Friday, December 28, 2012

Just another badass Friday in Paradise

 I love the "sneaker" deep days.  Woke up this morning, the avalanche hotline was reporting just a few inches of fresh.....well, Jackson is the only place that I have lived in the winter that actually under reports snowfall.  Yea, three inches, uhh huh....

Southeast Ridge of Glory Bowl, Teton Pass.  

 I didn't think it was a mission that was going to be deep enough to warrant bringing the hand held camera, so, photos were via the phone and a bit grainy!

Deep.

 And a couple random shots from a few days ago.  It's been the typical cold refrig here in the hole.

Best and easiest commute to a ski hill around! 

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Xmas turns

We had a great Christmas consisting of a lazy morning making a breakfast feast, a couple presents and waiting for the weather to warm up just a bit from -7 so we could go make some turns. Well, it did warm up and we headed out to the Village for a bit of chilly blue-bird shredding, we even found some leftover pow...I think the best way to spend the holidays!





It was one of those days we just felt lucky to live where we do. 
Hope you all feel that too!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Braaaapin.

 Too many activities.....not enough time to blog about it!  Here are some sledding shots from last weekend that I am just getting around to throwing up on the blog.  

Drew, the sun, and once really nice looking  track.  

 Getting air on a sled requires a lot of both throttle and brake control.  Certainly not mindless like launching a cliff on skis feels to be. 

Drew, permission granted for airtime.  The town of Jackson is off in the blurry background.  Riding locally is the best.  
 
Probably the hardest move in sledding.  The fall away must make side hill.  They require full focus, huge balance, and just the right amount of throttle control. 

Monday, December 24, 2012

Growing...

Pretty pumped the days are now getting longer!  
Merry X Mas to one and all. 

Sunday, December 23, 2012

I hope it never ends...

 This weekends sledding was better than the pictures, which is to say, it was really good!  More snow on the way too!  

Surveying peaks and ridges we plan to ride.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Brrrrrrrr.....

 6 am hike and ski before work missions have started up again.  Either the conditions have been so good or a bunch of the valley went and got "real" jobs because it was mildly crowded.  Nowhere else in the country would you see 50 plus dedicated souls hiking and skiing at 6 am when its -20 out!  Awesome.

Stormin....

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

A little bit of amazing....

In the interest of sounding like a broken record, riding sleds is the SHIT!!!!!  A few shots from a ride up Mosquito Creek last weekend.  It was soooooooooo good.  

Drew, airing out a cornice with a really soft landing.  
 
 Thats the amazing thing about sledding.  Yep, we liked that line, so, we got to the bottom of it, banged a big 180 turn, hammered back up to the top of the climb, then walah, face shots back down again.  Then, you put it on repeat for about a half hour until you track it out.  Its astounding.  No crowds, no jerks, just powder.

Steve and Drew catching a breather.
 
 Steve sizing up a climb.

Hmmmm, that's nice.

Monday, December 17, 2012

On the hill

I still enjoy being around ski racing at all levels!  Still working a few weekends a winter at the Village to get a pass.  This past weekend was a FIS race that got moved to the Village from the King due to lack of snow on the King. 

Friday, December 14, 2012

Let it snow.

I love our little town in the winter. 

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Birthday Goodies


 My wife rips!  Skiing with her makes me really happy.  She is the only person I know that literally skis with a perpetual smile on her face.  

Yellowpants ripping down Riverton Bowl with the second tram tower in the background.
 
Chels, snaking me on what is probably my favorite little line on the hill.  Alta Chutes #3, first tracks, and no hecklers on the chair!  Hell yea early load. 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Chels rules All

 Today was awesome for a lot of reasons.  Most of all, it was Chelsea's bday.  She is quite simply the love of my life!  What better excuse to take the day off and spend it with her! 

 Soaking in Granite Hot Springs, one of our favorite places on planet Earth.

 Granite is always the bomb, but when its cold, snowing, and deep powder for riding, it's all the better.

And perhaps the most unexpected and rad part of the day......., Chels hooked us up via doing a yoga class for JHMR last night with an "early load" and or "bro-load" and or "TGR" load.  We got to take the 8:30am tram up a full half an hour before the first public tram and scored shamelessly on knee deep pow before any of the rest of the skiing public.  There are first for everything in life and I really hope this wont be the last.  Amazing!  

Love you Chels.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Two plankin....

 Chels was getting after it all weekend out at the Village powder skiing with the wee lil ones.  I haven't been out to the hill to get my employee pass, so, up on Teton Pass I ventured to get my two plank kicks.  I am vowing this year to take more shots when skiing.  

