Snap Back to REaliTy

Back in Southern VT...with a solid two inches on the ground over ice. I may be dreaming but I think I just visited Paradise and yesterday, fell from Paradise.
Let me summarize my trip to SLC...ski deep powder by day, party by night...press repeat. I will try to keep this as short as possible and stick to the facts...
Got off the plane last Thursday where Hilz picked me up. I dropped off my bags, packed my bc gear and we were hiking in Emigration Canyon within 2 hrs of landing. First face shots of the trip. We booked it out of there to head over to the OR show where Chrissy had tickets waiting for us. For those of you that don't know, the OR show has every piece of gear you have ever drooled over under one roof. And the manufacturers are throwing beer, wine, champagne & snacks your way. Definite kid in the candy store jitters take over. We cruised back to Seth & Hilz' place with Chrissy, a co-worker of hers and one of Quinn & Chrissy's good friends Kip, and continued to drink. Big THANKS to Chrissy for those passes!
Next day, a tour up Silver Fork in Big Cottonwood w/ Hilz. Lot more deep, steep shots. That night was Hilz's b-day party, met a lot of cool people living in the area.
Thirday day, big tour w/Seth & Hilz starting in Little Cottonwood and jumping over to Big Cottonwood to ski in Days Fork. Yup, you guessed it, more face shots. Logged just over 5000', more than enough for my desk jockey ass. Went out to a nice dinner followed by a awesome Michael Franti & Spearhead concert. If you haven't seen a show of his, put it on the top of your list.
Fourth day, travel north to Powder Mt. skied fun chutes and gullies all day w/Becky (TK's ex) who is a ripping skier, her boyfriend, Seth & Hilz. Guess what we did after that kick-ass powder-day? Partied with a group of Vermonters out for the OR show. By now the body is starting to show some serious signs of fatigue, but with a major storm on the horizon, there's no time for rest.
Fifth day, got up to Snowbird before they closed the road. We couldn't make it to Alta because they had closed the road past Snowbird...lame. Skied some deep powder as the snow pounded down until they closed the resort at 1:00...boooo!!! We were interlodged in the Cliff Lodge, a very plush hotel at the bird that costs like $400-500 a night for the cheap rooms. So we made the best of it and started playing Asshole with a group of Colby alums we ran into and a few other people Seth & Hilz knew down in their lobby. Played Asshole until they opened the road at 5:30.
Sixth day, skied Alta w/Hilz. The snow had gotten pretty wind-hammered on the western aspects, but the eastern aspects were deep and incredible fluffy...more face shots. Afterwards we went over to a Utah brewer/homebrewers house for a sampling party. Got to drink some of his incredible homebrews (blows mine out of the water) and get to know the group who all hail from Bellingham, WA.
Anyway by the last day I could barely walk let alone ski so Hilz & I skipped the final morning tour before I got on the plane. I slept the entire plane ride from SLC to Baltimore.
Got no pic, hopefully Seth & Hilz can post some that they took. I still can't believe how much deep snow & fun was had. The stars all aligned on this one.
Anyway...snow to freezing rain here tomorrow, kick-ass!!!

Tetons, not the only range to get the NW/SW Flow.....

Grayson, enough with the Napoleon complex, your not the only one getting snow in the West, case and point, the forecast for the North Central Mountains of CO:


The Wasatch:

WOW, 25 short!! There was a reason no one commented on your pics. Why not ski something that requires more than 2000 feet of skinning in the park... Buck, Middle Teton, Disappointment Peak, etc... Most of us don't want to see pics of "School teachers and Woodworkers gone wild in the Tetons" skiing low angle powder shots.... Do you guys ever get in the air? Seems all that snow would make for good Landings, and I stress Landings.

GO PATS!

25 Short

This morning Tim and I arose before dawn for a ski of 25 Short in Grand Teton National Park. Sunrise treated us with dramatic light on the Tetons.


After a long skin to the top.
We were met with the incoming storm dropping fresh snow on us. Many powder turns were had. A face shot here and there.

The forecast calls for 1-2 feet of snow by tomorrow. Sweet!

We're engaged!!!

I can't believe a female actually said that she would marry me, is she insane????

In all seriousness though, I am extraordinarily happy. Carolyn has been there for me during some of the toughest times in my life, and I am honored that she will be my wife.

