The Law!!!

A friend from the mountain patrol crew snapped a picture of Hilary and I following sweep at the end of the day.

Mas Nieve!!

Ain't it purdy!?!

Riders on the Storm

Ahhhh snow!!! I shot this picture on my drive up to the ski hill on Saturday. It was soooooo nice to have some snow and believe it or not.........weather (I was starting to think it didn't exist anymore). Usually there's a total lack of weather in Las Vegas, so it was super nice to have some clouds and snow and yes, even cold temperatures. On Saturday and Sunday I don't think it broke the mid 20 degree mark at the ski hill (due to the 8,400' elevation). The colder temps made it feel a little bit more like winter rather than the slight variations of summer it normally feels like in the stinky L.V.

Anyways, I spent the weekend skiing/partrolling and doing snow study stuff which is always cool. I was on tele's all weekend getting continuously humbled as I am just beginning to transition and learn telemarking. Since I have been alpine and AT skiing for so long it felt reallllllll strange having my heel free on the telemark skis. But it was fun and I suck............ the goal is to keep the fun, but exchange the sucky part to become at least somewhat proficient at tele'ing. We'll see in time I guess 'eh.

Ahhhhh....finally!!

No fancy pictures to post, just some simple (and long awaited) information. Some of you guys know that I've been doing ski patrol stuff for about a year now, in some capacity or another.......well I wrapped up my four months of two to three days a week medical training this weekend. I took my written exam as well as my practical exam, testing the skills that I have learned in class. I know what some of you are whispering to yourself right now..."what do you need to know for ski patrol?? Point 'em downhill and stay away from the trees right?" Well apparently they prepare ski patrol for EVERYTHING! I'm talking CPR (for which I am now certified....go figure), defibrillation for cardiac arrest, treating sprains, major bone breaks, etc., etc., etc. Oh yeah even child birth.......I NEVER EVER want to have to do that by the way.

Hilary also took the test, however since she apparently has some sort of fancy degree she side stepped the classes and went straight to the test. Anyways all went well and now Hilary and I are official.

Solo Backcountry Trip in Little Cottonwood - Christmas Day 2006 (Give you a hint of what I'm thinking about)

View looking down in to the Salt Lake Valley
Mmmmmmmm skiing!!

Now that there is some good lookin' skiin'

Skin track leading up, up, up and more up before the fun of going down.

24-Hours of Moab: 10/13 & 10/14 2007

This is the Sabrosa Cycles team. (left to right; Ryan, Delena, Jon, Mark & Ben {not pictured is Sherry who was support for the team......who rocked!}) Despite Jon becoming violently sick during the night, me with some gnarly good lung butter sessions/fevers, the team did surprisingly well. We placed 5th out of 35 five person-coed teams and 65th out of all 385 teams that were registered. Not too bad considering. I give all credit to the rest of the team who carried my lame ass through. Good times!!! Now time to prep for the 24-Hours of Tucson in February.........on Single Speeds!! Mark comin' in hot thru the chicanes and in to the "exchange" area. He exchanged off to me......then it was my turn to try not to lose all the time he had made up. By the way I was riding with a cold or flu (???) hacking up lung cookies left and right. Sunday morning I woke up at 4:00 a.m. from my nap, soaking wet with a nice cozy fever for my morning lap at 5 a.m..........now who says a 24-hour race can't be fun? So to start the race, rather than having 500 people bangin' elbows falling on top of each other with a mass bike start, they started out with a run about 100 yards around a point back to the racks, grab your bike and then proceed to the course for your lap. It's pretty wild to watch a mad sprint before the race even starts........people were wearing dust masks because of the massive cloud of dust that was kicked up from the froth mouthed cattle stampede of rapid (possibly literally rabid) mountain bikers. Now that's a good time 'eh!!!

The tent in the background is where the "exchange" goes down. To get there you go through a few tight chicanes thru the chute and hand the baton to the time keep, then swipe your time badge. Your teammate then swipes his time badge, grabs the baton and runs to their bike waiting in the rack. It's cool......your just don't want to mess up and let the rest of the team down by losing the baton out on the course.

Ben out on Friday, before the race, pre-riding to see where he's gonna pass the people blocking his way to sweet victory.

Las Vegas Cyclocross - 9/26/07

Ryan Trebon taking the win

A view of the race venue.....the city park is about 10 acres where the race was held. They made it a little more lengthy by zig zagging around and up and down the side slopes of the park. It was pretty impressive to see these guys basically holding a sprint pace for over an hour, not to metion the running dismounts thru the log section.

Trebon at the start line......waiting.......and waiting. There were probably about 60 guys lining up for the race. By then end of the race there were probably only about 40 left. Once you got lapped you had to drop out and got a DNF.

Geoff Kabush taking a break from whoopin' on everyone on the mountain bike, so he figured he would get some training miles in (to ensure he would continue putting the hurt on in the mountain races).

Basically a steeple chase......but for people instead of horses.