Seven Sunny Days

We've had fun this month. There's been lots of snow, rain, clouds and fog. I didn't mention sun, and thats because there hasn't been much of that. I saw tonight on the news that Missoula has only seen SEVEN sunny days in the last 90 days! The NWS calls any day with less than 30% cloud cover = Sunny. La Nina has been snow and wet, my skin is ultra pale. But with about 1/2 of the winter gone, Snowbowl has a huge base, 96" as of today. But I can actually say that I skied in the sun this week. At least I think that's what the yellow ball in the sky was? A few rays of rare sunshine hit my face while day dreaming of warmer climes. Views expanded all the way to the south end of the Bitterroot valley, crystal clear.

We've had the girls out several times on the rope-tow and they are doing great. Their last outing, P was able to use the french fries-pizza technique with control. Stopping on her own. My bribes with Skittles at the top of each run earlier this month seemed to have paid off. G made a huge improvement from the last outing, no longer crumpling like a wet noodle the second you let go of her. Both the girls really want to ride the chairlift, great incentive to improve. I think a trip over to Discovery's magic carpet and kiddie lift is forthcoming.


I finally finished my european mount for the bull. It was a great learning process and time consuming as well. I started out by skinning out the head right after I got it home back in November. A few days later I boiled the head in a giant pot for a day. After scraping off the extra flesh, I boiled it again for another 1/2 day. The next step was to apply the peroxide (40%) for 24 hours. I pasted it on, wrapped a wet cloth around it, and saran wrapped it. I also wrapped the antler bases with foil to keep them from getting whitened. The last step was creating the european pedestal to hang it on the wall. Over at local home resource shop, I bought a 10ft piece of 1"x10" barnwood for $4. I traced out the pattern off one that a buddy had made for my antelope. Then cut it out with a bandsaw, used a blowtorch to distress the edges, added some mounting hardware and it was complete. In hindsight I should have made the base where the skull sits several inches better.

Missoula got 6" of snow today and tomorrow looks like it will be a good one up at the Bowl. they got 7" last night and the report is that at least 4 more inches fell throughout the day.

Thanks for reading. Click the below album to check out the rest of the pictures.

January 2011

Snurfing

With my knees feeling like they need to be replaced, maybe this is what I need to get into. I dunno, looks pretty fun. Boards are made by Grassroots Powdersurfing.

Visibility

Yesterday morning Snowbowl reported 7" overnight. Freezing rain was falling in the valley, glossing the streets into skating rinks. La Nina continues to pour the pineapple to the Missoula area, but it's a good thing. Heavy wet flakes slopped down as we awaited the lifts to open. I was pumped as I was wearing my first ever Goretex jacket, what a day to test it out too. The Outdoor Research Mentor Jacket performed like it's price would suggest. I stayed dry all day, a far cry from my 6 year old sponge that will soon be visiting the trash can.

The new snow was very dense, but the visibility was the biggest factor to contend with. Goggles were rime iced after 5 turns forcing your hand on either skiing by braille or stopping to clean them off. The runs were quiet, no hooting or hollering. The only sound was the faint groan as people mustered their next turn. The weather pattern looks to be on the warmer/normal temp side for the next week with moisture every day. Snow is still everywhere in town, rock solid in most places especially the side streets. Thank god for snowtires.

Throw your skins away!

I've found my new mode of transportation in the backcountry. In the year of 2011 I will no longer need to expend any energy to get to where I want to ski. I'll just crank like crazy contraption up, and have it push me to the top the hill. All that's left is to ski down, and then when I reach the bottom, I'll just......wait a minute. Maybe if you are a sucker for being steamrolled by this robotic demon you'd just leave it on and go that much faster. Leave it to the Canadians.