Nor'Easter BC from Utah: Stein Erikson says "Colorado Be Damned"

A long long time ago I learned one of those harsh eternal truths that define you for the rest of your life. People from Colorado are huge d-bags. They love to bust on our honest, hard working East Coast icecapading way of life. "Why ski the east when it's all ice and tree stumps?" they say. "I'd never ski Vermont, not even on a powder day" they blaspheme. Well, I made a rule on the day I met my first duche from Colorado. I would never ever ski on the powdery slopes of the Rockies until I met a native Coloradoian who had traveled east to earn turns or lift it up a major Vermont ski area. To this day I have not, and likely never will. Glorious 14k footers of the central rockies, thou shalt I never see. 

-Trip Report- Mt. Ascutney: It's a (Terrain) Trap!

It's 4:30.  You've got about a half-hour of daylight left and one headlamp between you and your two friends.  You ran out of water about an hour ago.  You're staring at a 50 degree colouir to the bottom of a drainage that may or may not get you back to your vehicle.  Above you is a steep slope of rock, ice and occasional evergreen bramble.  Somewhere beyond that climb is a trail.  Maybe. You have a decision to make.  Do you climb up and risk running into an un-climbable rock face, or do you slide into the unknown facing a similar un-descendible face?  You've been terrain trapped.

Things you Suck at OTHER than Backcountry Skiing

It sucks to be really really rediculously bad at things you want to be good at, like skiing. If you can't be good at the things you want to be good at, then there's nothing to lose trying new stuff. This is a great personal maxim that has led me into dozens of cool new experiences and awkward situations too. What I like most is the idea that, you never know, maybe the thing you've never tried is something that you are so naturally gifted at that it's been your life calling to do whatever it is. You just never knew it.

-Trip Report- Mt. Monadnock: Chasing My Shadow

Ice coated trees = a crust..... somewhere.

There is a distinct disadvantage to starting off the weekend by attending Crotched Mountain's Midnight Madness.  It totally messes with your internal clock so that you're not exactly jumping out of bed for an alpine start on Saturday.  Or Sunday for that matter.

So when 11:00 am rolls around and you're still organizing your gear for the trip out to the closest mountain, you know you're behind the eight ball for your solo tour.

Epic Jay Peak Bloggers Summit: Day 2

So, there are a lot of great things going on in the world of social ski media these days. I learned or was present for the teaching of a lot of them today. I wont bore you now (boring details to come later for sure), but if there's one thing to take away from this experience, it is that things happening in the ski industry today are pretty epic, and today was certainly an epic day at Jay for the best and brightest North American ski bloggers. The fresh POW this morning on River Quai was epic. The secret back entrance to the Face Chutes was pretty damned epic. And an impromptu drop off of Timbuktu into no-mans-land and down to Rt 242 was freaking epic too. In case you were wondering, epic is the new rad. So start using it before it goes out of style.

Thanks to Tim at Meathead Films for showing this groomer Guru a few new places to get away at Jay. Oh, and thanks to that guy in the private-but-not-pedophile North American Tele and Biking Instructors van for giving us all a lift back to the Jet (best part - the driver changed his name to Jay back in the 80s when he moved to Montgomery Center to weave organic coffee mugs out of his own hair).

**And of course, thanks to Jay Peak Resort for hosting all of us. And teaching us how to curl. No, not the usual which-way-to-the-gym kind of curl. The Canadian kind. Played while drinking Long Trail and hurling a 42 pound stone carved out of Barre grey's finest granite. If that's not globalization I don't know what is!

Jay Peak Bloggers Summit Prelim

Well TeamScrappy and NoreasterBC is way up in the Great White North today to participate in the 1st/2ndish annual Jay Peak Bloggers Summit (triathlete translator: this is a play on words). I'll be in attendance with 20-30 of the country's foremost professional bloggers to learn how my fellow college dropouts (grad school dropout counts too) and I can make some bucks living at home with ma and pa and doing what we all love to do. Whatever that is.

Some thoughts so far:

1. Thanks Jay. Tram Haus Lodge is sweet. And the 6 pack of Long Trail Tram Ale you left in my fridge, even sweeter.

2. Even in a 500 dollar a night ski-side sweet suite, somewhere on my floor people are still smoking pot. That is awesome.

Jay Peak summit was at -10 today with an amazing 0 mph wind out of the nowhere. This means today was pretty much the warmest day I've ever skied at Jay. And here's a once in a lifetime photo to prove it. Just kidding. I need to get the da@ned cord from the car so I can get it off my camera. Maybe later.

Even being the warmest day at Jay on record, I had to ski 2/3rds of my runs today backwards to keep my own wind chill from freezing my big guido nose off. I guess that's why Black Diamond put twin-tips on the Voodoos.

Ok off to learn bloggers make the donuts.