The Fortress 2.16.09

Luke and I did a couple of laps on Axtel’s half bowl, mostly to ski a pillowy feature Luke calls the Fortress. The Fortress is the obvious outcrop on the ridgeline.

I went out on my first tour with Marker Duke bindings. After a couple more tours, I’ll be sure to give a review of these bindings. We didn’t get too many great shots, as it tends to be hard to shoot much in the dark forest in pillows on a gray day. Here’s what we did get, though…
Here I am standing at the top of one of the pillow zones:

Luke drops off the side of the same feature:

Frank dropping the same feature:

Luke in another lower zone:

…and then coming out into the runout:

I went onto a slightly differnet pillow feature at the bottom that was a ton of fun:

Looking back up at what I had just skied:

2nd lap, Luke at the top:

He hit something a little weird and got kicked a little. Didn’t quite land it, but it didn’t matter, it was deep.

Luke gets a little redemption down lower.

It was a pretty fun day out there, just playing around on pillows, and soft, fluffy ones at that. ‘Til next time…

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.  He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing.He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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