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I arrived home last week to a ton of new snow. It’s always a great thing to come home right when the mountain turns on. I’ve been out riding & hiking off the tram, finding good turns while the sun shined for three days straight. We got another 18 inches starting yesterday, most of which fell last night. Today I found pockets of armpit deep snow until late in the day while Lily and I took turns watching Mylo.

Family Day at the Village

Willie, Mark & Makens

High Lines Getting Ripe

Tim Ramirez Slashing in the park

Inbounds Treasure

This month has been flying by, I’ve been in Canada for the past 2 weeks and will be heading home today. My trip started with a 7 day avalanche course in Fernie. It was amazing and I learned a lot from it. I drove to Nelson after the class got out and spent the past four days up at the Baldface lodge with Lily and Mylo. I sat in on guide meetings, went in the field to do snow study pits, and got in some serious shredding thanks to Jeff, Dem & the guides.  A big thanks to Stella for watching Mylo so Lily and I could get some pow turns together… It couldn’t of been a better trip.

It was a happy new year’s day in Jackson Wyoming now that snow is falling in full force. I shredded the Village this morning and it’s really starting to turn on. New years always seems to have good powder. The forecast looks promising so I’ll keep you posted…

Mountain Shelter

Willie, Cory, Mike & Travis

Stoked!

The year winds down with sunshine and mellow riding with friends. Mylos growing like crazy and is becoming more fun to hang with everyday. I guess I’m going to look back at this year as a very special Christmas. I miss my family back in California and wish we could of been together. But times are tight and traveling during the holidays can be really unpleasant. So we had our own little Teton Thai Style family dinner at our home with Sam & Suchada, Ryan, Sunata & Clementine, Willie & Steph, Val, Lily, Mylo and I.

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Beyond a glorious hike with Willie & Steph

Willie /

Steph getting some fresh turns

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A little X-mas skiing

Lily Mylo and I went x-country skiing in the park on Christmas Day. It was nice to get out with the family on such beautiful sunny day. Mylo slept soundly as I dragged him along in his little chariot.

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Cold day in Teton Park

Makens and I have been getting out on the split-boards a bit lately. Yesterday we had a super cold predawn start. When I left my house it was -2 f, when I picked up John it dropped to -4, and when we arrived at the parking lot it was -18. As we climbed it warmed up but the first hour was a little brutal. We arrived at the top and soaked in the views for bit before ripping a really fun run back to the car.

John Makens

Until next year… Happy Holidays!

I’m back in Jackson with the family, finally settling down after an all time trip to BC. Willie and I stayed in Nelson for a couple days after our session at Red Mountain. We scored a epic pow day at Whitewater Nelson’s local hill. We were in disbelief as we rode the chair over the untracked powder below. We rode till we had our fill and then relaxed in anticipation of the days to come at Baldface. For those of you who don’t know about Baldface listen up. It’s a Back-country cat skiing/snowboarding operation located high in the mountains above Nelson. It’s a place where the soul of snowboarding lives strong. The staff, quality of service, and good vibes makes it the must do cat shred trip. The complex road system connects a series of ridges accessing a wide variety of aspects and terrain. Steep snow caked tree runs, pillows and alpine bowls offer one of the most diverse riding experience you could ask for. With a ton of early season snow it was a dream come true. Jeff Pensiero, owner and founder invited me up to observe their guide training. It was probably the best thing I’ve done as a rider. It gave me an understanding of why the operation has become such a legendary snowboarding experience. Jeff’s dedication, hard work, and love for riding is the reason it’s become what it is today. He’s payed dues and built the lodge with the vision of sharing amazing riding with like minded guests. The safety team is top notch working together as a well oiled machine. I was humbled by the guides expert abilities and deep knowledge of the mountains. For three days I was fully immersed in a series of training exercises and discussions. We started the trip with transceiver training with multiple beacons buried in three different zones. We covered avalanche forecasting & control, first aid drills and discussions, terrain evaluation focusing on moving through the mountains safely with a group.  The session ended the with a full on multiple burial rescue scenario. It was super cool to participate with the pros and getting after it with all of their experience and training. To say the least I left with a sense of inspiration from these guys and can’t wait to get back up there. If you can, do yourself a favor and book a trip… it’s going off.

