Ever since my freshman year in High School, I've been addicted to snow skiing.  It all started at Crystal Mountain in Washington State.  The year after I graduated I even worked at Park City for the winter so I could ski my heart out before I left on my mission.  I'm still looking for a way to support my family and be able to ski everyday.  If any of you have figured it out, let me know. 

After years of trying, I am finally starting to convince the rest of the family to ski too.  The first family ski trip was with Scott, Heather, Dad and I at White Pass in Washington right after Christmas of 2001.  It was Heather's first time, and she didn't quite have the turning thing down, but she sure could go fast.  Both Scott and Heather have done ski school since then and are hooked.  Heather also married into a skiing family so there's no way out for her.  Dad just needs to get out and do it more often.  With the family living in near the Wasatch Mountains this is the second season (2007-2008) that they all have season passes to Beaver Mountain.  Mindy and Eric even gave it a try last winter.  The picture below is from last Christmas (2006) - those of us who aren't locals got a lift ticket in our stockings.  Thanks Santa!

A couple years ago (2003-04) my wife and I bought season night  passes to Brighton.  The deal was that she would learn how to ski and I would learn how to salsa dance.  One thing I did learn very quickly is that it's not a good idea to try and teach your spouse how to ski.  I'm still not sure what my problem was, but those nights would usually end with a long silent drive back down Big Cottonwood Canyon and then back to Provo.  The following week I would plead with her again to go skiing with me and promise that I would be more patient.  As a testimony to her amazing, wonderful, forgiving personality, she would agree, only to have me revert to the same mistakes as the previous week followed by another long silent ride home.  We didn't get up as much as we would have liked, but it was great.  Angela is learning well.  The 2004-2005 season was amazing in Utah.  Alta received over 10 feet of snow just in October and Brighton was open a few days before Halloween.  It never really slowed up either with Little Cottonwood topping 600 inches for the first time in years.  Snowbird had enough snow to stay open through the 4th of July.  That must be what heaven's like...

2005-2006 was another epic winter.  My brother Scott, brother-in-law Ryan, ski brother from another mother Tyler, and I all got passes to Park City Mountain Resort.  It was a homecoming of sorts since I had worked there the winter after high school.  Even though they've expanded, my favorite lift to ski continues to be the old Thaynes double.  We had some incredibly deep powder days up in the trees.  Check out the video!! Tyler also finished his video titled "the haze"  - it's a big file, but worth the wait.

Let it snow!

When we moved down Vegas, I started looking at new possible ski locations.  Big Bear and Mammoth in California are four to five hours away.  Ski Las Vegas is a tiny little resort up on Mt. Charleston that is only about an hour from here, but I read on their website that they average 120 inches of snow a year.  Utah can get that much in a good week... Hopefully I can get my fix when we're up there at Christmas.  Steve Casimiro said it well in the March, 1994 Intro to Powder Magazine.  As it turned out, I never even made it up to Ski Las Vegas - they were only open part of the year because of dismal snowfall.  I did get in a day at the Bird and another at the Beav over Christmas though.  Now that we're in Mississippi I feel even more desperate for some turns.  I think I read something about Gatlinburg Tennessee... 

Click below to see our adventures: