is it springtime already????

since last time, a roomate of mine and I ventured up to good old Montana and had acouple of days skiing. The snow quality wasn't epic, and my board took acouple shots, but it was super fun to get out of town for a bit and ski some new zones. Truth be told though, it ain't no Jackson.

I rallied down to the river to go run the narrows and park and play at winter wave. Not really any whitewater in the narrows, but it was a nice float. Winter wave was alright...it would of been good, but I was at the wrong winter wave. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized where and what the whole winter wave thing was about. Anyway, the adventure began and ended with post holing in thigh deep snow. Going down sucked, and going up was even worse. I could only take like 3 steps, pull my boat up, jam my paddle in the snow to keep the boat from sliding down the hillside, take 3 more steps and do the entire thing again. It was a nice float, and a nice few hours on the river.

Yesterday I rallied my roomate and a friend to go float the canyon. I remember back in the middle of summer floating the whole thing and everytime I was cold and ready to get out by the end. Yesterday we put on upstream of the normal take out and took out downstream of the normal take out due to lack of pulloffs on the road...(being 4 feet of snow everywhere except for the roadway it made it slim pickings) Anyway it was a good float, I found the real winterwave, and even got endered in big kahuna. We post holed again to and from the river in knee deep snow. It was a great afternoon on the river and we were only 30 minutes behind schedule.

well, until later...

snow flakes on my face

since we talked last a few things have happend. First of all, that certain ridge above the house has been getting hammered with tracks since we layed down the freshies for everyone to see. Second...the Yetis tied a game!!! Ties are BS though and personally I would of rather lost than given up a good lead to tie. The bad news about hockey is that work says I cannot play anymore in my weekly game because the game falls on sunday- when I should be at work. It sucks, and I'm not real happy about it. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

Something that I am happy about is the fact that I just bought a creekboat. It's good to go, and I'm ready to fire it up. It's been long winter almost completely devoid of boating and I am ready to get in the water. The problem is I am living in wyoming and the thing about wyoming in the winter time is that there just isn't a whole lot in the way of kayakable rivers. Everything is frozen or there is no damn water in it. Were are scheming on a trip as soon as our schedules permit.

Another thing that makes me happy is the quality skiing I've been sneaking in. With a borrowed beacon and probe, and a loaner plastic shover with a hockeystick handle I have been poking my way through the woods- mostly up at the pass. My roomate has been showing me some goods and it has been awsome. A bunch of chutes to straightline, a couple cliffs, and a pretty icter von sicter ricter pillow line. Today everything was windloaded and sliding all around us. It was a bit unnerving as we were commited to running some pretty sketchy terrain, but everything that we needed to hold, held, and we made it to the bottom without incident. I did get a granite lap in last week, and that was totally out of control!!!It was soo good. But dont even worry about that because chances are you have no idea what that even means. In other snowy news, we built a jump going down the driveway. It isn't the biggest, but you can spin on it for sure, and it adds a little excitement snowboarding down to the bus stop. We still have the mini terrain park in the back, but since the money booter down the driveway the park just doesnt see as much attention.

well, thats about all I have to say right now. until next time.

ice falls and frozen rivers and certain illegal ridgelines above the house.

Since the last post I've embarked on acouple of adventures. Adventure 1 was an expedition of the ice climbing variety. The adventure started when we donned mountaineering boots and packs full of ropes and climbing essentials. We post holed through the snow down to river level and what we found was a sketchy little ice bridge, where a fall through the ice would result in certain death. The ice wasn't thick, but it was thick enough and somehow we made it across. We made the approach to the base of the ice fall and my friend took off further up the mountain to set anchors. We spent an enjoyable afternoon climbing the face of this waterfall and when it was time to leave I put my total and complete trust in some old webbing and a rotten tree root and lowered myself over the lip of the falls to begin my decent. We made it down and back to river level and had another safe river crossing, no bad things happend and it was a super cool experience.

Now the other day I couldnt take anymore. I geared up in my water wear and went for a paddle down the creek. I've paddled this creek before, but never with ice bridges and ice sieves and a bunch of blind constrictions that could mean disaster. My first portage through the willows avoided a head height razor sharp ice constriction. The second though was a bit scary. A gunbarrel section with deep water and a nasty ice sieve and swift moving current. I was able to grab a tree branch, cut some steps in the ice bank, and somehow made it out of the river and around the strainer. The third portage was an ice jam that I portaged around, but I think I might have been able to hand portage over top of the ice. I took out at the house and had a nice adventure.

Later that day the roomate and put on our best camoflauge attire and hiked up to a certain ridge above the house. This particular ridge is offlimits to all human activity during the winter. We stealthily set the bootpack going up and had a nice hike and were able to get some fresh pow turns for the whole town to see and still ski down to the back door of the house. We had a beautiful sunset at the summit, and still plently of light to see going down, and we had a great time and didnt get caught. Now that its snowing again, you wont be able to see our tracks....so maybe we'll just have to do it again. Or maybe you don't even know what I'm talking about.

I have constructed a terrain park in the yard and this new snow will help it out greatly. But so far it has given me hours of entertainment.

Hockey is still good, still winless, but were going to turn that around any day now.

Work is good, and everything is going great. Until next time...

Merry Christmas to all

everything is good. the sickness is gone, hockey is good and our friend Sam came over to visit the other day. The Yetis have still not won a game just yet, but we are getting closer for sure. They froze a new rink here in town, so that is pretty sweet. Its been like 45 degrees though, and it is begining to take on swimming pool status.

We skied up at the pass [Teton] the other day. Got a ride to the top, skied down into Idaho, got a ride up the top again, and skied back down to the car waiting for us at the bottom of the Wyoming side. The snow wasn't epic by any means, but most of it was un tracked, and as we all know, there isn't a whole lot that can compare to fresh turns in the pow.

Happy Holidays.

summer already?

I think winter is just about here...temps didnt get above 0 for like a week and a half, the creek was frozen over and it was just damn cold. well the creek unfroze a few days back and since then we have had nonstop snow flurrys. the total accumulation has prolly been around a foot or so. It's been windy as all hell so some spots have only an inch or so, while others have waist high drifts. I've been sick all weekend, I'll spare you the details, but I finnally feel like the worst is over. I missed my game last night due to the sickness. Word on the street is we got our butts kicked again. The Yetis are about to go on a winning streak though, I can feel it. I havnt done a whole lot other than work lately. Not really any outside activities just due to weather and work. working on some winter activites though- i'll keep you posted.