Signing off 2011

Trev got a little attention on one of the first powder days at the Village...he was photo of the day on the JH website. What a year, thanks 2011, can't wait to see what the new year brings!

In case you didn't see it

Scope THIS VIDEO.....it is really awesome! In case you are not the dedicated ski racing fans that we are, you might have missed this from today's slalom race in Leinz, Austria. Sarah Schleper took her last WC run of her career (she retired today) in style! Congrats to her, 15 years strong on the tour is an awesome accomplishment.

First for everything

My good bud Ben Jones had his family in town for X mas and they wanted to go sledding. Turns out it's not a hard sell to get me to go sledding on a Monday! Togwotee is still the only place to ride in these parts right now. More sun, no snow.......repeat...Ugh....

Ben crushing it on his first day on a snowmobile!

Tim ripping some month old pow.

Ben's dad Rob, Ben, and Ben's brother Ryan. They rented some 2012 "Cats" for the day.

Rolling deep.

Mixing things up.

Decided to take a bit of a break from two stroking Christmas eve to head up into Grand Teton National Park for a tour/ski. It was freaking freezing, but, we found some decent snow, had kick ass views, and the beer tasted all the better after a 5 hour mission.

Ben's bro Ryan, in town from Whitefish getting some coffee on the summit of "25 short."

Ben throwing on layers with Buck and Static in the background.

Getting to the top...

Kinda tough to put the boots on in the parking lot when it's this cold.

Jeez, I am kinda bright!

Just a bit of new does the trick

Started off a 4 day weekend in style today. We got a few inches of new snow a couple of days ago which essentially tripled the previous month's output. The upshot of now much snow is definitely that it doesn't take much to get you stoked.

Me, finding some pow.

Tim, sidehilling away from the sun. Things have been "inverted" here. It was in the 20's at 9,000ft when we were riding today and below zero most of the day 3,000ft lower down in town.

Booojah.....

Deep trenches are cool.

More meadow madness.

Tim arcing a fatty.

Me, really pumped I was sledding instead of working on this Friday.

Broomball reigns supreme

Yet another season of punishment is in full swing. Broomball has taken over. Twice a week we brave below zero temps because running around on ice without skates seems like a good idea.

The challenge is to keep the beer warm enough so it doesn't turn into slush.

The ice is different every game. Sometimes you can actually get a bit of grip, most of the time it is slicker than snot.

The proud, the mighty, the strong, the gifted, the magical, its.........D and E Cabinets. This motley crew is sitting at 5-1 this year going into the Christmas break. We made it to the city championship last year only to loose by a goal to a bunch of Vermonter's (The 802's). Our ragtag outfit has no uniforms, we have no cheers, we have the oldest player in the league, and damn it, we are good!

One of my favorite days of the year

Strangely enough the shortest day of the year is probably one of my favorites. It ushers in the official start to winter, and, it is awesome because for the next 6 months the days only get longer. What better way to celebrate the shortest day of the year than a post work skin and ski up Snow King in the dark.

You don't need a sign to tell you we need some white stuff. The town of Jackson in the background.

Last bit of light hitting the top of Saddle Butte on the way up.

Yep, I don't regularly carry a tripod with me, sorry about the blur. Town of Jackson looking toward the north with everyone settling in for yet another night of below zero temps.

Going no matter what.

The snow might not be deep, but the good times had are a given. We are pushing on through this "low tide" lack of snow as if it were deep pow....is there any other way?

Sledding shots from Togwotee last weekend.

Bean and cheese burrito cooking on the pipe....tasty, note to self, turn off the sled to avoid two stroke fumes in your melted cheese.

We rode 50 plus miles strong on Saturday.

'Tis the Season

...for gingerbread houses!

Me, Debbie and Jenna getting started on our architectural masterpieces.

Cody laying the foundation for his abode.

Some may have been making fun of my small beginnings...

But it's all in the details.

Right Stevie?

And the first collapse of the night on Debbie's 2-story mansion!

I told you to start small!

Jenna, perfecting her courtyard.

Oh ya, just putting up the mailbox.

And Cody adding his solar panels.

Our finished beauties!
Clockwise from top left: Debbie's Hurricane Katrina mansion, Cody's eco-green solar abode, my Candyland cabin in the woods, Jenna's awesome exotic sugar shack and Trev's helicopter-landing pad bunker.

Yay for the holidays!

All we want for X mas is some snow.

Chels and I went out for a groomer mission at the Village today. At least their is blue sky to wash away the "has it really not snowed in a month" blues.

Chels, trying to set an edge in what suffices as "firm" snow for Wyoming.

Skiing with Chels makes me feel lucky.

Too Damn Long....

since I last got the sled out! It had been since the middle of June actually. Even though we are lucky to have a ton more snow right now than a lot of other areas in the western U.S., things are still pretty thin. My sleddin bud Tim and I went up on Togwotee Pass on Saturday to poke around and see what the conditions were like. Hmm.....we need snow, but there was still a ton of fun pockets of good snow to tear up!

Tim, chilling with Breccia Cliffs in the background.

Tim, laying a fatty in some good ol Wyoming smoke.

A year older

And wiser, of course! Sunday was my birthday so Trev and I decided to grab the snowmobile and head up to Granite Hot Springs to soak away and get a Christmas tree. It ended up being a perfect mellow lounging day, just what I wanted!

On our way up the hot springs...go bright colors, huh?

Throwing on the galoshes and getting ready to walk across the icy creek to the hidden hot pools on the other side...this is NOT the fun part!

Almost froze the little tootsies off, but we made it...lounging and de-thawing!

The steam and heat felt so good on a chilly day.

Trying to regulate the heat was the biggest challenge of the day.

Of course we had a little Champers to help us celebrate!

Aaahhhh...never want to leave.

But we did.

And we picked out the perfect Christmas to tow back on the back of the snowmobile.

Now that was an awesome day.

Thumbs up to a great day and perfect Christmas tree and another year of awesomeness!