A little catch up...

I have been working out technical issues with my new cell phone/digi camera and therefore the blogging has been at a halt until I had a chance to figure it out and get all the pictures I was taking off my phone. I got it all dialed in and now I have to catch this blog up to current events.

Over the last month I have been a very busy bee getting things in order for the kickoff of the season and actually making my ideas come to life. I have done everything from throwing a premiere party in Wilmot, Wisconsin and making my first turns of the season there, to an insane dream sequence on some crazy LSD induced Disney ride. The stories are rich and the photos can help tell it.


^This is my brother's new pup, Otis. I went to Wisco in the first part of December to throw a premiere party for Josh Madsen on his Telemark Skier Magazine tour. However, the first order of business when I got into town was to go meet little Otis. Such a little shit, I just love'em.


^My cousin Jamie, who won the grand prize DNA setup in the raffle at the show, is pictured here donning his new attire. Glad it went to someone who will get good use out of it getting snowmobile face shots in the U.P. this winter. The party went off with 150 people coming out to celebrate the beginning of the new season. Wilmot was blowing snow and opened up the next day. I love it.


^So of course we skied it. They had only two runs open and I was in an ensemble of gear that my cousin Tom and my Dad put together for me. My brother Tyler, cousin Tom, dad Mike, and I all got out to make our first turns of the season. It was a blast as usual and we even ran into our old friend Sam Barranco in the lodge bar where his daughter Dawn was tending the bar. It was an ironic and nostalgic experience to make my first turns of this season back home in Wilmot. The ski industry is a tough place to be doing business this year and the hard knocks had been getting to me, but going home has a way of putting things back into perspective. Thanks for that everyone back home, I needed it.


^I got back to SLC for a few days of work and then was off to Orlando to meet up with Christine to for a run at a childhood vendetta with Space Mountain at Disney World. I was greeted at the hotel entrance by this guy which if I didn't know better was trying to flash me a crotch shot. Weird how you see things a little differently through jaded adult eyes many years later.


^The classic castle scene at Disney with Walt and his little buddy Mickey enshrined in bronze in the foreground. It was interesting to see this place now as an adult many years after having ripped it up as a youngster back in the day. Christine and I had a lot of fun checking the place out again and settling her score with Space Mountain. When she was young she waited in line with her mother for hours and then chickened out at the boarding area. Since that day she had vowed to avenge herself and we carried it out only twenty-plus years later. Nice.


^Christine enjoying the parade with a new sense of accomplishment and exacted revenge. We had a lot of fun with the whole experience including a dream sequence on a Winnie the Pooh ride that was one of the most clinically insane things I have ever seen. This was a kid's ride too and this scene was straight out of a Beatles Yellow Submarine LSD moment. It was crazy. Seeing it now with a few more years under my belt is a way trippier experience then I imagined. Hilarious.


^After Disney madness I was back to life in Utah in an AAI avalanche level 2 course getting edumacated in the ways of the dragon. The class is taking it all in right here from UDOT forecaster Chris Covington. This was a really great class and I really did learn a lot of valuable information that I am looking forward to putting in my backcountry dragon fighting bag of weapons.


^This is an actual unintentionally triggered avalanche that we had pop on us in our class tour on the second day. A student took a short ride when he jumped in to dig a test pit. I guess the pit would have said that it can run. No one was hurt and the student was off the slab on his feet skiing onto the flank rather quickly. I think it was a real eye opener for some of the people in the class who have not really seen the dragon before. As most of you know I have fought the dragon many times now and it was really interesting to me to see the reactions from the dynamic group after the slide. The next day an instructor got washed out in some hangfire too, thankfully uninjured. Again, a bunch of students got to see the dragon's bite, and even swallowing a legendary guru of the snow science industry. If you play this game you will have to pay your homages to the dragon at some point it is only a matter of time before he finds you. They key is to be as prepared for battle as a soldier going into war with as many tools as you can acquire. I am doing everything I can to diversify my bag of weapons for another season's battles.


