Powder Photo Archives
The last year of Jon Olsson Invitational took place in Sweden and will officially go down in the record books as a groundbreaking event! The airtime was as impressive as the line-up of 29 invited riders from seven different countries.
The BMX biker popping a wheely on the hood of Joaquin pointed the cruiser north from Tahoe. where we ended up in the greatest state in the union, Washington, and, more specifically, the music mecca of Seattle. Purring at a stoplight en route to the Modest Mouse show, two 12-year-old kids shouted at me, “Whoa, is that Joaquin?” Once I spread the word of POWDER TO THE PEOPLE by distributing a roll of Powder mag stickers to the stoked groms hanging out their car window, Ullr quickly responded by blanketing Seattle with rain and the nearby Cascades with nearly a foot of snow—a timely gift of Powder karma.
On Thursday, March 1st I received a call from Dave McReynolds to tell me that John Byrne III, the new owner of Alyeska Resort, was coming back to Girdwood for some heli-skiing.
For a while there, it looked as if Powder magazine’s annual ski demo in Jackson Hole, a celebration known as Powder Week, would be Ice Week, or Hard Pack Week, or Let’s Drink Beer To Toast One Last Time To Our Ever Warming Earth Week. And then, a day before we were to meet the most influential players in the ski industry—namely damn near every ski manufacturer in the country—it started. A few flakes. Then bunches of them. In the millions. Fragile crystalline figures falling from the sky, burying Jackson Hole with the best storm of the year. And we were there to get it. Thus, Powder Week became Powder Week in the truest sense. All told, more than 30 inches piled up over the course of four days.
ALL PHOTOS BY LEE PONZIO
There are a number of resorts in the Niseko area, but the one that receives the most attention is Grand Hirafu. Someone can put a full 12 hours of skiing in at Hirafu and continue to party at Wild Bill's, Red Bar, Mash Up, or any of the other 12 bars afterwards. The lifts at Hirafu run from 8:30 to 8:30 every day with the majority of the 1,000 acres of terrain remaining accessible until the lifts stop.