Skiers vs Snowboarders 1985

Haha. Well one of these days maybe I'll get around to linking up the rest of the Baja trip. For now, laugh on this.

I do the foot rest... How bout you?

Keeping it real, getting old.

Showing my age?

I guess it's probably a true sign of getting old when your conversation (or writing) is dominated by weather and your kids?

The past week was another spring like nirvana. Weekend temps were pushing 60 and blue skies made for good sliding up @ Discovery. Everyone is making great progress on skis, with Will skiing off the Goldbug chair for the first time and girls now feeling confident on intermediate runs. No tears again on the mountain!

We stayed at a friend's cabin, the kids talk about every stay like it's Disneyland. It truly is a special place, modeled after a forest service lookout. A growler a  Philipsburg Brewery topped the night off and pancakes fired the morning up. We explored the woods for antler sheds, but found only decaying bones (elk?). Kids tracked the moose by the many piles of fresh scat in the area. We even snuck in some target practice with the BB gun (or if you are Payton.. the "baby gun"). It's so refreshing to look at things through your kids eyes.

My general lack of motivation towards skiing this winter was not helped by the 65 degree temps this week. I dusted off the mountain bike and dodged piles of defrosting dog poop at Blue Mountain. The lack of skiing showed up in my pedal power, out of shape. But hey, i guess that's all the more reason to get the KLR moto ready!

Face shots!

We certainly haven't been getting any powder face shots around Western Montana lately. My view is a bit skewed maybe due to my lack of having a season pass and in general skiing less than normal. But the winter around W. MT seems like last year (unscientifically speaking), some decent snow in Dec, January turned into June-uary--with warm temps and rain. Now I'm just hoping that February comes in like last year!



This footage of Canadian National Railway locomotive 2304 (ES44DC) plows through huge snow drifts in Salisbury, New Brunswick was filmed yesterday. Southern New Brunswick was hit with three major blizzards in less than a week, and there is more snow in the forecast.

Scot Schmidt

Scot Schmidt was one of my biggest idols growing up. Just as is mentioned in the video below, he is one of the most prolific skiers of my generation. If you ask any skier worth his salt that is between 30 and 50 years old, they'll know him immediately. Most have images of his ski movies burned into their brains. For me, he is the Michael Jordan or Joe Montana of freeskiing.

In my youth I had posters of Scot Schmidt plastered to my walls. I had seen all of his movies, including Steep Techniques, where I learned to emulate his turns and his style. I began skiing in 1985, during my 5th grade year. I remember seeing the 1983 Warren Miller film Steep and Deep and being awe struck by Schmidt's skiing. My buddy Ralph Turner and I started skiing at the same time, having as much fun as possible in the PTA ski program. Ralph and I and even had the 80's mullet to match. 

As time went on Ralph and I skied Snow Valley and did our best to work on imitating his style. We did his signature Schmear turn and tried to do the big airplane/re-entry turns off wind lips. We thought we were the shit. I even saved up enough money after ski instructing one year to get his jacket, the Steep Tech. It wasn't cheap I remember and it was made of some stout Cordura. Check me out, this was probably 1992, at Snow Valley Ski Resort, CA. Can you see that mud-flap coming out of the back of my hat?

Fast forward to 2000, when I moved to Bozeman and started skiing Bridger Bowl. Which coincidentally enough, he probably had influence on, hearing him talk about BB in his movies. Sam Cox and I ended up writing a book, Stepping Up: A Guide to The Ridge at Bridger Bowl, which included the Foreward written by Scot. Working with him was nothing short of a dream.

I only met him once in person, at ski film premier in Bozeman (The Prophecy....see autographed poster that is hanging in my garaged today) prior to me calling him to ask for his help in the project. This sounds corny and stalker-ish, but I was like a little kid before I called him, nervous and choked up. Just like anyone would be talking to one of their hero's. Turned out that during the next handful of phone calls, Scot was as nice as anyone could be.

Anyway....The reason I started this post was because of this video. Mike Douglas got to spend a week with Scot in the great state of Montana. Its great to see that Scot is still skiing so well and has rekindled the ski flame so to speak.

Thanks for reading and not judging me as stalker. :-)

Polar vortex!

Supposedly the Polar Vortex has descended from the North and the cause for the recent frigid air. Here's to hoping some more snow comes along and produces some pillows like these:

Skiing as a profession?

