Humans are really, really dumb

Before you go off the deep end, I want you to sit, read, think.

Look at this baby.

This is a grey wolf sc: Canis lupus. The wolf as a species is very old. This is a Columbia Valley/Northern Purcells one. Wolves have been living in harmony with their surrounds for many thousands of years. They kill for food, and can be killed for food.

Wolves do not breed beyond what nature dictates they can. They are smart, smart animals.

Wolves also happen to be a keystone in their ecosystem. A keystone is a stone, for instance in an archway, that supports the entire arch (the stone at the top, in the middle). Remove that stone, the whole thing collapses.

A little while, down in Yellowstone National Park in the USA - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Yellowstone+National+Park&ie=UTF8&ll=44.777936,-110.544434&spn=9.326876,21.269531&z=6&iwloc=A - many wolves were culled (almost to extinction I think). This was so hunters, yes, HUNTERS, had more elk and deer and the like to hunt. Leaving aside the whole hunting thing, how is the logic in that little cracker. Oh wait, it's devoid of logic.

Anyway, because humans are realllllly stupid and arrogant, they went and messed with the keystone, and lo and behold, elk and deer numbers (maybe caribou too, not sure) exploded. Then what happened? They started eating all the foliage low to the ground. This mean new young saplings were DEMOLISHED. No regrowth. No food for other animals.

What happened next? Birds and other animals disappeared. The place went haywire and I am told resembled a ghost town.

Some smart cat worked out the wolves needed to be there. The wolves were re-introduced and BANG, balance was restored and now the park is thriving. By the way, the figure given to me for the time between wolf introduction and restoration was frightfully short. Something in the number of single years. That's a very short period for a balance point to move in nature.

Now that's a lesson worth remembering.

Isn't it? Guys? Hello?

Well, it appears not. Now, I thought Canucks were reasonably enlightened souls, but it seems back West, boy howdy we have some evolving to do. Westies, they're reading back East! So hunters in Canada, not content with living in some of the most stunning natural terrain I have seen, and being able to ski, kayak, mountain bike etc, well, they need to have a bit of gun shooting to compensate for whatever is missing in their lives, and shoot some deer. Problem is, these humans are either:
a) crap hunters and scare the game away and thus can't find any, or,
b) they're too lazy to become good hunters, or,
c) the game are smart and go hiding (caribou case in point, same for wolves)

I am picking it's a combo of all three. So, these clowns want to shoot deer and elk (ok, ok, I supposeit's the same as fishing, but ONLY, if they eat all the game and don't go whacking stuffed heads and whatnot on their mantlepieces, I mean, COME ON).

So what does logic tell them....create a controlled environment full of said game? Nope.

Be better hunters? Nope.

Oh wait, let's take out our competitor the wolf. So now there is a very real possibility of a wolf cull throug capture/neutering or poisoning/shooting.

When will we learn?

The stupidity amazes me. Well, actually, no it doesn't.

Anyway, if you go to www.northernlightswildlife.com you can learn more.

It's a disgrace, it's a travesty. Where's Derryn Hinch, "Shame, Shame".

2008 Boards

Here is the oil on our 2008 boards - The twin Mirrors in black and white and The Guild of Powder Assassins. Rock.

The basic specs are below. More specifications are at heresysnowboarding.com/store.
- 148, 153, 156, 159
- centred stance, twin
- non-ABS sidewalls (ABS sucks)
- 12 pack inserts
- sintered 7500 bases
- triax fibreglass
- full wood cores (NO foam)
- Full specs to follow

*** We are also doing some custom changes on this like directional twins, different flex patterns and graphics - contact us for details.

Standard White - RRP$650AUD including free tshirt and stickers


Limited Edition Black - - RRP$750AUD including free tshirt and stickers


VERY limited edition Guild of Powder Assassins - RRP$750AUD including free tshirt and stickers

Day 25 - Whitewater powder

Ho hum. More powder. We estimate around 2ft of fresh in 2 days. Some sort of joyous winter wonderland.

After yesterday's debacle with the hire car, we had to hitch. I was in no mood for hitching, or indeed riding, but Packy's subtle and infectious enthusiasm plus the sunshine got us there, of course I needed some help from Oso Negro Oso Good coffee. Woy yow eger cafe.

I hitched for the first time in my life (thanks fella) with Pack, and a Venezuelan shredder who it turns out is from our hostel.

Here are some photos - apologies for the non profligate nature of this dispatch but we are about to go to the airport.

More to follow on this day, the previous day and our last day.

Day 24 - Whitewater powder

More powder. Just epic. More description to follow, but knee deep (deeper in parts) freshies. Unbelievable.

