POWDER!!!!

Today started with another early morning, as I woke up at 6am I was greeted with an unfortunate message, "Teton Pass is closed this morning" but also a very welcomed 12" of fresh snow! Now to you all Teton Pass means nothing, but what it means is that the road that takes people from Jackson to some nearby Idaho towns was closed, like bars that cross the road closed. This meant that none of the managers could get to work to open the shop, which meant it was me and three others left to hold down the fort until reinforcements arrived at 9am. It was a crazy morning, even once everyone arrived. In the course of the morning, I helped a couple from Austria that made me pull out at least 6 pairs of skis apiece so that they could check the edges. They insisted that we did not take good care of our skis and that I should get them sharpened right away for them, I told them that wasn't going to happen and they continued to rant about how it was icy (again there was 12" of fresh snow, so I don't know what they were smoking) and how in Europe they keep all skis perfectly tuned at all times. After getting rid of them I heard a little boy wailing while trying to put his boot on. I ended up setting up the families skis and I finally got the little kid settled by giving him orange skis and writing his name on the skis (oh the simple things). By the time I finished with the families skis the little kid was soundly asleep in his fathers arms. The little boys older sister was adorable and kept calling her skis "ski boards". Fun times.

At 2 I finally escaped the shop, an hour late, and Kerry and I headed out to the mountain. We thought all the powder would be gone, but we found a great stash. The first run I found knee to thigh deep stuff. By the third run I had found a few spots of waist deep stuff. We ran into our boss Jamal on the lift and brought him to our secret stash and he was stoked on it and said it was the run of the day for him. We skied all the way until close because the skiing was so great!

On another note, family I am sorry for the sporadic blog entries, I will try to be more consistent.

Ski count now at 15, but I might be losing count!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Kerry and I actually managed to work a full shift today and it was filled with characters. To add to our collection of entertaining renters we now have a 6'9" skier, a pair of children that speak no English and need ski boots, a kindly old man that heard nothing I told him because he didn't have his hearing aid, and also a very intense woman who blamed us for the lack of snow. The little children from Mexico City were my favorite, Roberta (the older girl) took a liking to me despite our language barrier she continually asked me if I was going to be her ski teacher. She had a little 2 year old cousin who ran off in the shop and almost got stuck between 2 rows of rolling shelves. It was quite a challenge to convince a 2 year old that speaks no English to stop and let me pry her out.

After a very entertaining morning at work we met up with Sarah for our Christmas tree hunt. we took Sarah's car because Kerry's seems to have a coolant leak and mine doesn't have a roof rack. We decided to head out toward the Gros Venture area past the Teton Science School. We headed down a park road past the school and continued to drive until Sarah got nervous we might not be able to get back out. After much deliberation we finally decided that we wanted the top half of a 12 foot tall tree. Kerry and Mike did the cutting, carrying and tying and we were on our way home.

Out for a drive.

Consulting the map.

Let the hunt begin.

Discussing an option.

Cutting down our final choice.

Our measuring system.

Bringing it back to the car.

Once we got home and got the tree up in the stand my job of decorating began. Being poor we elected to just decorate with white paper snowflakes tied with some scrap red yarn. We also came across some gold balls at Kmart that were pretty cheap so we added some of those. My mom also gave me a few sets of lights and some red ribbon to dress it up. All and all it came out very nice and our neighbors have already commented on how pretty it is.

Decoration sequence.

Final product.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!

So today was my 22nd birthday and what wonderful day it was. I had to get up early to go to work from 7:45 to 1. At work I spent a solid 2 hours just peeling old stickers off skis, weirdly enough it was quite relaxing and I liked it much better than sitting behind a desk. Around 10 the traffic in the shop picked up a bit and we had a steady flow of people right up until 1. I had some pretty entertaining folks that had no idea about skiing, including one girl from New Zealand who didn't know what the elastic portion at the bottom of your snow pants was for (she had it around her knees constricting all the blood flow to her feet).

Once we were released from work Kerry and I decided to go demo some equipment for the afternoon (which we can borrow for free because we work in the shop). I tried a pair of Atomic Seventh Heavens. They were a much different sort of ski than I normally use, but boy were they able to carve and charge through just about everything. I would certainly agree with this review from US Outdoor, they definitely gave me a big kick in the butt if I got into the backseat (leaning too far back for those who don't know) and got me right into the right form. I felt like just an afternoon on the skis made me realize all the bad habits having center-mounted twin tips have gotten me into. The weather was warm (about 45) and perfectly blue bird. The sky was the bluest I have ever seen, and the snow was like you would find it in mid-April. Towards the end of the afternoon I took my demos into some softened bumps on the side of the trail and they were super fun and made short turns a breeze.

Kerry taking a little break on the new trail that was opened. Notice the brown on the valley floor.

Perfect blue bird day.

Kerry and I, I have no idea how many of these we will have by the end of the season.
Notice my new mirrored goggle I was given on my first day of work!

After an afternoon of skiing Kerry suggested that we go to the Mangy Moose for a drink. This is a really cool pub at the base of the mountain that actually has a real stuffed moose that hangs from the ceiling. There was a family in their getting a post-skiing snack and I saw one of the kids point to the moose (that is attached to a sleigh) say "But mommy Santa is missing!" It was very cute. Since it was Pearl Harbor day we had Kamikaze shots (on special that day) and also got my first Corona ever! Our roommate Mike also came by as well once he got out of snowboard instructor training. After that we all took the bus home and I had a tasty dinner and relaxed on the couch. It was a very nice day.