June 26-28th Ski and Backpacking Trip for Jeff's Birthday

Below you will notice a video that was made during the duration of the two trips. The fact that we were skiing in June made it all worth while. Dusty, Jeff, and Myself skied 13,250 ft. Mt. Bancroft on the 26th. On the 27th we meet up with Big Worm and Dane to ski above Crater Lake in the James Peak Wilderness. Making descent turns in June on descently steep slopes makes for a good time.

The Cousins and Friends Trip, Wolf Creek and Crested Butte Spring 2008

The Cousins, Friends, and Dane Trip February 15-18th 2008

My cousins Ben, Adam, and Jake rolled in town with their friends Donny and Matt Cheesy. Once they arrived, we picked up the rental car, packed, and picked up Dangerous Dane and we were off. We drove from Denver to Del Norte Colorado (a five hour drive) the first night. Wolf Creek had received 22 inches in the previous 48 hours, POWDER. We ended up skiing two killer days at the creek and then drove to Crested Butte on the last day. Everyone had a great time, skied deep powder, and had a blast at the Butte on their snowboard/skier cross course. I have to admit, that course was a blast. ENJOY, I will add more pictures of Ben, Donny, and Matt when I get them!

From left to right: Jake, Ben, Adam, Matt, and Donny at Crested Butte.

Adam, Jake, and Dane before the first run at Wolf Creek.

Dane dropping in on the first run.

Jake on his first powder run of the weekend.

Adam carving a powder turn.

And another, I thought this was a cool shot.

From left to right: Dane, Jake, Me, and Adam at the base of what Adam and Jake called a small Mt. Everest hike.

Dane with Adam behind him and Jake in the background almost to the summit.

Adam and Jake taking a rest on the summit.

All of us on the summit.

Me, actually appearing on my own blog skiing the bowl.

Me again.

Adam with a nice spray.

Jake in the white room!

Dane getting ready to launch.

Dane hucking the cornice on the Knife ridge.

Dane getting down.

Jake, Adam, and Dane traversing on the top of Crested Butte.

More pictures coming soon

Steamboat Feburary the 8-10th 2008, the theme was DEEP!

Steamboat in mid February equates to DEEP SNOW!

My sister Amy flew in to the west for the first time and brought luck and lots of snow. We tried to leave on Thursday night to drive to Steamboat but were stopped by tons of snow, a closed interstate, and two mountain passes. On Friday they opened Interstate 70 around noon and we were off. After about 5 hours of driving we had made it to Steamboat and were ready for the next day, and it was deep. Jeremy and I found a traverse and the rest is history, the pictures tell it all.

This picture sums up the deep snow experience!

My beautiful wife and my sister.

Another deep picture

This succession of pictures is pretty cool (1).

(2)

(3)

Jeremy in recovery mode

Utah, ringing in the New Year right with by god John Huff

Utah January 1-6 2008, a whole new crew and experiences!

(I'll add new pictures as soon as everyone else emails them to me)

I'm ready for a spring trip to Wolf Creek and Monarch with this crew, I'm jumping the gun here? Sorry, read on.

We started out in Denver, drove to Salt Lake, Met up with by god John Huff and the fun began. Ryan flew in and we picked him up, when Ryan's around it's always a good time. We had a blast over the four days in Utah. The first three days were short on snowfall but keeping tried and true in the Utah tradition we found some great snow at Solitude and Powder Mountain. On the last day we went back to Powder with an exciting ride provided by none other than John Huff in the worlds largest vehicle and were treated to a foot day of some of the best riding you can ever hope for. Brugman skied some of the best powder in his life and summed it all up by saying, "Joe Bob, do you see those seven tracks off that lift, yeah, those are all mine bro, all mine, holy Sh** I'm the only person skiing that." Huff found the meaning of fat skis, leaning back, and letting it ride, and did GREAT, sorry about his bad technique on the groomers Gatlinburg but he's a powder man now. The rest of us just wish we were skiing that type of snow everyday, even the Colorado boys (Jeremy and Joe), there is always next year.

Huff finding the true meaning of Fat Skis and loving it!

John Huff after riding the powder bus, nice.

Sometimes you just have to chill.

Huff retrieving some lost goods.

Is John Huff cold?

Maybe he is just looking for the fire, it's in the lodge.

Brug showing what true relaxation is.

Jeremy finding some good snow.

Follow the powder trail and you'll find Ryan, he wears camo.

Wes in preparation.

Wes in action.

Jeff riding James Peak, 2,600 ft. of non stop great snow.

Jeremy finding out it was worth the 20 minute hike up, and up, and up.

Ryan without camo.

Ryan in tow, if the energy rating goes south Wes always has a job towing.

Butler Gultch 12-2-07

Today turned out to be great. We had quite a bit of snow from the last storm this weekend which made for some great turns. The scenery was beautiful but it was cold most of the day. Once the sun came out around 10 o'clock it warmed up. This was a great fourth day of the season!

A short video of the day.

Skinning in is flat for a while then we headed up.

Jeremy with a peak in the background.

Oliver on the way up, somewhat close to the top.

Me cheesing out for the camera, it was pretty cold at this point.

Oliver going across for the first run.

Jeremy coming down on the first run of the day, early and cold.

A small slab release above one a skin track. The skier set it off after coming out of the trees.

Jeremy finding out how deep it really is.

Oliver finding some nice turns.

Skinning back to the top for run # 2. This was a great run.

Hanging out at the saddle.

Dane ended up coming late and he actually saw us from below on the skin track. We skied the rest of the day together.

Jeremy on run # 3.

Dane on the last run still finding the goods.

Me with some spray.

Oliver taking in the views, a tribute to the Swiss guy.