As we enter a new snow season, I wanted to take a look back at the winter of 2023.
At home, Mammoth Mountain had an incredible record-breaking winter, and on the road,
I was fortunate enough to have some travels for work and for pleasure
that took me to some amazing places with some pretty fantastic snow conditions.
I’ve put together a list of my top 5 single best runs and ranked them in order.
We’ll be starting with #5 and work our way to the top spot.
For the most part, my most memorable runs came from when I identify a zone and challenge myself to link a top-to-bottom run.
For the #5 spot, we head to Mammoth Mountain, just a few days before New Year’s Eve, 2022.
The record season in Mammoth was already well under way by the end of December,
and we had a small break in storms that gave us a picture perfect Mammoth pow day.
I've actually got 3 similar runs from one of my favorite zones that I’ll play back to back,
2 from the same day, and then one from the following day when the storm moved in and
gave us better snow conditions.
I’ll categorize these all as a 3-way tie for the number 5 spot.
For the number 4 spot we’re in the magical land of Hokkaido Japan in the middle of February.
With an unseasonably low base depth and a bit of a dry spell just after arriving,
we welcomed the 18” of cold dry Japanese snow that fell overnight.
It may not have been chest deep, but it was fast and fun.
Coming in at number 3 we head back home to Mammoth, all the way back to the first real
pow day of the season - December 2nd, 2022.
I posted this run on this channel already, but it was a hard one to beat. There’s something to be said about a pow day with just a few inches of
fresh snow - it stays fast on slopes that aren’t as steep, and the powder panic isn’t quite as bad
on a day like this. Generally this area has pretty variable snow because it gets hit with major
winds; however, I was pleasantly surprised with perfect snow, and a scenery that blew my mind.
Did I mention it was the first pow day of the season? My legs were absolutely killing me here!
It’s time for number 2! This time we’re at the one and only Baldface in British Columbia at the end
of February. We were shooting marketing assets with our GoPro snow team. On this specific day,
we started in the sunshine knowing that a big storm would roll in throughout the day. Once
the clouds rolled in, the snow started to stack up fast. This was our last run of the day, which
meant a soul lap for the film crew! Cat skiing is always a little tough to put together a full line
because you’re hitting unfamiliar zones each run. I was stoked to lay this line down top to bottom!
And for the number one spot, we head back to Japan. This time we’re on the
main island near Hakuba. After spending a few days in Tokyo,
we took the bullet train to the mountains and experienced what we’d soon find out to
be the best run of our lives! And for japan’s standards, this run went on forever. Enjoy!
Because I was filming with the lovely unicorn mount,
we can turn the camera around, and enjoy the number one run one more time.
Thanks for watching, and cheers to a solid winter of 2023. Here’s to the next one!