New Years Snowmobiling and Snowboarding

 

Brandon Davies powers up the hill while snowmobiling in the Coquihalla region of British Columbia

  For as long as I can remember, it's always been a New Years tradition to get out and snowboard on New Years day. After receiving a hefty dump early in the week, it ended up getting sunny and cold here on the west coast and the prospects of riding an icy resort to keep the tradition alive didn't seem too appealing. Luckily, an old friend of mine invited us to come out on his snowmobiles to do some sled accessed shredding in the Coquihalla region. I've been wanting to get out on a snowmobile for years so the offer was too good to pass up. After a mellow New Years Eve, we met up early at Brandon's house to load up and make the trip up into the mountains. The weather was perfectly clear and cold, it was -18 when we made it to the unloading spot so plenty of layers were a necessity. 

Brandon is involved with the snowmobile club and grooms the trails there so we had access to some great trails in to the backcountry zone and luckily with the cold, built a nice fire in the cabin up top to warm up in. Our first run started out so incredible, with fun drops the whole way down but we ended up in dense forest and had to bushwack out so we found some shorter but more accessible runs to ride for the rest of the day. It was quite the learning experience to pilot a snowmobile in deep snow but Brandon's a great teacher and now I'm hooked, which is too bad cause those things are expensive. We strapped my camera bag to the back of one of the sleds so I was able to get a bunch of shots and now I can't wait to get out and do some more shooting...it was way too much fun.

Here's a few shots from an amazing day!

 We made it into the parking lot with the first rays of light cresting the mountains.

 Brandon unloads the sleds.

 With temperatures hovering around -18 in the morning, we stopped in to warm up and have a beer at the Henning cabin.

 Brandon gets the fire going inside the cabin.

 Strapping in for an epic run.

 Brandon got a little stuck.

 Sev gets his method on off a nice little drop.

 Amy makes some turns.

 Sev rocks the ice beard.

 Scoping out another great line.

 Brandon puts the power to the ground.

 Ok, now he's just showing off.

Last rays of light on the mountain.

 Time for one last run as the sun sets.

Then it was back to the cabin to cook some dinner and relax with a few beers. The end of a great day!