Me, in some "snow ghosts" that reminded me of skiing back home in North Idaho.

Seems I only get up on the Pass early morning for dawn patrols and/or after work in the spring, both of which are low crowd times.  I was pretty blown away what the Pass looks like on a sunny powder day that happened to be a weekend.  It was packed!  For good reason, scope the view!
 
 I went sledding Sunday morn, changed in the Stagecoach parking lot, threw on the ski gear and double dipped.  I was so damn tired.

Friday, after work, getting some late afternoon goodness.  Skiing is cool.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

The Weekend That Was

 Weekends are always awesome, but even more so when it's winter, there is fresh snow, and the sun is out.  That was what was on the menu this weekend and we took full advantage.  In the winters we have been in Jackson, this years snowpack is really  unique.  We really have very little snow on the ground in town, but up high, our snowpack is actually about 10% above average.  Wyoming is lucky.  Seems much of the bordering states haven't been hit with the white stuff like we have.  

Foot of fresh and not a lot of competition in Mosquito Creek for freshies. 
 Many of the creekbeds have yet to completely fill in, and......damn it, I found one today that got my boots wet and my arms sore.

 I LOVE sledding!  

 Drew, doing his best to bury his new 2013 Polaris.

Tim, scoring a nice weather window yesterday up on Togwotee.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Wandering...

 Yet again all over Big Wonderful Wyoming this past week for work.  Fire, brimstone, thunderstorms, and.......rainbows in December in Wyoming?  Guess so. 

And gas under $3 a gallon.  Reason to celebrate? 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Another year, another Beaverfest

There are a lot of photos in this post because, well, the Beaverfest deserves it. Once again we headed to Beaver Creek this last weekend with a bunch of our close buds to ski, have a good time and cheer on the US Ski Team, (particularly Marco) at the Birds of Prey World Cup races. Another good time it was, I mean really, how could you not have fun with this group?

 A few of our group ready (and are we ready!) to head to the hill to watch the downhill. 
Curt in classic pink ski wear, Liz sparkling for the USA, Keelan, who once again hit it spot on with his fashion styling to be known as the Green Man the rest of the weekend, Shannon with an amazing new blue hairdo, and me.


We secured our section in the stands and are ready for the action.

 Some GoPro stuntmen, floating into the finish...they know how to kick it off right here!

Liz with cowbell ringing and her hair done up and flying in the wind, ready for some ski racing to begin!

We make it pretty obvious who we are cheering for!

 Curt got the local elementary school kids to help us rally the crowd.

Marco skied well, with a little bobble he finished in 18th place. We still love him.

The Marco Rocks Fan Club mobbing our favorite guy.

Billy Kidd and Marco chatting it up.

 The Green Man posing with Ted Ligety (the cut-out), not creepy at all, just another fan.


My little bro and me. 

 Just being somewhat famous, it's cool. I wonder how many Marco signatures are out there now?

 Me and my little Lizard, love this girl. Don't mind the bottle being passed in front of the camera or Marco post-race chatting behind us. With those model smiles how could the focus be anywhere else?

 Shannon and Curt find another pink fan in the crowd, a young spry cutie of 83 that Curt immediately start calling Cupcake and invited her to our club...I mean, with that outfit she definitely belongs!

Even Marco was a fan.

  
 AngBallz, LizDogBear and Mother Rena being cute and happy and super fan-alicious.


  
We did more than just cheer, we skied too. Curt was so awesome at skiing that he got Ted Shoaf's pass pulled and got kicked off the mountain, how appropriate.

 
 So we changed outfits and skied another day.
Curt and me ripping some icy groomers.

And we skated like Ice Queens.
Ang, me, Liz and Kate being pretty and talented.

Of course meal teams kicked butt once again this year, the girls Pizza Party vs. the guys Meatfest.
Lil Kari, Lizard and Ang serving it up in style.

And another crew took over prom, the theme RedNeck. We were happy to join them. 
Keelan and Meri reenacting a similar version of their meeting at the Beav a few short years ago.

Do Liz find her true match?

 
The Ganong crew, Paul, Ali and Jesse smoking and looking pretty red. 

And although we toned it down a little and didn't have an official award ceremony. Curt got to go home with the Beaverfest MVP trophy, mostly because...
1. He rallied kids to hold our signs so we didn't have to
2. He skied so awesomely he got his pass pulled
3. He looks really good in pink
4. He was the last one left in the condo
5. Keelan can't win it every year
6. And had room in the passenger seat of his car to buckle this beaver in for the long ride home
Yay Curt!

Now, that was a good time! Thanks Marco for kicking ass and being awesome. 
Until next year fellow Beavers...