I have a lot more photos but have to Photoshop them as they're a bit dark. Silly me got excited and forgot to wind the ISO on ze camera out to 400.

The hike to Shortside begins.

The view down toward the final hike. Apparently Packy was mooning me. Thank the Lord I only had a wide angle lense on. It is looking rather white down there, though.

Entrance to Powderland.

Ripping and shredding. Bananas.

I had the shutter on 1/15th from a previous shot to capture the heaviness of the snow through blurring the flakes. I forgot to wind the shutter out to 1/1250 and this is the result. Came out all art. Mistakes rule.


Phil goes Bossssshhhhh. Bosh bosh. Like some sort of powder banshee.

Hershey-holic

This is Packy's side of the car. Hmmmm.
Now, he'll claim I've eaten as many, and it's just that I throw mine out so there's no evidence, but this is patently absurd. Just some sort of creamy, cookie-ish chocolate herring.

Day 23 - Nelson, down day

Since today was a down day with sleep in and awesome brekky at Full Circle where I fortunately was seated across the way from a girl I was smitten with at the pub the other night, I don't have any photos.

I was reading The Age website before and came across this:
Angry rant about Australian travellers

Now Catherine Deveny's articles are frequently angry little rants but this one got my goat. But that's me. She's right in some sense (go to Big White to see what I mean) but even so, how jealous/angry is this rant?

Godddd. Someone needs to chill out, to Phillax, in the words of the great Powder Potomus, Phil Parkin.

I have another rant on the stupidity of humans but this this will be a separate post.

Today was awesome, 2 pairs of new goggles, each 50% off, and a new Dakine backpack, 50% off. 40% off some Dakine backcountry hiking poles.

Discount city, population me.

And to top it off, Heresy now has a bona fide rep in Nelson. More on this soon.

Day 22 - Whitewater Backcountry Epicness

Holy shnikies Batman. Did we ever score today.
Nick, a totally cool local who works at Valhalla in Nelson, took us for our first backcountry (BC) trip. No Backcountry for Old Men.

The trip began Friday night with a suggestion then a flurry of organising to ensure that we had full avalanche kits (beacon/transceiver, probes, shovel) as well as snow shoes and poles to get there. The excitement very quickly gave way to nervousness and a lot of questions about avalanche rescue technique, beacon reading, safety precautions and myriad other questions.

I tell you what, if you're going BC into avie territory, you want someone like Nick. The man is so safety conscious and knows what he is on about. He was talking about doing some guiding and if he does, and you come here or wherever he is, engage his services. The man's mountain knowledge is awesome. And he is so calm and matter of fact.

Anyway, the snow fell throughout the night, and Whitewater in their typically understated way of reporting, reported 2cm of snow. 2cm my bum.

We warmed up on groomers, covered in fresh snow, as more snow continued to fall from the heavens. We then made our way to what is known as Shortside.


What followed was some incredible tree rides through soft pillow lines, and constant hooting from the three of us. We found this. The angle I took these from don't really do it justice, next time I shoot from the side.

And did this.
Nick method shifty I think

Packy straight air.








After two runs of this, with a short hike or hitch (thanks guys) out, we had lunch. I need to talk about the stunning food. Simple and so wholesome. I had the Glory Bowl which comprised brown rice (perfectly cooked), a peanut curry sauce, shredded carrot and beetroot, spinach leaves, then unbelievable cooked slivered almonds, some sort of magical garlic mayonnaise through the almonds and then an amazing mix of locally made tofu (deeeeeelicous) and tahini. It was simply magnificent. Finished off with a pecan and sultana tart. I just wanted to sleep.

Unfortunately, or, should I say fortunately, it was time to hike. We headed off with backpacks (very heavy) and soon reached our up-point. We got into our snow shoes - after about 5 minutes I bought a pair of Nick's. This going to make BC Hotham soooo much easier (this means you Avalanche Gully). The hike was very hard work after the first part. We moved steadily uphill into trees, surrounded by light grey skies which were just filled with an incredible amount of snow. Golden light poked through the clouds and gave form to the snow which looked like tiny black flecks swirling every which way - almost like a plague of miniature floating locusts. It was magic.

We eventually got to the top of the bowl and I was blown away. Epic, steep terrain. BIG cornice drops, even a mandatory 75 foot drop into 60degree terrain with randomly populated trees. Gnarly stuff. We checked out a chute I want to do before we go, where the entry point was steep enough into ~45 degree pitch on a narrow width then into a nice apron through some mellower pitch. Awesome stuff. Nerve-wracking, but awesome. Probably similar to some of the chutes off the main ridgeline that goes across to East Peak at Big White.

