My first taste of British Columbia. January 16th-23, 2010


British columbia has been on my list for quite some time. Finally got the chance to make it happen. Ian had been up in Nelson skiing with armada for about a week while i was back in utah, riding hardpack due to the lack of fresh pow! The Doc gave me the go ahead on the ankle at 6 weeks. I had had about 2 weeks on snow and the leg was feeling pretty good, so i thought!
Ian's trip was coiming to an end when he called me up and told me about the terrain and conditions. Utah was hurting at the moment so i decided to make the journey north to meet up with him to shred the Koots! The next day i was on a new delta flight which only takes 2 hours from salt lake, straight into the heart of the Kootanay range!
Thanks Lisa and Jay!!
We ripped lonnng deep runs filled with thousands of pillows for a whole week. It was a dream! BC is one of my favorite places to be! Here's a bunch of photos to give an idea of the great times we had!

Day 1. Kicked things off with a day at White Water ski resort outside of nelson to get the legs warmed up. Click photos to see BIG


It should be called "White out" resort, because we couldn't see anything the whole day!


Day 2. On to a new zone we both had never been to. Ice-capped mountains! Crazy how many logging roads there are in bc, most of which lead to incredible terrain.


We dug some pits to check the snowpack. Southern BC had been dealing with a mega surface hoar issue for a while. It was buried about 3-4ft deep. Slabs were popping out clean below tree line, so we kept a watchful eye.


Ian is stoked.


At the top of our first run after discovering the sickest zone i have ever been to. A solid 1800ft run of tree's and massive pillows!


We had a great day. We were so happy to have found a good zone to tour. Plan was to come back the next day to dig a snow cave and stay for 2 days to explore the area.
Nothing like a full day in the mountains...


Day 3. Park the sled at the boundary and hit the skin trail! There was plenty of snow up there as you can see! 1500ft up we came upon a steep cliff zone that we saw the day before. Good lines to be had.


Oh here's a nice little pillow line to start the day...maaaash!


Ian dropping off a massive chalk stone.


Boosting into the whiteness...


Why make a snow cave when you stumble upon a public cabin in the woods? We chose the cabin, Duh! It was a choice starry night, perfect for a cup of tea and a smoke! Tomorrow was to be my first bluebird day in BC.


Day 4. Sure enough the sun was shining and the pow was deep. These mountains hadn't seen the sun in a while so they were fresh! You can see our destination for the day at the end of my ski pole, righteous steeps!


Killer views all around...


Here we are! This looks like a good place to ride for the day...


Have a look at these lines. Pondering the massive slide paths across the way while standing on a bus sized pillow!


Ahh the sunlight, only lasted for an hour unfortunately. Still have to get up there too!


Stick that in you're pipe and smoke it, a high grade bc run!


Ian's view from the top of his line, and my view from the bottom! Killer pillow line...


A looong run down filled with soft fluffy pillows. What a day!


Day 5. RETALLAK cat skiing! Thanks SO much to all the staff there, priceless. No photos cause we were having way to much fun ripping non stop top to bottoms... Had the helmet cameras rolling the whole day so we will have some cool footage up soon. I got lost in the moment and forgot that i had broke my ankle just months before and ended up tweaking my knee due to lack of strength from couch warming. It wasn't to bad so we took day 6 off to relax before heading into the back country again.

Day 7. Back to the zone we had discovered earlier on. A fresh line to start the day off right!




The views are great when you get up high, lots of possibilities in these parts


Ian was on point this trip and decided to step to the Ice spine wall...GNARLY LINE!


That was a nice one bud!


Hoping into the last bit of sunlight for the day on this slope.


Plenty of pillows on the way down.


Our trip came to an end the next day as we were driving up the logging road and almost slammed some trees. It was sketchy close call. Money was getting low, my body was beat as was ians so we decided to had back to utah. Fortunately utah was just getting done with a fat storm which dumped a ton of snow.
So stoked to come back to british columbia... It is now my new favorite place on earth. Next time im bringing my full backpacking kit, my sled and some studded tires for sure!!! Till next time, Thanks for having us Eh!!


Check in for a few BC video's coming up soon!

Southern Utah scouting mission. January 8th-10th 2010

Went for a scoping mission to southern utah on the 8th-10th to see what it has to offer. Lots of goods, stoked to go back down when there is better snow and more coverage!

Dash todd and Pete checking out the scenery!
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At the time, there was lots more snow than the wasatch, but also lots more wind on the ridge-lines as you can see here...
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We were stoked to be in the mountains!
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Beautiful zone.
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yours truly!
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Coming back for the spring corn cycle to nail this one out!
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Dash enjoying the view, glad we're not in the smog down below!
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Red Rock country!
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Blown away by what utah has to offer
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Red rock snowboarding, about to drrrop in!
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Hyped to go back down south when the snowpack stabilizes after the mega dump we received, boy its sketchy out there!
***stay tuned for the next post from Ian and my trip to British Columbia- BOOOM!!!***

Ankle test and Mt.Timp recon -January 5th, 10

Ian and I took out the sleds to warm them up for the season, and to test my freshly healed ankle! Was planning to just take a mellow stroll but ended up finding some choice pow to ride. Ankle is feeling great! It is good to be up in the mountains and off the couch. Stoked to be back on the mission!!!



CLICK HERE TO WATCH IN HD

December 25th 2009

Happy Holidays to all from the Provo family!
Photo from the early 90's at Ski Sundown, New Hartford CT.
The stomping grounds
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^I'm thinking "where's my board?!"

Summertime Day dreams - float'n and fishin' on July 13, 09

Since there's not much snow to ride here in park city, and since i have a broken ankle now, I've been thinking a lot about fly fishing! Here is a short film Ian and I made from a day floatin' utah waters. Boy i sure hope the snow comes soon, its december 9th and im still day dreaming about fly fishing! Soon the ankle will be healed up, and the snow will soon fall......



November 17th 09- Fly fishin the weeb'

November has been a bit dry on the snowy side of things. We have only had a few storms this month, which didn't produce much. It's looking like a repeat of last year! Either way, the trout are hungry this time of year! I have had a dry-spell the last 5 times out fly fishing and finally broke it by catching a few nice brown's...

Ian's first cast laid him into a nice rod bender, a fat brown that got away after a few minutes of fighting!
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Cold times out on the river this time of year!
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FINALY! a trout for neil! Boy my luck was bad for a bit there!
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The snow should be here any day now........... Getting excited for WINTER!!!

Epic October at Alta!- TGR Blog post

Pete Obrien is a mad man. He was up at Alta shredding pow and documenting during and after every storm October brought through. There was some deep days up there! Espesially for the month of OCTOBER!!!
Click link to check it out his photos!- Epic October at Alta

My First true deep pow turns of the year. I'm on the left, and Chris Coulter laying into one on the right! October 29th 09
Neil Provo,Chris Coulter,Alta,Snowboarding
Photo: Pete Obrien