The Hole

We took a long weekend and headed out with Ben and Megan Wallace, their 2+ month old daughter, Maria, Megan's younger brother Mark and his friend Justin. We found some beautiful bluebird skies in Jackson Hole. Ben's grandma owns a condo at an ideal location at the base of the Jackson Hole Ski Resort. (Ben and Megan know all the right people in all the right places). It was my first time skiing at a resort outside of Utah and I loved it. It was Megan's first time on the slopes after giving birth. It was as though she had skied all season.


It's a squishy ride up on the tram. Megan and my shoulder got really close.


Chris gets to breathe fresh air being tall enough to actually see out the windows.


Megan and I look pretty flashy in our new ski pants. Megan got a record number of compliments from a large number of fashion-conscious men.



Maria was our test run baby for part of the time. We had a lot of fun babysitting while Ben and Megan went out for half a ski day. Maria is such a fun baby. In this picture she was getting such a kick out of simply going up and down.


Chris and I in a somewhat awkward looking position at the top of the tram just before we take our first run. You can see how beautiful the mountains are in the background. We liked the steep pitches so much we look forward to getting back when there is fresh snow.

Sweet Yurt Trip

Paige and I went on a 3-day yurt trip in the Tetons a few miles from Grand Targhee resort in early February. We have been anxiously awaiting the CD with the pictures since our camera malfunctioned on the first day, and it finally arrived! So now we can share this adventure as well.....

Here's a picture of the yurt:

We went with Paige's uncle Steve, one of his coworkers Pete, and Pete's brother-in-law Dan. Here's a shot of the group (me, Paige, Dan, Pete, and Steve):

All of us were freeheelers as well (the only way to ski!).

We couldn't have picked a better time to go. The snowpack had been very unstable for most of the winter, but it stabilized nicely the couple of weeks leading up to our trip. Plus, the snow! Hero snow for sure. Every turn was buttery smooth, knee to thigh high turns, lots of cold smoke, face shots, the whole bit. Some shots were even snorkle-worthy.

Here are a few select photos:

Hiking up the ridge to Beard Mtn:




Steve, Paige and I:


Paige rippin' it up!



Here I am getting my share:



Steve sampling the goods:



Dan had some great shots too:



Pete was the selfless photographer but on one run I tried to catch him but the shots were a little blurry:


Look at the cold smoke!


Halfway through the trip the heel lifter on one of my skis broke and so we had to rig an alternative:

It actually worked perfectly and saved the trip for me!

The snow was perfect, the quads got worked big time, we got very dirty and smelly (no showers or baths), but we survived and had a blast! We would recommend this to anyone!

Here's a parting shot of Grand Teton in the background (the clouds parted one afternoon and allowed us the view):

St. George Weekend

Chris and I wanted to get some early season riding in without having to wear 3 layers of clothes. We were going to ride an organized ride in Zion, but one of Chris' partners has a place in St. George and knows some great places to ride and offered to guide us on some fun loops. The weekend started off a little rough, though. Before arriving in St. George we made a long trek through Hurricane to get to the start of a mountain bike trail we wanted to ride. We are going to be racing the same trail in a few weeks and wanted to get an idea of what the trail was like. It was supposed to be Chris' debut ride on his new mountain bike, but that was cut short when the front brake pads fell off and we couldn't get them back on.

Here we are, all ready to go...

This is as far as we got.


We took the bike to a shop to get it fixed and found that the front disc was bent and the handle bars were too tight and caused stopping points. That started our trip off with a $100 dollars less in our pocket. While we were waiting for repairs Chris and I took out our road bikes and went down to the temple thinking that maybe we would osmotically absorb some spirituality to brighten our moods since we had both because somewhat testy. Didn't work. Later we found that the cure was a spicy mexican burrito for the both of us.

The next day we woke up and took Mike Nielsen's favorite mountain bike trail. It's a short, not very technical course (when I say not very technical it means I only had to get off my bike 5 or 6 times, instead of those 'technical' trails where I walk my bike more than ride). There were some great overlooks and beautiful scenery.







We took a lunch break and then headed out on the road bikes. We rode a beautiful loop that took us up Snow Canyon (unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of the road bike ride even though the camera took the whole trip). We looped over to Veyo, and through some great back roads to Gunlock Reservoir. Just when we were getting tired of the yellow walls framing the road leading from the reservoir it opened up and we could see the beautiful red cliffs again. By the end of the ride my rear end had had enough and we all took a sitz bath in a nice warm hot tub.

Before heading home we went to Pioneer Park and played on the rocks, along with the rest of St. George. We found some great places to crawl around in and on and through.

Mike Neilsen's son Aidan and I were the only two to fit through 'Fat Man's Worry', a slit in the rock where if you ate to much just before coming you might not make it through. Chris just looked at the space and said 'No, I think I'll pass'. It had been a while since I had tried it and realized it was much easier back in highschool. Aidan ran through the space face forward and kept saying 'This is so easy, because I'm skinny'. As I sucked in and squeezed through left side first, I just thought to myself, 'Enjoy it now, six-year old!'