INGRID BACKSTROM: Images from Mattias Fredriksson

CANDIDE THOVEX: Images from Mattias Fredriksson

GALLERY OPENING: Tom Tomkinson launches new website

AK SYNDIKATE: October Dispatch

As the sun came around and shined on my line, I rolled in off the summit with confidence and dropped into light, blower pow turns. After my top line, I skied out to the flats with the feeling of pure satisfaction- gave a couple stoked hoots, which sounds cheezy typing it, but for some reason can't help it after skiing that kind of snow. I quickly grabbed my radio and told Josh it was filled in and blower, and to go just skier's left of my tracks. Watching him ski an effortless, fun line also gave me that satisfied feeling. We traversed back to ridge and skied the lower slope back to the pass. The only rock I hit was my last turn, I couldn't complain- what a day! -Jason Scheben

POWDER TO THE PEOPLE: Sled accessed threatened in Aspen

LAS LENAS GALLERY: Jackson crew scores one last stash

If Valle Nevado was groomer paradise, then Las Lenas was a paradise of couloirs. And the secret is out. It's why Americans fly down to this resort in the Andes. And it's why there's a run named "Los Gringos."

The Santa Rosa storm never hit the Andes this September, but spending a week in Argentina skiing pockets of powder left from the last storm wasn't too tough. We skied the major backcountry peaks like Ponce, Rios, Torrecillas and Martin. On those days we had to flash our green wristbands to ski patrol, which signified that we understood that a rescue would cost U.S. $1,000. Some days we hiked for four hours trying to find the powder, other times, as Jes McMillan called it, we "be-bopped" around the inbounds, bumping it up on the moguls or doing laps on Marte. As the week wore on, warm conditions caused the snow to deteriorate quickly and Lenas became much ado about the apres-ski and Lynsey Dyer's Betty Crocker conconctions.

Lenas has closed for the winter, but luckily we have the Tetons. Until next summer in South America, the Jackson crew is signing out… -Vanessa Pierce

laslenas.com

SEATTLE SKI HUCKS: MSP rocks out at Evo ski shop

How do you thank a band for rocking the house all night? Why you sneak back into their dressing room and drink their contract rider, of course.

Ok, maybe not. But with the night not nearly over, I realized this is exactly what we had done. Vancouver hip-hop band Sweatshop Union was still jammin’ on the balcony of Seattle’s Evo ski shop, I ducked back stage (which does day-time duty as my friends Ian and Ryan’s office) to find gin gone, the tonic waning, and the multiple cases of green bottled beer requested by the band empty. Good time to duck back into the party.

This was Friday night, and the occasion was the showing of MSP’s Push in possibly the most ski-centric metropolis in the U.S. About 1,000 people assembled in front of the Freemont Studios massive HD screen. (CLICK HERE FOR A REVIEW OF PUSH ) After the show, the over-21 crowd made the short stumble back to the Evo headquarters (evogear.com), where the merchandise had been stowed in a container parked out back, and Sweatshop Union had set up shot on the upper balcony.

Few cities get stoked for the ski season like Seattle. The show was packed with all kinds—from local college kids to film stars (such as Seattle-bred Ingrid Backstrom) to heavy hitters from Washington-based companies such as K2, Helly Hansen and POW gloves. But while this was the highlight of the week for the ski crowd, for the folks at Evo, it was just another night in the retail/party business. The shop hosted a wakeboard premiere on Thursday and a showing of the snowboard flick on Saturday. -Derek Taylor

This region is explosively entertaining. In one day at Termas de Chillan, Lynsey Dyer and Jess McMillan launched front flips off a cornice, photographer Gabe Rogel shot the best backcountry skiing of his life and we almost blew up our rental house...CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY.

SOUTH AMERICA TOUR: Gabe Rogel captures September in Chile