^Christine is looking back up at me from a gully at Alta where the avalanche danger is relatively low and moguled. This was exactly what we were looking for though to whip our asses back into shape with the late start of the season weighing down my legs. We had a good leg burn and got then got all set to head back home for X-mas.


^Deep into a long traverse across the country back to Wisco for X-mas and I am starting to feel the fatigue of it on the train ride from O'Hare airport up to Antioch where Christine's dad, Phil, is picking us up. I really have this route dialed these days. Which is good cause I am getting back home more often these days which is a real blessing.


^And this makes it all worth it. The gathering of generations all in one room for a evening of love and laughter with the best kind of people in the world. I always come back to Utah from home with a fresh outlook on my life and endeavors because of these people that are my inspiration and support. These moments are the best and I love them all.


So that wraps up a good month of running around and chasing down. I am back in SLC and back in the saddle now. I still have a lot of work and training to do to get ready for the even faster approaching "go time" of the season and I am ready to get after it with a new attitude adjustment and motivation for the winter. Check out some of my old blogs about the "Flow" from last season because this season is dedicated to it once again, and I am ready to ride it wherever it takes me. Here's to it.

Candy Froerer

Candy Froerer is a Utah native that is a freeheel phoenix in the Wasatch range. She has been a backcountry partner of mine for several years and is now shooting with Vertical Integration among others. She is a top level extreme competitor and is poised to explode onto the scene. Check out her skills and lookout for her this year, she'll probably be passing you.

Candy Froerer from J.T. Robinson on Vimeo.

Zion Canyon trip...

I sent out a text in early September that read, "old friends in new places, Zion NP Oct. 1-4". I knew that pulling off a trip with the cast that I had invited would be a long shot. For years my old buddies from home, now in Phoenix ("Wilmot West"), and I have been talking about meeting in the middle somewhere. So, finally I set it up and let it play through. Participation was looking bleak and Christine and I were prepared to go by ourselves until our old friend and recent PHX resident Jay Riebolt got in on the plans. I new this was my chance to rope in my brother to fly out on my last buddy pass of the year cause him and Jay go way back to kindergarten days. Jay and I successfully shamed Tyler into it and we were rolling. A couple days before the trip my old homie, Bryan Tournas, called me to get in on it cause our mutual friend and Bryan's coworker, Ryan Schmaling, took the bullet for him at work allowing Bryan and his girlfriend Aubrie(sp?) to make the trip. Now we had a full cast of characters coming together for the first time in a long time in myself, Christine, Jay, Tyler, Bryan, and Aubrie in the desert of southern Utah. Big ridge line heights and tight river bottom lows in Zion's Canyon National Park ensued along with plenty of campfire laughs.


The stellar cast of characters. L to R Tyler, Jay, Aubrie, Christine, Bryan, and myself.


Jay and Tyler taking in the vastness of the situation at hand.


This is a photo Christine took of myself taking a photo of Bryan trying to stay in cell contact with our friend Ray in China as he called to celebrate the birthday that him and I share. Funny, Ray says, "Where are you guys?" Bryan and I look at each other on that perch and laugh and as Bryan begins to explain we lose the transoceanic connection. Classic scenario though. Happy Birthday Ray.


Ladies getting after it on the ridge of the Angel's Landing.


The crew is making their way along the cliff side trail over hanging the shear 900 foot vertical drop to the valley floor.


Tyler making use of the chains to get down this little down climb on the thin rocky ridge line trail.


The crew approaching the first sketchy little rock scoot of the Angel's Landing ridge line on our way up to the 360 degree view perch high a top the Zion Canyon.


Christine, Aubrie, Bryan, and Jay hanging out at the trailhead talking about the experiences of the day and what is next.


Jay taking the camp cook role and hooking up some brats and various grub for the hungry crew settling in back at the camp.


Our woodland creature friends hanging out down at the river bottom for a drink from the Virgin River in the cool evening air of the So. Utah fall.


The Virgin and her guardians looking out for her as the summer comes to an end and old man winter starts to move in for the season.


Christine, Jay, and Tyler deep in the Narrows in some frigid fall river water.


Jay is wading through the cold rocky water to carefully enter into the next turn and narrowing corridor of the magic little slot canyon.


