Looking forward...

I am currently looking forward to summer. I am trying to get over to New Zealand this summer to visit my bro Chris Erickson who is living down there now. VI is planning a film trip to capture all the madness. The last VI trip resulted in a series of inverted cliff hucks for over 80 feet. Crazy cats. I dig though. Something takes us over in times like these and pure madness insues. On the darker side though I am trying to get back to Wisco this week to visit my grandpa who had some emergency surgery this week. Feeling bad for him, but he is a tough pizano and he is pulling through. Send out some love to Papa Don so he has a quick recovery.

Technical difficulties...

I have been having some technical difficulties these days with my internet as well as this weblog. My username and password would not work for the longest time. It was a real pain in my ass. It has been some time since I last posted as a result of this bullshit. A lot has gone down and I am stoked to tell about it. I have been back for about a week now. I was gone for about three weeks. First, I flew up to Alaska with Stephane Riendeau and Kevin Klein for a Karhu heli trip in Valdez. It was off the hook. I was skiing with Ryan Boyer, Jamie Parks, Sarah Clemenson, Andrew McGary, and Eric Henderson was our esteemed guide. That place is something else. This was my first time in AK, first time in a heli, and Rachel Jines bought me my first taste of king crab. Tasty, tasty all of it. After I skied my last line in AK I jumped back in the heli and cruised it down to the airport where I jumped a series of flights over to Innsbruck, Austria for a tele-cross race. Dylan Crossman and I represented the United States in the World Championship race and of course, our luggage did not show up in time. We did the race in rental gear, street clothes, and sunglasses. It was pretty funny to see, but we did our best with what we had. I made it to the second heat of the finals, but no further. We partied like rockstars with the international cast of skiers and saw a couple of nice sunrises as a result. The folks were great, and the bar was on fire, literally. They actually started the entire circular bar on fire with lighter fluid during a remix of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". It was pretty sweet, you don't see that in the States. Then back to Utah where the season is finished and the summer working season has begun. Back to Geiger & Wood Stone Masonry and also my night job at Delta. Work, work, work is the name of the game now so that I can pay off the credit card debt I have incurred over the winter. It was a good one to say the least. The snow in Utah did not cooperate, but we still got it done. Look for the action from this year in next season's releases from Tough Guy Productions, Lipstick films, and Summit Side Productions. Vertical Integration is trying to get over to New Zealand this summer for some extra madness, but we will see if we can pull it off. Stoked on the winter, ready for summer.

Ramblin' man

Here is a shot from our Cedar City trip back in late January. I have not been able to post for a while cause I have been a ramblin' soul for the last month. My girlfriend has forgotten what I look like, my dog has lost my scent, and my travel ski bag is worn through. I was in Jackson Hole for a week with the Lipstick Films crew. We shot a lot of storm footage cause it never stopped snowing the whole week I was there. I have some more work to do with them to get some more variety of shots. The following week the Vertical Integration crew flew up to Seattle and spent the week at Mt. Baker. Baker was skiing three feet deep and we caught some bluebirds. The place was going off, and Zach Houston threw an 80 foot backflip for the crowds that gathered above chair 8 to watch all the carnage. The locals were throwing it down too. I had to go up and throw my own 100 foot lawn dart front flip to try to one up my partner, but instead I exploded my new boots. Scarpa wanted me to test the limits of their gear and I guess that about 95 feet is the limit. Good to know. I've got some replacements on the way to try again. Since then it has been going off in Utah and we are getting a bunch of good powder shots. The avalanche danger is really high right now so we are buying our time until we can get up to the higher bowls and backcountry classics. The big lines are finally setting up and we are drooling all over ourselves waiting for the slide danger to come down so we can get out and kill it. The powder shots are sweetness though. I can't complain.

New Sponsor!!!!

I am stoked to announce my new partnership with Scarpa North America. Scarpa is the leading telemark boot manufacturer, and I am so fired up to finally be a part of the stellar cast of athletes that represent Scarpa. I've added them to my links page so you can check out their new gear. I talked to Scarpa's Chris Clark at the end of the day on the last day of the OR Tradeshow and he was quick to sign me up for their boots. Apparently he had heard some good words about me from some influential folks in the industry, which made it a lot easier for him to give me the nod. I am glad he did. So I'll raise a glass to my new partnership and I look forward to producing for Scarpa as I have for the rest of my sponsors. Now I am set up with the stiffest burliest boots in the industry, the most rigid bindings in the industry, and the fattest big mountain skis in the industry, so I guess I have no excuses now. Time to go out and show everyone how hard this gear rips. Cheers.