Low Tree Branch, Low Ridin

So I feel prompted to tell you about a hilarious ski incident that I'm sure has happened many times but this one which occurred at Targhee individually is the best. So Tyson, BJ and I are up at Targhee launching off the cat tracks and just generally acting like idiots. Well there is this one patch of trees where a short maybe 5 foot tunnel was formed by lower hanging branches. BJ spotted it first and decided to crouch low into a ball and shoot through it. Tyson took is turn with basically the same thing but while yelling "yeeha!" Then it was my turn. Now Tyson and BJ were on a skis and I was on a snowboard. I bent down and curled into a ball but my head was more tilted forward than the others and whack flomp flump fwap smash. owwwwwwwww I find my body completely emerged in the snow and my board sticking out. It was absolutely hilarious and BJ and Tyson were laughing pretty ridiculously hard themselves. Good Times.

First Double Black

Well I was up skiing with my friend Tyson in January 2008 at the Canyons. After a few runs we made our way over to the highest lift called ninety-nine ninety. I had never been up it cause it was all double blacks but one run, which was a black. Well we get up there and we head the opposite way of the black run so I knew I could expect to be doing my first double black. I wasn't too worried because I was pretty good at a black so why couldn't I hit a double black. Well we went down the slope for about 500 ft and then Tyson goes through the gate leading to the backcountry. I say: "dude I can't go back there!" well he replied with: "well you can't seperate from me either." I figures that was good enough reason for me so I went. I got in there and found it to be very beautiful in the backcountry. Well we went up to the top of a banked corner and looked over the edge. It was about a strait hill of untouched Utah powder! To me it was the steepest thing I had ever seen! Well Tyson was like: "you first." in reply I say "no way!" well when I said this he pushed me. Ah! I completely unvoluntarily went down the hill and quickly gained control best I could and stopped. Tyson jumped over and came to me then he says: "now go on your on." I turned down hill and had my first REAL experience with great Utah powder. It gave you the absolute coolest floating feeling. Ah love it!

Targhee!!

Last year in mid February I went to Grand Targhee Ski Resort on the Grand Tetons with my friend Tyson Balling and his family. We were up there for a three day weekend and this place I heard was amazing. We would stay up there at the resort lodging and ski every second we had the chance. Well we are taking about four car loads of people up and I got in the truck with my friend Tyson his brother with his fiance and his cousin. On the six or seven hour drive up there we listened to every rock song we could get through and ate a ton of candy. Now being teenage boys in a car alone on a highway in Idaho with no other cars on it and it being -11F outside we came up with an idea. (I bet everyone reading this right now is like Uh-Oh this doesn't sound good) We took off our shirts and we did something very bad. We had a stick your body out the window at 80mph in -11F weather the longest contest! Woot! Well Tyson totally won that.
We got up to the resort and first thing I noticed was that while walking up the walkway I couldn't see anything because the snow was over my head (shut up all of you thinking "that's cause your so darn short"). Another thing I found out of the ordinary was that there wasn't just snow on the tops of branches but the snow completely ate the tree so it just looked like a white verion of thos termite columns they have in Africa. Well we got settled in and learned our way around and we jumped in the snow in swimsuits then jumped in the hot tub and did crazy stupid things like that.

Well that night it snowed like 2ft. That day I learned what real powder was and went on the steepest slope i've been on so far. It was a blast! One time we went went over to the Sasquatch Lift and found a nice giant (giant to me) cliff. Well Tyson was like "holy crap I have to hit that!" I thought he was joking but sure enough we went back up and he went off. A few runs later we go into the backcountry. Tyson stops me about half way down the slope and says that there is a cliff right below me. I see them go off of it and I surely didn't want to do it myself. I kinda find my own way down but after a few runs I finally go off of it.

One time we were skiing and I got seperated from my group. After skiing around and being confused as to where I was I finally found them going up the lift as I went down. Well they waited at the top of the lift and I finally made it up to them. When I got up we realized a nasty fog was rolling in. Well remember how I said the trees were completely white earlier? Well that combined with the snow and the fog being white made it so I couldn't see my own hand when I put it up to my goggles. Tyson yelled as he skied so I could follow his voice and it was ridiculously fun sowboarding blind. Every few hundred feet one of the yells would go something like this :" weeeeeeeeeeeee OW! weeeeeeeeeeeee OW!" because we kept running into trees and thins. haha good times.

On the Sunday we didn't snowboard. One reason because we wanted to keep the sabbath day holy. Second reason because the hot pockets we had that morning were bad and 8 of us, including me, got food poissioning. haha oh well I guess that happens.

One time we were determined to take the jumps in the park. The problem with these jumps was that there was no kick and the landing was too far away. After trying over and over Tyson finally made a perfect run of the four jumps. Problem was that on the fourth he overshot the landing by at least 30ft. He hit the ground and just laid there. We rushed to his aid and he just sat there singing. He was like "That was totally AWESOME!" He tried to get up but then fainted. He had a pretty bad concussion but after laying there for about thiry minutes we were back and good to go.

Another time we were skiing along all causal like when we found this little tunnel created by trees. Tyson zips through it nice. BJ zips through without harm. Me being the only snowboarder and not able to get down as much zip through it, get clothes lined and do a backflip into the powder. Tyson yells "You okay man!" I role over lean against a tree and yell "I'm OK!" we got it all on camera.

These are just a few of the fun moments we had in Targhee. I may write about other accounts I can remember later. All I can say is that that place ROCKS!