We made plan at 7pm on Friday evening to go winter camping and found ourselves in the parking lot of the Whistler Olympic Park at 9am the next day with some heavy snow coming down on us.
The hike was long, it rained, it snowed, and the weather at top got to -32 degrees in the middle of the night with strong winds.
We got up super early, had some dehydrated breaky and coffee and headed up the better looking of the peaks around our basecamp to have some powder fun.
We happened to be at Hakuba at the same time as the most talented friend: Mirae Campbell
We caught up in the backcountry of the Japanese alps over some drool-worthy pocket of fresh powder.
Some iPhone and GoPro fun while splitboarding early season up in the Whistler alpine.
The half winter hiatus last year all got us bummed, yes, but Mother Nature finally came back in full force in the Pacific North West, gracing us with the best early winter conditions in probably the last decade. Whistler was able to open most of their terrain quick, and everyone got to play twice as hard, eager for some pow slashes with the mediocre half broken snow dreams taste that we got left with last winter.
I had the chance to go up and ride with skateboarder photographer and borderline maniac Brian Caissie. I took us only a mini hike up the Crystal area to shoot some pretty cool photos and a mini snow surfing edit. Here is what he came up with.
Happy Shredding, and New Year to all!
F.
frederiquejoncas.com 