Wednesday, November 28, 2012

SO CAL

 The annual voyage to So Cal for the run up to Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving itself was its usual amazing this year.  Here is a smattering of shots from the week that was.  

Nothing better than a local beer by the fire place amongst family at the Beach House.  Paradise.

 Out the front doorstep, evening sunset walk.  Yep.

 Probably the only drawback to living in a ski town is being landlocked and far, far away from surfing!  I surfed a ton while down south, I really wish I could do it everyday, its so damn fun. 

 Chels laying a fat arc on my uncle Tim's newest version of the Trikke.

Last rounds of golf until at least April!
 
 Another sunset, different day, same outstandingness.  I just made that word up btw.

 "Grannie De", absolutely rocking at 91 in San Diego.

Already looking forward to the next trip down to SB in April.  That is the commute from the house to the surf.  About 20 steps!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Marco Podiums!!!

So stoked for my brother this past weekend! Against all odds, he killed it and got on the podium for a 3rd place finish in Lake Louise, the first World Cup downhill of the year. He had an amazing run coming from the 42nd start position, check it out...


Here is a link to an awesome article that Sports Illustrated wrote, which kind of explains it all.

Sports Illustrustrated article: Marco Sullivan Back on Track 

And here are Marco's own words about his result on his blog: AmericanDownhiller.com

Congrats bro, so proud of you! Just as we have said all along...MARCO ROCKS!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

From jungle to snow

Three days after I got home from my Costa Rica bliss, I agreed to go coach a ski camp down in Loveland, Colorado with the Jackson Hole Ski Team. So off I go, a 9-hour drive away with 45 kids, 7 coaches, and COLD weather for 9 days. The cold was a bit of a shock to the system, but I have to admit it was pretty fun to get back on the snow again!

 There wasn't a ton of snow yet, only on the runs where they blew man-made snow.

Back to being bundled up! Missing the jungle already!

Every day after skiing we did some dryland training which usually was just a huge game of Capture the Flag or soccer...this was the girls in our condo's "punishment" (some sprints) for leaving all the lights on every time we left the house!

 This is what it looks like having SIXTEEN 12-year-old girl roommates.
Yep, you are pretty jealous, huh?

 Trying not to lose my yoga momentum I would give some impromptu yoga sessions to the girls at night. Really, all they wanted to do was to try the hardest poses and see if they could do them without crashing.

 My brother, Marco, was down at Copper Ski Area (20 minutes away from us) training with the US Ski Team so I was able to arrange a little meet-and-greet for our kids with some of the men's World Cup speed team...they were stoked.
You can barely see the US Ski Team guys in the bright green jackets at the back of this pile-up!

 They all came away from the afternoon with helmets, speed suits and hats full of signatures.

Marco and Travis Ganong posing with some of the Jackson Hole Ski Team kids. 

 
So great to see Marco, it doesn't happen often enough! This was a pic for our mom. Good luck this season Marco!!! To keep posted with him, you can check out his sweet website, americandownhiller.com

Sunday, November 11, 2012

It's back.........!

 Old man winter is happening yet again.  Down in the valley its still pretty balmy, but up high on Togwotee Pass, sledding season started today.  Yep, that's right Rena, just when you were overwhelmed with moto pictures, now you have 4 months of sledding pictures to look forward to! 

There certainly is not tons of snow up high, but there is enough to carve turns, be ginger, and swing the leg over the sled once again.  

 My sled bud Tim ripping one.  We found depths that were ok in some meadows to let it rip.  Still really shallow though. 

 Same helmet, different motor sport.  


 Togwotee is the only place within a 4 hour radius that you can ride a sled right now.  It's up high and early season storms tend to hit hard up there.  The upper parking lot was indicative of the "itch" all the slednecks are feeling right now.  

AWESOME to be sledding again.  


Saturday, November 10, 2012

Podium Up North.....

 

Well done Mikaela Shiffrin up in Levi, Finland today.  But for a couple of turns on the steep in the second run she would have been on the top step.   Unreal skiing for anyone, much less a 17 year old.  USA! 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Awesome

 My job rules......, I get to work with a myriad of kids that have all kinds of amazing talents.  Semi pro skateboarders, future doctors, ripping skiers, and......artists.  Check out the spray paint "tagging" one of my probation kids did recently.  Super, super talented kid. 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Taking Stock.....

on the extended spring, summer, and fall that was.  I usually think of summer ending the first time I go skiing in November.  Well, I think instead of riding sleds and skiing this weekend like I normally try to do by Vet's day, it's going to be a blizzard fueled fishing mission instead as there probably wont be enough snow to ski/sled on.  Hard to believe, but this summer was my 15th here in Jackson.  I decided to keep track numerically of my favorite pursuits just to see how the numbers stacked up.

Golf- I recommitted myself to my love of the game and played 45 rounds.
Dirtbiking- Wow, how could I have known I would fall so in love 50 times!
Floating/Fishing-Not nearly enough, but still managed 23 days on the river.
Road Biking- I don't really know of any other town in this country that you can leave from your office and hammer amazing bike paths in a National Park!  It's insane.   I rode my road bike 86 times this summer.  
Kayaking-  Chels and I didn't kayak as much up in GTNP as usual, but Slide Lake quite a bit.  7 times on the kayak.
Nights Camping- Perhaps in my mind the best barometer of a great summer.  I slept out under the stars, in Rex, or in a tent 32 nights.  

