Visitors and Snowmobiles

A lot of snowmobile hill-climbing action this weekend at Snow King and Trevor was soaking it up, his self-proclaimed favorite weekend of the year. If you are not familiar with the Hill Climb, it is where snowmobiles try to make it to the top of the local mountain, Snow King (which is ridiculously steep) and in the process, usually don't make it. Consequently, the wreckage is always pretty spectacular and the people are very entertaining to say the least!

Believe it or not, this event draws about 10,000 people to Jackson for the weekend and the general mood in town is a little more testosterone-crazed than normal. Three of the 10,000 visitors came and stayed at our house, a great visitor weekend with Adam Grace and Suzan and Nathan Pelloni. Lots of fun.

Trevor and his mustache in his element.
(And might I add, looking nasty)

The view of the course from the chairlift, it always gets really chewed up and down to the dirt.

The guys in neon are the "Hill Help" who essentially try to save the sleds from crashing all the way back down to the bottom if the rider falls off. Sometimes they are successful and sometimes they aren't, but there is a huge net they string off of one of the lift towers to catch the runaway sleds so they don't go all the way to the bottom.

Nathan actually did the Hill Climb and he kicked butt, getting 2nd out of 38 in the Amateur division!

Here is Adam, spectating. He had to borrow a mustache/beardo hat to fit in with the crowd.

Nathan and Suzan at the awards with the big trophy.

Suzan and I...we ski raced together in college, took an awesome trip to Hawaii and have shared quite a few wild and crazy adventures. So good when we actually get to hang out, which is not that often any more!

If you want to see a little bit of the action, check this out. I took this from the chairlift, riding right over the course.

Poor Stevie

So we started off the morning teasing Stevie about being too tired to get off the couch to say goodbye to us as we bussled off to work. Rough life he leads! But when Trev and I both came home for lunch, Stevie was still on the couch...now some of you might say, sounds like a normal cat, but not Steve, oh no. He is a go-getter, explore the world then take a nap kind of guy, so this behavior kind of caught us off guard.

I went over to him to see if he was okay and it looked like he was favoring a paw and then on closer inspection I found the cause of his "laziness"...he had a puncture wound on his front leg. He was holding it up and couldn't put any weight on it, he even fell on his face when I set him down to see if he could walk!

We rushed him over to our nice vet really quickly to get his prognosis and it turns out he may have been in a cat fight last night (now, I know that was no fault of his, there are a lot of bullies in the neighborhood!) The big mean bully cat bit Stevie's paw which has a nasty cut and is now swollen to twice the size of his other one! Poor little guy. On a good note, all the nurses there kept complimenting Stevie on how cute and well behaved he was!

Check out how big his right paw is compared to his left! : (

But he did get Pepto-Bismoesque antibiotics, so hopefully he will be on the mend soon!

And on a very important side note, please read this shirt.
I think this is an important message that we should get out there, thank you GareeLynn!

(Click on photo to see it larger)

Little bit of Paris

For the final of our Europe pics, here are some from a 24 hour layover we had in Paris on the way home from Zurich. We had just enough time to take the train into Paris, see a few sights, have dinner, and then head back to the airport. Short but sweet.

Slush Doggin....

Had a great weekend with the weather close to 60 degrees and the snow on par with a 7-11 slurpee on a hot August day. The videos are from Satruday's ski day, and then today Chels and I raced in the annual JH Tele Race. The entry fee was $10 each, which ended up being well worth it. We won goggles, tele bindings, a t-shirt, a fleece top, and drank a few free beers all the while getting a couple of race runs too. The Robinson twosome did pretty well taking 1st place in the mens and 2nd place in the womens. Chels dominated all the way until her lungs had to go uphill for a couple of 360 degree gates! I surprised myself and ended up winning the mens division which had everything from tele nerds to former World Cup tele racers. We had a blast.

Getting ready in the start gate, hmm, those are tight bibs!

My lovely wife trying to avoid being kissed by the "stache"

We actually got some snow last night which provided for scary "dust on crust, corral reef" style conditions

Chels, with a self portrait off the lenses

A Spring Day at the Village

This is basically the gist of our day...just me, Ted, Leigh on her Launchers and Trevor on his snow blades, enjoying our warm spring day on the slopes! : )

The last of our Europe pics....Kitzbuhel, Austria

Admittedly, these last pics of our trip are long overdue, but you know how it is...you get home, you get back in your scene and all of a sudden a month has passed...oops! So sorry about that, just wanted to show you our last batch of Europe pics from Kitzbuhel, Austria. We were there for 4 days and watched Marco race on the famed Hahnenkamm course which was crazy and beautiful, check it out.

