Tram, wildlife, XMAS, and sssnnnooowwww...

Well it sure has been a while since I have had a chance to write a post, but I've been really busy and a LOT has happened. Last week the resort thew a $50,000 tram party and unveiled the new 'Big Red'. The unveiling was a really cool local scene, and the energy was great. I was so glad to be a part of it, and it made me feel great about making the decision to move out here. The tram came down from the first tower covered in a big cloth, and then they dropped it, unveiling the new box. To make things even more awesome, they shot fireworks off the top of it and then Santa repelled out of the bottom! It was definitely a night I will never, ever forget.








This past Monday my parents came to town for Christmas. Before they got here, Laura and I took our first ride on the tram! What made this wwwaaayyyyy cooler was that we rode up with Jeremy Jones, which for those of you who don't know, is one of the best snowboarders in the world. We talked to him at the top, and took a picture...he was a really cool down to earth guy. Afterward, we made some turns down the mountain and made it home just in time to meet my parents.





It has been great having them here, I really enjoyed showing them around town and the mountain. The second day they were here we went on a sleigh ride through the Elk Refuge just north of town, and saw thousands of wild elk that migrate to the valley every winter. It was a fun time, and a great opportunity for my dad and I to take pictures.








We also saw some buffalo, moose, coyote and bighorn sheep while taking a ride around Jackson!







The next day it started snowing, and snowing and snowing and snowing. We got 40 inches in three days!!! On Christmas we got almost 30 inches, which was a record snowfall for one day in Jackson Hole. Snow is literally everywhere! I did some of the best skiing of my life on Christmas, the snow was so deep it was rolling over our shoulders when we got speed, and the snow was literally going in our mouths...keeping us from breathing! We had to stop every 50 feet or so to get some air, we needed snorkels! Here are some pictures from around town and the resort of the snow depth, its pretty wild...

Me at my lift, 30" of snow in one night!

Check out the depth of the snow in the middle of the tower.

Some cars in front of my apartment got a bit of snow.

There is a car under there I promise lol.

That lump in front of the cars is a bike rack with a bike at it!

Waist deep at the sidewalk, the ground is usually level with the concrete.

Given that my parents drove all the way out here to visit, presents were not what they usually are. For once in my life though, I think I had a Christmas where I honestly didn't really care about presents at all, and what I 'got' wasn't important to me. This year I received three 'Christmas presents' that money can't buy:

1) My parents coming to visit. After being away from family for so long (which I have never done) seeing mom and dad again was great. Them coming out here to be with me on Christmas was enough to satisfy me, and really meant a lot.

2) 40" of snow in two days, and what was probably the best powder skiing of my life...enough said.

3) A little short story for this one...On Christmas I had to work, and after the huge amount of snow we got, our lift wasn't able to open on time. A bunch of people waited at the lift line for almost 2 hours, and when we told them we might not open, everyone left but the guy and girl in front. The girl asked me what to do. I told her if she didn't want to leave, then to wait 30 minutes and then ask me again. Time went by and still no clearance to open, so I told her to just hike the nearby run and ski it, and that I wouldn't tell on her! She actually did hike it, and then skied down a while later. She came up to me and said, "Thank you SO much for the advice, you just gave me the best ski run of my life!" Being that she is a local, that means a lot! I know this might seem kind of silly, but it made me feel good, and was a nice addition to my Christmas. It feels really rewarding to know you helped someone even if you didn't make that big of a sacrifice... seeing that huge smile on her face and the snow frozen in her hair, made it all worthwhile and meaningful to me in the end.

Me bumping chairs on Christmas, thanks go out to my friend Brad for the finger in the corner :P

Well that's all for now, I really need to get to bed. Next time I will try to blog more often so I don't have to try to squeeze in a ton of info into one post! Some of our friends from college will be coming to visit us this week, and then the next week we are all traveling to Big Sky Montana for the UK Snowcats ski trip. Translation... there will be a LOT of skiing going on in the next two weeks! :D

Lifty Life...

Being a lift operator, aka a lifty, has surpassed all my expectations. I never thought this job would be so cool. Where do I even start? My first day was interesting, that's for sure haha. I woke up at 5:45 to make the 6:15 bus to the village, it was pitch black out, and the snow had been coming down all night long. There were about 4 inches of fresh snow blanketed across the valley, and when I got to the resort I found out that there was even more snow there.

All the Capser lifties met in the locker room at 7:00am sharp, where we were given our uniforms and assigned our lockers. We got hardshell jackets, softshell jackets, puffy jackets (that zipped into our shoftshells), and pants. All the jackets and pants were Marmot, and really nice stuff.



After getting geared up, we head down to catch the 7:30 gondola ride. We were the FIRST ones up the mountain, and the snow was still coming down hard. When we got to the top, it was a sight I have never seen before. The top of the gondi station is usually packed with people, but there was nobody in sight. It almost had a ghost town feel. As we looked off the mountain we could just barely see the sun through the snow beginning to rise over the mountains on the other side of the valley. The snow in front of us was like nothing I had ever seen in a ski resort. It was COMPLETELY untouched, not a single track before us, we were even getting to make turns before ski patrol.

As we made the decent to our lift, we were floating silently through thigh deep powder, it was truly bliss. Being able to ski fresh snow before everyone else is a benefit I will never take for granted...in all my years of skiing I have never had an experience like this...and I'm getting paid?! Something cant be right here! Having to work the day after your birthday at 7am kind of sucks, but hey, this made it all worth it in my eyes.

Checking out the scenery after the first leg of our morning run.

