Sunday really was June 5, 2k11. Sunday really was a shred day, we went to Crystal and ripped around the mountain all day, just killing it in the Spring ski Mtn vibe, it was exactly what needed to happen. About ten of us went up, the whole crew was really tight so it made the day even better. I peeled off mid afternoon and hiked up a ridge to get some freshies that Id spotted earlier in the morning, it was blazing hot up there, I took my shirt off at the top and chilled in the snow/sun, watching everyone below me, the mountains around me and just taking it all in, the air tasted so freaking good. I realized what a crazy time 2k11 has been, I dont know that Id really stopped to think about it all before Sunday afternoon up there all alone……its insane, whats been accomplished in the past 5 months.
The website is done, my attorney has finished up his stuff, the accountant is dialed in and working on what needs done, the bank is pleased to see Shipwreck money coming in but bummed I had all the capital already mustered to start everything up comfortably. Shoulda seen the branch manager’s face when he got my answer to his question: how did you fund all of this, Daniel? That moment will be one of those times you wont ever forget, it felt good…never felt better in fact, when that little word comes out my mouth: cash.  Everything is finished, there’s contracts coming in for next year and for some reason Im not tired. I think I should be dead…I certainly went through moments when I wanted to be dead, or was certain Id end up dead from all this effort….but here I am, standing tall at the Helm again.
Feels good.
Snow is good for people, its good for me. Mountains are good, motorhomes in mountains are even better.

After the sessions in the snow we sat on the patio at Crystal and had a few pops, checked out the band and told our stories of last season to each other before heading down to the Naches Tavern to throw back some red bull/?’s. Horseshoes, nachos, red-bulls, stories, crazy assed biker dudes and drunken loggers were the order of the night, we all had one hell of a time.
Thats whats up, its nice to write about even if it is poorly written……We will be heading back at the end of the month, anyone wants to come is more than welcome to join the party. You only live once, may as well make it count.

Daniel.

oh hey guys, check it out: Shipwreck dot com is up and running.

Here’s someone being “White Christmas”.

We spent the morning ripping around chutes and trees.

A few of us got bored and decided to take a nature walk, see:
(I added a tune here, its the same thing I always sing every time we hike: press play!)
Dropkick Murphys – The Rocky Road to Dublin

These are the chronological pictures from that hike and those epic lines we each got. Click through any of them to get to the Flickr feed where there are more; we hit huge fields, dropped waterfalls and tight chutes all in between near perfect glades and it couldnt have been done with a better crew. We dropped into Highway 2 and picked up a ride from our man, Chuck.

We dropped into the road and crossed over here, this is our walrus slide.

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues by subpop

Bonus pics:

a guide:

1. 002, 2. mtn piracy, 3. shomer shabbas, 4. CEO of Shipwreck Apiaries laying plans, 5. mid evening crowd, 6. 556, 7. Jeremy and Katina, 8. my sweetheart, 9. 382, 10. treehouse tony and his forest people, 11. treehouse tony and his forest people, 12. treehouse tony and his forest people, 13. treehouse tony and his forest people, 14. 202, 15. home sweet home, 16. Garth with a gas powered snowblower, 17. Kehrs cabin, 18. corduroy, 19. 015, 20. adjusting bindings, 21. Skyline, 22. Moleskine on the fly, 23. me booting up, 24. 061

Nick Porter on what it means to drop anchor in the upper motorhome lot of Stevens Pass Ski Resort:

Daniel its not bad at all, if you dont mind a couple bulls like us running around your china shop.