As a fringe benefit, we also get the honor of sharing a room when I am at the Grayson household, and there is a chance that I will be able to chaperon Tim and Melanie during their sinful visits to Northern Vermont.

A joke and some snowy pictures

First, a joke...

Eli Manning, Tony Romo, and Tom Brady are invited to Heaven to visit with God and
are invited to watch a Boston Celtics basketball game. God, mindful of protocol,
needs to select who will sit next to him.
He asks Eli Manning, "What do you believe?"
Manning replies, "Sir, I believe in hard work, giving my best every game, and remaining faithful
to my wife, family, and fans."
God is impressed and sits him on his left. Then he turns to Tony
Romo and asks him the same question. Romo replies, "God, sir, I believe in goodness, honor, and
how important it is to be disciplined and sportsmanlike."
God is impressed and seats Romo to his right. Now it's Tom Brady's turn. God asks, "And you Tom,
what do you believe?" Tom replies, "Sir, I believe you're in my seat."

Now, for some snow....

Seth in "The Hallway" last week.

Greenie is on his way on Thursday and we can't wait. We got to see Chrissy Keating last night (Quinn--did you like the pictures?!) and we are going to have them both over for dinner on Thursday night, then a little birthday party on Friday night for Seth's favorite wife (and only one so far...)

Hope everyone is well. We will get better on posting pictures more often. We have some good ones from when Tyler and Erica were here last weekend.

Pray for snow!

Brrrrr, its a bit nippy up here

After a fairly warm January with lots of snow (Jackson eclipsed 300 in. this past week), the cold snap is on. Woke up to -18 this morning, with a high around 0-5 degrees today predicted. Looks like it is going to stay with us until this weekend, when another deluge of snow surely awaits. We had a great storm last weekend hit us unexpectedly with another 25+ inches of snow. Jon and I hit 4 pines for some delicious waist deep powder (although I can't step to Jon's neck deep shot from the week before in 4 pines). The pass is skiing great- note the dark blog chasing after me on Edelweiss. Hope the fishing and canoing in VT is great. Go Pats. Greeny, Natkin, I hope you realize what is in store on Feb. 3

Epic? hmm...not quite

Was buzzing this past Sunday night. Giants staged a beautiful upset defeat of the Cowboys, weather forecasters were talking 6-12" overnight through Monday; things were looking up. Balzbaugh and I were looking to hike Magic Mtn(currently closed) to start the week off on a good foot.
I woke up Monday, local schools were all canceled...but there was maybe 1/2" of snow on the ground and a just a few flurries in the air. The classic nor'incher was in the making. Called Balzbaugh and found out it was pounding snow in central mass...hmm maybe it just hasn't hit us yet. We decided to head up going to Stratton since they were reporting 3" and snowing hard (yeah right)on their snow report and I had some old vouchers.
To sum up the skiing, groomers were fun with chopped powder/loose granular surfaces but anything that hadn't been groomed was downright scary. There was probably 1-2" of new snow over solid boilerplate/washboard.
On the positive side of things, we met up with Emma who currently lives in Brattleboro and is going to Antioch College, getting her masters in environmental education. We took a few high speed runs with her, she rips on teles. Balz was also doing Mach 2 on his teles, he got a talking to by Stratton's Mountain Guides. Sounds like we might be getting a bona fide White Mule ski posse down here in the S. VT/Western Mass region.
So we ended up getting more snow down here on Tuesday ~2" then we did from that coastal storm. Oh well another storm rolling in on Friday.

Life's Good

It's been coming down in the Tetons.

1/5 14 inches

1/6 8 inches

1/7 6 inches

1/8 2 inches

1/9 14 inches

1/10 8 inches

1/11 9 inches

1/12 10 inches

1/13 8 inches

total 79 inches

It all adds up to DEEP POWDER!

An FD at A-Basin? More Utah Pow? & The Sundance Film Festival!

