Jackson Hole, Feb 18-19th

I admit that it was tough. I left Squaw in a pounding blizzard with an ultimate destination of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Which as most people know has been suffering in the 'good-snow' department this year. Avalanches, high winds and conservative snowfall has put Jackson in a hole (pun intended) this year. With a forecasted blue-bird pow day in Utah I decided to make a pit stop hit before heading to JH. So I drove the 8 eight hours to Utah, met up with my honey for a Valentine's Day dinner and then promptly woke up at 4 a.m. for a Mt. Superior mission. After a cold but spine filled morning session I trucked up to JH with expectations for high and dry conditions. My spirits were still high but an extreme case of Jet-Lag coupled with early morning missions created the single scariest drive I've ever had. (And that's saying something considering I've driven solo to Alaska twice know) Liberal amounts of coffee and Red Bulls did nothing to abstain from the dreaded "bobbing-for-apples" head droop syndrome and extreme fatigue. But somehow I managed to roll into JH in one piece at around 1 a.m.

The next day was met with blue skies and wind-fucked snow, but a forecasted storm decided to upgrade itself within a matter of hours and promptly spewed a few feet of snow. Suddenly the near death moments behind the wheel were worth it as Todd Ligare, Schroder Baker and I pitted ourselves in trench-town madness. Overhead blower was ingested and smiles were iced by a plethora of face-shots.

Don't believe me? Here's some evidence.

Ligare getting shacked.



Schroder getting pitted.



Josh Nielson, Greg Von Doertsen and Tigger documenting the trenching.

ESPN Interview

Check it out

Big Mountain Pro- Video Day 1, Run 1

Big Mountain Pro 2009

Can't really write too much more about the BMP because I already spoiled the outcome with my last conventional and excessively brief post. So here are some of my favorite pics from the BMP. No one like reading these days anyways.

I won!

Departure: Reno, NV. Destination: St. Anton, Austria for the 2009 edition of the Swatch/O'neill Big Mountain Pro.

So any Day Ø usually involves a fair bit of travel. With that travel usually comes TSA water-bottle hassles, sore knees from airplane seats designed for 10 year-old midgets and the dreaded lethargy of jet-lag.

On this edition of Day Ø, I flew into Munich, Germany to catch a ride to St. Anton. With I few hours to kill I decided to head off to the European version of SIA; ISPO.



There I scoped the whole new Salomon line. Well not the whole line, just the stuff I'm interested in.



And zen it was off to ze mountains through ze tunnels!



ZE WARP SPEED!!!



NIEN! Ze Warp Speed is not allowed in ze mozer-land of Osteriech!



And then we arrived..

Big Mountain Pro 09

Internet connection is limited for me so the blog updates will be less frequent. In the mean time check out www.bigmountainpro.com for vids, pics and updates.

Lates,

A Public Apology- Squaw FWQS Related

So after successfully convincing Squaw Valley to hold the first ever contest on the legendary Tram Face, I and a few others thought it would be an absolute necessity to hold a Golden Ticket qualifier to the Tram Face main event. I thought the qualifier would be an amazing chance for the local ski community to ski a face they've been looking at for years but have never been legally allowed to ski. Without the qualifier I felt like it would be a slap in the face to the local skiers as they watched a bunch of world class skiers from non-Squaw locations be allowed to ski the face sans themselves. So that being said, I put a lot of heart, miles on my truck and time on the phone and computer to get this qualifier to happen (I'll add that I have not and will not be paid a single penny in my coordination efforts of this qualifier. My efforts were solely based on the desire to give local skiers a chance to ski Tram Face). Well unfortunately to circumstances I cannot explain, the qualifier has been canceled. So to the skiers of Squaw, the ski community of Tahoe and the skiers around the world that wanted a chance to ski Tram Face, I am sorry. I did all that I could. Next year we're gonna make it happen. And this year, the main event will be a show no one should miss.

Cheers.