Hi Everyone.
We are into our third full day at sea and Mother Nature is being really kind to us today.  After two days of big seas, the swell has 
weakened and is now following us.  We got whacked pretty hard on the first day just south of Cape Horn, and a few of the crew were seen racing to the head to unload their breakfast. Stomachs have settled now and we have been busy planning for our arrival on the continent tonight.

The Australis is incredibly comfortable and runs fairly quick as well.  We have been motoring/ sailing along at about 8 knots and 
actually spent quite a bit of time out on the decks today. The sense of solitude and loneliness one experiences out here on the Southern Ocean is profound- no help for hundreds of miles, just the Albatross, Petrels, and Dolphins.

Here are some images from the crossing:

Rob Story, Doug Workman, Stian Hagen and Andrea Binning



Got to put some quality time on deck this morning:

Finally, after 8 months of planning, we are stepping off dry land and onto the Australis for what looks to be a three and half day crossing of the Drake Passage en route to our ski zone on the Antarctic Peninsula. This trip was born from my amazement at the potential I saw last season on my first trip to the Peninsula. Could this be one of the worlds last great unskied and unexplored zones? While there certainly has been ski trips here in the past, they have been few and far between and have figuratively only touched the "tip of the iceburg". so our goal is to seek out the most stunning first descents we can. Like this:

We are going to be cruising the open seas on the Australis. At 75 ft the Australis is a steel hulled, fully rigged motor sailor. She carries a comprehensive range of safety, operational and navigational equipment. A 180hp Gardner diesel engine powers the vessel and she is equipped with 2 zodiac tenders. She sails beautifully and has a powerful engine to push her along at 8+ knots when needed.


And here is a current map from PassageWeather.com showing the wave heights we can expect over the next 24 hours in the straight. Hold on!

 Hey Everyone,
Finally the day has arrived.  After being fairly stressed out all week packing and organizing this trip (and life) we are so close to getting on the plane that there is not much else I can do.  Right now I'm sitting at my friend and cameraman Jim Surette's kitchen table in New Hampshire downloading software upgrades for our satellite uplink (BGAN) terminal, drinking strong coffee, and listening to the rain pelt the roof.

This trip is the culmination of almost eight months of planning.  Greg Von Doersten and I tossed the idea around in Jackson Hole last March.  I had the opportunity to ski the Antarctic Peninsula last fall and was totally psyched to get back down there with more time, and more agile vessel, and a crack crew of climbers, skiers, and filmers to try and tell the story of this amazing place.  While the Peninsula is not the easiest place to get to in the world, it is also far from the most difficult.  

Over the next three weeks I'll be blogging about the trip on this site, as well as on the following websites:
Black Diamond Equipment
Kastle Skis
Red Bull Skiing
Backcountry.com
Smith Optics

There will be great photos, hopefully videos, and updates every other day or so from the expedition.  so sign on and stay tuned.  This is going to be a great ride!

Chris
 

the Antarctic Peninsula

Starting today, the era of settling for shoddy gear in questionable colors and awkward sizes has passed. Today, the Department of Goods, a new online gear megastore, opens its e-doors — to the lucky few, that is.

The Department of Goods, another new store from the team at Backcountry.com, sells the latest and finest outdoor, surf, skate, bike, and mountain equipment from more than 400 pinnacle brands. The selection; the deep, in-stock inventory; the ability to find what you’re looking for fast; community reviews and Q+A; and the bend-over-backwards customer service you’ve come to expect from Backcountry.com, mean, simply, that you’ve stumbled upon the promised land of premium gear.

But there’s a catch. Not everyone can get in. Not yet, at least. The grand opening/beta launch is VIP only. To get past the velvet rope for the first shot at the goods inside the Department, you need to get yourself an invitation — or use your wily resourcefulness to track down a key code.

The lucky ones will receive an email invitation. Others will get in because they “know people.”  But if you just show up at the door without an invite, the Department’s doorman will shut you down. You can politely ask for a code, but you’ll, politely, have to wait.

Once you’re in, you’re in. You’ll have immediate access to insane deals on amazing gear. And it’s worth your while to shop, because during the beta roll out, the Department of Goods will be giving away $150,000 in gear. A set number of first comers will be matched with a surprise prize from a bona fide grab bag of swag, with gifts ranging from socks, t-shirts, and multi-tools to kayaks, skis, and bikes.

On top of that goodness, one in 10 purchases will be comped at random for a limited time. Fully comped. So if you’re not beside-yourself-ecstatic because you’ve just paid pennies on the dollar for your dream cart, you’re completely blown away because you just scored that gear for free.

To keep up on the deals, to try to score a code fast, or for the inside scoop on what the in-crowd is taking away for free, check out the Department of Goods’ Facebook page.

It's dumping in the Aspen Valley! Tell me what's getting you stoked for the season. I'll pick a winner from the comments on Friday and send 2 tickets to any of the upcoming Warren Miller Dynasty shows: http://www.skinet.com/warrenmiller/articles/dynasty-film-tour-calendar

Voting is now live for the 10th annual Powder Video Awards and Reader Poll. Go to http://www.powderawards.com right now to vote for your favorite 10 male and five female skiers--vote for your friends, yourself, whomever.
Post it on your Facebook, Tweet it on Twitter, or, better yet, talk about it to real live people. In fact, if you vote, you and a friend are eligible for a free, all expense paid four-day trip to Aspen to ski Aspen pow while attending The Coolest Show Not On Snow or something like that...
Thanks for your vote and hope all is well.
Cheers,
Chris

Oct 12, 11:00 a.m.

Hey Guys,
We have been waiting and waiting for things to happen down here in West Papua, but as you tend to learn real quick when in a third world country, things don't happen fast.  The helicopter we thought we had  contracted is out of commission... would have been nice to know that  couple weeks ago when it actually went down.  We hoped it would be fixed in time but that situation has some political overtones that we can barely understand.  so we have another heli lined up- this time a  
Russian Kamov design that looks pretty reliable.  We are just ironing out some insurance issues and waiting on better weather and we should be off to Carstensz Pyramid for our climb.  But anything could happen here and my confidence level in this thing actually turning out in our favor is not the highest.

In the meantime our Mountain Trip crew is holed up in Nabire, Papua, a small town of 10,000 on the north coast of the island.  Although this place is very poor, the people are incredibly happy and greet us always with huge smiles, handshakes, and conversation. I hooked up with a group of kids and have been playing soccer with them each  
afternoon in the 90+ degree heat and high humidity.  So from a cultural point of view this trip has already been really amazing.  
Hopefully we can get into Carstensz and cap it off with a summit climb!




Map of Papua- Nabire is at bottom of big bay on north side.  Carstensz Pyramid is peak with white summit.
-Dav

During my trip to Portillo, Chile last month, we mounted a memorial plaque for our fallen brother and fellow Superstars Camp coach Shane McConkey.  Shane and I spent 6 years skiing together in Portillo and we all wanted to leave a lasting memory of him on the mountains that he loved so much there. So we decided to leave a part of Shane in the mountains in Portillo, a bronze plaque bolted into the ancient rocks (and some of his ashes carried by the wind across the Lake of the Incas). Next time your there, check out his memorial under the cliffs of the Plateau!  Photos by @ingridbackstrom