When we got to the lift, we got it running, set up the maze, and did some ramp work to prepare for the public. Then Rob, my boss, and I headed up the chair lift to the top shack where i would start my shift. Every day, we have one top shack shift where we spend 2.5 hours at the top, basically just making sure everyone gets off safely. When we aren't doing this, we rotate between 45 minutes of skiing and 45 minutes of bumping chairs. Being paid to ski for about 2 hours and 15 minutes every day is good in my book. Not to mention loading the public into chairs and watching them fall from time to time is quite entertaining as well.


When Rob and I got to the top shack, a winter storm was in full effect. There were winds reaching 40-50 miles an hour, it was -10 degrees, and the snow was still pounding the mountain. When we opened the door to the shack, the force of the wind was so strong it blew out the plexiglass window, and it folded into about 4 pieces and flew down the hill! Needless to say, I had to go pick up the pieces lol. About 30 minutes later the wind died down, we called into valley dispatch that the lift was open, and my first day of work with the public officially began.


As if my morning wasn't interesting enough already, just about an hour into my shift I got somewhat of a wake up call. A woman was riding on the lift with her backpack, and when she tried to get off the straps of her pack were caught in the chair. She was screaming and was hanging from her backpack straps, and was now about 10 feet in the air as she went around the bull wheel and began riding it back down the mountain! I luckily was able to hit the stop button on a quick reflex, and she slid out of her backpack straps. I made sure she was ok, and then climbed to her chair and retrieved her backpack. She was very thankful and very embarrassed. Not a bad start to what I'm sure will be a very interesting season!


The rest of the day was pretty fun, being in a place you love when you "work" and getting to talk to people about skiing is really relaxing. Throw in those 45 minute ski breaks at regular intervals and you have one very happy employee.




My birthday, which was the day before, turned out to be much better than I thought. I got to talk to a lot of friends and family that I didn't realize how much I missed, and had a great Elk & Buffalo dinner at the Gun Barrel restaurant in town. Oh and the presents, cards and cake made it better too :P

Yes, I blew them all out in one breathe!

Cheap gear with a little pow on top...

Yesterday was a pretty nice day if I must say so myself. We woke up to a much anticipated snow storm, with 5" of fresh snow blanketed on the hole. We got ready and headed out to the mountain to meet some friends and make some turns. This was our first day of the season with fresh snow and lifts to the top, so we were definitely digging it.


The sun began to set on a nice day of skiing, and then it was time for the big employee sale. All the employees lined up behind Bridger Center to get the best deals of the season.


Jackson Hole Sports, the flagship retail store at JHMR, gave employees 30% off EVERYTHING in the entire store, with many other deals on gear... some stuff even up to 70% off!! Of course we had to take advantage of the sale and pick up some new gear...check it out!

I got some smart wool socks, avalanche shovel, avalanche probe, and martmot work gloves for when I'm working on the lift.

Laura got 2 marmot base layers, avalanche shovel, dakine pack, marmot mittens, and smart wool socks.

We went ahead and invested in our powder setups, Laura got the LIB Tech Skate Banana...and I got the K2 Pontoons (check out their ridiculous sidecut!).

The pontoons have reverse camber, meaning they are convex instead of concave like normal skis. If you had a picture like this of average skis, there would be space between the skis in the middle instead of on the tip and tail...this is supposed to make a world of a difference for flotation in deep powder...very cool!

Hope you liked our new gear! I start work at the lift this Thursday, so wish me luck!

Loving the new...

Living in Jackson has definitely opened a lot of doors for me and allowed me to experience a lot of new things. Something I have ALWAYS wanted to do was cut down my own Christmas tree...I'm not talking about from a Christmas tree farm, thats just a facade. I'm talking about cutting down a tree from a forest. When Laura told me that this was possible, I was so excited!! Here in Jackson, you can get a permit for only $5 bucks, and cut down any tree you want under 12' from the Bridger-Teton National Forest. It was a LOT harder than I thought it would be to find a good tree under 12' haha. It was definitely an exciting experience, and is really cool to have and decorate a tree you cut down yourself, knowing exactly where it came from. Here are some pictures from the excursion:


















Another new experience Laura and I got to have, was the company-wide JHMR orientation. We once again got some insider perspective on how the resort works (which is really cool), and also got to see the premier of Cable to the Sky, a documentary about the new tram which will be unveiled in a few weeks. After the orientation, about 1000 of the employees all went to the famous ski resort bar, the Mangy Moose. The resort gave everyone free drink tickets, there was a live band, and the atmosphere was AWESOME. Being around so many people that love skiing and snowboarding, just having a good time and rocking out to some local music is almost about as good as it gets. It was definitely a night I will never forget. Smith and Skull Candy sponsored the event, and gave away tons of free gear...we can home with a LOT of it haha, headphones, goggles, bandannas etc. Working for the resort definitely has its perks.

Another really cool and pretty obscure opportunity recently came my way. Someone who owns a website for mountain employment, came across my blog and liked what she saw. She asked me to write blog entries (much like the ones you are reading here) that she can put on her website, to give people thinking about getting mountain jobs a little insight to local life. Definitely a cool gig! Throw in the fact that its paid, and will allow me to have some extra cash, all while telling people about something I'm passionate about...well I can't complain about that. We all know Jackson is a hard town to survive in with its ski town prices, and this will definitely make things a little more comfortable, and its good web experience too!

Coming up, Grand Targhee just opened their summit chair lift "Dreamcatcher", so we will definelty be heading out there next week. Also, my birthday is next Friday (Dec. 12) which should be a pretty good time (aside from the getting older part). It will be nice to ski on my birthday, and enjoy some snow for once, that's for sure!