We have arrived and just in time to race over and catch the last training run!

We are staying right across the street from The Londoner! This is the famous bar where the winner of the World Cup race gets behind the bar and bartends all night. Apparently it gets wild and crazy, but we never saw it at its peak. And I am okay with that.

Our second rodel experience. In Kirchburg. At night. Just as crazy fun as the first time.

An 8-person chair! With heated seats! We love it here.

Skiing around Kitzbuhel. It is so freakin' gorgeous around here.

Big crowds with fireworks and all.

Representing.

Erin and I keeping warm with our Gluwein, hot mulled wine. Yummm.

Tyler Staggs and Trev checking out the course, they did NOT want to go down there!

Marco on stage the night of the downhill bib draw. If you look closely, you can see my dad with VIP access standing up top to the left of the light in a navy jacket. There were 7,000 people standing in the rain to watch the top 15 best skiers get their bibs and start order for the next day.

They sure do love their skiing here, it is so awesome. Before the race there were helicopters buzzing the crowd, para-gliders with smoke bombs and even a cheerleading routine in the finish!

Rumored to be close to 100,000 people watching the Hahnenkamm downhill.

If you look closely, through the smoke you can see Marco speeding toward the finish, he is the spec in the middle of the pitch. Go Marco Go!!!

I told you they live, breathe and eat skiing!

Our extended crew on our balcony. We were staying right across from Marco and could basically wave to him from our window, so cool.
From left: Paul (my dad), Trevor, Austrian Martin, Sarah Staggs, Erin, Swiss Chris, Tyler Staggs, Pete (or Baby Huey) and Porc

After the race was over we were able to slip down the course (which was freakin' scary!) Here is Trev contemplating whether or not he really wants to slip down here, keep in mind it is bulletproof ice, a side-hill and so so steep that of course no pics do it justice. I don't think I have seen Trev think this hard about "skiing" something...ever! Many props to Marco and all the other bad-asses on the Ski Team that actually fly down this madness!

Our last day we got an amazingly beautiful day of sunshine and fun...this place is huge! Look how far the cable of this gondola stretches and then the resort continues on two more peaks behind that. We were in awe and loving every minute.

Beauty.

Notice the downhill course framed in the background.
Goodbye Kitzbuhel.
Thanks for the amazing time.
Hope to be back to do it again one of these days.

The Stache lives on

Well, it looks like the mustache is staying. I am not sure if many of you need your eyes checked or what, but Trev will now be scaring women and children alike for the next few weeks.

Yesterday was an amazing beautiful blue sky day that we soaked it up skiing at the Village with friends. It was so nice that we decided to have the first BBQ of the year at Ted's place. Loving the sun and the early hints of spring...bring it on!

Poor Finn looks scared...I don't blame him!

Our friend Ashleigh Walker (Trevor's distant cousin) with her adorable 10-month-old son Finnegan.

Wowed with our very own skate show by Ted in his garage.

More fancy footwork...Ted jumping for style points.

The BBQ ignites...granted we were all still wearing down jackets!
Come on spring, we're ready for you!

We ski too!

There have been some complaints from the ski crowd that the blog is a little snowmobile heavy of late. Chels and I try to go skiing together every Wednesday at Snow King on our lunch breaks. Here are a couple of shots from today.

Chels you are leading the jury, counsel

While I was sleeping last night, Chels the night owl sabotaged the democratic voting process for the stache. It pains me that someone would go to these extraordinary means to get what they want.

Thus, here is another picture glorifying the beauty of the stache. That is, the stache in action, while working up on the ski hill a couple of weekends ago. It has come in much fuller, stronger, and overall cooler since then. Notice how well it goes with the chestpack radio and makes me look official.

Keep voting for the stache.....!

Is this rigged?

So there seems to be a bunch of people out there with poor eyesight, or maybe poor memories...let me help refresh. You see Trevor is so handsome without this mustache, but maybe some of you have forgotten, therefore I am posting a before and after picture for you to check out.

Maybe the lighting on the previous post was too good or my photography skills are just on fire...not sure, but I apologize for glamorizing the hair on Trev's face. This is what it really looks like. You see, even Stevie is scared.

Ohhh....the good old days. The Trevor I know and love.

There is still time for all of you to change your votes to "shave it"!

Chels : )