I was stoked when I got the call inviting Tom Runcie, Sydney Dickinson, and myself to meet TJ David and Gavin Nator from Skiing Magazine and go to Sheepshead Cabin in the Southern San Juans.
Words: Rob Dickinson | Photos: Trent Bona | Video: TJ David
“Storm Cycles” Ep3 Sheepshead from TJ David [Ski] [Film] [Photo] on Vimeo.
Our fleet of powder sleds awaiting their mission the next morning. Photo: Trent Bona
With my truck loaded with Tom’s sled, all of our gear, and a trailer with our other three sleds, we were off. Ten minutes past Gunnison, we plowed a deer (think Tarantino-style violence). Ten minutes after that we nearly greased another one. Deer and front bumper be damned, we arrived 3 hours later in South Fork for a quick sleep and the most bomb buckwheat pancake breakfast available in ski country at the Feelin’ Good Cafe in South Fork. Bellies full and ready to shred, we met the crew at the trailhead just outside of South Fork headed toward Wolf Creek Pass.
Fast forward 21 miles of sledding, one blown beater sled, and a half tank of gas and we were at a pimp cabin sitting under Sheepshead Mountain in the middle of at least 30,000 acres of sick terrain, 85% of which is fully sled accessible by an intermediate snowmobiler. Stoked on our digs for the next few days, we tipped back on a quick icy-cold crusher before we headed out for a tour of sledding and high alpine shredding with Chris Rapp, proprietor of Sheepshead Cabin, as our tour guide.
Tom Runcie boosting pillows in true West Elk Project fashion. Photo: Trent Bona
On the first day, Chris offered up copious beta from twenty years of shredding these zones and spoon-fed to us some super photogenic faces to score some footy for a Skiing Magazine Storm Cycles webisode and article for Ski/Skiing Magazine. Fatypyus athlete TJ David showed his skill on the backside of the lens shooting video while Trent Bona shot stills and infused the crew with his contagious stoke level. Sydney, Tom, and myself tried our best to make skiing windboard conditions look good (the area saw a wind event shortly before our arrival). Our day one tour brought us to three sick zones that would be nothing short of dreamy under their normally soft, powdery conditions. We hunted wind riffle and had an absolute blast making the most of the mixed conditions.
Sydney Dickinson getting deep while storm skiing in the trees below the cabin. Photo: Trent Bona
Day two, we went for a sled-assisted tour to an area dubbed “The Pinnacles,” a dramatic dreamscape of couloirs set amongst huge rock spires. TJ hung out to film from the opposite ridge while Syd, Tom, Trent, Gavin, Dustin, Chris and I shredded the awesome terrain. After a sick run, high fives and lunch, we skinned up an adjacent ridge and traversed over to a 2500′ chute we had been licking our chops at the previous day. When we arrived at the top, we were stoked to tip in on this bad chicken and plunder a possible first descent. As we geared up, discussion turned to avalanche conditions. The group had mixed feelings on the pack, deciding that the persistent slab probably wouldn’t go, but if it did, we’d be looking at some bad business. We “roshambo’d” for who had to radio TJ and tell him he’d waited the past four hours for nothing, and bailed. Chris put us on a great alternate route down a chute on the opposite aspect, followed by pillow skiing in a safe creek bed out to the sleds we had stashed earlier. We found awesome recycled pow that gave us great hope for the following day. A sporty tandem ride with Syd and I on the running boards and poor Gavin sitting bitch on the seat put us back on the deck of the cabin for beers and eats, but not before pulls off the whiskey bottle at a lookout near the cabin, enjoying baller 360 degree views as the sun set over the surrounding San Juan Mountains. We ate and drank like kings and toasted TJ’s all-star attitude for sitting up on the ridge freezing all day while we all shredded.
The crew settles into the cabin for a night of warm food and cold beers after a great day of skiing. Photo: Trent Bona
If day one and two were the work, then day three was the reward. Snow piled up as we ate breakfast, and Chris once again came through and showed us an endless playground of steep tree skiing, replete with numerous cliff and pillow options. We banged lap after sled-serviced lap; our machines and riders functioning as a well-oiled, two-stroke-burnin’, pillow crushin’, pow slashin’, photo and video shootin’ machine. Everything came together beautifully, high-fives were thrown, and pillows were crushed in the wake of our pent-up wrath from an otherwise pow-starved winter. I skied some of the choicest tree pillows of my life. Runcie did the same with his fluid, hard-charging style. Sydney showed up strong and crushed at least as hard as the boys, skiing and sledding with a skill that had me and the other guys thoroughly impressed. TJ hopped out from behind the lens, stomped the biggest cliff of the trip, and showed us what he had been looking for all weekend. Trent captured the magic in stills and kept up the endless southern-fried stoke that we love him for. For the last run, we said screw photos and video and party-skied the deepest pow of the weekend back to the sleds to pack up and head back home.
Rob Dickinson getting tipsy on his Arctic Cat M8. Photo: Trent Bona
As I rode my sled out the 20 miles back to the truck in the waning dusk light, sated, exhausted and happier than a pig in shit, I wondered as I often do what I ever did to deserve this life.
The Sheepshead Cabin is a backcountry house that sleeps 10+, started recently by brothers Chris and Rich Rapp, purpose-built and located for snowmobile-accessed skiing and snowboarding. The cabin is pimp. It is set in the Southern San Juans, ten miles from Wolf Creek Ski Area, in the second snowiest zone in Colorado right behind the West Elks. If you have a sled, like to shred and have been looking for that magical spot where sleds easily access sick terrain, then you need to pay this place a visit. If you can’t enjoy yourself here then you don’t like fun.
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