All and all, a banner summer.  

It doesn't seem to want to go away.  I golfed last weekend in a t shirt in November.  Unheard of.  

Hmmmmm, should I add paragliding to my list of summer time activities?  Every time I am up on the King or out at the Village I see it in action and I think about it.  Ok, settle down......, one thing at a time. 

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

What a ride......

It's hard to remember back to March of this year when I got a new moto and dove white knuckles deep into a new sport.  I am fortunate to have a bunch of buds who are awesome to ride with and really patient.  I learned so much this summer about riding, adversity, myself, strength and fun while  in the saddle of the KTM.  I ended up riding 50 days!  It will be a summer that I forever remember that I largely devoted  to riding dirtbikes.  Needless to say, as I am sure you have found by reading the blog, I am smitten with the pursuit.  Its so much damn fun!  

Last set of desert riding from two weekends ago.  I am going to miss this!  Curt, dropping into what is hard to tell, but an unbelievably "techy" double step down. You can see Matt and Aaron down below.  I was up above contemplating how to send it and not hurt myself.  Moto is if nothing else......, committed.  

 The boys.....we found some new singletrack up toward Price that was out of this world!

 Almost all of the trails that have now become so popular in the Moab area were originally built, made, and maintained by dirt bikers long before mountain bikes even existed.  GIven that the government has no money to maintain trails, this responsibility has fallen upon coalitions that volunteer their time to build new trail.  Awesome.

 I wasn't sure if I would fall in love with moto.  I didn't grow up around moto's and had no knowledge of how to ride a moto and was honestly a bit afraid of the big power they put out.  All my sled buds said I would love it given I liked sledding so much.  Trusted former mountain bike junkie buds swore it was just like mountain biking, except a ton more fun.  Well, all true!  

 Matt, hitting new trail amongst huge boulders.

 Yea, nothing like airing off a sandstone rock formation and then bottoming out your suspension!  Matt is 6'5" and over 200lbs and sends it, thus, the bottom out!

 All the signs of a life well lived.


 Baaaaaaaam.

Monday, November 5, 2012

End of a good thing...

 A little late catching up on two weekends ago.  I am bummed to think it will be the last moto trip until at least March, alas....., there are fun winter activities coming up though.  Matt, Curt and I went down to the lonely desert off Hwy 6 near Green  River, UT and shredded moto for three days.  It was snowing up in SLC and Jackson which made hanging out in the warmth of the desert all the better. 

Yep, I was rocking a pretty mean stach for the weekend.  Chels hadn't arrived back stateside yet!

 Woodside in unlike anywhere to ride moto.  Miles and Miles of varied trail, no crowds, and amazing vistas.

 Target practice, check.

Part of the allure of being in the desert has to be the freedom.  Nobody is going to tell you that riding a moto with a rifle slung on your pack is illegal.  
 
Campfire season came to a close....Ugh...

Friday, November 2, 2012

Costa Rica part 2

 A little more of my Costa Rican paradise here before getting back to real life!

 I loved this little gal that welcomed me at the front door every day.

On our days off we would usually walk down the hill and beach it. This was one of our first excursions where we found a coconut and since we left our machetes at home, we tried every other possible method to crack it open. P.S. we were successful, it just took awhile!

 We walked for awhile to find this huge empty beach.

 Another activity I tried out on one of our days off was aerial silks...so fun!

I totally thought I had it mastered just getting this far off the ground 
(hey, it seemed really high!)

 Some jungle beauty

And now because of the awesome backdrop on the yoga deck, we all had to get some yoga poses in!
 



 Ta-da!

 Arguably one of my favorite activities (if you can call it that) ever...hammocking!

  
And you saw the infinity pool where we spent most of our sunny day, non-yoga time? 
Pretty gorgeous. And trust me, my back isn't that bony in real life. That awkward behind the back prayer pose just plays tricks on the eyes. : )

 My friend Sara with the tiniest, cutest, little baby gecko ever. 

 Can you say aaahhh....
 This is at the top of my mental snapshot album and I will be pulling it out frequently this winter when I am battling frostbite and other not so fun cold winter things.

 Now, you remember the pics of me earlier...um, ya. This is the girl who was teaching us aerial silks and came and did a performance for us on our last night. A girl can dream, huh?

 This is 5am on our last morning before departing my friend Ashley and I decided to get one last sunrise yoga session in on our beloved deck. 

 And Mother Nature did not disappoint. 
We got a truly spectacular and tear-jerking goodbye.

 Goodbye beautiful colors of Costa Rica...on my way home to a brown, black, white and gray world!

 Our little jumper plane flight from Tambor to the larger city of San Jose.

 A few of us spent one last night in San Jose before early flights out and explored the city which just seemed loud and crowded compared to our little haven of the last month.

 A birds' eye view.

 Some painted beauty.

And the best welcome home surprise, I ran into Shannon Happe in the ATL airport during my 9 HOUR layover there! We had no idea, but I saw something she posted online about her running to catch her flight in Atlanta and I just happened to be camped out at the gate right next to hers! It was crazy and great. We got to catch up, ate a delicious meal at the food court and parted ways. A wonderful way to be welcomed back to the states!

Adios Costa Rica, you are lovely! It won't be the last time I am there, that's for sure!
Pura Vida.