Scenes like this just around every corner for the next couple miles was a lot to take in. A very special place.


Christine just after we passed through the big cathedral style turn in the river that you can see in the background.


The crew making their way up the current deeper and deeper into the tightening slot canyon of towering red rock walls. We ventured up to our finale turn around in the Wall Street section of the narrows in one of the tighter slots of the river just north of the Orderville Canyon link up. It was quite an experience and quite a weekend with some old "midwest" friends in some new "out west" places. Cheers friends...

Jam out

A couple weeks ago I was back home in Wisco for a while and the last night in town my folks and I walked up to our friend Jim Gillespe's beach house on quant little Lilly Lake. What transpired was a evening of classic stories and music. The crew that had assembled included Doug Pearson and Michelle, Jim Gillespie and his sister Carol, Jeff Halco and his wife Colleen, an old friend Jeff, Mulldoon, and my folks and I. Most of these folks are very talented musicians and the jam session that ensued brought back memories of similar such evenings of my childhood that filled the room as thick as fog. With an ensemble of instruments from guitars to harmonicas, a squeeze box(ha, ha can't remember the correct name for it), and even a train whistle for an Ozarks classic. At one point Jim's sister asked me, "Does this scene bore you?" I quickly replied, "No way! I love this. I choose these situations for my life." The tunes were all classics that have made up the soundtrack of my life and the love and laughs went down as smooth as the Budweiser (and some strange strawberry concoction that Jeff had rolling). I really miss all these folks and I am very thankful that I was around for this rare gathering of real genuine people. I hope I get the chance to do it again, and I just want to thank all of them for letting me be a part of an evening I won't soon forget.


The group photo in Jim's beach house. (NP Carol) photo: Michelle




Colleen squeezes to get down behind Jeff's lead. photo:Michelle




Doug and Jimmy bringing it on down back home style. photo:Michelle




Colleen switches to a flutey type of whistle. photo:Michelle

Cheers to this crew who has influenced my life more then they may realize, but like my parents these kind of folks are the backbone of this skier's mind set and work ethic rooted in back home values. These are the kind of good times that you can't buy and can only be found in golden moments like these that just seem to happen when you least expect it.

Almost two weeks of Wisco...

I just got home from about two weeks in Wisconsin from top to bottom. Did the Dells with Christine's family and the local fire department crew of friends and families. It was a classic beaches and beers event with a stellar cast of characters. Then Christine and I drove up to Eagle River to meet up with my folks and the Schaetz clan for a little bit more of a North Woods R&R treatment. Quiet and slow days in the sun with old friends, cold beers, and laughs abound. Followed by more beers and laughs around a bonfire under a full moon.(every night, natural anomaly**trip inside joke**) Most active endeavors included water skiing and bocci ball. I've had more good times and laughs with that Schaetz crew then some can have in a lifetime. We've shared entire lives over 25 years of bonfires in the North Woods together and every classic story has slowly turned into gold. The Schaetz family's courage in the face of adversity over the last few years is an inspiration and it shows in the light hearted play of the first grandchild "Evy". After hugs and "see you next years" Christine and I drove back down the state to our hometown for a wedding. Our dear old friend Samantha Porps married our new dear friend Justin Merrill. The rain stopped a few hours before the outdoor ceremony and the sun came out to light up the beautiful bride. The reception was a classic wisco throwdown that delivered well into the night. The friends and the drinks were plentiful and the evening went off without a hitch. These pics can help tell the story:

Captain AJ Johnson manning the SS."Piece of Work" through a narrow channel amongst the cliffs of the Wisconsin River. Cold boat drinks and a Jimmy Buffet soundtrack provided for a memorable weekend with old and new friends.

The classic evening bonfire gathering of the Robinson and Schaetz clans for some beers, smores, and stories. This photo was taken before the red spruce was added to the fire.

Mike Schaetz and I doing what we all do best up there together, laughing till we cry. That crew are some of the funniest characters I've ever known and for some reason when we mix us all together it produces a belly full of laughs.

A classic sunset ending to another gorgeous North woods afternoon, and another week of good times and memories with the family and the Schaetz crew.

