**PLEASE ALLOW A FEW MINUTES FOR PHOTOS TO LOAD**

With our first trip home to Lake Tahoe this season being classified as a “failure,” I knew I needed to find another opportunity to go back. With the forecast calling for a 30 inch storm followed by cold days and more storms, I figured it would be the perfect time to head back.

Karl Fostvedt was more then excited for this opportunity. He also suggested letting his roommate, Jeremy Lato, tag along since he had another sled. I approved of this idea and very happy I did.

We started by filming a couple of mini lines and a little jump over a cliff. After a couple hours there we headed to build a jump. The first spot I had scoped out from the previous year for some reason had snowmobile tracks right up the landing, and the other one was being built by the Joey group of snowboarders. Thankfully it randomly started dumping, so we probably would not of been able to hit the jump anyways.

Jeremy warming up with a mini line

Jeremy found some good snow

Karl packing out a little lip on top of this guy

Karl doing his first pow nose butter 3

The second day we had plans to go out and build a jump, but the weather was not cooperating. The forecast in the morning called for strong winds by noon followed by moderate size snow system. We decided to take the day mellow and go hit a trap rail in Truckee. We got a couple of shots on that, butwere more excited for the possibility of decent weather the following day.

Day 3 we woke up to partly cloudy skis and light winds. We headed out to the trail head withsnowboarder Christian Mares at sunrise and made our way to the same zone we built a jump earlier in the year but didn’t hit.

The road randomly disappeared

Christian navigated his was through the wind drifts, but left his board back at the beginning so Jeremy hiked it over to him

We got to that jump spot to realize after a couple hundredmore inches of snow the landing had become fairly flat.

Standing on the deck of our old jump looking for new spots

We decided to just head around the corner to a zone we knew of right next to it and quickly found something we wanted to build.

Finally found something we like

At first the idea was to just pack out a lip on top of this cliff, but we quickly thought of something better. Instead, we decided to just build a step down over the cliff.

After a quick less then two hour build we began to session the step down. Unfortunately for the first couple of hits thicker clouds rolled in creating an intense flat light. All I could think of is all the other back luck we have had with weather this season. Thankfully, the thick clouds only lasted about 15 minutes and for the rest of our session it was just partly cloudy with good gaps of sun.

Karl stepping out the lip

setting up my camera stuff

Karl hiking back up for first hit

Karl Fostvedt

Christian Mares

Christian Mares Cab 9 his first hit

Jeremy Lato

Jeremy hiking up to his skis after a failed dub

Jeremy Lato

The next day more weather rolled in, so we decided to make it our down day. The forecasters were once again calling for 20-30 inches or more from Sunday night to early Monday morning. I was pretty happy this down day occurred when it did, so that I could find time to head down to Reno and pick up a nice Super 8mm film camera from Trent Palmer.

We woke up at a decent time Monday morning and checked the snow totals and avalanche reports. Everywhere I wanted to head was reporting 24-40 inches just from the previous night. The only problem was intense winds and the new snow created dangerous avalanche conditions. I wanted to head to a pillow zone I knew of, but due to its location we really didn’t know how much new snow it received and how the snow pack was in the area. We decided to gas up the sleds and head out there anyways.

It didn’t take us long to realize that this day was going tobe one of the best days of the year. You pretty much know its going to be a great day when your getting blower face shots on your sled just on the trail out to the zone!

The best pow turns

Had to get the real banger pow turns in first

When we found the pillow zone we became excited from all the possibilities and 40+ inches of new snow.

So Epic it deserves two pictures

We spent around 9-10 hours just sled lapping this pillow zones and getting as many shots in as possible. The snow stayed amazing all day, and with out a doubt was D.O.S. Media’s best day of filming ever.

I spent all day shooting Super 8mm film with my off hand instead of pictures, so that is why these are video stills...

J Money's first line

It was like this alll day

Blastin Pillows all day

Karl stepping out the top of a pillow booster

Karl's first line with a lot of wind

Where did Karl go?

Boostin, tree tapping, and threading the needle

We got back to the car around 8:30 at night in the dark and just wanted to get home since we know we had to get up before sunrise the next day. We got all packed up andtried to head out, but the car was stuck. After 30 minutes of trying to get the car unstuck we realized that we had to take the sleds back off the trailer, detach the trailer, and then push the trailer out of the parking spot separately. Finally, the day was over and we got home around 9:30 with still some work to be done.

The next morning we got up before sunrise and headed out to Sonora for another epic day. Christian had to spend the day trying to get his sled fixed, so he couldn’t make it out for our first Sonora day. We got out to Sonora and immediately went to a jump zone I knew of from years past. The build took us a few hours, but it was not too bad in the 30 degree blue bird skis.

Karl stoked on the jump, but maybe more stoked on his Sour Patch Kids

All that sugar requires some water

The jump

Checking out the landing on the backside of a cornice

We sessioned this jump until the light went bad and both Jeremy and Karl logged a few good shots on it.

About midway through the session we got a visit from the Nimbus dudes who were hitting some other feature nearby. They were pretty stoked to see our jump and watched a couple of failed hits before they made their way out. The best part of this encounter was both Karl and Jeremy being on EPs, and not even realizing EP was sitting and watching.

Jeremy Lato cork 7 first hit

Karl sending his cork 7 far left for the fresh landing

We got back to the car a little after 7 and instead of spending 70 dollars on a hotel nearby, we decided to just head back to Tahoe and make the drive once again in the morning.

Wednesday was our last day in Tahoe and we spent it once again out in Sonora. Christian joined us this time but still without his sled. We got out and found a nice untouched landing that was not getting baked by the strong April sun. This build ended up being a lot longer than we anticipated. In fact, it took us well over 4 hours I believe. Once we were done building everyone was exhausted from the entire week, but had to tough it out for one more session.

J Money enjoys first hit

Jeremy Lato also had last hit of the day

Christian Mares

Jeremy and Christian reviewing some shots

Karl Fostvedt

Karl and Jeremy

Once again everyone got a shot or two on the jump and it was just another successful day in paradise.

We rolled back to Tahoe that night and eventually back home to Utah the next night. Actually, we rolled into Salt Lake around 4 in the morning, which was perfect time for me to run a couple of errands and then roll up to the trailhead to meet up with Blake Nyman and the Nimbus dudes. I ended up getting about an hour of sleep that morning in my car before another day of work.

Up next for us is some more Utah backcountry and then a trip up to Idaho.

Photos and Words by: Bentley Atteberry

Additional Photography: Christian Mares, Jeremy Lato, andKarl Fostvedt