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busy bees

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:19:03 -0900

Forest and I took the sled up Seattle Ridge on Saturday for the first time with some friends. I’m not quite comfortable driving the monster yet, so Forest was a gracious driver and let me get in five delicious runs to his one. We only had one minor mishap where we tanked the sled on the uptrack when the powder sucked our left ski in, but it was a good experience with no consequences.

Forest took off on Saturday night for a few days of work at CSM with weekends in Salt Lake City and Durango to catch up with friends and family and I spent Sunday backcountry skiing with some girlfriends at Cornbiscuit. It was my first time in the backcountry without Forest (a little strange for me because I rely on him so heavily for breaking trail, route finding, and overall safety), but we had a great day with only one minor hiccup where I chose a route that was a little steeper than expected. I dropped in to set a recommended track for the rest of the group and post up in a safe spot for a better sightline of the runout zone just above a rollover, however realized the slope on the other side of the rollover was pretty darn steep and verified +45 degrees with my inclinometer. Luckily the snow stability was great and everybody made it down feeling a little more confident at the bottom.

I’m off to the slope this week for 9 days and then we head to Hawaii for 9 days of relaxation!

Forest and Chris getting ready to head up the Seattle Ridge up-track; nice view

Olivia enjoying the turns

Forest taking a break from shuttle duty to enjoy the views and some turns of his own!

The following day outside of Park City in the DEEP pow - learning to carve.

And trying not to get stuck!

GREAT WEEKEND

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:31:13 -0900

Forest learned to Canadian sledneck (one rider on each runner) Saturday in 2 feet of powder with the boys down in Petersville; I putzed around the house and got in a nice ski over at Hillside and spent some time on my trainer trying to get ready for my girl’s Sonoma roadbike trip in March. Sunday we went to Hatcher and skied Marmot with Rob, Chris, Danielle, Carolyn, and Chrissy. Although there wasn’t a ton of snow, the stuff on top was light/fluffy, the weather was great, we were with awesome friends, and Forest found a natural halfpipe feature down the face of Marmot that he sessioned.

Snack break on our way up Marmot

The crew getting ready to drop in; I’m so lucky to have rockin’ chicas to backcountry ski with!

I finished my stained glass piece and it’s now hung in the downstairs guest bathroom - I LOVE it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR and BOMMARITOS ARE SLEDNECKS AT LAST

Sun, 3 Jan 2010 19:15:56 -0900

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We skied into the CPG Notch Mtn Hut on Thursday morning to celebrate the new year overlooking the Girdwood Valley with friends. The views were fabulous since we were above the fog layer, however the skiing was severely subpar. Forest and I agreed it was probably the absolute worst snow conditions either of us had ever skied (it could best be described as the death cookie crust), so we made the most of having good friends, lots of booze, and a warm hut to hang out in.

Skinning into the hut w/ Rachel

The rest of the crew came in later in the afternoon; starting the festivities with the name game

Champagne to celebrate (Forest was definitely the champagne pusher)

Forest regretting drinking so much champagne; Forest finally feeling better survival skiing on the way out

Forest has been talking non-stop about buying a snowmachine since his friend, Chris, saw the movie AK Binge and had convinced him it will get him to the sickest pow stashes Alaska has to offer. The two of them have been scouring Craigslist for several months looking for good deals on gently used machines, which is definitely hard to find in AK because people ride their sleds so hard. So when Chris found a 2009 Ski-Doo sale going on at the local dealer, he bought a brand new sled and Forest’s puppy dog face began to make a more regular appearance at the dinner table. I was 100% against buying a snowmobile (they’re loud, scary, fast, and smelly), but am 100% for skiing access in Alaska. In the final stages of our negotiation, I tried to tempt Forest by saying we could do the CPG week-long heli trip in the Tordrillos this spring instead, but he didn’t even flinch! So I gave in and “we” (Forest) bought a new 2009 Ski-Doo Summit 800 154 track on Saturday morning. In exchange, Forest agreed my car would not lose its garage parking spot AND he will build a big shed this summer in the backyard to store the growing arsenal of toys.