Some you may remember this 1969 movie starring the man who started it all - Robert Redford:

Back to Park City and SLC on Thursday Night.... Hoping to ski the Interconnect with Seth, Hils, and Erica (Alta to Big Cottonwood to Park City) if you guys can get the day off on Friday?? That means we would have to meet you on a bus we take from Park City on Friday Morning?? I'll call you and maybe we can work out the details? Lets Cross our fingers for some fresh pow out there this week! Erica and I will be shacked up in a 5,000 square foot PC 'lodge' with jacuzzi, steam room, and sauna for the weekend. We'll be skiing, drinking martinis, watching groundbreaking art, and hopefully getting a glimpse of Natalie Portman (oh please!!).
In other news, I got to ski Montezuma bowl this weekend at A-basin, a new part of the mountain that almost doubles the size of the resort. We were there when they dropped the ropes on the "expert" terrain for the first time ever. I was actually delightfully impressed with the the cliffs and steep shots in this new east facing bowl, about 1000 vertical feet. One cool thing was that I may have "First Descended" (unconfirmed) one of the cliff bands in the bowl....I dropped the first tracks on a 50 foot straight line over rock (with about 10 inches of snow on it) to a 15-foot drop. The Landing was plush, which is good, because there was a lot of hidden rocks underneath the snow in other parts of the bowl. Unfortunately, I have no pics to verify my claim. I think my new Smith helmet and goggles (DAY, thanks for the pro deal...) gave this washed up 28-year old Teleskier, my old Jackson Cahones back for at least a day. I better be careful before I put myself in the hospital. I wanted to name the cliff Eastern Ambition, but I'm sure some real A-Basiners' will have it named by this week. Overall a dumb move, but at least it got the adrenaline going in this old-man again.
Oh, Greeny count on at least some Colorado beer for you in SLC when you show up - as long as we don't drink it in a beer die match!!! And I would argue that Oregon, not Cali, is the other state with the best micro-brews West of the Ole' Miss.

Note: Seth and Hils could you guys maybe pick Erica and I up at the airport on Thursday night (our ride is going to pick us up later that night and take us to Park City) - that would be awesome if we could chill with you for a couple hours - Oooo, and I've got delicious beers for you and Greeny too!!!

Sniffle...sniffle

Eastern Dirge

Where has all the good snow gone?
Long time passing
When will the next big storm come?
Don't know just yet.
When will we ever make the turn
When will we ever get buried

Sorry joni(?) and whoever had to read that. Man, our snowpack took a serious beating the past few days. Really only northern facing slopes have consistent snow left on them. Hoping for a coastal storm beginning next week but it's a big maybe right now. Quinn, I'm guessing your base has held up against that one. One more rainstorm to get through and we should get back into cold/snow for awhile. Mormonites (SLC'ers) looking forward to some deep powder. Hoping the storm train doesn't shut down for my arrival.

Snow Forecasts Across the Country:

FORECAST FOR THE TETONS:

FORECAST FOR STOWE, VT:

FORECAST FOR ALTA, UT:

FORECAST FOR COLORADO:

UTAH WINS AGAIN - SHIT!!!

Political Banter

Holy crap, things have sure changed in New Hampshire over the last couple of days. Volunteers holding multiple advanced degrees have begun to flood my office, calls from around the nation suggesting how I can do my job more effectively clog the phone lines, and I just got word that President Bill Clinton will be coming in to my office tomorrow to make phone calls for Hillary. The campaign, worried that my car isn't dependable, just rented me a suburban (my thought: sweet, way to show you're environmental concerns in an area where people can't afford a big mac), and I have been issued a campaign credit card (must resist urge to buy new xbox 360). The full court press is on, outlook for actually sleeping sometime in the next four days in pretty hazy, but all in all, it is pretty fucking fun!!

Part III: Colorado Wind Slab

Wow, am I the only one that posts on this blog anymore? Late start this morning as Matt, Adam, and I rolled up to Jones Pass (near Berthoud pass - 40 minutes from my house). The tour was great - sunny skies and in the mid thirties! The skiing however, sucked my ass. After digging a pit, we found about 65cm of super consolidated wind pack siting on 60cm of faceted sugar near the ground. Needless to say, we weren't dropping cliffs and skiing bowls this afternoon. The only bowls we encountered were in front of our face and bright green. Tough welcome back to Colorado, but snow is in the forecast, lets cross our fingers.....

This is what 80mph winds do to the snow in the rockies above treeline:

Matty finishing the last pitch of the climb:

Tim, this is called an avalanche pit, we dig these to assess avalanche danger by using a "sheer test", usually we perform these on slopes greater than 30 degrees where avalanche danger is actually a concern.....

