Words and images by Henning Schwalbe.
After four years of drought and a slightly below average season last year, California's Sierra Nevada snowpack is reaching epic proportions this year. The range has been hammered by one atmospheric river event after the other. Mammoth has broken its record for snowfall in January, with over 20 feet (over 6 meters for our friends in Europe) in January alone. More importantly, the backcountry has been amazing everywhere. After the last major system’s avalanche cycle settled down, we were stoked to find a right side up snowpack and dry powder.
Everybody has been getting after it, shredding pow. Amplid enthusiasts Buell Steelman and me (Henning Schwalbe), were out there as well to find some solitude and powder off the beaten path. And we found plenty of it! Long climbs were done and great powder was ridden with not a soul in sight.
Buell is the ultimate weight weenie and has a super dialed hard boot set up with the Milligram and Phantom hardware. Rebecca, his wife who joined us for some excursions rides a similar set up. I prefer a soft boot set-up with Karakorams Carbon Primes. I’m stoked on the new Ultraclips, they are a great improvement. Whatever your chosen set-up, it's all good. To round out the gathering, we spent a morning in the resort putting the UNW8 and the Creamer to the test and are happy to report high stoke levels on these boards.
