Jake shredding his first Bryce Canyon line and heading right for his first red rock cliff.

Jackpot!!

Look at those spine walls!! When did Alaska come to Southern Utah?

And like most things in life… if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. After getting Tony in position, a small cornice drop triggered this 1.5 foot deep, 40-50 foot wide fracture. Not a huge surprise considering all of this snow fell all at once over the past few days. On top of that, the park rangers were monitoring our radio conversation with their scanners and stopped us before we could do anything anyway. Apparently it’s illegal to shred these desert Nation Parks and you’ll get upwards of a $2,000 dollar fine and probably arrested.  Several people have been killed in slides just like this due to the weak rock underneath so that might have somthing to do with it. Or as the park ranger told us, “You’ll run right into the hoo doos!”

Still far and away the most beautiful sight I’ve ever witnessed.

The potential was sickening.

Slot canyon couloir anyone? It was so painful to stand on top of alla this and not be able to do a thing… A true feeling of helplessness took over.

So we went on a wandering journey through the woods next door to get away from the park rangers in hopes of finding something cool to shred in a more remote side canyon. It wasn’t long before we ran out of daylight and had to make camp in the middle of nowhere with no idea what we were gunna do or where we were. Not so stoked, we made a fire, cooked some dinner and settled into our down bags for another sub zero desert night.

Woke up and figured we had nothin to lose… might as well go explore and see what’s out there. Little did we know…

This would be our playground for the day. After stumbling upon such an all time spot, you could just see everyone glowing. None of us had ever seen anything like it. An overwhelming sense of how lucky we were settled in… to have the perfect weather, snow and crew all when it matters is really something epic. As amazed as we all were, everyone knew exactly how serious this was. Insane amounts of new snow, avalanche potential, HUGE faces, gnarly death traps, and cliff-out zones everywhere. Starting small, analyzing the snowpack and knowing where your limits are proved crucial at this point.

Lets get to work…

Danimal goin deep.

Brook, just seconds before sending it for the first time in Southern Utah.