Range of Light
Chris Wellhausen
- January 02 2009
- 8,087 views
- 15 comments
The Southern Sierra. Mt. Whitney seen towards right side of the middle in the panoramic.
Several times I gazed out the window of my car at Mt. Whitney and the mountains of the Southern Sierra. I had often asked myself, “What if snowboarding Mt. Whitney was a possibility.” What began as a question while driving Highway 395 quickly grew to a reality last season. With the right crew of friends and a few other splitboard/snowcamping excursions, we were prepared to embark on a most adventurous snowboard mission, to splitboard and ride Mt. Whitney; the lower 48 state’s tallest mountain.
The photo gallery below is a behind the scenes look at TWS’s January issue that features”Range of Light, A Splitboarding Adventure to the Tallest Peak in the Lower 48-Mt. Whitney” Pick up the January issue to read the full story on page 166. Other must-see features in the issue are based on India, Japan, and our annual Interview Issue. Go out and get your copy or get your subscription to TWS here.
View it in Fullscreen to get best perspective…
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I found Mt. Whitney most intriguing and wanted to find if snowboarding it was possible. Photo: Chris Wellhausen
A HUGE thanks goes out to The North Face for their well designed tents, packs, sleeping bags, and camping booties. Without their support, we would have froze our asses off.
Voile-USA for their innovative spiltboard kits, interface systems, and sticky skins. These products made a splitboard missions a huge success.
And to Burton Snowboards for the chance to enjoy their S-Series splitboard…they’ve been involved in splitboarding since the beginning.
Especially to Leeward Cinema: Chris Edmands, Kyle Schwartz, & Jason Logan. These shredders: Josh Dirksen, Chad Otterstrom, Lucas DeBari, Eric Leines, Forest Shearer, and Ben Lynch. And our friends that joined us: Canyon and Carlos Florey, Pancho, Matt Swanson, Matt Miller!!! 14 of us on the lower 48’s tallest 14′r!
Chad Otterstrom, McTwist with Keeler & Day Needle in background. Photo: Chris Wellhausen
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January 2nd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
What an adventure!
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Looks like an awesome time. Waiting on my voile bindings to test out my s-series…
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Looks like a derpa derpa. Waiting on my voile derps to test out my derk-derkas…
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 pm
The 55h pic is legit great job, i hiked this shit in the summer time for some boring camping, no riding
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
PUSSIES
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:19 pm
im gona go climb mount everest and get it on snowbaorder mag
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:08 am
Hey shtevie, if you want to climb Everest, you might want check what TWS posted here:
http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2006/02/13/the-disappearance-of-marco-siffredi/
Originally published in Volume 19 of TransWorld SNOWboarding, February, 2006
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:05 pm
news flash - Burton has NOT been involved in splitboarding since the beginning, but they have made splits for a while. Voile on the other hand has been doing splits forever and has made the split you own kit for a long time and has been dedicated to the split cause thru thick and thin - lets get the facts straight before we kiss the sponsor’s A$$
January 4th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Just me or where there not a single pic showing the use of the split feature?
January 4th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
that chute shot was GNAR!
January 4th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Do you really climb up the mountain with them on as ski’s? I don’t have a lot of experience hiking up backcountry mountains but it seems it would be difficult to hike with ski’s on?
January 4th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
leflerej,
the rough snow conditions didn’t allow for us to skin on the approach to the peak. We skinned mostly when we were on our way up to basecamp; then again when we went back to the jumps we scouted. So to get up the steepest, especially up the Mountaineer’s Route we were forced to hike; sometimes the most difficult spots we attached crampons on our boots.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:45 am
so sick jolly so sick
January 5th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
i wish snowboard mags had more stuff like this in them these days. nice job guys.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:34 pm
i am planning on hiking up the mountaineers route on the first week of feb. i was looking for some descriptions of people who have done it before and i just managed to stubble across this site. i have a few questions like how difficult was it to ride back down and what kind of obstacles should i be aware of. i am relatively decent snowboarder. i missed last season and i plan on brushing up on my skills at or camp while we are there.
was there a lot of ice and was the chute on the mountaineers route icy?
i think that this will be a most epic trip and i kinda dont wanna die in the process. so if anyone can shed some light on this for me, that would be great. thanx