture steelhead and spines. Since then, our burning desire to explore around the next bend, to see what's on the other side of the mountain, has grown to an inextinguishable level. We found ourselves back in a corner of southeast Alaska where for a few months of the year, some of the steepest, fluted lines in the world can be ridden, while chromed out steelhead run up and down the coastal rivers. This is the place for us to step outside the bubble of modern society, and into a world of our own making, where skiing and fishing and camping is everything. We returned home with these images, and memories of battling storms and mountains on the glacier and of an island where pure fish swim beneath the old growth hemlocks.

Wasatch P.o.v. and follow cams - 14/15 Winter

Here we have some P.o.v. footage from last season in Utah. Enjoy!

Warren Miller's 66th film - Chasing Shadows

As a kid growing up on the east coast, the Warren Miller films always got me dreaming of bigger and better mountains in the west. All the ski and snowboard movies i watched in those days had a huge impact on my life. When my Pop moved to Utah in 1999, there was no question that my brothers and i would soon follow.

This past winter my brother Ian and i had the opportunity to show the Warren Miller crew around the UT backcountry for their 66th film "Chasing Shadows". Utah had been experiencing a rough winter at the time with a pretty marginal snowpack. One of the best storms of the season happened to roll through right when they showed up. We spent a week walking around the Wasatch with legend Tom Day and his son Danny riding some classic terrain in great condition.
Link to 2015 film tour- www.skinet.com/warrenmiller/film-tour

A higher level of fitness

When it comes to reaching your fitness goal, steps are just the beginning. Fibit tracks every part of your day - including activity, exercise, food, weight and sleep
- to help find your fit, stay motivated and see how small steps make a big difference.
www.Fitbit.com
Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Fitbit via Mode Media.
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Fitbit.

Mountain travel isn't the easiest way to exercise, but it sure is fun.  It takes time to adjust to the harsh environments and logistics when compared to the comforts of a nice indoor gym!  I've always known how important it is to stay strong and in good shape for the sports that I love, but the idea of a typical gym setting to achieve that makes me cringe.   With a seasonal passion like splitboarding and snowboarding, I've had to find different ways to stay in shape during the off-season.   The combination of hiking, backpacking, biking and climbing provide me with all the activity I need to be strong when the snow starts to fly.
The more you push your limits, the longer you can stay outside doing what you love, no matter what the sport may be.

I've been using the Fitbit Surge to track my exercises out on the splitboard this winter.  It has proven to be super useful to see what actually happens in terms of statistics while out hiking, something I've never really been able to see.   Everything from heart rate to distance traveled, elevation gain and calories burned.   Day after day, you can track your output and see how your body is changing with time in regards to cardio strength and stamina.   I was blown away to see how may calories I was burning on an average ski tour. I've since adjusted the amount of food I bring, and try to eat on an hourly schedule to keep my calorie intake matched to what I'm burning.   Being able to visually see how many calories I'm burning has been a huge help in keeping my energy levels up, to avoid the dreaded "crash"!

With the GPS tracking I have the ability to see a summary of these stats and review my route afterward on the phone app or computer.  This paints a perfect picture of where I'm at physically, and where I want to be in the future.  It can be difficult to see your progress when it comes to sports like splitboarding and mountain hiking in general. Using this watch I'll have a much better idea of how to improve my fitness while keeping track of it as the seasons change.

Snowboarding from the top of Hayden Peak

Hayden Peak is a rather iconic mountain in the Uintas of northeastern Utah. It marks the western boundary of the main core of the range, where the peaks get high and rugged. We’ve spent a decade exploring the range, and the potential for first ski and snowboard descents off the highest peaks in Utah is real.

My Brother Ian and I have skied numerous lines on the Hayden massif over the years, but never from the top. Last May, Ian spotted a line and we just had to see if it would go. We had ourselves a full value experience on the mountain that day, linking up 2 staggering couloirs from the summit. I wonder if we were the first to ride Hayden Peak from the top? Regardless, this is our proudest Uinta line yet.

Snowboarding from the top of Hayden Peak from The Provo Bros on Vimeo.

Alaska with the Powderwhore's -April 2014

I was fortunate to spend 11 days camping in the Tordrillo Mountains with legendary brothers Jonah and Noah Howell, along with Carston Oliver and Jay Beyer in April of 2014. Little did i know they would be working on their last film with Powderwhore productions- "Some thing else".
10 solid years of great backcountry films- Thanks bros!

We had beautiful weather for those 11 days, perfect stability and conditions for hiking up to the amazing terrain.
The cold glaciers and early sunrises really are some thing else!

The largest pillow line of my life - January 2014

In mid January of 2014 an arctic cold front set in over British Columbia, along with blue skies for the rest of the month. With a stable snowpack and good pow high up, the options for snowboarding seemed endless. It's not too often that you get to hike up and ride down just about anywhere with little concern for avalanches. I had been eying up this pillow line for over a year and it was the perfect time to give it a try.

Many thanks to Ian Provo, Pete Alport and Daniel Rönnbäck for capturing the moment that day.

The Forgotten Trails of the Uintas

September 2013, Eric Porter, and my brother Neil and I, hoisted up our packs and began pedaling our mountain bikes into the Uintas along an ATV trail through the lodgepole pines. Only two hours into our 4 day backpack-cycle mission and it became clear that the easy part was definitely over. Neil and I have been exploring the north slope of the Uintas with fly-rods for about a decade, but only until recently, as mountain biking has become a bigger part of our lives, did we think about connecting the squiggly blue lines on the map with the dotted ones using mans most noble invention, the bicycle. A loop that brought us in and out of 4 different river valleys, where we always stopped to camp and fish, before moving on to the next section of road, trail, or forgotten single track. It was a true adventure that showed us a new side of the mountains, all while blending the things we love about summer into one trip....
camping with your friends, getting lost, catching fish, and riding bikes. -Ian Provo

The Forgotten Trails of the Uintas from The Provo Bros on Vimeo.

Pick up a copy of the winter 2014 issue of Freehub Magazine to see Ian's photos from the trip.

"What kind of Meat?" -Fly fishing in the jungles of Bolivia

A fly-fishing journey to the Bolivian Amazon. We wanted to experience the rawness of the jungle in the richest ecosystem on earth, to have a primordial connection with nature that for us, is best achieved through exploration with a fly rod. Our Tsimané guides brought us into their jungle, back in time to a lost world of primitive living, giving us the opportunity to catch a Golden Dorado, one of the most possessed fish that swims. The Amazon wilderness holds many mysteries, but we found out for ourselves that the real treasures of the jungle live beneath the canopy, and swim through its pristine rivers. From the lowland tropics to the high altitudes of the Cordillera, our fly-fishing trip became more of a lesson in the immense diversity of Bolivia's landscapes and people. We invested everything we had, but came home feeling rich with new knowledge and experiences that are now priceless.

If you're interested in an expedition style fly-fishing trip to the headwaters of the Bolivian Amazon,
you must contact our friends Patrick Taendler and Federico Marancenbaum from Santa Cruz.
They shared with us their passion and enthusiasm for Golden Dorado, and there is no way in hell we could have done it without them! Angling Frontiers

Voile Revelator splitboard 2015-2015

My point of view riding the Revelator Splitboard, about 20 miles away from its birth place in Salt Lake City at Voile Manufacturing. Utah's Wasatch mountains are an incredible place for building and testing splitboards, and this new board from Voile is a perfect match for the terrain. March 2014.