Fresh powder tracks

So last week my buddy Nev Lapwood of Snowboard Addiction calls me up to see if I wanted to go sledding up Brandywine with him and Warren. Since I’ve finally bought my own sled this season I’m always keen to go up sledding and check out new terrain for potential new photo spots. So when Nev called, of course I was excited to go sledding. We planned to go up the next day and arranged to meet the next morning at the husky to fuel up and make sure the sleds are all good for an adventure up Brandywine.

It was a pretty average day, very overcast and foggy, but we had 30 cm of fresh snow the day before so we knew the back country would be very decent.

Once we arrived at Brandywine everyone unloaded their sleds. Nev was pretty stoked because it was his first time on his new (to him) Articat that he bought off of our friend Shaun (who was moving back to New Zealand). Once every thing was unloaded we jetted off to the meadows where we calibrated and practiced using our beacons before we headed into the more remote and dangerous sections of Brandywine.

We sledded up out of the meadows to ride some un tracked powder for a few laps. I managed to get one sick powder run down a beautiful tree section before I opened up my camera bag to snap a few pictures of Warren hitting this one melow line that he found. Warren basicly rode the same line that I had previously ridden but he scoped out a nice rock pillow line and he ended it off with a powder slash into Pete’s video camera.

Pete is a Filmer friend who has been filming with Warren a bunch to put together a section for Warren in the new Voleurz video. You can check out some of Pete’s work at his website  Epic Mountain Video.

After we all took our run down some amazing powder we went higher up Brandywine to find some more fresh spots. Warren and Pete managed to get ahead of Nev and I because Nev got stuck trying to climb up to where Pete and Warren where. When we caught up with them I got to do another sick powder run with Pete filming me doing some powder slashes. By the time I finished Nev and Warren already scoped out a new spot.

At the time the snow was coming down pretty hard, but warren had found this nice line threw some trees into a nice open section. He built a little jump threw two trees into a clear landing with a rock drop at the bottom. Pete and I got our camera’s ready and waited for Warren to yell ~Drop in!

By the time Warren had dropped in my Camera’s view finder was so fogged I wasn’t able see him so I any possible Photo’s of him. It was also unfortunate for him as Pete wasn’t ready when he dropped in. So I know Warren had fun doing the line but we didn’t end up getting any footage of it. Everyone was sorta bummed over the missed shot and It was getting late in the day, so we where running out of time. After Nev saw Warren line he decided to sneak in one last run down the still fresh line that Warren rode. So Warren gave Nev a ride to the top while Pete who’s a Skier without ski’s in the back country was doing powder turns on my Prior snowboard.

When Nev arrived at the top he checked out the line that Warren built and prepared himself for dropping in. I patently waited with my camera in hand while I hid behind some trees so the snow wouldn’t hit the front of my lens while I was waiting for Nev to say

DROP IN~!

Then out of nowhere I see Nev threw the barrel of my lens hitting the jump and soaring threw the tree’s then sailing down the powder run into the little rock drop and quickly cruising by my lens. When Nev dropped in my view finder was still super fogged up but I still was able to follow him with my camera and capture a few fun photos to show him plowing threw all the light powder.

By the time he was finished we had to pack up and hop back on the sleds to get down to our trucks before the sun went down. I was able to do a few more powder slashes on my way down to my sled which we had parked down by the valley. Getting to my sled before the others gave me time to fix the pull cord cylinder on it that was coming apart. It took me awhile to tighten all the bolts but it worked out perfectly as I had my engine fired up right when the boys where coming down the mountain to meet up with me.

Once everyone adjusted their gear we all descended into the meadows of Brandywine to mark the end of a fun back country shred day. We eventually merged back onto the cat tracks which take about 25 minutes from out location on the mountain. Since it was getting dark everyone was taking it pretty mellow down the bumpy cat tracks.

When Warren, Pete and I arrived at the parking lot we start loading our sleds onto the trucks when we notice that Nev hasn’t shown up yet. So everyone checks their cell phones and notice a missed call from Nev. So I give Nev a call to see what the trouble is. As it turns out he was about 500m from the parking lot when his sled shut off. Apparently it was back firing heavily and wouldn’t turn on anymore.

So Warren hops on a sled with a chain in hand to toe Nev back to the parking lot. When Nev and Warren arrived back at the parking lot we helped him load his broken sled into his truck. It was pretty amazing to see the back firing of his engine when it was idleing because it was getting dark you could see the spark illuminating threw every single air vent on Nev’s sled.

It was a fun day of riding, Pete and I where able to capture some fun pic’s and clips that we can enjoy. I can’t wait to get out shredding the back country with those guy again, it should be another great adventure!

If you Enjoyed this post of Sledding and Snowboarding in Brandywine you can view some other blog posts of Sledding and Snowboarding here:

Rainbow Mountain, day 3 sledding, second asent of Rainbow

Branywine Mountain Snowboarding with Eddie

And you can check out the rest of my Snowboarding blog posts in my Snowboarding section