Middle of nowhere Idaho

My roommate and I left Utah's unusually high avalanche danger to meet up with AJ Burton, Mike Mertion, and Rage Films' Dan Norkunas in a safer Idaho backcountry earlier this month. We spent the first couple of days exploring the deserted rolling terrain and wide-open bowls, scoping lines and jump spots, and remembering just how unreliable snowmobiles can be. Dan's sled drank a few gallons of anti-freeze before he fixed it, and my roommate, Kyler Cooley, couldn't come up with a solution to his snowmobile's antics and took off two days into the trip.

With the unlimited backcountry access virtually all to ourselves, we kept busy for the remainder of the trip. With no ski or snowboard crews, or even sledneckers (we saw fewer than 25 snowmobilers the entire trip) anywhere close to us, we split our time between jumps, jibs, and lines without the worry of anything getting tracked up.

Once the kinks were worked out this trip couldn't have turned out better. With endless terrain accessible from our lodge's parking lot, we saved both commuting hours and gasoline by not driving to trailheads to snowmobile. The lodge provided everything we needed, from snowmobile gas to dinner (with the exception of coffee and cell phone service ) to a helpful staff.

After our last day of skiing I caught a ride with Dan back to Utah just in time for a soccer game (we won 1-0) and woke up to Kyler itching to ski Park City. With pretty much everyone who is anyone training pipe for the upcoming X-games PCMR's big park was as deserted as Idaho's mountains. I'll be in Utah for another few days, but am hoping to get back at it and head back into the backcountry once the conditions improve. Enjoy the pictures below, and I apologize ahead of time as we are better skiers than photographers as you'll soon see.