1 month ago today....

Well today it has officially been a month since "the fall." Today I was greeted with a lovely 12 inches of fresh snow. Finally some new snow on top of all that crust! Since my mom's flight got canceled for a second time I elected to go skiing after work. At the shop the pickings were slim for skis so I was left with very few choices. I settled on the K2 Lotta Luv in a 149. I took the gondola up and decided to really face my fears and head down the trail I got hurt on on a nice powdery bump trail. What a great run, the skis performed beautifully, playful, responsive and really built my courage back up. I was able to cruise down through the bumps and also make nice strong turns. I will be putting my mom on them when she finally gets in to Jackson tonight! It was a wonderful day, I only did 2 runs, but after a painful day on Thursday and a fever and flu over the weekend I was very pleased.

Since I was sick over the weekend, I was a little hat making machine. Alex, one of the guys I work with at the shop, was impressed with my hats, so I told him that if he bought yarn I would gladly make him a hat. I finished on Saturday, and then later in the evening Kerry was complaining that I never made him hats anymore, so I felt compelled to whip another one out in about 3 hours. The pictures are below, both are designs I came up with from my own noggin, feel free to use them as inspriation, but I crochet as I go so there are no patterns.

Hat for Alex, he chose the color scheme and requested mountain ranges.

Hat for Kerry, he just handed me the blue yarn, which I ran out of, so I had to rip it out and add the orange designs.

Epic Day!

Well today was one for the Jackson record books. In 12 hours we got 25 inches of snow and we were under the 3rd ever EXTREME avalanche danger (in all the year of assessing the danger only the 3rd time!) We (Mike, Kerry, AJ, Brandon and Erik) all got up at 5:45 so we could open presents together and then have a big family breakfast before we went skiing. By 7 we were sitting down to a great breakfast which included egg scramble, bacon, sausage, fruit, pancakes and of course mimosas!

The rubble after opening presents!

AJ and Eric cooking up some tasty food.

It's all in the presentation!

Brandon and Kerry pretty excited!

Kerry's car is now entombed in snow.

We left the house and headed to the mountain, by 8:45 we were in line for the gondola. There were tons of avalanche blasts and ski patrol was working as hard as they could, but it took until 12:50 for them to finally get the terrian off the gondola safe to open. Because the snow was coming down so fast and so much it was very prone to sliding so they had to be really cautious on what they opened. When we finally got up it was more snow than I have ever seen! I started skiing and it was about halfway up my chest which made it very hard to keep moving. The snow was so light though we all kept choking on it as it sprayed up in our faces. During our second run we happened to be at the right place at the right time and got first tracks on a trail that was just being opened. By our third run there were a lot of soft bumps and when I was about 3/4 of the way down the trail my ski tip buryed into one and I fell and did, from what I understand from the man who saw it, quite a big tumble. During the tumble I had the pleasure of a full chiropractic adjustment couresty of the Gros Ventre trail. As I layed there I wasn't sure if I should even move because my back was in a lot of pain. A nice man came down and took off my other ski and stood there while I decided if I needed help. I told him after a minute or so I was okay. Then I stood up and realized I was entirely not okay. I couldn't put any weight on my left leg. Somehow by a miracle I skied down on my one good leg. I got down to the bottom where Kerry, Mike and Erik were waiting and started bawling. I hobbled to the locker room, got changed and then decided I did really need to go to the clinic. Turns out I may have ripped my MCL in half. I will need to get it checked out by and orthapaedic and probably get an MRI. Let the fun times begin. I am trying to stay really positive and optimistic about it though. We will see how it all goes and I will try and keep you all posted as I know more! Merry Christmas everyone!

All of us waiting for the gondola to open!

my life as a sitcom

Well, as I was falling asleep last night I was thinking about the day and I only gave you a small taste of the events of the day, my apologies....

Upon getting home I found two very frantic roomates (Mike and Brandon) and two frantic neighbors (AJ and Eric). All four of them were freaking out because the satellite wasn't working, and they were determined to fix it. The problem was in that the dish was on the roof and there happened to be 12 inches of snow piled on the roof, which conviently obscured the view of the satellite dish. Now being four guys without their beloved TV the only option was to climb out on the roof and use a broom to knock away the snow. So out Mike's bedroom window they went. Now being boys they obviously could just send one, oh no, so then there were two of them out on the roof trying to push away the snow. But keep in mind we have to be safe around here, so it is obvious to tie a rope from yourself on the roof to the bed in Mike's room. Finally after 20 mins satellite was return, thank god. Then the fun continued.... Eric is really into backcountry skiing, so he of course has a cornice cutting rope, and what are four boys with a roof covered in 12 inches of snow going to do when given a cornice cutting rope? Yeah, try to clear the roof of course. So then here they go bushwacking around our sunroom in attempts to use the rope to cut the snow off. They really wanted the roof to slide so they insisted on slamming the door a few times. Luckily for the sake of both Kerry and my car they were unsuccessful. Then in all of the madness I wanted to go to the library. Now keep in mind we haven't ever shoveled our driveway and there is 12 inches of new snow. So I clear off all of my car, unbury the doors and get in to go. Being five guys all of the boys felt the need to remind me how to drive. So I got halfway out and got stuck. Now this is where it is nice living with five guys because that is five guys who are willing to push your car and are determined that they can get the car out without moving any snow. After a few attempts we got my car out with no shovelling required. My life is looking a lot like a sitcom at this point....