So I've been planning out what my kids will do in life. You know, picking their careers and such, maybe even focused on what kinda $bread$ they can make. Because let's face it, a fireman's and a part-time environmental scientist salary's may not pave the golden retirement I have envisioned. You know what I'm talking about...your kid making big money, taking care of you as you start to get grumpy and decay. There's a big difference between me living with them or putting my as up in a swanky assisted living facility.




As I daydreamed, I stumbled across unofficialnetworks.com article on skier Bode Miller's 100 foot yacht being for sale. Hmmm...

Ding, the light bulb lit up so to speak. It might be a dim light but hey, if the likes of Bode Miller and Jon Olsson can make millions skiing, why can't my kids? Skiers have been racking up big pay checks and living lavish lifestyles for years. I mean look at

Jon Olsson knows how to ride in style to the ski hill

Bode is reportedly worth $8 million dollars. And Lindsey Vonn's networth is $3 million dollars! And what about good old Alberto Tomba, he was an international player no doubt! But don't get me wrong, some skiers like Tanner Hall remind me of straight up thugs.

What really spurred this whole stupid tangent was the huge smiles that I saw last week when I took my girls skiing separately up at Snowbowl. Being the first day of the year on skis, new 93cm skis to be exact, they were pretty excited. Warm up runs on the rope tow instilled the confidence they needed. Then up top with a little help from a ski leash, they were destroying beginner and intermediate runs.

Somehow I came across this ski coaching article, Don't Praise your children. What's that you said? At first by reading the title, I thought it would be total bullshit. But afterwards, it probably has some really good points, like this one:

• Too much praise of any sort can also be unhealthy. Research has found that students who were lavished with praise were more cautious in their responses to questions, had less confidence in their answers, were less persistent in difficult assignments, and less willing to share their ideas. 

I leave you with a few minutes of floating the mild slopes of Snowbowl with my five year olds. I'm sure most of you detected the bit of my sarcasm, but if not, you might need to have your meter calibrated. The girls at this point are looking to be a veterinarian and a police officer. We're going to need to work on one of those professions.

Success

I think most of us can agree that success can be gauged in many ways. I am going to count some success from last week at the local ski hills tow rope. The first time they were barely 2.5 years old and it was quite a chore to keep them out there for longer than 10 minutes. Fast forward 2 winters and we've got smiles and progress. We heard cheers of excitement and saw proud smiles. They have even began to do the tow rope SOLO. For anyone that has rode Snowbowl's tow rope, you know how big of an accomplishment that is. Granted the first attempt was not pretty, although very amusing, her grip and horizontal body was a sight to see.

 Essex uni-cycler

I have continued to stuff copious amounts of sugar laden treats into their mouth at the top of each run. Some may call it cheating but I call it effective. Each girl now skis solo down the short hill and can make turns in and out of the cones. Anyway enough doting on my girls. Thanks for reading whoever you might be. I hope you enjoy some of these pics from the last few weeks. Album over here>>> https://plus.google.com/photos/100316566231417237314/albums/5711358169842705617

$hit skiers say

Winter so far

This was supposed to be the repeat of last year's La Nina winter. 

However, this seems to be what most skiers are having nightmares of in the winter of 2011/2012. Leave it to Backcountry.com for capturing some of the best captions ever on this photo (unsure photog).

Skiing will get better, and for now Snowbowl has 56" summit (7600') and 23" at the base (5000'), which is more than many ski areas in the west have. For now there is not a lick of snow the Missoula valley and I'm thinking maybe I should mow my lawn? What are you doing? you know you guys can comment in here, right?

Look at the snow cover from last year vs. this year, wow.

Baffin Island

I ran across this great short movie from Jordan Manley over at TetonAT. It's impressive cinematography, capturing the massive scale very well. If you like the thoughts of exploration and remoteness, mixed in with some skiing you will probably like this.

Hot dog!

Hopefully you've been out there hot doggin' it up. The winter seems to be starting off a bit slow around these parts and actually around the nation. Snowbowl is open on the weekends plus fridays for now. I made it up last week and found a few good hours of entertainment. The bowls aren't open yet and you'll have plenty of trees to top on the way down, but hey at least its skiing. Now get out there and do some ski ballet and pray for snow.

