This weekend Nick and I broke ground on our top secret bike park. The first day was spent mostly mapping out the terrain and deciding how the park would flow. We managed to come up with a pretty effective way to build solid ladder bridges quickly and easily. The first feature is in and rides beautifully, now our minds are spinning with ideas on where we can take this! Enjoy the quick video from build day 1.
Earning Turns
Resort skiing is what most people think of when someone says “Let’s go skiing”, and for good reason, it is how the vast majority of us enjoy the sport. Regardless of how deep one’s passion for skiing runs, the minutia involved with resort skiing will start to deter even those who define themselves with skiing. In recent years with the surge of popularity in our sport, the resort has worked to erode my love of skiing. There have been countless times I found myself waiting it a lift line or riding a chair with some form of resort irritation (insert the typical gapper rant here) and have to consciously remind myself that I’m outside in a beautiful environment doing what I love and everything else doesn’t matter. The crowds, stratospheric prices, rushing to snag your piece of untracked, create an atmosphere that feels closer to a day at a theme park then an adventure into nature. A few years ago, Ben and I decided to quit complaining, and take action to do something about our resort frustrations. After some education and gear adjustments we were able to access a world free of crowds, pay parking, and seven dollar hot chocolates.
Friday Night Jib Session
Beer, Fire, a Snowmobile, and a few cameras make for an entertaining Friday night here in Jackson Hole!
Check out RC’s blog Eyeini for a killer action shots.
Relativity
It was only a matter of time with this blog before before some my philosophies and diatribes on skiing would come out, today is that day. The past two weeks have been some of the worst I can remember as a Colorado skier, we have had almost no snow. The conditions in the middle of January resemble something more akin to late April, its just sad out there. Last Sunday I was riding lift 5 out of the Sun Down Bowl at Vail. Myself, Jeny, and our friend Andy were discussing how depressing our current surroundings were, pointing at dirt patches, and commenting on the distant sounds of riders slip sliding on two week old ice when Andy said something that really put all our whining in perspective, he said
It’s the sour that makes the sweet even sweeter.
That one resonated with me for a while, just as the summer makes the ski season that much more cherished, as can poor conditions when the sky decides to puke again. Einstein’s special relativity speaks to much more then time dilation and length contraction. Our ski season may be letting all of us pow hounds down right now, but thinking back to some of the “land on your head deep” days of yore and viewing them from my seat in the 09/10 ski season, just makes me that much more stoked on what I had, and what’s still to come.
PS: Looks like things may turn around this weekend -> Colorado Powder Forecast for the details
I’m Ready To Ride Giants, Koonu
As a college freshman in Intro to Psychology I was introduced to the concept of hindsight bias, a term for the outcome of an event seeming more obvious after it took place then it did initially. Today in making my typical rounds on the internet, I am again exposed to a perfect example of hindsight bias that would make any skier blush. The video below is something so obvious and so awesome that now in hindsight I can not believe I have not seen it before. It’s awesome, it’s rad, of course it works and it’s make me just a little upset I didn’t do it first.
Shout out to Colorado Powder Forecast for posting this first
Opening Day 09/10 Season
As the seasons continue their unrelenting march into the future, we are again treated to nature’s most wonderful show. We watch as all of the scars, holes, bumps, and imperfections of the Earth get covered with one single sheet of brilliant white snow. Again, I find myself standing at the top of a peak, in wonder at the gift that nature has so graciously granted to man, skiing. This year, as with most, I did not stand alone. At my side for the season opener was the Switchskier crew: Brandon, Ben, Lindsey, Rachel and Jacob. We made our way to Copper Mountain this year, as our passes this year are for Winter Park, Copper Mountain, and Steamboat Springs. Copper’s opening day offering was a single run from top to bottom along with a small terrain park sporting about 5 rails, 5 boxes and one small park jump.
The Syncro 180 is hugely under rated, it takes serious talent to do well, but when successful everyone in the park know just how cool you are – Brandon
Whsitler Ski Bum
I’m more about living in the vacation then spending the year working to come out and ski for two weeks when you can ski here everyday.
The World’s Fastest Snow Vehicle
This thing is awesome!
Switchskier Team in Moab
Moab, Utah if you were unaware is billed and the “Mountain Biking Mecca” however unlike the Saudi version is not nearly as exclusive. Mountain bikers from across the globe make the Hajj, and once you are there it is easy to understand why. If brake modulation, bunny hopping, track standing and manualing are the first four pillars of mountain biking, then I would certainly have to say Moab’s marketing department got this one right.
The Switchskier Team decided it was time, as all able bodied mountain bikers are required to do, to make the trip out to Moab and leave a rubber mark on a piece of slickrock for ourselves. Ben and Nick, were ambitious enough to leave Wednesday evening and stack up four full days of riding, Danny and myself were not quite so ambitious and only put in one and two days respectively.
Do you need a $10,000 camera system to shoot like a pro?
As you know capturing great moments is key to any successful ski day. Here is a little quote I thought make a lot of sense.
Q: Do you need a $10,000 camera system to shoot like a pro? A: No, I don’t think you do. A camera is essentially a tool, just like a hammer. You can take pictures whether it’s just a simple point-and-shoot or a serious professional camera. It’s just a matter of knowing what to shoot, when to shoot and how to shoot it…Having better equipment can give you better control over how to take the photo, but I don’t think it necessarily makes you a better photographer. Someone who’s a good photographer can take a photo with their telephone nearly as good as they could with a professional camera.
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