Report from December 2, 2023

Yesterday was ski day #300 within a year for me!

This project started on December 8, 2022, when I returned from Antarctica and I have 365 days to ski 300 days.

I hit 300 yesterday and I should hit 305 by the cut-off day of December 8, 2023.

The snow gods smiled on us yesterday and dropped 20+ inches of fluffy Utah snow on 11,068′ Mt. Superior, UT, so we wallowed up “Country Lane” chute.

The coolest part about yesterday was that legendary ski mountaineer Andrew McLean joined us.

Andrew wrote “The Chuting Gallery” and is my lead guide on the Antarctica trips – I’ve done eight trips to Antarctica with him, and three trips to Svalbard with him, and he even came on our podcast.

He truly is a legend.

He charged up Country Lane like it was nothing…

Martin (our editor-in-chief), Juan, and The Wasath Wolf (Maxwell) joined us as well.

We had a stacked squad and we needed it.

Three folks were ahead of us but when they came down the 24″ of blower powder they all but erased the bootpack.

We were all in mini snowshoes (verts & billy goats) except Andrew who employed a combo of skiing and bootpacking to get up.

It was deep and Juan put in most of the booter for us then Martin took the last pitch.

I mostly stayed in the back where the booter was more defined and easy ridin’.

I was tired.

I’ve lost 15 pounds since I started this project and I was already skinny…

6’1″ 175lbs to 160lbs.

The ski down was nuts.

I was the fifth person down and the snow was deep and copious.

I hit no rocks and fully blinded myself a few times during violent faceshot moments.

I walked down the base of the chute as it’s still rocky and nasty and yesterday was my very first time in my new Scott Pure 109s (182cm), ATK Freeradier EVO 15s, and new Intuition Tour Wrap boot liners.

I didn’t wanna ruin my new skis nor take a header into rocks.

I skied most of the apron by doing long traverses then kick turning and traversing again.

Eventually, I booted down the lower section of the apron too as I didn’t care to get hurt on day #300 and I knew exactly what was lurking under than new, fluffy snow as I’d just walked down that same apron 3 days prior.

We celebrated a bit back at the cars and said hi to Jmo and Bagel Boy who were headed up.

Martin & I zipped over to Solitude for our 1pm champagne toast.

There we met up with some old friends and some new ones.

About 10 SnowBrains fans showed up and about eight old friends.

I gave three toasts:

• The first toast was to my mom. She was the toughest, most stubborn person I have ever met. She survived cancer three times in 20 years and finally succumbed to her fourth cancer in January. That made this past winter a tough winter for me. I wanted to do something meaningful to commemorate her. The 300 project is inspired by and dedicated to my mother. I wanted to do something tough and stubborn like her and the 300 project felt like the perfect thing for it.  I also loved that day 300 was a crazy, stormy day because my mom was powerful and stormy. Even on the night she passed away, a huge storm hit the hospital and knocked out all the power and even knocked out the generators in the middle of the night.  When we went to visit her after she passed we had to be led through the stairwells and hallways by flashlight. It was a classic ending for a powerful person.
• The second toast was to all of our supporters.  Thank you for all of your support over the years. We can’t do any of this without you.  We appreciate your support in being a disrupter in this industry.  We disrupt by being hyper-dedicated to this lifestyle while at the same time being vulnerable – behaving and speaking on how we actually feel.  Thank you.
• The third toast was to day 300 of the 300 project and to 2023/24 being an epic ski season!

My mom loved champagne and she loved horses.  

She had horses all her life and even had a zebra for a few years.

Hence the epic Zebra balloon.

Once everyone had had their fill, we booted up and cruised up to the Apex lift for some fun laps at Solitude.

The skiing was fun.

Ice, moguls, fake snow, real snow, and some sendy mini-jumps.

I finished the day with a crotch-grab spread eagle that felt right.

Thanks, Utah!

Thank you, Friends!

Thanks, Family!

Thanks to all the SnowBrains supporters out there.

We simply cannot do this without you 😀

Photos