-Trip Report – Umpire Mountain, VT: Victory Tour (January 2012)

Justin and Tele with Burke in the background.

Vermont can be a case study in how different interest groups get along for their mutual benefit.  Just as mountain bikers and stonemasons are fast friends in Barre, backcountry skiers have a friend in the local logger.

-Trip Report- Lincoln Gap Road: Backcountry Groomer Lemonade (January 2012)

I did not use the low gear.

It seems like every place you take your skis in New England, you’ll hear this year’s catchphrase “If we could just get a little more snow...”

Sick of thinking about what “could be”, I decided to take my thin cover lemons and make some backcountry lemonade at Lincoln Gap in Vermont this past weekend.

-Trip Report- Doublehead Mountain: Thin Crusts Are For Pizzas (January 2012)

There are some days when you know the trip down is going to be more work than the climb up; days where your knees ache just looking at the snow pack;  days where you feel like you're skiing in a straightjacket.

Those are the days of the thin crust.  And I'm not talking pizza.

Flor'Easter: The Videos

Alright, I'm done torturing you with my vacation stories. I swear this is the last of the Flor'Easter posts.

I finally finished sifting through all the footage, searched high and low through iTunes, and put some videos together to go with my reviews.

Enjoy!

Flor'Easter: Day 10- Balm Boyette:

Running Ridgeline.

I started into my dive and the familiar tug in the pit of my stomach made me briefly consider clenching the brakes. However, the sandy, wet concrete honeycomb holding the trail together wouldn’t tolerate even the slightest braking. It threatened a fishtailing disaster to those who dared to defy its pull.  As my speed exploded and I neared the bottom, I felt the bike drifting to one side of the track.  I was headed off of the safety of the honeycomb toward the sandy rock strewn edges and certain ski-season-ending catastrophe.

Flor'Easter: Day 9- Alafia Trails - Transformations

Don't take that corner too quickly.

I know, I skipped a day.  Sue me.

My Florida adventure moved to the Gulf coast where I met up with an old friend, Dave, who showed me around his home course: Alafia Trails in Lithia, Florida.  It was a day of celebrating transformations and new beginnings.