Sunday morning we gassed up the machines and went to break them in at Johnson Pass because temps were -30F in Petersville. The backcountry skiing is still awful, so we didn’t feel too guilty about leaving turns for slednecking. Forest did 95% of the driving and only tipped the sled once with me on the back. We quickly discovered 1) these are powder machines and not meant for trailriding because they kept overheating at lower speeds when there wasn’t enough snow kicking up onto the cooling plate 2) they are amazingly powerful! We found a small lake to really let loose on and neither of us could gather the courage to push the throttle all of the way down. Forest almost got it there before he found his lunch heading north. In the upcoming months we plan to get some riding experience under our belts so that when March rolls around we can really take advantage of the longer days, thicker snowpack, and spring Alaskan skiing. We are NOT going to the darkside; these sleds are strictly skiing machines!

Forest is absolutely stoked to have his own sled for skiing access; boys gassing up the new rides in Bird

Junk show! At least we don’t look like slednecks yet: wearing combinations of ski gear from the late 90’s and slope attire. Gotta love my HOT pink helmet (it was definitely on sale!).

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:02:52 -0900

We enjoyed a mellow Christmas here in Anchorage catching up on sleep and skiing. Tuesday night we hosted the 2nd Annual ‘Naughty or Nice’ gift exchange for our Tuesday night circuits training group. It’s a Chinese style gift exchange where 4 dice go around the circle and you get to steal/trade when you roll a six for about 5 minutes. We adhere to a strict policy that you can only bring gifts that ‘don’t suck’ so things tend to get a little crazy as the buzzer runs out because most of the gifts are pretty sweet! Hot gifts this year were Motorola radios, a dirty martini liquor set, a personalized OIA snuggly, hanky panky undies, and handmade OIA canvas bags.

The OIA snuggly was a big hit & Holly was obviously jazzed to have stolen it; Eeva getting ready to snatch a gift

Things got a little crazy in the last 60 seconds; Rob showed up in Carhartt overalls and a duct tape “Forest” name tag. The best part is that Forest was actually wearing this outfit and Jamie too!

We enjoyed a day of resort skiing at Alyeska on Thursday and spent most of the afternoon doing laps on High T above rain line. We had a chill morning on Friday, opened presents from our wonderful families while listening to cheezy Christmas tunes, and then hit the road for a few nights in Hope to unplug. No electricity, no running water, no tv, just pure relaxation. The weather has been sadly in the 30-40’s this past week and it’s been raining up to 2000’ in Turnagain Pass, so we went further south to the Summit Lakes area. We started the weekend with zero expectations of getting any good turns in, and just hoped to dig a few pits, test out our new backcountry rescue sled, and spend time with good friends. Luckily, we got to do all of these things plus found some good powder stashes that weren’t too wind/rain affected.

Heading up Tenderfoot and enjoying the 30 F temps

Forest charging down in his mondo skis; Olivia’s Indian name is ‘Meadow Skipper’

Bill & Forest heading up Tenderfoot; Olivia enjoying the turns above rain line

Testing our new backcountry rescue sled that we’ll hopefully never have to use. We still have to figure out a better towing system, but it worked pretty well for only weighing 2.5 lbs and fitting into a quart sized bag.

Hanging out at the Hope Hut; Bill & Forest cooking up the caribou breakfast sausage

I HEART DECEMBER SUNSETS and inversions!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:06:42 -0900

Although we’re approaching the shortest day of the year, we have been out enjoying the skiing in Turnagain Pass. My G3 Zests had their maiden voyage today (I love, love, love them) and Forest has been skiing the monster Prophet 130’s (I love, love, love them b/c they slow him down a tiny bit on the skin up). Anchorage has been encased in fog for the past week so we’ve got the biggest hoar frost growth we’ve ever seen, but we haven’t seen the sun in town for nearly a week! Our trip to Turnagain today was just what I needed to kick a serious case of the winter blues and the 20 degree temp inversion made our lunchbreak at the summit feel feel like we were already enjoying the beaches of Kona (we’re going in February)!

Crossing the bridge heading towards Manitoba

Gorgeous views of the Summit Lakes area; sun starting to set on our way out

Sky afire!

Surface hoar from a week of fog - these are by far the biggest crystals we’ve ever seen in Alaska

Heading up Eddy’s; baby skis (these are the ones I won from Backcountry magazine) and MONSTER skis

Snack time at the summit

Forest almost ready to take off; Olivia enjoying the fast snow

Cruising down towards the alders; Forest enjoying the sunset on our skin out

Ah, I heart living here!; our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree from the Chugach