- November 4, 2011
- No Comments
- Blog, Featured Content, Video
Splitboarding Highlights
My buddy Greg Joyner, whom I know from PCMR, and his lovely wife run the Salt Lake Surf Co. retail shop in Sugarhouse. For a few years they’ve been specializing in aquatic recreation and have been a premier dealer for kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, servicing our landlocked state and mostly little rivers with premium and specialty products. Last winter, after dealing a lot with Forrest Shearer, who is super tapped into the local SUP scene, decided that if they’re a surf company, they might as well break into surfing the white wave too.
Now, Salt Lake City has no shortage of snowboard retailers, so Greg opted to take a unique approach to the sport, and only stock splitboarding products and supporting brands. They’re currently carrying Voile, Jones, Spark R&D, Karakorum, BCA, Dakine, and Pieps in the realm of white wave shredding. Greg threw an Avy awareness night on Thursday 11/3/11, and the above video is a quick edit I put together for the party featuring some of my favorite shots from 2010/2011 season, and all except for the opening GoPro shot were shot off piste. Mad props to Andy, Tony, Tanner, and Benny for coming away with some super cool shots last season. Oh yeah, I have a couple mixed in there too. Enjoy.
- October 11, 2011
- 2 Comments
- Blog, Featured Content, WELD
Rack Envy | WELDtheweb
Many of you know that in May I started working for an incredible content marketing agency called WELD out of West Virginia. I’ve been privileged enough to be a part of the team that’s building a Western US presence for WELD, and I work as a project manager and content producer with several different clients, including the BSA and Yakima.
This summer I’ve been traveling around the USA quite a bit helping to support The Summit Bechtel National Scout Reserve (one of the main projects we’re spearheading), but back in August I was able to be on the sharp-end of a video production for Yakima that really stoked me out, and enabled my friends and I to have one of the best adventures I’ve had in recent years. We were able to climb the Grand Teton and document the trip in order to get video content for the Brand Essence video the client had asked of us, as well as shoot a bunch of climbing and kayaking in the great state of Utah. For a detailed description of the climb, check out the new Climberpost.com pages, and also for more info about the video, check out the WELD Blog Post. My “Rack Envy” has been fully satiated because one of the perks of shooting this project is one of the top-of-the-line Yakima Skybox’s featured in the video which now lives atop Smokey McSmokerson, my Subaru. All-in-all, it was a very rewarding project.
Montage of key screen shots from the Utah/Wyoming Production
- July 3, 2011
- No Comments
- Blog
Weekend at Zion *UPDATE*
by Parker Alec Cross
*See the video from the weekend!*
My friend Jeff Larson is moving to Arkansas this Wednesday, and Blake Nyman and I found it fitting that we should have one-last-hurrah in Zion National Park before he departs on his lonesome door-to-door sales mission in the heartland of America.
We left Provo at about 7:15PM on Friday evening, because we knew that if we wanted to get permits for Mystery Canyon on Sunday, that we would need to be in the permit line pretty early. Mystery is one of the two most popular slot canyon experiences inside the Park (the other being the Subway), and the resulting demand is superseded by the fact that they only give out a total of 12 permits per day, 6 of which are pre-ordered months in advance through the Park’s online registration system, leaving 6 permits for the regular-old-Joe vacationer who isn’t able to plan three months in advance. Continue Reading
- June 26, 2011
- No Comments
- Blog, Photography
Angel’s Landing
The trailhead to Angel's Landing begins with a spectacular view of the buttress from the ground-level.
by Parker Alec Cross
It has been a very long time since my family got together to do any adventures. Growing children and complex schedules, combine with a split-family home and parents living in different cities all complicate the process of merging time and energies in order to successfully plan and carry-out a vacation.
I recently had spent a little bit of time exploring Zion National Park, but despite having been there a few times, I’ve never had the opportunity to hike to the top of Angel’s Landing, one of the most iconic vistas in the entire park. Continue Reading
- June 18, 2011
- No Comments
- Blog, Photography, Wasatch Podcast
Climbing: Merging my Worlds
by Parker Alec Cross
My passion for splitboarding, and my increased desire for proficiency in mountaineering in order to ride bigger and better terrain, has caused a couple of recreational collisions over the past year or so. I never thought of myself as someone who could get super into rock climbing, and although I admit that I’ve wanted to do it for years, I never had a core group of friends that was passionate enough about the sport for me to get any actual access to real climbing.
Sure, I’ve spent a few days in the climbing gym here and there, but it wasn’t until late last summer that I ever actually was able to climb on natural rock. Now I’m addicted. One of the rad things about rock climbing is how actively the skills you develop translate into mountaineering and climbing in the winter. The techniques you master in rock climbing are absolutely essential for effective mountaineers to understand and have practice doing. The lines of my sports have been progressively blending, and although I never even considered that rock climbing and snowboarding could be, in any remote sense, related, I’m beginning to discover that they are more blended together than I realize, and it’s a realization that next year’s videos will visually identify for you, the humble viewer. Continue Reading
- May 13, 2011
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- Blog, Wasatch Podcast
Lone Peak
by Parker Alec Cross
May 13th marked the day that we reached the summit of Lone Peak. Such an epic experience. 3AM start time, 1PM finish. 2500 Vertical Feet of climbing before we even hit snow. This is a tour I’ll keep with me forever. Tony Pavlantos, Blake Nyman, Chris Coulter and myself in an elevated hustle to one of the Wasatch range’s most remote summits.
- April 25, 2011
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- Blog
The Pfeifferhorn
by Parker Alec Cross
Tony Hiking the Summit Cone 11,326'
Often, while riding at Snowbird, I have looked to the west to see the intimidating summit cone of Little Matterhorn Peak (aka the Pfeifferhorn). It rises majestically above the canyon floor, straddling Hogum Fork and Maybird Gulch on the LCC side, and Dry Creek Canyon on the Utah County side. I have frequently ogled the summit while driving north on I-15 through American Fork and Lehi, and when we decided to do the Summit Project, this is one of the lines that I’ve been most excited to ride, particularly the northwest couloir, which, during normal snow years, requires a 40-50′ rappel mid-slope.
- April 19, 2011
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- Blog, Photography
Rock of Ages
by Parker Alec Cross
It’s sublime, to me, to see the power of nature. The bulk of my year is spent seeing what water and ice can do when it is super-cooled and wrapped around an aerosol, but for the first time in several years, I was able to witness what water can do when it is erodes sandstone.
Southern Utah is home to some of the most impressive rock formation in the entire world, and the principal eastern hub city of Moab has grown in recent years into one of the premier tourist attractions in the world, but still only housing around 5,000 full-time residents. A principle crossing of the Colorado River during the 1800′s, the city is a mecca for rock climbing, canyoneering, off-road exploration, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, and river rafting (among other recreational activities). Part of this large recreational push is the fact that the city is located just a few miles from two National Parks and one State Park, including Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and Dead Horse Point.
- April 4, 2011
- No Comments
- Blog
- April 4, 2011
- No Comments
- Blog
Flight
