Winding Down...

The past week or so we have been working on the perfect ending to our adventure. The end of the year events have started, with a few more still to come.

This past Saturday was the JH Mountain Festival, the biggest part of which was an outdoor concert below the tram terminal by Ozomatli. It was really cool to be at a concert in a snowstorm at night, especially since the music was pretty good. The atmosphere was great and everyone was there having a great time, even after a long day of work.

Talk about a sweet venue.

Last Sunday, was the JH Lift Ops Employee party. It was a great time for all of the crew to get together and have fun. A lot of us have gotten close throughout the season, and I don't think many people are looking forward to saying goodbye. The good news is a lot of people will be working at the resort again next year, so most of us wont just be disappearing. I know a lot of friendships were made this year that will probably last a lifetime.

Wednesday was Gaper Fools' Day, a local holiday at the slopes that takes place on April Fools. Instead of playing jokes on people, locals dress up as gapers and plague the mountain pretending to not know how to ski or how to use a chair lift. Often times the gaper imitaters will mock old/beginner ski styles and maybe even have one too many to drink while partipating in an action sport. For those of you that are confused, a gaper is pretty much somone who doesn't know what they are doing... someone who is just staring at their surroundings and not paying attention... someone who is making a mess of themselves and causing trouble for others on the slopes. Fundamentally, you could say they are someone who is out of their element when on the mountain. I think this holiday is the local way of expressing the frustration that builds up all season long from having to deal with all the gaper tourists. Anyways, it turned out to be a fun day, and a lot of the 'costumes' were great, check them out:

I decided to join in on the ridiculousness.

One of the best things about the end of the season has surprisingly turned out to be the snow! Everyone seemed to think we wouldnt be getting any more about two weeks into march, but man were they wrong! The past week we have gotten about 15% of the entire seasons snowfall, over 6 feet of snow!! It seems like everynight we wake up to at least 6 inches of new snow, often times as much as 15-20. Because of this, some of the best skiing and boarding I have had all season has been in this past week. If you ask me the perfect ending to my first season in Jackson Hole. :D Here are some pictures of Laura and I enjoying all the powder:

You can sort of see my jacket in there somewhere :P

Laura and I will be heading home for Kentucky in four days. Tomorrow is our last day of work as Jackson Hole Lift Operators. Sunday is the last day of the ski season for the public, which thankfully we don't have to work on! Monday morning we will enjoy employee ski day, where the resort will be open only to us. Monday afternoon, we will be packing up all of our stuff and then leave Jackson sometime on Tuesday. Its crazy how quickly this season has come and gone...but it has definitely been one of the greatest times of my life. I can't wait to enjoy the rest of the weekend, and then head back home to see my family and the place that I once called home.

Afternoon Delight...

The other day I was sitting in my apartment on my day off, and decided that instead of letting my afternoon waste away in boredom, I would go for a hike. I honestly haven't had the time to do much hiking this season aside from the high school butte, which I hiked a couple of times in the fall. There's a small peak that you can see from my apartment balcony that I had been wanting to hike for quite some time, so I figured this would be the opportune moment.

View of the mountain from about half a mile away.

After picking my destination and looking up as much as I could about it online, I packed up my gear and headed for a small drive at the base which I spotted with the help of google earth and advice from a friend.

I decided it was best to be prepared...fuel, two forms of GPS, and even my knife just incase I needed to kill a deer...or bear.

Laura had to go to a dinner, so I did this hike alone. It turned out to me mmmuuuccchhhhh harder than I thought it would be...probably in part because I hiked straight up it instead of routing a switchback. I had to hike though deep snow and very steep inclines, and found myself dodging animal droppings literally every couple of feet. At first I really tried to dodge the piles, then I realized they gave me better traction in the steeps than the loose dirt and gravel did so I used them to my advantage haha.

View from about 5-10 minutes into the hike, the small butte infront of the large range in the background is the high shool butte, which is right next to my apartment.

The sun went completely behind the clouds for a bit, which resulted in a very dramatic sky.

You can kind of tell from this picture that it was pretty steep.

The poop that turned out to be both a good and bad thing.

It was surprisingly a lot easier to kind through the sections of snow because I was able to get a much better footing.

Almost there!

Cool tree near the summit.

When I got to the top the view was pretty amazing. I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment, and feel like this may have been the hardest hike I have ever done in my life. I have decided recently that I wanted to really get into hiking, and this experience makes me want to hike even more!

The summit marker, once again you can see the high school butte in the background.

Panoramic shot of the view from the top. (Click for larger view)

I conquered.

On the way down, I did my first glissade down one of the snowy sections, which is basically a controlled slide. It definitely would have been sweeter if I had an ice axe...so look for that in the future :P

It was definitely nice to take advantage of the area and finally get in a good hike. I'm really hoping that this weekend I can find the time to combine hiking and skiing, and finally get out to Mt. Glory and ski the bowl!

