Premiere week in SLC

Published by noah howell on October 6, 2008 in MISCELANEOUS. 0 Comments

Thanks to everybody who came out for the World Premiere of “The Pact” at Brewvies this week. We had 5 shows with over 800 in attendance and raised nearly $3K for the Utah Avalanche Center. 

We did run out of seats for 3 of the shows and tapped the house of PBR, but other than that the nights went smoothly.

Some players from the past came out of the woods to check out the flick. Josh Madsen and Todd Stuart praying for peace and snow.

The bashful and lovely Ashley Howell selling PW gear.

And her even sexier hubby, Jonah, pushing product. Sex sells!

Manny the friendly gear mannequin will be joining us again this year. Freshly outfitted with the latest toys from Black Diamond and pants and jacket from Mountain Hardwear, you just need to sign up to win.

We will be working with a non profit at almost all of our 30 city tour stops. The product from our sponsors will be raffled off to benefit the local organizations. 

Thanks to Joni for outbidding everybody else for this huge strip of tix. I believe it paid off nicely for her when she won an Avalung pack from BD.

This is me pointing out that the movie will be playing on the large white screen.

The packed house awaiting “The Pact”.

The bouncers making sure nobody sneaks in without a beer. Good job Guy, Craig, Josh and Jay.

It’s always a really fun week and a great start to the tour. We’ll be on the road heading to a ski town near you soon. Come out and join us if you’re in need of a good dose of winter.

Thanks to Darrell Finlayson (MTV Cribs segment) for all the pics.

Posted by Noah

BD Freeride Ski Ad

Published by noah howell on September 30, 2008 in MISCELANEOUS. 0 Comments

Jay Beyer took this shot of me from inside the gut of the Montgomery Chute, which we skied with Andy Jacobsen last season. Black Diamond is currently running it as an ad for their skis. I was skiing on the Havoc’s, which are my steep chute ski of choice.  

Rating S5+, 53 degrees, with a 75 foot rappel in the middle.

Montgomery is a really steep and beautiful line that would be a classic if it were longer. It’s a bit tricky to find, but you’ll know it once you are peering into it from the top of Thunder ridge. You could downclimb into it from above, but we chose to rap over some 40ft of mixed snow and rock to access the top. It was a stormy day and we couldn’t see very far as we stood at the ramp gaining the nerve to drop in. The snow was good and edgy, perfect steep skiing conditions. We hop and chopped our way to the edge of the 75ft cliff and then things got more interesting. The piton anchors that we finally found were loose, really loose, AJ pulled them out by hand with his first tug. We were unprepared for this and spent the next half hour getting creative. I dug a deadman anchor with my probe, AJ tried to bang in the pitons with a rock (we didn’t have a hammer) and Jay hung out on a platform and tried not to “freak out”. None of these options were acceptable. We finally found a good horn to loop and rappel off of after some digging around. The rap puts you onto a super steep and tight chute that empties out onto the apron. We were all pretty gripped from the adventure and learned to come prepared to place your own pro if the line has a rappel that you’re unfamiliar with. Short vid of the mini epic coming soon.

 


Patagonia 2008 (part 1, Ushuaia)

Published by noah howell on September 23, 2008 in 2008 SUMMER and TRIPS. 0 Comments

Just back from an amazing trip to Patagonia. I wrote up a trip report for Powderwhore Productions here.

I am a Beater! (Backcountry.com photo shoot)

Published by noah howell on September 12, 2008 in 2008 SUMMER and MISCELANEOUS. 0 Comments

Last fall Backcountry.com created their athlete program and somehow I ended up on the roster. From the get go it was clear this is a really well run company filled with creative and motivated folks. It was exciting to be a part of the movement and to see a brand so interested in promoting their athlete’s and providing cool new ways to get discounted gear. The latest and greatest idea from the BC.com folks is the newly revamped Tramdock.com. This site has screaming one at a time deals on ski specific gear, like steep and cheap, but all ski related all day long.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     A month or so ago they wrangled a few of us together for a photo shoot. It was fun to hang out with some of my ski hero’s and just screw around in front of the camera.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Andrew Mclean and I.

bcad-w-andrew-cheesy.jpg                                                                                                                                                                                    My best quick turn and model pose.                                                                                                                      bcad-model-turn.jpg                                                                                                                                                                                   Eric Roner and I.                                                                                                                                                        bcad-w-roner-namaste.jpg                                                                                                                                                                                  This is the final ad that is running in this months Freeskier Magazine.  

nh-bccom-ad.png                                                                                                                                                             Still not quite sure how this “Beater” ended up here, but I’m happy to be along for the ride. 

Continue reading ‘I am a Beater! (Backcountry.com photo shoot)’

South for the Summer! Skiing/Filming trip to South America.

Published by noah howell on August 23, 2008 in 2008 SUMMER and TRIPS. 1 Comment

I’m not sure of the origins of the quote, “It’s always snowing somewhere”, but I know it’s not snowing in Utah (currently 94 degrees and sunny). So what the hell are we doing here? With the coaxing of Andy Jacobsen and Jay Beyer, Jonah and I decided Powderwhore should finally visit the Southern Hemisphere (I won the coin toss). We fly into Ushuaia, Argentina, which I had never heard of until 3 weeks ago. There is a sweet trip report from some folks that were there in July, here. The crew- Andy Jacobsen (primary skier, secondary camera, all around good time) Jay Beyer (trip captain, still photography, motivational speaker “it’s time to crush”)Dan Grolley (skier, skier, skier, lucky bastard)Noah Howell (primary camera, secondary skier, blogger, key grip) Dede O’Mara (primary skier, token female, babysitter) The next best thing to being on an adventure is packing for one. I love gear, the history it holds and the potential it provides. However, I’ve been on enough big trips that I’ve been baptized into the “light is right” religion (I sin grievously in the ski department). The gear. gear.jpg Our plans are loose, but we expect to do multiple overnight trips with possible glacier travel. Black Diamond is sending us down with some “Justice” prototype’s to swoosh around on (sexy red skis). They are a slight step down in size from the Megawatt’s (my fav of all time) and have a similar rockered tip design. Jacobsen and I have different versions to ski and report on. Can’t wait!The camera kit.  camera-kit.jpgWe are bringing the 2 HD camera’s and Andy J has a backup for helmet cam. It’s tough to get several days of shooting out of the standard camera batteries. So, we are bringing 4 expedition Li-ion batteries that work to -40 below for 10 hours of recording time. I’ve used these on Denali, Baffin Island and the Chugach with great success. I might as well give them a plug, it’s Automated Media Systems. Not cheap, but a sound power source, much more so than solar in my experience. The clothing.  clothing.jpgMajor love from Mountain Hardwear in the outerwear dept. Thanks guys! The new pants from Flylow are sweet as well. Dan has wanted me in his pants for a long time. I hope it was worth the wait. A few more things to pack and arrange and we’ll be off. I’ll try and post from the field, but hopefully we’ll be far from phones, computers and all that junk. Be well,NH