End of another crazy pro season...

The last day of the ski season was a very good ending to a roller coaster season, as usual. The video is from that morning up on Lightning Ridge @ Pow Mow. Sunrise sessions have a certain mystic about them to begin with and this bluebird one was a real epic. Jon and I had low expectations that were blown out of the water with smooth creamy lines all day until the sun heat it up and we were out of there by 10:30 Obviously my little pup Murphy stole the show. She has been skiing low angle backcountry with me this whole season, but she was going to sit this one out cause I did not think she was ready for the longer steeper lines on the ridge we were going to be shooting. However, as I tried to get her in the car so I could start my ascent, she sat down about twenty feet behind my car and looked at me like, "You are kidding right, I am going on this tour!" She knew she was ready and she was not about to be left behind. So I caved cause I really wanted her to come, but I was worried she'd get munched. As you can see, she knew better then me.

Murphy's morning... from J.T. Robinson on Vimeo.

Flow...

This entry is titled "Flow" as that word has become the mantra of my season.  I have come to the conclusion that the work of one who is solely dependent on the gifts of mother nature must adhere to the flow of any situation.  I have found in my adventures in pro skiing this winter that the flow dictates everything, and to fight it in order to force the work is a mistake.  

To give some examples let's go back to Japan where I really started thinking about "Flow" and how the work is directly connected to it.  Japan really was an eye opener for me and the people there are very much in tune with the natural setting that they inhabit.  One night the Sweetgrass crew and I where hunting down a night shooting zone and where beginning to strike out.  I proclaimed that the flow was not there and that we should just call it.  So we started heading back to the homestead and to our amazement we stumbled across a sick little zone that ended up paying off dividends with some great shots.  The same trip many of the athletes I was skiing with were trying to force airs into their lines and it just ended up chopping out their lines.  On the other hand I was just asking myself every time what the terrain below me was asking for and then I simply skied the line as it seemed most natural and the shot seemed to work best.  It may not have been "sick" in the bro bra sense of the word, but the shots always turned out smooth and really asthetic, which as it turns out is really what the boys where looking for.  

Now let's go to San Pelligrino, Italy after a huge wind storm ripped through the terrain and our hearts as we watched all the new snow get blown away to the sea.  Still we tried to find big lines to ski and rolled onto a slope that appeared to be perfect only to end up with me post holeing across an overhanging ridge atop an 800 foot cliff that nearly could have ended me.  After some survival mode moves got me the hell out there we decided that we should find more low elevation wind sheltered terrain for our shooting.  Again, we tried to fight the flow and it almost meant my life.  

Not soon after I got home from Italy I was set to go to Japan again with the Sweetgrass guys and by this time "Flow" had become a mainstay in my vocabulary and once again it struck me, but this time it was in my pocket book as I waited for an incentive check from DNA to come through to make the trip even possible.  As flow would have it the check would not come in time and I would have to bail out of the trip, which as it turns out was a blessing as it turned very wet in Japan and I was able to stay home in Utah and really enjoy some time with my dad's cousin Tom and his boys, Alex and Jake.  If I would have forced the trip I would have been overdrafting all over Asia and returned home to ridiculous bank fees.  Instead I went with the flow and spent all week hanging out with family, which as it turns out was exactly what I needed at that time.  I had been on the road for too long and family is what I was really missing.

And lastly I was slated to migrate north to Anchorage, Alaska for the world championships with a good chance of making a run for the title.  However, mother nature and the "Flow" knew otherwise as the belly of Mt. Redoubt volcano decided it was time to purge herself and began puffing ash and debris all across the landscape.  Planes couldn't fly and therefore stranded me and my family of spectators here in Utah.  We tried for three straight days to fight the flow to get there and just when it looked like I might have a chance to get a flight a weight restriction on the plane crushed my last hope.  Again, we all concluded that the flow had a reason for not allowing me to be there and as it turns out we had a great time right here in Utah skiing pow in my own backyard with my father and Christine and really getting some real quality time with my parents.  

Of course I am disappointed when the flow leads me down a path that I was not planning, but ever since the day that the flow told me to make a third ski cut in a chute and saved my life from a hard slab avalanche, the same conditions of which killed a dear friend of Ogden just one ridge over from my location just ten minutes before my third ski cut, I listen, loud and clear.

 

I am feeling the good flow here in Japan......photo: Mike Brown 

European Championships... podium 2nd!

I slept nearly all day yesterday after a good morning ski with Murphy in some Basin bottom country in an area I have come to call Murphy's knob. The day of mellow recovery was well in order after 20+ hours of flying in airplanes to get back home the previous night. Stephane Riendaeu of Tough Guy Productions was my traveling partner for the trip and he finally got out of SLC after he was bumped off the late night and two more the following the morning. Standby travel is the cheapest way, but you can pay for the discount in hanging out in airports getting bumped off flight after flight. Still it was a relatively smooth travel with nice business class seats for the long leg over the big pond for 11 hours. Italy... Italy was a brand new experience for me and the welcoming from the Scuffons folks was a real treat. These genuine people are the creators of one of the most unique experiences of this traveling skier's short life. They know how to party, eat, ski, party and party better then most that I have ever met in all the places that I have been in the last few seasons of traveling. The Dolomites were a character all of their own amongst this diverse cast so much that with the turn of every different chairlift we would link across miles and miles of mountains and valleys the style of peak would range from giant towering spires to wide open faces littered with bands ready made for skiers.

The comp was the highlight of the trip that put two americans at the top of the podium. I was fortunate enough to be one of them with a 2nd place next to my buddy and fellow mid-westy, Joey Wallis.

Podium celebrating ..... photo: Gurry

Me hucking.......photo:Gurry

We partied like rockstars that night with all of the local folks to celebrate all of the days champions across all of the divisions of the comp that included snowboarders and alpine skiers alike. Spirits were pretty high.

hanging out......photo: Gurry

All in all the trip went really well and I guess I may have to go back someday in order to go for that top spot.  Like I always said about these things, I never come to win, just to put on a good show.  I feel like I did that for sure.  What's even better is the show that I got to see starring the Dolomites and the local folks that call them home.  

3rd place in Tahoe

Just got back from Lake Tahoe yesterday and I am leaving later today for Italy. Busy. I took third place at the comp despite having a cracked up tail bone from a spill on concrete the other night. I couldn't do any real hucking because of the pain, but I just kept it under ten foot features and skied really fast. I was still able to do alright and was able to conserve the tailbone and not do any further damage going into the European Championships in Italy. So I am starting to feel better and hopefully come this weekend I'll be feeling good enough to huck in that contest. Stephane and I are trying to get out of SLC right now, but Altanta airport is all fouled up do to weather so we are facing standby delays. Hopefully we can get out later tonight and get into the air. Here is a link to the blogsphere on the Alpine Meadows website so you can check out some of the action at :http://blog.skialpine.com/