A Great Weekend...

This "weekend" has been great. I say "weekend" because our weekend is actually from Sunday to Tuesday, because we work Wednesday to Saturday every week. Kind of weird that we have a fake weekend, but at least its three days long! We haven't gotten any fresh snow, but the weather and groomers have been excellent.

Some fresh groomer at the top of Casper lift.

Anyways, this weekend I got to do some things I have been wanting to do for a long time. First off, I finally got to do NASTAR for the first time ever, after kind of wanting to do it for almost 5 years now. NASTAR is basically a slalom race course like you would see in the Olympics where you have to ski in and out of the gates. This particular NASTAR set up (which is under my lift) is pretty chill and usually just for people to do time trials. It was really fun to finally try, and lets just say Laura wasn't as fast as me! (I won't give actual times so she won't get her feelings hurt :P)

Me racing through some NASTAR gates.

That same day, I unexpectedly got to do something that I planned to try later this season. The conditions were perfect, and we came upon a steep run that had just been perfectly groomed...I went straight down it without slowing down at all, and...I BEAT MY SPEED RECORD! Before I beat it, my record speed on skis was 58.2 miles per hour, which I have been trying to beat for over a year. To find my speed I use my Garmin GPS which clocks the max speed of the unit with about 7 different satellites... in case you were wondering. I have checked this method of speed measurement for accuracy by comparing it to a car speedometer, and found it is very accurate! My new record is 60.8 miles per hour, which is awesome because I have been trying to break 60 since I started clocking myself.

My proof that I actually went that fast. (Click image for larger view)

Finally, I got to do something I have been putting off all season, work on my snowboarding. I have snowboarded a couple times on the east coast, usually by myself for halfdays, and have never had someone to really teach me. Today Laura and I went out and hit the groomers at opening, and I did really well! This morning I was struggling to get down greens without falling, and three hours later I was doing double blues off the gondola no problem. I'm really excited to keep working on my skills, and Laura was a great teacher... so hopefully she will give me more pointers without trying to make me pay!

Learning to snowboard can be very tiring, and my dad always says I can fall asleep anywhere!

To finish off my weekend I figured I would try to go take some good pictures of the sunset from south of town, but it turned out to be kind of disappointing. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the sunset ended up being less than spectacular. I ended up getting some decent pics, the great ones will have to come another time I guess.

Not a very dramatic sky, but the snow looked pretty cool with the warm glow of the sun on it.

After the sun set and shadows filled the valley, the sky finally got some color.

Me on our walk to try to get some pictures.

My attempt at an artsy winter picture, with added sepia of course. ;)

This weekend I am hoping to get to do more things I haven't done yet...I mean that's the point of living out here right? Laura and I are planning on going to the local Jackson Hole Moose Hockey game, and hopefully (conditions permitting) get out to hike and ski the Glory Bowl, a backcountry natural bowl in the teton pass. The teton pass backcountry is world renowned, and we havent really gotten to explore it yet since we skied the Tele Bowl in November...so we are really getting antsy to do so. Time for bed now though... I have to get up early tomorrow to ski...err...I mean work! :D