Taos Ski Valley, NM

Finally feeling like we are hitting our stride we headed south to sample the (previously) forbidden terrain at Taos, plus eat lots of great green chile of course! Starting to forget about crushing grapes and squeezing oranges and 101 other tele tips and just ski. Worked on quicker turns off the powder piles, more fall line work and more speed and we both felt we really were starting to build on the foundation work of last year. Only saw 4 other tele skiers the whole day (and only 1 at Angel Fire?) before sucking down Bloodies at the Stray Dog and retreating to our comfy lodge in Taos

Texas ingenuity

Or Oklahoma or Arizona, California, Canada... I've never been in a ski area parking lot with so many out of state plates

Angel Fire, NM

Best snow of my tele career so far during the onset of Blizzard '06 #2. Folks in NM were going a little overboard over the whole thing, and it was strange to only see 1 other tele-skier the whole day but it was worth it for all the untouched powder. I guess all the skiers up from TX didn't dig fresh powder as Chainsaw and I hit deep fresh even on our last run down the frontside...we'll take it!

Bizzard '06 excellence!

Chainsaw throwing down some excellent turns in the deep heavy snow of the '06 Bilzzard at Eldora. Tons of progress even from the end of last season has us super psyched!

Caribou concrete

Chainsaw leads on the wicked ascent above Caribou during a quickie local outing before the Twelve Twenty shenanigans. Conditions were firm to the point of bullet proof but the day was beautiful and there was a lot of drinking ahead to prepare for...

Strap 'em up!

Perched high above Caribou (at least 20 minutes climb) Highroller ponders the lesser of two weevils...

Classic Norweigan Death-carcass technique on the concrete runnels

Highroller stylin' the styrofoam!

The crew gathered for last weeks expedition to St. Mary's. Lee chauffeur'd us all up in the mini van which allowed us the grab the last late-riser parking space. Cheese-O was about to blow his bindings but luckily some spare skis were available and the warm weather and lack of wind made for a great day to climb the glacier. The old concrete windblown snow made it a tough day on the descents but fun nonetheless!

Pretty barren in spots on the hump up to the lake.

Thar she blows! Let's get it on!

Awwww, mountaineering class. I'll be seeing you guys later!

The ladies enjoy the splitter skies and warm sun on the ascent.

Well this is going to suck! Frozen death waves in the concrete portend a painful descent for THIS rookie...

Strangely enough not a wishper of wind today

Lunch break at the tippy top of St. Mary's Glacier on the dry steppe. So this is where all the snow gets blown from...

Beautiful day!

Cheese-O starts things off on the death sastrugi nicely framed by James Peak

Cheese-O drops in smoothly above St. Mary's Lake