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!

Day at Targhee

Kerry and I went on a big adventure today. Since we are Jackson employees we can go to Grand Targhee for free. They are 100% open and they have gotten crazy amounts of snow in the last few days. The drive over there was quite interesting. We came across a pair of elk running right in front of my car and went through some very small little towns in Wyoming and Idaho. The pass that takes you into Idaho was a bit slippery and the access road to Targhee was crazy slippery. We made it there safely thank to my sweet new snow tires.


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Roadtrip to Targhee.

The pass with huge rocks, sharp corners and 10% grade.

Elk.

Targhee access road.

Welcome to Targhee.

When we got there we ran into another guy from the retail shop that I run into all the time named Andrew in the ticket line. We jumped on the first lift and we were amazed with the wide open nature of the mountain. Once you are above the tree line it is literally a wide open snow field, you can only imagine what that is like in the wind... brrr. When we got off the lift there was a million choices of ways to go and beautiful blue skies. We headed off to the right and we were greeted with windblown powder, but after a few hundred yard the snow softened right up and we were in soft powder about shin to knee deep. Once we got near the bottom I was cruising along a traverse and I recognized our friend Jake from the rental shop. He was there with his roommate Adam. We ended up skiing with them until lunch. We all had our fair share of graceful falls, but it was a great time.

Not a bad view of the Tetons.

Perfect blue bird and snow trees.

Loving it.

Reflection.

We ran into Adam (left) and Jake (right).

Me skiing in the pow.

Action shot.

After a lunch break and warming up our toes, Kerry and I went out for a few more runs, but during lunch the clouds rolled in and the light turned totally flat. We ripped down a groomer and when we hit the bottom we both agreed we were feeling pretty tired and sloppy so we decided to head home before the snow in the pass got too bad. We stopped on the way home for a little snack and because I was feeling sleepy and needed to get out of the car. As we came over the pass on the way home a guy in a 2 ton pickup decided to pass another car, which meant he was barrelling down the hill while fishtailing heading straight at me in my lane. It was super scary, I don't know why some people have to drive like idoits in the snow. Overall a great day, I can't get over how amazing things are right now. I wake up every day and I think I must be dreaming. It is nice to be surrounded with so many nice people and to live in such a beautiful place.

Classic.

In the evening we watched a movie and then me and the boys (Kerry, Mike and Brandon) went on an adventure to Subway for dinner. Meatball subs were thoroughly enjoyed and we learned that here in Jackson they put way more meat on your sandwich than a normal Subway would, good deal.

Birthday wishes do come true

So yesterday as my birthday wish I asked for snow, although there was no snow in the forecast I wanted some anyway. But Mother Nature came to the rescue, at 6:25 this morning I awoke to what I though was someone dragging a metal trash can around outside, but then it continued for a few minutes. It was early so it took a few minutues for the gears in my brain to start turning but then I excitedly realized that it was a snow plow!!!!! I got out of bed and looked outside and everything was white. Kerry woke me up 40 mins later, the plow had woken him too, and we decided it was a day for skiing, not sleeping. So we threw on our gear and headed up to the Village. We got there and it was still dumping snow and there was about 6-8 inches on the ground. Unfortunately the lack of snow over the past few weeks led the entire town of Jackson to think the same as us, and as a result the mountain was packed. My first 2 runs were a mess. Within 30 seconds of the top of the run I hit a patch of ice then a pile of fluff and I fell head first into the ground, my helmet comes in hand again and I slid head and hands first down the hill. As a result I had snow all over my belly and arms due to inproper tucking and I also recieved a buise on my hand from falling on my pole. Later the same run, I fell again on a patch of ice which I am sure will lead to another good bruise this time on my hip. Kerry and I then had to go in to fix some footbed and boot issues. After working out the kinks in our boots we I met up with another UVM'er named Sarah and we skied a bunch of runs with her. The boot-fixing break served me well and after that I remembered how to ski what we might call 'varied terrian.' Due to the lack to snow and then the sudden dump conditions ranged from fresh powder, to ice, to hardpack to death cookies, which made for some fun times. There were some beautiful soft bumps toward the bottom of the trail that I really enjoyed hitting up. In Kerry's words "You ripped them up," I guess all those miserable East Coast bump runs with the boys served me well. By lunch time Kerry's feet were killing him because of new boot and footbed issues, so we decided to head home for some lunch. The rest of the afternoon comprised of napping, eating and a big grocery store adventure. Today makes the ski day count a grand total of 4, and I bet there are some East Coasters who are beating that, but I will catch up soon.

Snow day!!! We got several more inches after this photo was taken.

Mike celebrating the snow by running barefoot into it. Needless to say his feet were a bit chilly...

What a difference a day makes.