We eventually went for a slightly mellower pitch (around 40 degrees I was told, maybe a tiny bit less) but what made it tricky was cloud rolled in, removing the definition providing by the snow.


...then light went completely flat. And I mean dead flat. Very disconcerting. This made the drop-in a little, well, not terrifying, but nerve-wracking (as we didn't know the terrain). The significant additional weight on my shoulders added a little to the ill-feeling as it threw my balance off about and limited my ability to really throw the board around and pop in and out of turns easily.

Nick dropped off a little band higher up and hooted down. Packy went from the left of me and rode across the top of the chute to let his slough run down.



I popped down, let my slough run out (actually rode about a foot of slough down for a bit), until I could see, then punched it. Oh. My. Dear. Lord. What followed was a giddying, transcendental experience. With the removal of visual definition, all I could feel was my tail in the deep deep powder, and little bouts of floating as the ground dropped away from me. As I couldn't see, I couldn't soak up drops through the knees, or brace for them, so it was almost a completely blind experience, just removing sight as a sense, and relying on feel. It felt like I was flying through the clouds. It left me speechless. I eventually got beneath the cloud to the others and sunk to a stop in knee deep dry snow. We moved across a small ridge to the top of a chute with a reasonably steep slope and hit that. Josh and Nick smashed a tree drop to pillow and I followed wide into untracked snow. We took turns leapfrogging down so each person got to go first.

Unnnnnn-believable. We eventually got to the bottom. I looked longingly back up but the poor weather precluded another hike. Additionally it was absolutely vomiting snow. I've seen some incredibly thick snow mid winter at Big White but this was heavier. Everyone had a big green and it was just a dizzying feeling. Delirious with joy and excitement. What is it about heavy snow that does that to people. Is it because it is seemingly so magical? A magical gift from the sky. Even though we spend so much time on it, and know alot about it, it is still a source of joy, a cause of deep abiding contentment.

We dumped our BC gear except avie beacons and dumped a car at the bottom of Shortside down the road then took the Summit lift back up for one more run. Our old tracks had filled in with about 2 inches of snow, and we followed roughly the same line and came out right at the car.

I am amazed at how both our riding has progressed. Josh is riding fast and hard and I feel very confident riding hard in the trees and aiming at small pillow lines and trees for air. Good stuff.

Heavy snow, and stoked.




We finished the day off with WH20 lodge nachos and some Jager then took off home, finding Alex for a lift again.

Life is grand.

Day 21 - Whitewater powder

Well. The end of the trip is looking better and better. WH20's snow report claimed 6cm overnights, however it felt like more - perhaps 10cm.

After Phil tipped Bacardi into my mouth again all night, I slept in a little. Pancake brekky and Oso-good Oso Negro coffee and we were on the way.

It was the perfect day, snowing all the way up the mountain, but no wind and not cold. It is nice to back in Canadian weather, as opposed to very windy, blizzardy snow storms that Australia predominantly gets.

We did a few runs and the snow was very, very light and dry but there was not enough snow to cover in the old icey tracks as well as bind to that layer to mask it.

We eventually ended up in the backcountry.

This is the thin yellow line separating inbounds and out of bounds.


Packy went on ahead and I took lots of photos. It was so quiet and peaceful. I stood there marvelling at each sight. It was amazing.





I soon came upon this...






And was greeted by this...Packy already hiking a jump he'd built. Keen people rule.

I let Packy run off down the run so I could just sit and be. It was amazing. The only sound was the light crackling of snow on my jacket. I couldn't get enough of the views in the shots below. I could've sat there all day just soaking in the sights. It was life-affirming. Incredible. Again, soulful. The mountains have that effect on me. As does the ocean. Not one worldly thought in my mind in this otherworldly place. Brain switched off.
The light was heavenly, ethereal. The sun was almost coming through the snow, casting a golden hue into the grey. If I breathed deeply enough, I would get a lungful of cold snow, little cold hand grenades exploding in my lungs. Heaven. I looked at every thing, photographing it for my memory. I can't ascribe words to the elation at being there by myself. Like surfing in a summer storm with dark, dark grey sky, warm, azure ocean as lightning and thunder roil in the sky. I did not want to leave my perch in the mountains. Whitewater is an amazingly balancing place. Especially when you have a tofu Ymir bowl for lunch.





I had to crank the contrast up on this shot of Packy as the light was super flat.

C'est moi.

Packy sick method. He slapped the grab hard - WHACK.