Sun Valley

First things first. Preparing for the upcoming adventure. If you look close you'll be able to figure out why my skis slide faster than most. It is the one secret ingredient that makes all the difference. But then again with the mess of a bench that I have who can really tell what all is in the vicinity of my reach. One thing for certain is you need a small amount of red wine to fully get in the zone for total ski tuning. Thought about trying the soybean wax I found somewhere last season, but I don't remember if I used it or not. One thing I did remember is if you drop enough wax on the concrete floor it gets very slick. Looks good too.

The great adventure for this past weekend was a trip to you guessed it... Sun Valley. First stop on Friday was made in another part of Boise to pick up a couple of friends. Who happened to have a couple of visitors hanging out in their back yard.



Next stop Fairfield so Steve (me) could plow out the driveway, with Eric's help. Eric wields a mean shovel. Best guess is we have over a foot of snow on the ground. Come on winter I'd like another foot this week.

The main agenda for the weekend was skiing Baldy and hanging out at the sun valley lodge pool, eating in Ketchum and just generally having a good time.

Who is that skier? beats me , just someone in the shot. Which raises the question. Can you tell it's a movie star when they are all dressed up in ski clothing? I doubt I'd recognize one even if he or she sat next to me on the chair lift. I have it on good authority that most of them are shorter than one might think. Even shorter than me. They really aren't ten feet tall, that's only in the movies.

The snow is a tad thin around Ketchum, but enough on the hill to ski and besides that the views are usually worthwile. Even without tons of snow, one saving factor is the 3200 feet of vertical that really can put the burn on early season legs. Pre season conditioning has been virtually null and void, so it's ski those legs into shape, again.

So now after we fried our legs all day, it's time to slow boil them in the hot pool at the lodge. The sun or something must of been really bright where Steve is.

It's a paper coffee cup, but I don't think it's coffee.

Another random stray mountainous view.

Hanging with the bear out front of river run lodge. Eric loaned him the hat and goggles for that festive look.

Eric and Patty. Nice of them to come along so we had someone else to torture for the weekend.
She might be a movie star, about the right height, but if we told you we'd have to do bad things to you so you'd forget. :)

great way to start holiday festivities!

december 12 & 13

we finally made it back to fairfield- drove up saturday between storms. not a lot of snow on the ground, looking pretty gray......

steve did get the driveway cleared- good to stay ahead of it. about 6 inches of light fluffy stuff. it came down steadily while we were there, but very light.

dinner at home instead of going out, which was nice.

the project this trip was to start the photo selection on the stairway, which we did-

so far (and maybe forever after) the theme is snow. imagine that! we have a few more to print out, but it's a good start.

steve got a call saturday evening that his mom had had a stroke. rather than drive down in the dark through the snow, we stayed and left sunday. she's still in the icu and it's wait & see. she did ask steve how the snow was in fairfield, i'll take that as a good sign-

Daytrip adventure

About a week and a half ago we had a nice bit of weather come throuh. Thought that it might be worth a drive up to Idaho City and above for some touring. As you can see it looks pretty good. Took the dogs up with me thinking we'd put some miles on our legs. The parking area had over a foot in it. Hmmm, go fast and stop on the downhill that way we won't have to chain up and shovel :) I hope. Didn't have to, we backed out. This first photo is on the highway headed up to Moores creek summit. Interesting driving with one hand looking at the camera, getting it turned on, watching for traffic and finally taking a shot. Yep, you don't want to meet me coming the other way.

A mile or so up the trail (road). Halle with the noble mountain dog pose. She is a Greater Swiss Mountain dog after all. Loves the cold, the mountains and the snow. Good dog.

And the bunny man Echo. He also likes the cold, the mountains and the snow. Although the snow sticks to all that furry long hair. The burr magnet and snow magnet. Good dog.

Nice of those silly snowshoers to break trail for us all the way up. They make a nice wide packed track. The dogs seemed to appreciate it. I couldn't help but think that it must really suck to walk all that way up and then have to walk all that way back. Geez if those shoes would slide like my skis they would be back in less than half the time. And it's fun! Good thing we don't all like to ski. More lines for us that do.

The snow was deep enough almost. Did manage to find the bottom a few times. Could feel it on the skis. Don't know if it was a rock or just brush. Didn't feel like looking at the bottom of my skis. They are the rock skis after all, so anything goes for snow depth. Halle is about 28 to 29 inches tall at the shoulder just for an idea of how deep the snow is.

No work in Fairfield for a while other than putting up some more interior doors. Still waiting for more snow. We need a lot more snow. Gonna have to do the snow ceremony again I guess. We did find a nice big piece of quartz to use for the next one. Maybe that'll help with massive amounts of snow! So stay tuned and see what is up for the next adventure. sp