I THINK IT'S ON.......

Yesterday it snowed hard, really hard, and Beaver Creek received almost a foot of new snow, and the mo0untain transformed finally, and nearly everything is now skiable, and the next two days are calling for another BIG storm. The above photo was taken at around 2pm on Larkspur lift on the way back to the office after what can only be described as kind of a powder day, today was more of the same, and tomorrow looks to be even better....charge those vij camera batteries kids.

And this sucks, Davy Jones passed today, that's the end of a very long man crush. 

THANK YOU TEVA WINTER MOUNTAIN GAMES FOR ALLOWING ME TO BE A PART OF THIS GREAT EVENT....TOO FUN, ESPECIALLY THE MEGA FLAME THROWER

Such a sick weekend of extreme fun in Vail, summer edition right around the corner.....

CMON VAIL, REALLY?

Today was a bit of an odd one on the ski hill. The report came in at Beaver Creek of a couple of inches new, and Vail reported 12 inches new. So many of us hopped out of the sack early, geared up and charged over to Vail to see what was up. Twelve inches sure sounded intriguing. While driving into Vail I noticed virtually no new snow on the ground and no snow on the trees up on the ski hill. Once negotiating up the hill via the Gondola, as chair 8 was down, it was clear it would be an interesting day. This pic below was typical of 95% of the hill. Hellish wind blown two inches on top of exposed frozen bump tops awaited us all. There were a couple of turns on the mountain that were soft and two inches deep, but the rest was a rodeo. The decision to leave and head to the Beav was an easy one, especially since I was under two hours in the Vail parking structure, winning.

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD.....

So I work with this kid Lucas Evans at Christy Sports where I'm a boot fitter, Lucas's dad Jeff manages the shop and and has a very storied past as a pro mogul champion, ski ambassador at Snowbird, as well as the infamous photo jumping out of the Snowbird Tram with Scotty Brooksbank back in the 80's in POWDER mag. Lucas is one freekin amazing freestyle skier trying to make a go of it, finishing 12th in a stacked field of 150 or so competitors two weeks ago at Northstar Tahoe, and at Aspen this weekend. He would have finished higher in Tahoe however the judges deducted points from his "air" for going to big and landing past the gap landings, whatever. You can only deny this kid for so long and if you catch him at the Rodeo park at Beaver Creek he'll be the one going the biggest, trust me.

And on that same note, it's just about time to hit the Riv, as these guys are beginning to arrive in pre-spawn mode in a river near you, this one just walking distance from the bank owned properties you all live in. Cheers. I love this place.

And Just to get your day off on the right foot.....

THIS IS A TYPICAL DAY AT WORK...PRETTY MUCH.

I HAD A FUNNY CONVERSATION THE OTHER DAY...

I'm posting this post with the intent it may help you make the correct decision and get you more bikes and less stress. As some of you may know, and many of you do not know, as it was publicized in my local paper as law requires, my former home known as my condo was foreclosed on many months ago, and then went to public auction, where no one bought it. However, Fannie Mae did purchase the loan. Many of you also know that I am still living there. I will stay there until the Sheriff of Eagle, Joey Hoy, who is a cyclist and an acquaintance, decides to post an eviction notice on my door which will require me to leave and rent a place to live, which actually is not that big of a deal, really. Having a discussion of these events the other day with a friend of mine, and throwing in a bit of credit card debt that I have into the conversation, I was flabbergasted that my friend could not believe I had some credit card debt and that I am paying just over the minimum payment each month, he was concerned about the amount of interest I was paying monthly, to which I replied, "you are shitting me right"? I mean, this person has roughly a $500,000 dollar house loan over 30 years, which he is going to pay the likes of $300,000 in interest on over the years, then sell it for MAYBE $550,000 someday ($350,000) is more realistic, not to mention all of the home improvement costs over the years, and think he is making a profit. GUESS WHAT, you are all losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the mortgage banks out there if you are in a similar scenario, and there is no argument for that, you are losing, stop paying your mortgage and move out when the Sheriff makes you 2-3 months later, then go rent something for crying out loud. You are all making the banks wealthy. Stop the FUCKING madness, unless of course you can pay cash for your home. Credit card debt, really? LOOK AT YOUR MORTGAGE INTEREST YOU IDIOT, YOU ARE LOSING.