Season has begun!
We rode mostly grooms all weekend and true to form, Tye Mill (frontside) was the best for hot laps and random freshies. We did play around the GunTower area and that was ok, the real surprise though was secret stash above the Lots. I nimbly dodged two serious creekholes that I didnt see until I was right on top of them but otherwise that area is totally ready, we had fun back there.
I didnt break out the NeverSummer yet, I want my sea legs back on fully before I strap into that beast. I did ride last years Custom X to its capacity though. Fresh wax and that thing screams down anything I point it towards, a totally sweet ride. I wiped out in the trees pretty bad below the gun shack this weekend but really I had no business being back there where the cliffs are. It is what it is, I rode out alive.
About the near legendary vodka tap: 3.5 gallons of vodka flowed through that thing in 3 days. I think the problem is obvious! At least in a bottle you can measure your cosumption, but it is legendary and thats kinda fun.
Im headed back out Wednesday night and wont be in Seattle til sometime after the first of the year. Its gonna be really quiet around the blog, watch twitter I guess, or come up and ride?

I was wrenching around the guts of this place today, looking to change some things I dont like and I wandered into the unpublished room, where currently sit 4 pages worth of links to posts Ive made that I never published. I will begin posting some of this stuff throughout the week and before each one I will note where it came from, as you see below.

Things that amaze me:

Last night, not even 24 hours ago I was in a cabin @ the Arctic Circle with 5 new friends drinking a bottle of Absolut they were kind and generous enough to arrange for me, they had no ice cubes so we used frozen blueberries harvested earlier in the season from the nearby mountain to keep our booze cool. Before that I helped with the sled dogs exercise regimen thanks to a very pleasant 3rd party connection to the captain of the dog mush team. Once all THAT was finished, it was time for another (6th of the day) soak in the Hot Springs before setting up shop in the nearby airstrip armed with cameras, tripods, cigarettes coffee and you guessed it: booze. We were out there til almost 3am watching the Aurora threaten with exposive activity but inevitably always stopping short on us. I cannot recall a time where Ive been more relaxed and excited simultaneously. Does that make sense? It does to me but only because I am writing and the feeling of it stunned me at the time, and frankly still does.
Now here I sit in Seattle uploading photos of the past 5 days, clipping and stitching film bits together, listening to a four-tet mix. What a marvelous world, to think such corners of the Earth are so accessible: visually/audibly/physically.
Listen to this:
Rocketnumbernine – Matthew and Toby (TEXT008) by Four Tet

What struck me so deeply about the Arctic Circle is the immense strength of it, the air itself is charged with a sense of survival. Its an unforgiving place, even with a remote lodge right there, the environment is almost……hostile. Not in the classic sense, the emotional sense, but more the variance where your not allowed many mistakes out there; you have to tune yourself to be cognizant of everything going on around you while still capturing the essence of the land, which is endless. There are no sky scraping crags that create a dramatic landscape, the mountains are barely that, in fact they are alot like Eastern Washington or a sparse rolling area of Northern Idaho in appearance. There are no massive forests blanketing the land and towering just below the sun, no there is none of that. The forests here are mostly small, sparse and scruffy, its too cold for anything else to grow to any magnitude, alot of the trees there now are 5 feet at best and I was told are hundreds of years old.
Each morning I wake up around 5am and troll the outdoors for creatures to photograph, there are 3 moose that have been at the grounds every day this week, I am determined to find them but of course I never did, because I was looking. When I finally did find them, it was more like they found me. I was soaking in the Springs one morning @ 7am and the sun was just barely making an appearance over the nearby ridge. They sidled over towards me, munching and chomping away in the dense fog produced by the 10 degree morning air converging with the hot springs.
These are defining moments in life, and I found the obvious beauty not just in the Moose grazing next to my soak, but in the massive strength of the environment itself, I drew from this place a strength Ive never felt before……the vast tracts of land puncuated with a distant mountain and peppered with such bitter temperatures inspired me, there was an overwhelming understanding that no matter what, this time cannot be pressed, this time here cannot be massaged any other way than what your orignal purpose for being there in the first place was, in my case, sorrow and deep loss. This land forces an introspective, a quieter look at the things that make you who you are, and why. My time here was profound in every sense.
I suggest you all go at least once.