Justin is getting down with the garder for one of the evenings festive moments in classic tradition. The party was well on the way by then and he put on a hell of a show. The mixers were cold and the dance floor was hot.

"A little bit softer now, a little bit softer now, a little bit softer now." "A little bit louder now!"

Justin brings down the house with a little Micheal Jackson for the people. The bride and groom were the life of the party and we all followed right behind them well into the late late hours of the night. Many thanks to them for a fantastic day and a memorable party. It doesn't get much better then that kind of celebration with those kind of folks. Cheers.

British TV sports channel spot

This is a grab from a British version of ESPN called Transworld. I filmed with their crew for the afternoon and got some interesting shots.  Either way the exposure is fantastic and I am stoked on the last shot of the segment with a slow mow tele monster.  I am in my blue/black checkered DNA jacket and white helmet.  It was a good trip...

Sweetgrass - "Signatures"

The latest press release that I have received from the boys of Sweetgrass.  It appears to be another busy tour season for the crew.  I am excited to see the final release.  The buzz around these guys is absolutely electric and I am personally fired up.  The Sweetgrass vibes are the most organic thing in snow films today.  They bring the art of the film/riding/natural worlds into rythym in a way that to see it is more an inside experience then just a movie from the Red Box.

For Immediate Release

SWEETGRASS PRODUCTION’S SIGNATURES

Every Turn Has it's Own Personality

Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan – June 11th, 2009

After an entire winter of filming deep in the hardwoods of Hokkaido, Japan, the Sweetgrass family brings you Signatures, a story of expression, and the art of riding on snow. Every turn has a personality, and every personality 

has it's own unique style: the air, the turn, the spin, the grab, the laid-out cutback carve. 

At the heart of this lovely tale of deep powder mystery: the seasons. In Japan there is a cultural connection to the different Signatures of our terrestrial home- a sense that the rhythm of fall, winter, spring, summer, influences the rhythm of the person, their energy, their style, and the lines they choose. Niseko local photographer Yoichi Watanabe explains, “As a photographer, the change in season brings a change of subject. I have to be ahead of this change in nature, like I have to be thinking about flowers before they actually bloom in order to capture what really goes on. I can say the same about the snow as well.” 

Powder riding is only part of it. In spring we fire up the barbeque and laugh about the deliciously deep turns in January, about Matt Philippi spinning into the setting Japanese sun. We talk about Nick Devore and Will Cardamone

cowboying 50 degree spines that only the local locals know about, about the the slough, the sounds, the snow, the tomahawk. We hike up in our t-shirts and breath deep, riding corn snow down to the waves of the Japan Sea. The trees bloom, and our bodies sink deep into lawn chairs under the heat of the spring sun. Between slurps of cheap beer, we mutter about the fly rod, about the 29er, about rivers, the cold water. We look up at lines that used to be buried under 20 feet of snow, now covered in bamboo and lush green. Every season has it's Signature, it's emotion, it's rhythm, and it's influence on the skiers, the riders, the surfers, the bikers, the boaters, and the fat tire crowd that call the mountain and sea home. 

Signatures premiering Sept. 18th, 2009 in Montreal at IF3 Festival, on tour in the US, Canada, and Japan, and available on DVD this fall. www.sweetgrassproductions.wordpress.com and www.Sweetgrass-Productions.com for updates and the latest beat from the Sweetgrass family. 

Brought to you by PATAGONIA, DYNAFIT, BLACK DIAMOND, FLYLOW. 

This here is a little flashback to the January teaser they made of the time that I was in Hokkaido last winter.  When was the last time you saw a ski movie teaser quite like this, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.  

      

It's the turn... maybe you can't understand.

Recently, I have been reading some different writings about telemark skiing that delve deep into what is to become, and what will happen, and what about this, and that, and a whole bunch of bullshit that is all about the demise of telemark and what to do and on and on.  I want to take my chance to weigh in and say that the answer is, and has been, right here all along.  It is the turn.  That is it.  That is all there ever has been, and that is all there ever will be, and that is all there ever should be.  I recently read an article on Telemarktips.com in which Mitch Weber the editor of the site goes on a rant about the gear and how we have been about gear and all that and the dynamics of Josh Murphy and movement to make it less about gear and all kinds of other mumbo jumbo that makes little sense to me. 