Skiing with crutches

I had a dream last night that I was skiing with crutches. Now that's messed up. I don't know what is going on in that little brain of mine, but at least it gave me a good chuckle when I woke up this morning. In my dream it actually seemed to work pretty well, dragging the crutches as I turned, almost like a rudder. Huh? I've been off of the crutches for a week or more, but the trauma of being forced to walk with assistance is still fresh on the brain apparently.

You too can get a chuckle this morning by watching some of these videos. A big thanks to Earlyups for finding them and bringing them to the masses.


Quality audio and "I told you so" from your buddy


This guy is kinda like the double rainbow guy, Oh the Quality!


This one takes the cake, you'll be laughing your ass off at the :38 mark...OH MY GOD!

Knee update: the PT told me that I am 3 weeks ahead of schedule on my recovery. Rock on.

Yo bro, I'm done skiing

These xtranormal skits crack me up. This exact conversation is going on in every mountain town right now.

Skijoring

Skijoring ('skē-jȯr-iŋ) is a winter sport where a person on skis is pulled by a horse, a dog (or dogs) or a motor vehicle. It is derived from the Norwegian word skikjøring meaning ski driving.

Red Lodge, Montana

Inspired

I came across the video over on StokeLab, which is a great resource for its namesake. The video shows a couple in their mid-seventies still having fun in "da powder, eh". Truly inspiring to see people that age still out there and having fun. They're not just going through the motions, grinding out groomers, they're actually skiing some challenging terrain. Wow, just wow. Makes me think about where I want to be at that age.

Stuck wide open

Lets just say you knew of a place where the powder was deep, the people were few and the price was right. Two guys thought that sounded pretty nice decided to seize the moment and time a potential incoming storm just right. Packing was simple, requiring not much more than your average backcountry ski outing + 3 days worth of food and drink.

Logistical issues showed up early. Before the sleds were even loaded on the trailer, there was already an issue. A sticky throttle on one sled brought the excitement down a few notches. Upon pulling the start rope the sled lurched forward instantly. Some lube, cussing and generally banging on things under the hood seemed to fix the throttle. At least temporarily.

An hour later, the sleds were unloaded and crossed over state-line. Both sleds ran fast along the trail. Silence, deep snow and trail breaking meant the skiers were one step closer to their goal. The gear was dropped in the cozy accommodations and a thigh deep trail breaking session began. Once established, the same track was used over and over the next 3 days. Perfectly spaced old growth giants lent well to the knee to thigh deep untracked powder.

All that was left afterward was to fire up the sleds and rip back to the trucks. Easier said than done. One cannot truly know your ingenuity or MacGyverness until you are stranded 15 miles from nowhere in the middle of winter. That same sticky throttle reared its head and more swearing was directed at the engine compartment. When one guy was about to give up, the other stepped up and pulled a huge trick out of his ass. Who knew that a piece of p-cord duct taped to a throttle cables could control the speed of a snowmobile? Cheers to hanging it out on the line in the name of powder.

Rock skiing

Dedicated? Yes

Sane? I don't think so

Rad? Yes.

Take 2 minutes out of the day and watch how one can actually shred on rocks. Right around 45 seconds is really interesting as he dislodges a boulder on the way down.

Missing Lolo Peak Skier found dead near peak

6/21 UPDATE : KPAX - Skier died in avalanche

A very sad and horrible reminder of how hostile a June ski outing in Montana can be. The details have not been disclosed. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of this young gentlemen.

The weather was quite bad the past few days. This morning from the Missoula Valley one could see the snowline had dropped down to nearly 5500 feet. The Stuart Peak snotel shows that 10" of wet heavy snow fell since Tuesday the 15th of June. Temperatures were around 33 degrees, which would have made for a very wet heavy snowfall.

"A 38-year-old skier who had been missing in the Lolo Peak area since Tuesday was found dead high in the backcountry on Friday morning. Missoula County Sheriff Mike McMeekin said the man's body was located by ground search crews near the top of Lolo Peak at 9:20 a.m., but had not yet been recovered.

"They located his skis first, and then found his body nearby," said McMeekin, who said the initial search crew did not speculate how the skier had died.

Search and rescue crews from Missoula County, together with a helicopter search crew from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, spent all day Thursday searching for the man, who was first reported missing on Wednesday night after he failed to show up at work......"

Huge front flip to crash - NAKED