Eric Balken’s best of video from last season is very very impressive. Anyone who hates on this edit is clearly lacking in the intelligence department. Balken can shred pow, stomp massive drops, and do doubles too. I usually see this fella shredding around with his homie Carston Oliver, who also has a few tricks up his sleeve. Nice work brother! Hope you can make one this good again this season even with the lean quantity of snow in the lower 48.

Do you have a banger season edit? Remember, if it isn’t on Facebook it never happened!

Carston Oliver is one of the most talented all around skiers in todays freeride scene. His ability to hike all day, ski big lines, and throw down wild tricks off huge features is matched by few and surpassed by only a handful. He is a Utah boy and has been relatively unknown until the last season or two due to his modest personality and lack of interest in self promotion. However, he does like to shoot photos and video, so his skiing ability alone has brought him more into the public eye with Carston starring in Sweetgrass Productions new movie Solitaire, showing up on a Patagonia catalog cover, tons of photos in Skiing Magazine and Powder in 12 months.

This edit highlights some of the radness that Carston and the Sweetgrass guys got into down South last Summer. Looks like a sick place to visit.

Check out Carston’s 1080 off a 70+ foot cliff here.

Salomon Freeski TV just dropped their latest episode in their on-going web series of clips. Episode 8 takes a look at the ski culture and passion of Alta locals. Featuring rippers Leo Ahrens, Jamey Parks, Carston Oliver, and other area locals shredding Alta’a famous pow, trees, and steeps both in bounds and in the expansive backcountry.

One of North America’s Pow skiing meccas, Alta is a true classic and a rare experience in the skiing world.

This clip was produced along with Sweetgrass Productions, featuring their soulful vibe and unique camera work. Very artsy…very awesome! The following is taken from Salomon Freeski TV:

“Alta, Utah has almost a cult-like following of devoted powder skiers. Leo Ahrens, Jamey Parks, and the many generations of Alta shredders show us the soul of skiing is alive and well in one of the best powder skiing spots on earth.”

Witt Foster looking like a longtime local...

Leo Ahrens getting deep in his backyard

Jamey Parks assigned to dawn patrol

There was a good dose of new powder at Alta this weekend. This video was shot in the Ho in the late afternoon. There was still a ton of soft stuff and faceshots were still possible until last chair. This beat the hell out of skiing the White Ribbon of death at Snowbird. There were several severe injuries at Snowbird this weekend due to thin cover and poor choices.

The below video was shot by Matt from Ski Utah and will give you a feel for what the morning was like. It was like really really good!

skiutah.com

The snow gods did not bring us more snow in the Wasatch last night, but that is ok because there was enough yesterday to make it happen again up at Alta this morning. A 7:15am start got us to the goods by 9:00. Baldy Shoulder near the Badnews Cliffs was bangin’ sometimes literally since rocks were still strewn about liberally. I have heard rumors of a warm up, so if you want to get some you better make it happen this weekend!

The Dubsatch Crew is know for going big and having fun in any situation. It makes perfect sense that while other pro bros were chillin’ at the bar during another stormy day at La Parva they would be out building large jumps off of buildings. Way to go Carston and whoever else is down there right now.

I can’t wait to see what Carston, Eliel, and Hoji got while shooting with Sweetgrass this summer on a remote glacier in SA.

More goods fromt he Dubsatch Crew. The sections for Leo, Carston and Colter near the end are super dope. There is also some really terrible wangsta rapping by Christian Mandal. Ah to be young…

Sounds like the fellas from Sweetgrass had to deal with some pretty big problems in SA last summer. I think the problem of Women is overblown a bit, but hey I have never been there so what do I know. I am not the least bit surprised that my young friend Carston Oliver was the lone skier to stick it out on a 1am-7am hike at -25 degrees. I have always said he is half rubber and half amazing. I can’t wait to see this video! Carston is heading back to SA with Sweetgrass next week to live on a glacier for a month and shoot with his buddy Eliel Hindert and Uber pro Eric Hjorleifson.

The epic powder spring in Utah was something that too many people missed out on. Two people that did not miss even a little bit were Carston and Balken. These … Read More

It seemed warm at the bottom of the hill today but up top was a different story. The tram was closed for most of the afternoon due to high winds so we took to the chairs. The snow in Little Cloud Bowl was epic wind buff so Carston decided it would be better to ski it switch. There was cream pow in the cirque and even the lower mountain was skiing pretty damn good. Another sleeper pow day in Powder Month AKA: April. Continued snow in the forecast has me predicting continued awesome skiing.