(http://www.telemarktips.com/FS_WhyGearMatters.html)  

Mitch makes a lot of good points that I agree with, like when he talks about being apart of a revolution and making the breakthroughs as we go.  The gear was and still is a huge factor in what is happening in telemark and I myself would not switch until the boots went plastic and the bindings got burlier because it was then that I was able to make the turn the way I wanted.  Not because the gear was really slick, but because of the turning styles that I could get into.   I watched the park movement of the past try to bring telemark to the youth and all of those things he wrote about.  But,  the truth and future to me lies in the turn.  Mitch goes on and on about gear because that is the niche of this niche industry in which he fits.  His site is almost all gear, and gear talk.  He criticizes Josh Madsen for trying to make a celebrity class and so on, but the truth is we all must realize that it is not just the gear, or just the celebrities, but the turn.  The turn is the celebrity, it is the coolest kid in town.  People have told me that they want to try it because I make it look fun.  The keyword being, "it", the turn, the reason.  It is what brought me to telemark.  It is what brought everyone I know to telemark.  All the people I know who love telemark do it not for the celebrity status or the intricacies of the engineering of the latest binding idea, but the turn.  IT IS THE TURN.  THE TURN. THE TURN. THE TURN.  We are not in competition with AT, we are not in competition with Alpine or snowboarding for that matter because they don't have this turn, we focus on the turn and they can't argue with that.

First of all,  the stigma that divides telemark from alpine and snowboarding is gone.  DEAL WITH THAT.  These days the kids are all riding together on all kinds of boards.  Some are boarders, skiers, and telers.  The reality is that there is little distinction as to how you choose to ride because now we are all riding the same terrain, snowboarders have split their boards, alpiners have released their heels to ascend, and tele skiers are trying to have releaseable and step in bindings.  It appears to me that all the disciplines are combining with the exception of how one chooses to turn.  If there could be a better example it would be the boys of Sweetgrass who are realizing that all of the disciplines are connected by something bigger and that is the mountains that we all answer too.  How you choose to ride is up to you, we all can get caught in avalanches.  A very good friend of mine once said to me that, "it is all about turnism... everything."  He was not only talking about how we ride down the mountain, but how the world works and everything we know to be true revolves around a cyclical type of schedule.  Everything turns.  Everything.  Not just snowboards and skis.  So the new K2 line of skis that draws no distinction between telemark and AT is not something I view as alarming or a sign of the death of telemark.  It is actually a sign of the reality that I have known along with the rest of the new generation of telemark skiers that Mitch Weber seems to forget about.  There are no distinctions, just riders.  Todays crew of youngsters are a very diverse group that includes alpiners, snowboarders, and teleskiers all riding together.  Imagine that.  

I love the telemark turn,  and I have experienced the transcendent powers that it holds, much like my friends who have chosen the transcendent powers of snowboarding or alpine skiing.  I can try to explain the telemark turn to them, but they just know that it must be something similar to the way they feel when they make their turns.  It may or may not be the same feeling, but it is the turnism that rings most true to me and they have a deep respect for that.  Because it is not about how you choose to turn, but that you turn.  So when I look to the kids, I am seeing crews that rip and makes no distinction between whether that one magic turn was a laid back hand down tele turn or a back foot pressed down cutback turn, but that the turn was magic none-the-less.  And that crew of kids have snowboards, alpine skis, and telemark bindings all turning together.  Just like me, and my friends.

ONE LOVE.     

Feasting on pow in Niseko, Japan with my Sweetgrass friends who ride all kinds of different boards connected to their feet in many ways.  Photo: Mike Brown (Alpine skier)

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/

Enough said...

I have slacked on updates on my Japan trip because of my lack of laptop technology and anywhere internet connections, but this little short edit of their time thus far that the sweetgrass boys put together pretty well sums it up.  Check it.  Enough said...