After being home just long enough to repack my bags I hit the road heading northbound for BC. Yesterday Willie and I drove to Spokane and spent the night. We woke up and got back on the road and made it over the boarder around noon. We arrived at Red Mountain just in time for a halfday session. It was a good feeling getting changed into our gear in the parking lot after hours on the road. It was really foggy and we’d never been to the hill before so we had no idea what to expect as we climbed into the clouds. We were happy finding good snow while exploring the uncrowded tree runs till the lifts closed.

this is what i like to see… except for the fact I’ll probably get stuck in Denver after 20+ hours of travel.

Winter Storm Warning

URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RIVERTON WY
314 PM MST SAT DEC 12 2009

…A WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON THROUGH SUNDAY
EVENING FOR THE WESTERN MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF WYOMING…

.A PACIFIC WINTER STORM THAT HAS BROUGHT 3 TO 9 INCHES OF SNOW TO
THE WESTERN MOUNTAINS WITH LOCAL REPORTS OF UP TO A FOOT OF SNOW
TODAY…WILL INTENSIFY THROUGH THIS EVENING…BRINGING PERIODS OF
MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW ALONG WITH STRONG WINDS OVER THE MOUNTAIN
PASSES AND OPEN AREAS ACROSS THE VALLEY FLOORS. PERIODS OF
MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WIND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE
NIGHT AND SUNDAY INTO SUNDAY EVENING BEFORE TAPERING OFF AROUND
MIDNIGHT SUNDAY NIGHT. SNOWFALL OF 1 TO 2 FEET IS EXPECTED IN THE
MOUNTAINS…WITH LOCAL AREAS NEAR 3 FEET IN THE TETONS. THE LOWER
ELEVATIONS WILL SEE 6 TO 12 INCHES WITH HIGHER DRIFTS. ACROSS
SOUTHWEST WYOMING SNOWFALL OF 2 TO 6 INCHES WITH STRONG WINDS IS
EXPECTED WITH POSSIBLE SIGNIFICANT DRIFTING ALONG INTERSTATE
80 AND US HIGHWAYS 189 AND 191.

Last night 20,000 spectators filled the street of Seoul to watch 9 international riders battle it out in a head to head snowboarding competition. In the end it was Finland’s Eero Ettala who took the title with a strong riding performance opening up a big bag of tricks for the the crowd.

I’m didn’t even trying to fight the jet lag because I know I’m leaving tomorrow. I went to bed around nine last night and woke this morning around 4. I like waking up this early, it’s so quiet and nice to read and write without distractions.  The training session went well yesterday. The jump looks good and it should be a great competition. It was raining when arrived but has dried up since so I was able to explore a little bit of the city on my skateboard. Everything is smooth and it’s been a good way to get around town. I love Korean food and found some good stuff around my hotel. Even the convenient stores have Kimchi and other picked delights.

your 711 doesn't have this

I woke up exactly five minutes before the alarm went off and looked to see how cold it was. 0 degrees f, not too bad for Jackson hole in December. I got up and checked on Mylo, he was waking up so I held him for a minute before making coffee and starting my truck. It was dark and the cold took my breath away as I stepped outside. It was overcast with a trace of new snow keeping things a bit warmer than I was expecting. I started a fire and sipped coffee and got my last minute preparations dialed. I checked in online the night before and had no bags to pack so my morning was looking easy. I waited to last minute said goodbye to Lily and Mylo and headed out.

The flight from Jackson Denver was a bit turbulent and I felt claustrophobic and nauseous, the cold air felt good when I got off the plane. My next flight was much better crossing the snowcapped Rockies. It was a sunny powder day. I was wishing I was down there shredding. The clouds parted and I could see Crested Butte in the distant clearly from the plane. We flew over the Uinta’s, Wasatch then across the vast emptiness of Nevada. The Sierras appeared as a stark wall jutting up out of the dessert, They’re huge! I could see them from miles away and as I got closer I realized we were flying directly over Mammoth. The mountain looked good from 20,000ft and I’m sure people were out ripping all the new snow.

I just arrived in Korea and got to my hotel room over looking the kicker. It’s raining so they called off the training today. Hopefully it will be nice for the event looks like a pretty good set up.

20,000 ft above mammoth

The jump from my hotel window