Vacation 3

Sorry if the picture quality is low. I can send any pictures out if anyone wants.

Panama!

Sorry about the delay. It's been a busy summer. Part 3 will hopefully not take as long. Enjoy!

Vacation Part 1

Here is the first set of photos from my off season trip. Just click on the picture and it should redirect you to the video. Enjoy!

Early March

March came in like a lamb. The first week was great! Temperatures climbed to 50. Spring was in the air. Then the snow came. Should be a pretty stormy month. Only a month and a half left though, then spring. At least for me. I can't wait to be sitting in the tropics, in a country where they don't speak English, and the food is fresh and cheap! But I regress. Here the sun starts to make its morning appearance.
Spring conditions prevailed for a few days. Nothing like spring skiing with your pals! Soft snow, and warm weather make for some of the best days of the season. Second only to thigh deep powder days.
It's been snowing for about a week now. Heavy snow, with lots of water content. Day, night, doesn't matter, snow. And it's nice.
Mom and Dad came out for the weekend, and we had a real pleasant time. The weather was great, very warm! We went to a lovely dinner and all completely stuffed ourselves on an assortment of good eats. French onion soup, salad, mussels, squid stuffed with shrimp, beef, pork, chicken, rabbit, cheesecake, fried bananas, creme brulee, molton chocolate cake, and chocolate mouse. Delicious! I think we all slept very well that night. Thanks again mom and dad!
The winter around here brings some amazing sunsets. I'll admit I did fix this one up a little bit. As pretty as it is fixed up it does nothing to provide an accurate representation of what is seen in person. Ask anyone, I swear. 'Alpenglow, pretty.'

An evening at the tune center

The day starts at 4 o'clock., which is a great time of day in the mountains. The light is fantastic! Here is a stalagmite we planted, trying to get it to connect to a stalactite.
Here is a view of the repair bench. It's used for edge repairs, delams, and misc. major ski resurrections. If your skis are sitting on this bench, it's time to be shopping for new skis. Pass it along to anyone you know trying to salvage a pair of trashed skis.
The man is laying down a nice line of P-tex. P-tex is what the bottom of your skis and snowboard are made of. The extruders work alot like a hot glue gun. A long roll of P-tex is atomatically fed through the extruder which heats to temps of up to 320f!
A skis eye view of the tuning machine. After P-tex is applied to all the holes and scratches, the ski is sent through this machine. The ski is held on to by suction, then fed on a trolley through this. They pass over a rough base grind stone, a fine base grind stone, edge tuning stones, base tuning stones, and a wax wheel. If your skis are seeing this scene, they are among the fastest on the mountain. Throw some graphite wax on there (just like cub scouts) and your in for a real nice, Fast day of skiing. Not to advertise the place I work for, but it's good to take pride in your work.
And finally, Drum roll please.......... A sweet picture I took of this guy taking a video, of this guy doing a rail slide down a sweet kinked rail, on a poster that hangs in our shop. Thank you, and good night!

Thanks once again for visiting. If any one knows how to add slideshows to the blog let me know. I had a handful more pictures but can only post five at a time, so if anyone has any ideas... Today starts with a picture that reminds us all of how powerful mother nature can be. This season has seen a terrible snowpack. Many, many avalanches have occurred. This one happened on Wasatch Mountain which sits across the valley from the ski area. This was the biggest avalanche I have ever seen evidence of. The width well over 1000 ft. Basically the whole mountain slid. Insane.

Just for fun, a quick wintery look at summer. Here, is the view from the green, looking back towards the tee, on hole 16.

We were blessed with a lovely week full of lots of terrific snow. Some of the best turns of the season were to be had. 3 ft over the weekend; followed by a few inches every night for a few days after. Bluebird skies everyday to boot! Here Andy shows off his tele prowess on a sick slack-country line.

Mali loves the snow. Snowballs could be thrown at her for days and she wouldn't stop jumping for them. She, like myself, has a terrible addiction to that frozen, white, powder. This was taken on our walk to the village core the other day. It gives you a good idea of the depth of the snow we have right now. Looks like heaven! At least one part, I also have a feeling there is beaches where it never rains, where the reef causing the perfect break is too deep to get tangled in. A place where the singletrack is always tacky. A place where the fish are always biting and the rapids always flowing. A place where the beer flows like wine...

This little gem sits on the side of the XC ski trail by my house. Looks awful fun. Might just have to posthole up and hit it, eh?

Thanks Mom and Dad

My wonderful parents got me a new camera for my birthday, so I can now post photos again. Here's a few to get started. Hopefully with many more to follow. Here's the cat doing his best to be annoying.

Here's Mali, thinking the camera might just taste like chicken.

And a pile of boards waiting for some wax.