Long term investment my ass, the bank is laughing all the way to the bank, with your interest money, and your principle. Just sayin.

I CARE IF YOU TELE....

Especially if you go as big as Beaver Creek local Christopher Ewart did winning the gold in the Tele Big Air comp at the Teva Winter Mountain Games. Ewart threw a double front flip to win gold and nailed the landing. This image was the national Geographic "Extreme Photo of the Week", I guess so Chris...thanks for the great show this weekend to all the athletes and spectators, it was a tremendous weekend to be in Vail. Third spot on the podge went to another sicko local kid, Kjell Ellefson, who knocked out a third place and bronze medal..

BORDERING ON IN SANITY, TEVA WINTER MOUNTAIN GAMES YEAR ONE

Teva Winter Games 2012 - More Mountain Bike Videos

More of course when I have a chance, but what a weekend in Vail, here is a quick vij of just some of the weekends offerings, and it was BIG, and it was amazing to have Freestyle Bike and Telemark skiers alternate off the 60 foot gap jump under the lights, with the flame thrower to boot. In a word, SICK.

ALBERTO KEEPS TOUR HOT STREAK IN TACT...

The three ring circus continues with the Tour as Alberto takes one for the team after losing his court battle, which will now cost him close to 6 million bucks, someone make it stop, please. Contador is seen here during his doping days after testing positive for clenbuterol and having .00000000000000001 found in his blood sample.

WHY IN GOD'S NAME......

Would you put anyone in the middle of the defensive line with a minute left in the
Super Bowl to stop a run up the middle from five yards out. He would have scored if they were playing touch football....Pats indeed.

GIANTS.

A NEW BREED OF PARK RAT...

Well they finally pulled it off, after years of giving the "jibbers" shit about hitting the park all day everyday myself and 57 year old "Pete the Meat" and 40 year old "Nimbly" traveled to the home of the rats and jibbers, at the beginner level of course, at Park 101 at the top of Beaver Creek. We spent most of the days laughing our asses off and having a good time, and crashing some. This crap is dangerous when you are an old man, and it hurts when you hit the deck, but it's a new game and challenge and when it aint snowin, it's a good option, and the youngsters love laughing at us, which is fine, cause I'm gonna do this crap.

Snowboard vij is from Nimbly, skier cam is from Elgee....on the Contour Roam.

ARE YOU SHITTING ME? SKIING RED ROCKS?

In the mountains of Colorado, where we live for deep snow, we sometimes take one for the team right up the ass when the weather pattern sends a low pressure system full of moisture to the south of us, and it turn into what is called an "upslope" weather pattern which typically dumps snow on the foothills and front range of Colorado and then the plains to the east, and we get nothing on the west side of the "divide". This is what happened yesterday, with snow totals approaching 48 inches on some parts of the foothills, while we got one lousy inch here at the ski resorts. This photo below is of two skier skiing FUCKING RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATER today, just west of Denver, to which I reply, Holy Shitballs.

SO I'M PRETTY PSYCHED ABOUT THE LUCAS EVANS STORY IN SNEAK PEAK VAIL

With the exception of a couple of items which were left out of the article, including a quick word about Troy Eubank who subsidized Lucas' trip to New Zealand. Troy has a plastics distribution company which supplies the plastic beads to Oakley for their sunglasses and with Oakley as a sponsor of Lucas Evans, he has a direct interest in Lucas excelling, which he will.

Below is the Rodeo terrain park at Beaver Creek, the half pipe is at the bottom of this. This is where Lucas Evans gets his sugar on. If you are ever here skiing, and you think you are a badass because you race bikes and follow this blog, think again and watch the kids in this park for 30 minutes throwing HUGE air and tricks on the 40-60 foot gap jumps, it's an amazing sight to see. As for me, I'm still working on the 5 foot long box top slide. That's all you are gettin out of this kid.

I'm tempted to change the name of the blog to "Addicted to Bicycles and Skiing", but A2BAS would sound fucking stupid.

WE ARE THE JIBBERS....

It finally happened, the young bucks talked some of the old guys into the jib park 101 at Beaver Creek it was a comical day, but the old guys hung tough in the beginner park, just a brief highlight, helmet vij of course courtesy of Contour