Almost over, but not yet...

Well, I sure haven't blogged in a long time. I guess its hard to write about something when all you are doing is skiing and working, which I can definitely attest is not a bad thing at all. The past month has been filled with a combination of skiing, recovering, working, and learning new things. I have done pretty well learning how to snowboard, and feel like I can finally say that I'm pretty good at it. On our days off Laura and I have finally gotten to explore a lot of the mountain that we'd been wanting to mark off of our lists for a long time.

Backcountry Pow :D

Ask Laura, sometimes hiking to get that powder is wwweeelllllll worth it.

Lift off.

In the midst of all the fun, friends, and powder...somewhere deep in the back of our minds...we are realizing that our time here is starting to running out. We know that in just a couple weeks the mountain will close and we will be on our way back home. I will save most of my reflections on this whole adventure for another post, but I think leaving here will be a very bittersweet experience. Part of my heart will always be in Jackson Hole, but I miss my family and what I used to call home.

Hey what time is it? Ski time.

Our last group of friends just left Jackson Hole today...we had a great week of skiing and enjoying the life around town. The first day they were here we had an awesome time in the backcountry powder, and this St. Patty's Day will be one that I will never forget.

Just before our friends came, one of the JH Ski Patrollers died in a backcountry chute just outside the JH gates. She was a very experienced skier, and took a bad fall hitting her head on a rock. Our friends and I skied a chute called 'Space Walk' which we later found out was where the patroller had died a few days earlier. This was kind of spooky, but we were all safe and made it our just fine.

The group in the BC.

Strappin' up and getting ready to go.

This is a shot of the Space Walk chute from the bottom looking up, pretty steep and has a narrow pinch.

Laura and Brandon, you can see Space Walk cutting through the cliff band in the background.

Salome in his infamous suit.

For St. Patty's day, we went to the Snake River Bew Pub, home of the very famous local snake river brews. I think everyone else in JH went there too, because it was PACKED...and with good reason. They had a live Irish band, huge steins, live bag pipers walking around playing tunes, and even an irish jig dance off! Usually I don't really do anything for St. Patty's day, so I will never forget this one, thats for sure.

Not sure how they were able to simultaneously play and navigate their way through the crowd.

Green and crowded.

Luckily some of the lift ops people got there early, and snagged us a table...Group Pic!!

Now that everyone is gone, it's weird knowing that nobody else will be coming to visit...we have had so many people come to see us, and saying 'see you in a couple weeks' to our friends as they are heading home to Kentucky almost feels like a lie.

Laura and I are planning on leaving Jackson Hole on April 7th, although nothing is set in stone. So we have about two weeks left to really enjoy this place before heading home...the good news is...snow is in the forecast!

A friendly recovery...

Talk about a quick recovery! It's very weird to think that getting your appendix removed used to be a big ordeal, considering a week later I feel almost normal and hardly have a visible scar. I think having my friends around helped me recover a lot faster, and made the whole experience a lot more positive.

This picture made me laugh really hard.

Marcus, Ross and Kristina were here until Wednesday, and I think its safe to say we all had a pretty good time. Skiing, great food, sight seeing...all the things you can hope for on a vacation. Taking a week off of work wasn't bad either. Here are some pictures from the week:












Saturday I gave skiing a shot. It worked out well because Marcus and Kristina wanted to ski the bunny slopes, which gave me a chance to start slow. Ironically, it was actually easier for me to ski than to walk! Here is my "oops I accidentally skied way too soon after my surgery" picture haha:


On the last day of skiing, we saw a moose in the trees near Apres Vous, and almost skied into him! This was the first time this year that I saw a moose on the slopes while skiing, so it was cool that Ross was here to see it too.



Now that my friends have left, its back to work for Laura and I. My doctor didn't want me to bump chairs for my first week back, so I have been working on the Granite Ridge tow rope.

Things get pretty exciting over here on Granite aka Gangster Ridge.
(not)

I actually thought working the tow rope was going to suck, but I am really enjoying it. I don't have to get up as early, I'm allowed to read/text/talk whenever I want, and I get to go home at 2pm instead of 5pm. It's so laid back, that it doesn't really even feel like I'm working!

On a side note, I want to thank everyone for reading my blog, as it recently surpassed 2,000 hits! Thanks for the support, knowing that people are consistently reading it really helps me keep up with it and keep writing. Hopefully I am offering you all some sort of entertainment, and in return you are motivating me to record my adventures so that I can remember this whole experience for the rest of my life. (Without feeling like I'm writing in a journal :P)

That's it for now. The weekend is almost here...hopefully I can get myself into something worth blogging about!