Friday, March 30, 2012

Adios Banana!

If you haven't heard the word yet, our dear badass, awesome, ridiculous, wonderful and lovely friend Anna Goodman (also Marco's fabulous girlfriend) retired from the Canadian Ski Team earlier this week.

She is ridiculously talented so we have no worries that her future is full of more amazing-ness.
Lots of love and luck are being sent your way...love you Anna!

This girl knows how to go out in style!
Check out the video of her last race run (in a banana costume!)



Monday, March 26, 2012

Loud Pipes Save Lives?

The yearly coolest sled event on snow brrrraaaaped to Snow King this past weekend...Yep, the World Championship Hillclimb. It's the "grandad" of all the hillclimb's on the circuit. Even if you have never thrown your leg over the seat of a sled, after a day at the HC you will leave with nothing but awe and pure amazement with how good these guys ride a sled!

Keith Curtis, former "King of Kings" winner standing on the throttle and getting some toward the top. And yea, Snow King is about 45 degrees steep right here!

The beer gardens were a flowin.....

Chels doesn't love the HC nearly as much as I have over the years, but she is always a good sport and comes out to watch one day of the festivities.

When "hill help" can't catch a sled that starts a tumblin, $20,000 worth of high end sled and sled parts come rumbling down into the catch net. It's so freaking awesome!

Snow King in all it's HillClimb Glory!

By Sunday the track gets pretty gnarly. Trenches are at least 3 feet deep complete with stumps and rocks. These dudes are insanely, unbelievably badass!

Sledding has a lot of the same principles as skiing. You have to put the track up on it's side for the edge to catch and for the turn to hook up. This dude is hammering toward the top with the hill help looking on.

The 2012 "King of Kings" winner, Russ Tapio on an Arctic Cat.

Watching from the lift can be the best view of the loud and frenzied action.

Always has been and still remains one of my favorite weekends of the year here in the valley.

Scope this video that Arctic Cat put out about the HC....it gives you a cool background on it...

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Lunch With A View

Curt and his girlfriend Tanya came into town this past weekend for a little vacation. I hadn't been up to Jewels Bowl all winter, so, there we sledded our merry way on Friday.

Curt, enjoying a sandwich at 11,000ft on an outstandingly sunny Wyoming day.

The sleds at the top of the bowl with a 1,000ft cliff off the other side.

Curt and Tanya about as pumped as any tourists could be.

Yea, funky looking right? I know, 11,000ft and no snow? It was on a ridge that is super exposed. Luckily sleds go on dirt almost as easily as snow. The last 100 vertical feet there was no snow to be found.

"Big Wonderful Wyoming." Our state motto pretty much says it all!

Me, on a cliff, looking off toward Dubois, WY and the Wind River Valley.

Dude, where the hell is the snow at?

Jewels Bowl never ceases to amaze!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

My Mind Is Summer Bound

After last weekend down in the desert and temps this week in Jackson almost reaching an unheard of 60 degrees, I am pretty ready for spring! Here is a smattering of shots from the weekend that was down near Green River, UT riding moto with Matt and Curt.

Matt, charging up a gnarly ridge.

Curt battling loose sand, rocks, and dirt to the top of a steep climb.

The uber secret location we went to was amazing. Single track for miles and miles. We didn't see another human for two days!

I was able to ride most all of the hills, but a couple were a bit beyond my skill level, so, Matt was nice enough to walk back down, grab my new bike, and get er to the top.

The first day the wind was blowing hard enough to swipe you off a cliff if you weren't paying attention.

Epic terrain! We scavenged far and wide for cool trails and found all kinds of killer features.

Cheers boys, that was an amazing day of moto.

Sitting by the campfire, totally worn out, but stoked.

Me, doing my best not to tip my bike over in a techy section.

If there is one thing I have learned about motorsports, they dont always go as planned. A lot of flexibility is required. Matt got a flat miles and miles away from our camp, but, luckily he and Curt are jedi masters when it comes of bike repair and they fixed it in no time.

Curt navigating one of the more memorable sections of singletrack.

Pretty sweet little slot canyon with just enough room for a bike.

This hill had me super "gripped" and I just about went over the handlebars. I am still trying to figure out proper throttle, brake, and clutch control! There is a ton going on, you have to use your head a lot more than when riding a mountain bike!

Matt descending into more radness.

Once back to SLC Matt put a little TLC into some parts for my bike.

I already want to go back!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Moto Gone Wild



I ended up selling my Yamaha moto that I bought last year at this time after listing it in less than 10 hours. Guess it turns out with gas prices being what they are, demand for a fun mode of summer commuting that gets 70mpg is in high demand. So, I then was able to upgrade to a KTM (Austrian made badass moto's). It has more power, is lighter, and will hopefully improve my moto experience.
I went down to an undisclosed secret location in the absolute boonies with Matt and Curt this weekend in the lonely desert between Price and Green River, UT to get after it. Scope this video Curt put together of the good times had! It was awesome of be in warm weather, see something besides a world of white snow, hang with good buds, and ride a new moto. Yahoo.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

"I've been everywhere man....."

Sometimes the weather aligns just right in the spring to go sledding into places that are normally too steep, too avalanche prone, and too gnarly to get into unless there is good visibility and firm snow. Last weekend the sledding stars aligned just right for a 60 mile trek deep into the Snake River Range south of town into the "Pallisades" area.

We stopped for lunch on top of Indian Peak and admired what would be "the sweetest ski area in America"....., if only there were lifts!

And then topped out at the headwaters of Wolf Creek with the Greys River, Star Vallley, Alpine, WY, and Fairy Peak in the background.

With the warm up this week and last week, riding from trailheads from the valley floor is going to be tough as there is starting to be more dirt than snow down low. Up high there is still a 100" base.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Spring Skiing!

Ted was in town this weekend and we had an awesome day ripping around the Village with him yesterday. Sun, soft snow and lots of laughs...what more can you ask for?

That cloud sums up my sentiments exactly!

Thumbs up!

It seriously felt like spring this weekend with warm temps and slushy snow, kind of got me excited for more sun to come, bring it on!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Sun is Fun


Burned a lap up on the pass last night after work.......JH has settled into some awesome spring conditions with sunny days dominating.

John making headway to the top of Glory under the radio tower.



Ben and the Idaho side of the highway below.


Jimbo, sweet, sick, gnar pants brah.

It was windy and cold and top.


John chasing the setting sun about ready to spill off the west side of the pass toward second turn.


Me, searching for pockets of fluff. It looked even prettier through my goggles! Nice shot Ben! Every now and again I think upgrading to a camera more than our trusty "point and shoot" would be worth it?

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

As Good As It Gets

At the end of last week the conditions went all world! Cold, tons of fresh snow, and bluebird. We fired up the sleds and went to a place I hadn't ridden in at least 5 years, so, it was cool to go back up Cache Creek, which the trailhead is literally in the town limits. I had stopped riding up there as its the most popular groomed trail in the county and the "yoga moms" tend to not like the sleds. With a really early start, we didn't see and or bother anyone on the way out and scored the goods!


Tim making it look awesome.

Drew laying fatties in the early morn.

Starting to emerge from cloud of deep.

Damn, all these crowds, standing in line, and fighting for freshies here in Wyoming really suck.

Dropping.....

Me, pretty much smack dab on the wilderness boundary looking south into the Gros Venture Wilderness. Wilderness is a no go for sleds which is a ok given all the other amazing places near Jackson there are to ride.

Yea, close to town. Just under my hand you can see the "East Side" of the town of Jackson. Insanity when you think how epic the terrain is up there and that you can be up there 20 minutes from your front porch.