LEFT TO RIGHT “Camp and the daily dose of the mountains’ reminders.”—Robin Van Gyn Photo: Aaron Blatt A beautiful hike up, but a harsh ride down. Robin Van Gyn and Elena Hight nearing the top of their first run of the trip. Photo: Aaron Blatt T he why’s lingered, but the answers were, and are, never truly clear. Nautilus was a shot in the dark, Google Earth pin scoped by Tra-vis Rice during his filming of “The Fourth Phase” [2016]. Zones like this can be kept close to preserve private Idahos, but Travis was kind to share it. As we flew through its steep pearly gates and above its glaciated valley, the source of its name became clear: a shell-shaped basin that swirled into a hidden plethora of lines on every aspect. It was the only spot we saw that had enough potential and coverage to hike and shred; an anomaly that had trapped just enough magic. As a crescendo for a winter spent camping from Baker to Tahoe to Whistler, we’d planned the perfect picnic: dialed crew, tons of food, guide, shelter, filmers, photographers, ropes, axes and splitboards. Leslie Hittmeier, Jeff Keenan, Aaron Blatt and Rafe Robinson on cameras, Shane Treat and his dog, Ama, guid-ing alongside Ben Hoiness, and Justin Sweeney as chef. We were laced for an epic. We just needed the mountains to cooperate. With us was a special tent. We’d assembled it using 137 unre-pairable jackets. After eventful lives in the mountains, winter jackets often find their end in a stagnant basement closet or worse, in the trash, ripped beyond repair. But the material doesn’t end; in some form, it always remains. Our idea was to see what’s possible when it comes to re-use by repurposing these fabrics that have carried their wearers through countless adventures, good and bad. Timestamps and smells of memories and moments of past lives marked the tent’s walls, giving it serious soul. In appreciation of lives well lived, it only felt right to take this prismatic creation back to where it started for another stab at the full experience of life outside. The tent would get the prized position in camp, closest to the looming walls of the amphitheater, below a massive hanging gla-cier. We’d camped in it throughout the winter, partied in it, cre-ated and left our marks on it as we went. It weathered rain and snow and wind but remained strong. Still, nothing puts the gear, and the people using it, to the test like Alaskan glaciers. So, we’d embarked on a pinnacle foot-powered trip to cap off a full season of filming for Arc’Teryx’s film, Continuum . 040 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.2: Page 40
