En Route Approach

Words by Erin Valverde Pollard
Photos by Erin Valverde Pollard, Justin Wiegand, Eric Pollard, Ike Smith & Chris Benchetler

Pep Fujas was injured early this winter and was not able to come on our first trips this season. Luckily he is back on his skis and ready to film for the next Nimbus webisode!

Bad Ligament damage! Almost superimposed a toe-tag, but decided against it.

Eric and Chris went to Silverton in January. This is the cabin they stayed at. www.treasuremountainhut.com

Major amateur hour with the guns. Two first-timers.

Nighttime at the cabin consisted of surf and turf, fireworks, guns, and Ike’s night terrors keeping Chris and Eric awake.

Here is Chris using the outhouse one cold morning at the cabin.

Eric, Erin, and Justin all traveled to Europe to meet up with Roman Rohrmoser to ski Italy and Austria in February.

We were lucky to meet the Rohrmoser family and stay in their amazing B&B. They hooked us up big time! Nice rooms, fresh homemade apple pancakes, and good snow! www.rohrmoser.biz

We had two BMW X1s to drive around for the whole month we were in Europe! These cars are amazing! They talk to you too!

Roman in front of an orange wall.

Alessandro Belluscio was our photographer for the trip. He showed us around the Alps and made us feel quite at home.

Espresso was a daily for the Nimbus crew.

It was an eight-hour drive from Austria to Italy. We saw lots of scenic roads through the Alps. Castles, castles everywhere! Goes pretty fast when you are driving one of these.

It took us longer than our navigation told us it would take, due to all the frantic stops to shoot scenics.

Eric and Roman filming the town of Courmayeur, Italy.

We stayed at an amazing B&B in Courmayeur with views of the mountains, unique stone rooftops and fresh croissants and fruit in the morning. www.lagrange-it.com

Here is a view from our private deck at La Grange.

Another view from the hotel…looming Mount Blanc.

We ate at this tiny little restaurant called Petit Bistrot almost every night. The menu is amazing and the people are very hospitable! www.petitbistrot.info

Espresso at 11pm, why not?

Inside Petit Bistrot having wine with the crew.

Eric Justin and Roman took some little sleds out one night and raced down the snow covered cobble stone streets. Might have been some schnapps involved…

Eric at La Baita hotel and restaurant at the base of the Courmayeur ski lifts. They always have such great lunch and espresso. We will be back for sure! www.labaitahotel.com

Inside La Baita, Alo our photographer had a gallery of his photos. A lot of them were from the last trip we went on to Italy. Here is Eric posing by one of the photos of him.

A shot looking down at the Valley…beautiful place!

Going up one of the many gondolas at Courmayeur. So many epic lines to do!
www.courmayeur-montblanc.com

Eric and Roman hiking to their lines. They did a lot of this.

Roman slashing in some of the fresh snow we got.

Eric and Roman posing for the camera with Mount Blanc in the distance.

Eric skiing one of his lines after touring out to the zone just before dark.

Mt. Blanc is massive! Look at little Weewolf-Wiegand in the bottom left.

Filming out the BMW window to get some driving scenics.

Heli day view.

It’s cold trying to film/take photos after a heli drop off!

The skiers on the heli day…Davide, Raffa, Roman and Eric.

Nice spines to ski, always rushing the light.

Raffa Skiing one of the heli lines of the day.

Eric pointing to the zone.

Back in Austria…Wiegand filming Erin filming Eric on the backside of Zillertal.

Hiking up to the cross at Zillertal Arena…some of the best terrain around the Alps. www.zillertalarena.com

Roman decided to climb up the cross…I suppose the heavens did not care for this since the steel cross left him with huge bruises on his inner legs!

Eric filming Roman for the interviews.

Weewolf ’s filming position…so classy.

Roman hiding to throw a snowball at Eric…guilty!

Erin filming and taking photos.

Back in the States, Blake Nyman in Utah filming with Ike.

Blake enjoying the nice Utah pow.

Blake Nyman

Ike went to meet Chris Benchetler in Mammoth and Andy Mahre in Washington shortly after. Gabe Taylor and Chris pose for the cam with frost bitten hair.

Chris slashing in Mammoth.

Chris and Gabe scoping their lines.

Checking out the shots from the trip…good powder and lots of sun!

And now, Nimbus Independent presents En Route Approach…

En Route Approach from NIMBUS INDEPENDENT on Vimeo.