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Successful sledding mission up Neff's yesterday





seconds pre collision...

0 for 2

I left Sammi a note on Valentine's Day that said "Nothing says I love you more than jumping out of bed at 6 am to go tour with the guys." Not sure if she totally buys that but thats what I did both days this weekend...

Went 0 for 2 on plans for the tours though. I'll refer to the Samurai for a report on Saturday's tour. I will add, after further investigation on Google Earth, that while we were close to Neff's I am not sure we would have chosen the right drainage to get out. There's a peak with 4 drainages to choose from that we would have had to hit. We'll get it on a clear day.

Sunday I went to check out Maybird with Tim, Brian and Kieth. We were going to hit the Hogum 5 and or a line or two off the Obelisk. Visions of light fluffy pow were quickly erased by high winds. Upper elevation snow was wind hammered and avalanche conditions were worsening. Shortly thereafter we lost Tim and Kieth to sickness and tiredness but Brian and I salvaged by skinning up to the Church and getting a sweet run.

Wind on the ridge we were going to skin up- it was worse than it looks


Nice in the trees


For Brian's mom


Not bad scenery on the skinner


Cool views in the lower canyon


Uuh, which way to the top? Sammi said I look "confused" in this pic. Whatever that means


The run down to the road


Got a ride back up the canyon right away in a pickup

Neff's

Good times to be had on an early morning mission up Neff's this am with Jared, Bart and John.

Bart gets extreme on a steep slippery skin track. Gotta keep the weight forward...


It was good, really good. 4000' of pow. No, Bart is not skiing on his knees, yes it was waste deep.

back for seconds

ohran skiing the pow in some low visibility


got a video too but can't get it to load

Days of our lives

A little touring up Days Fork today with Bart and Indohran. I didn't have a ton of expectations for the snow but it was sick!! So good in fact that I didn't pull my camera out on the way down because I was too psyched on the pow. So all the shots I have are from the skin up...

The route. We covered 8 miles even, 5k of vert.


Indohran on form on the skinner


A cool dead tree


Bart


Looking in to Cardiff. Droves skiing on cardiac today but we saw two people all day.


Snowing so hard you can barely see Matt

new artwork for the office

got some new artwork framed up above my desk. as my dad would say- yeah baby

Change

Change is the only constant. I don't remember who said that but I like it.

I'll resist the temptation to write a long reflective post that nobody wants to read about how much my life has changed in the last five years... or will I. I'll keep it short.

I was down south working at the end of last week and opted to stay over the weekend to ride my mountain bike instead of coming back to snowboard. That got me thinking for some reason. A few years ago the thought of doing this

in January was so foreign I would have laughed. The bike went in the garage or basement for good in the fall and came out in the spring. I just snowboarded 120 days a season.

I had a night job waiting tables and worked a season up at Snowbird tuning skis and boards. The thought of a day job or "career" was a fleeting one when present. Now here I am with a real full time job- not your average nine to five, but its not a "ski bum" job in the least.

Same with girls. I didn't even want a girlfriend five years ago because I was too "busy" snowboarding. Now I live with one...

Don't really party much any more either. Not that I was ever a regular at the bars but I definitely went out, hit parties, and had parties too. Now, not so much.

These aren't complaints, I'm happier than ever and its just the natural progression of things I guess. I look at the header picture above and think that I am not doing enough of that any more. I certainly had my fill of powder days, probably more than my share...



For now I'm stoked to focus on riding my bike a little more and learn a business. Then I'll appreciate the good days on the snow even more when I get them. As you can see this is an inner struggle for me, part of me is cool with it and part of me really misses shredding every day. OK like you care! I'll keep these reflective posts to a minimum..