"T Bone in the House"

Huh........ I seem to run into this guy in the most random places....... My buddy Tyler "T-bone Staggs" and I grew up ski racing together in North Idaho. I have bumped into him randomly the past two winters in Kitzbuhel, Austria (two winters ago) and also Whistler, BC (last winter) and have had a blast making turns with him. Turns out he showed up to Jackson yesterday and we hammered down at JHMR today as if we were little J3's ripping around in North Idaho circa 1993!

Turns out T bone has the same damn colors as me this winter with yellow and blue! Here is the flatlander (Portland, OR) hiking for turns up Pepi's bench!

And T bone reaping the rewards of his hiking efforts getting some pow up in the Craggs. We shredded hard today and literally skied more today together than we had in the past 15 years combined. Hell yes!

Two Stroking....!

Sunday I got my parents out to Togwotee on snowmobiles for their annual once a year voyage. They were troopers and rode 45-plus miles going from Togwotee Lodge all the way up to Brooks Lake and back. Everyone came back tired, but in one piece.

How did the rental place know to match the red helmet with the one piece?

Heading out from Togwotee Lodge with the Tetons in the background. I rode double with my mom all day, while Chels and my dad had their own sleds.

Ripping a turn with my mom holding on in front of me for dear life.

Needless to say, my mom's face was well protected!

Apparently "Big Red", as my Dad's 20-plus-year-old one-piece suit is so affectionately named, wasn't as waterproof as it was in the early 90's. My dad drying his butt off in front of the fire at Brooks Lake Lodge.

The crew after a great lunch at the lodge.

Plenty of ice on the lake to support 3 sleds.

My favorite sledneck.

Fam time in the Valley

Just wrapping up an awesome 3 day X mas weekend with my folks who came down on Thursday to spend X mas with us. We had a blast, weather was awesome, and was, as usual, so good having them here!

Out at Trail Creek in Wilson doing some skate skiing on X mas eve.

While my mom is actually really good at skate skiing, my Dad and I are "hacks", so, we tried in vain to keep up with my mom.

X mas involved a big ol brunch, opening presents, and skiing/skinning/snowshoeing off the top of Snow King.

My Mom and Me.

My Dad regularly "sets the trends"?

Chels and Linda catching the last bit of X mas sun.

The ol man in his snowshoeing prime!

Trying to race the sun

Freshies amongst the sage off the backside of Snow King.

Mom and Dad cruising back to town from the top of Snow King having missed the last download chair for the day by a long shot.

End of the day powder.

Me, watching my mom do the "butt slide" pondering why anyone would snowshoe when you could just ski/skin?

All I want for Christmas is.....

even more fun adventures in 2011 than in 2010! And Chelsea.

Eclipse Turns....

Had a sweet dawn patrol lap up on Teton Pass this morning as the big ol moon was just setting in the western sky.

Most of the images are super blurry as I couldn't get the focus and lighting right (it was well below zero!). Kinda a cool shot of my bud hiking up with the moon caught in his armpit.

Soul patrol! There is a pretty good collection of "working stiffs" who revel in hiking and skiing in the wee hours of the morning.

Marching toward the top.

Before day break, looking down on Jackson and the commuter traffic coming down Teton Pass on the shortest day of the year.

Let the headlamp lead.

3 Days of Goodness

I am lucky enough to have every other Friday off from work built into my schedule, so, this time of year it means two extra days a month to go sledding.

I went with a couple of buds up Palmer Creek, near Hoback Junction on Friday. Last winter you couldn't even ride up here due to lack of snow.

Evan getting some air on his "Cat".

Saturday's have become my go to sledding day as Chels skis with her kids at the Village all day. Tim and I rode up the Grey's River near Alpine on Saturday.

Tim making a nice turn in a grove of Aspens near the headwaters of Squaw Creek.

And what 3 day weekend would be complete without a powder day at the Village? Sunday was awesome at JHMR, we are in the precipitation pipeline!

Stevie's getting into the holiday spirit...

Hope you are too!

Year 4

Broomball is back and we are killing it! We have won the rec league the past few years, so we decided to move up to competitive. We had a game last night and one tonight and we now have 2 wins...off to a good start for sure!

There we are scrambling around on the ice in tennis shoes. They set up the ice rink in the rodeo grounds every winter so we can be under the lights.

There I am antsy and cheering from the sidelines (in pink)...the rules are you have to have 2 girls in at all times and 4 guys. Then you run around (or try to) on ice and hit a ball that looks like a mini-soccer ball with a rubber mallet and try to score. Not so easy, but very fun!

It's on!!!

The only downside to being out of town the past three weekends is that I haven't been able to go sledding. Last Saturday more than made up for it. It was knee to waist deep, sunny, and awesome up on Togwotee. Didn't take a ton of pictures and or video because we didn't want to stop and take time away from pow riding.

Johnny adjusting a belt...

A bud of ours works at Smith in Ketchum, ID, so, I am always bugging her for new products. This year I am trying out the turbo fan goggles from Smith because fogging goggles while sledding always seems to plague me. The reviews are a mixed back so far..

Why sledding is so appealing.....just you and couple of buds with nothing but untracked goodness for miles and miles.

Congrats BC.....!

One of my good buds "BC" got engaged last weekend (third from the left). Huge props BC, can't wait for a southern wedding!

I started working with BC in the summer of 2002 in Dubois, WY and we have been close ever since. He spent one year in Jackson, but has gone back to his roots and splits his time between Louisiana and Alabama these days. Stoked for ya BC, don't let the wedding and honeymoon get in the way of the Smith River.......

Birthday Weekend

I turned 32 this weekend and it is going quite well so far...I think it is going to be a great year! On Saturday, my actual birthday, I was lucky enough to have to work, which consisted of skiing around with a group of 10-year-old girls at the Village all day who sung me songs on every chairlift and gave me these amazing homemade presents, pretty sweet, huh?

My initials in felt, a dollar ring and a duct tape bookmark emblazoned with a "C", these girls have some creative talent if I do say so myself!

We continued celebrating today (because every birthday should be celebrated for more than one day!) and I spent the morning skiing with my two favorite ski partners...here are Trev and Ted at the top of the tram where it was nuking wind and freezing and hardly anything was visible, but the skiing ended up being amazing.

Next up, Trev and I switched gears and grabbed the snowmobile for our annual hot springs and Christmas tree mission. Here I am with my new pink snowmobile helmet! Pretty awesome, right? It was Trev's birthday present to me, of course. : )

Then we decided to walk across the river to some natural hot springs, I came prepared with galoshes, but still froze my little tootsies off. You can see where we ditched our ski gear on the opposite shore so it wouldn't get wet in the crossing.

Aaaahhhh....testing the waters.

Yes, this is amazing and how every birthday should be spent.

Trev lounging with some natural beauty and my galoshes.

Testing out some more hot pools on our trek back across the river.

Now some hot tea to warm up...

And off we go to find the perfect (for us) Christmas tree.

And we got him! A little guy surrounded and crowded out by tall giants (we always try to grab a tree that we think might not make it, I guess it makes us feel better).

Our tree and an amazing sunset on the snowmobile out, what a day, what a weekend.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I feel very lucky and thankful for such wonderful family and friends and can't wait to see what 32 brings!