I love skiing
The beginning of this winter season has been unbelievable. I wasn't planning on going up to Crystal yesterday but my friends Adam and Nicole called the night before and twisted my arm. Adam took the day off from Google and Nicole had the day off from Alpine Hut. They didn't have to twist my arm too much but I'm glad they did.
It was one of those magical days up at Crystal where there's knee deep powder, blue skies, it's really cold, and occasionally it snows lightly. As you can see from the picture of Nicole and Adam on the chair behind me, it's clear, sunny, and snowing. There were also what's called 'sun-dogs' all over.
'Sun-dogs' are kind of like rainbows but applied to snow. The sun hits the snowflakes in the air and create a bright spot. Click on the thumbnail to go bigger.
Since the temperature was in the low teens much of the moisture in the snow had been sucked out. Different people I talked to during the day who weren't from the Northwest kept asking, "is the snow always this light out here?" They also asked repeatedly if it always snowed this much.
Since we are setting records for snowfall the answer is no. That and I don't want more people to come out and see what a great secret we have out here in the Northwest. I've missed the home mountain.
As you can see I brought my trusty Canon Digital Elph along to capture the action. Hard thing is when it's so good you don't want to stop to get the shots. Here's a shot of Adam enjoying his first day of the winter season.
You'll notice that the only good action shot is of Adam. That's because I blew the shots of Nicole and Adam blew every action photo he took. Nicole and I dropped a little cliff and Adam got us after we landed. I'm going to have to get that kid a photography class for X-mas.
At the end of the day Adam and I got a X-mas present from Crystal. They opened the South Backcountry. Adam and I hiked up to the top of the King. Here's a shot from half way on the hike. The King is my favorite peak in Crystal Mountain's backcountry. From the image I'm sure you can see why.
Before I took that image some guy ripped down the section called Pinball. All I could do was holler. After getting a good sweat going Adam and I arrived at the top of the King. Here's a shot of what it looks like if you were to ski down Pinball from the summit. The other shot is just the view of us gearing up for the run of the year.
So Adam and I dropped down the other side of the King and made glorious turns in super light waist deep powder. The run is fairly open trees with some rollers that turns into a chute about 30 feet wide and then opens back up into a bowl. These were 'all time' turns. What a great way to end a wonderful day. It was so good and we were so excited that the camera stayed in my pocket. But just imagine turns with the powder going up over and off your shoulders, hitting your face every time you weight your skis, floating, effortlessly down the hill. Ahhh.....
I leave you with this shot of Mt. Rainier from the top of the King. What an absolutely gorgeous day!!!
All the way home in the car I was thinking about whether or not I should get another job in the wintersports industry. Today was epic. I was skiing while watching a helicopter fly around the backcountry with a Warren Miller crew on board. It felt kind of wierd, I should be on that helicopter. But at the same time they were setting up all day and not skiing much where I was doing laps and having a great day.
Afterward in the Snorting Elk I saw Adam Clark, Ingrid Backstrom, Billy Poole, Jessica Sobolowski, Keith Rollins, and Wayne Gravey who were all with the WME crew. Do I want to make what I enjoy doing as a recreation a job again? I'm torn.
Do I leave the industry to try something else, broaden my skills, and then come back to the industry later? Do I work for somebody or start my own business consulting? So many people are calling asking for advice on team, photo shoots, ad buys, etc. Right now I'm just helping out because I enjoy talking about it, but can I make a living off of my advice? Time will tell. Stay tuned.