I don't care what you Vermonters say (and poser Jacksonites, who are really east coasters in disguise), Colorado is still beautiful:

Matty, taming the Colorado windpack:

Adam, rocking Scot Schmidt style circa 1989:

Matty, lean back, this is Colorado Windpack, not Targhee Blower:

Ahhhhh... That was a great day of touring with marginal skiing. "Lets go drink beer at the local Microbrewery!":

Part II: A little place called the Wasatch!

Part Deux,
Ironically, Erica and I headed out of Jackson in another snowstorm on Dec. 26th. I wanted to leave early in the day, but I felt like puking until 3pm and realized that I had left my Debit card at 43 North the night before. I waited until 4pm to grab my card, then took a trip to the Village where I had left my Helmet and goggles the day before....brutal. So we pulled out of Jackson around 5pm in heavy snow, eventually arriving 6.5 hours later at Seth and Hilary's place, in the heart of the Mormon Empire. We were stoked to be in Utah and the forecast looked good for snow. The next day, Hilary, Seth, Erica, and I headed up to hit a backcountry shot across the canyon from Alta. The snow was light and delicious, and the skin track was already put in, now this was Wasatch touring! We clipped tickets and skied Alta in the afternoon. The next few days are a blur. We toured in Big Cottonwood canyon, across from Solitude, and in Butler Fork where we logged 4200 feet of climbing. The evenings were spent drinking real microbrews, a novelty in Utah, and playing beer die with 3.2% Pabst. Take note, Erica and I beat Hilary and Seth 8-6 in a heated match, I had two plunks, Hilary had one, and Seth had one! We were unable to have a rematch during out stay....maybe in January?? The last day in Utah was impressive as Erica and I sacked up and bought two tickets to Alta. Due to storm conditions, no pics were taken. However, the snowfall from that storm totaled at about 24", the shit was deep! We worked the high traverse all morning, skiing the steep trees as much as possible. Erica finally dropped her first 15 footer on Teles, she was stoked. So the moral of the story is that I'm moving out to Utah once I get my shit together. Now I'm back in Colorado after a phenomenal Yonder Mountain String Band New Years in Denver - which I'm still recovering from. Typical Colorado Avy conditions exist in the Rockies upon arrival - massive wind slabs that sit on significantly faceted layers beneath....oh well. Matt & Liz are staying at my house for a couple days and we plan to do some mellow touring and hit some resort skiing. Got some snow in the forecast, conveniently forecasted for when I return to school on Monday, damn. That's all for now...stay posted for the next trip to Utah in late January, my goal is to snap a photo of Natalie Portman at the Sundance film festival in Park City for the Blog! Happy New Year - may fresh turns be in all our futures for 2008!

Erica and Seth on Day 2 of touring:

Erica finding out why they call it "The best snow on Earth":

The Shenanigans begin back at Seth and Hilary's Place:

Flash back to Colby College, my new beer die name, "Beaker", can you guess who "Quadzilla" is?:

Backcountry Babes, Erica and Hilary on Day 3 of touring:

Hilary, showing her new Gotamas who's boss:

Seth, airing it out a little:

Seth, on our last ridge climb of the day:

Hmmmm, that 3000 feet of Pow looks good, oh, and this Chai is delicious too:

Seth, getting some air time at the end of the day:

Erica, diggin' into the Aspens:

Seth in the blower:

Seth, saying see ya later to a good day of touring:

Big slide

Check out this skier triggered slide in the park on the hanging snow field of Peak 10,696. This shot was taken by a friend who had just summited Whimpy's. He did not see it, and the report said no one was injured. South facing 30 degree slope.

Hero Snow

Who wants to be a hero?..because I sure felt like one today. After two big rainstorms last week, two moderate snowfalls totaling 18" sure have turned things around down here. Looks like the New England roller coaster is heading back uphill next week though.
TK have you had to snap back to reality in Boulder? Awaiting some SLC mash pics on our venerable blog. Quinn, you still hating your job there? I realize all this snow must put a damper on your ability to sit in the top shack, read ski porn and play card games. Balz, am I going to see you at all this winter or are you going to be incarcerated in NH schmoozing with politicians? I need a partner in crime down here.