Europa!!!

I recently just went on a awesome trip to Germany, Austria and Italy. I have always wanted to travel to Europe just for fun and not the stress of competing in skiing. So for me this was a trip of a lifetime. We started in Munich, which is a beautiful city with great churches, lots of farmers markets and of course great beer. We then ventured to the beautiful city of Salzburg and received a great tour from a  family friend and stayed with him and his wife a little south of Salzburg out in the country for three nights. We went to some amazing ice caves and just enjoyed time on the farm. The Dolomites were our next stop and definitely the highlight of the trip for me, I can not believe how easy it is to take trains all over europe and it is such a great way to see the countryside. The U.S. really needs a train system. We went to the beautiful town of Cortina, which is a ski town similar to Jackson. I definitely need to go back in the winter and ski, there are some amazing couloirs. We decided to do some Via Ferata, which means the iron way, I never realized how big this was in Europe. The main route we did was the Punta Ana, we started in the village and climbed 7,000 vertical feet up from the valley floor. The route was definitely exposed in spots, which made it very exciting. We did not have correct gear so just used our anchoring device which was connected to our harness an clipped and unclipped as we climbed. The best part about this was being able to take three trams down from the top. These trams were extremely exposed and the views were breathtaking. This area also has great hut system that we also took advantage of, these huts are up in the mountains and have some of the most breathtaking views, hot meals and cold beer.  I can not wait to go back and explore more in the dolomites, there is still so much to see. Now I just have to wait for the snow to fall and dream of Europe.

Climbing Open Book and Do it For Doug

This past weekend my boyfriend Brian and I went climbing in the Tetons. I always hope each time I go I am getting a little better. Climbing is one of those sports that you have to do a lot to actually get really good at it. I still enjoy being in the mountains and pushing myself. We went up to Garnet Canyon to do a classic route in the Tetons called Open Book. I have been up the climb before before, but I had taken a fall, so I needed to redeem myself. When we got to the pitch I was a little nervous but the as I started to climb it, I realized it was not a big deal and cruised through just fine. The next day we then headed to Rock Springs Buttress and climbed Do it for Doug. This route was really challenging for me and I really had to push myself and my strength because it was very sustained 5.10 and exposed, which always makes me nervous. Overall a great weekend of climbing I just wish I could climb more often, because I always feel like I am getting stronger and then I do not climb for two or three weeks. I just love being in the mountains, especially the Tetons!

Cowboy Christmas

I have been competing in the sport of rodeo for almost twenty years. I still have never lost my love for the sport, but because I do like so many sports I have not had as much time to dedicate towards rodeo in the last couple years. This summer my rope horse Katie is in her prime so I decided to take advantage of her an try and ride and rope as much as possible. I love to barrel race as well and have done that longer than I have roped, but I had to put my barrel horse down this winter (RIP Dapples I love you!) I have been running my sisters young horse so that has been fun. This last week I decided to dedicate my week and weekend to rodeoing a bunch. The month of July starting around the fourth is what cowboys and cowgirls call Christmas, because there are so many rodeos and people try to compete in as many as possible. I do not have a ton of time to do so, but I decided to compete four nights in a row with the help of my loving parents I was able to make it work. I started with Wednesday night in Jackson and just competed in Breakaway, for those who have never heard of the sport you do not have to throw the calf down. We have a piece of grocery string tied to our saddle horns along with some type of flag, I use a bandana. When you catch the calf it then break lose from the saddle horn, sounds easy right? Not exactly you have to not leave the box to soon or you get a ten second penalty, also you have to take into consideration that the calf is not going to do exactly what you would like. They are very unpredictable, anyways the first night I caught my calf in 3.6 seconds and placed third which was a great start to my cowboy Christmas. The next night I was up in Pinedale, Wy for their annual Rendevous Rodeo. These calves were huge and slow, which made them hard to catch and easy to break out of the box to soon. I happened to time this one perfectly and roped the calf in 4.6 seconds which won me the night, I was stoked. Now all I had to do was go for the average, which was the combined of all three nights, it is kind of like a big mountain competition. The following night I missed my first loop, but because everybody is gunning after the average you can pack two loops. (you can see it tied onto my horse in the photo.) I caught the calf on my second loop which only dropped me to second in the average. The Championship round was the following night and I knew if I could just catch my calf I had a chance at the average money. I ended up getting that 10 second penalty, but was able to come out in second in the average and make myself some cash. Overall a very successful and fun weekend! I wish I had more time and money to do more because it is so much fun.,

Ellingwood Couloir Middle Teton

I really wanted to get another big day of skiing before the summer kicked into full swing. I found two partners my photographer friend Johnathan (he took the pics) and Chris Kroeger a awesome ski mountaineer. We left the trailhead at 4 in the morning skis on our back and hiking shoes on our feet. I felt like I was going back packing not skiing due to the heavy pack, but I figured it was great training for climbing this summer. We hiked in our shoes for about 2 hours until we reached the mouth of Garnet Canyon we got a little lost because there was so much snow, it was hard to tell where the trail was. I had tried to put my skins on to early and the warm temperatures made it very difficult for my skins to stay on my skis, so I had to boot pack all the way to the bottom of the Ellingwood. It only took us about another hour to reach the bottom of the couloir. Looking up at it, it did not look great there was a huge runnel down the center of it from the warm temps. Skiers right looked skiable though, so we decided to give it a try. We put on our crampons and started up the right side of the couloir it definitely was a lot steeper than it looked. The couloir was probably about 1000 feet long and a consistent pitch of 55 degrees, most the way up it was soft ice which was perfect for crampons and a ice axe. It was definitely a hard climb because of the elevation and the continual pitch. I followed Kroeger up the entire way and we finally made it to the top in about an hour and thirty minutes. I was so excited to ski down, it was definitely the steepest and most consistent descent I have ever done. I went first and just took my time because there was a lot of slough which made it very challenging to ski. It was nice and soft and easy to carve turns, so fun. I made it to the bottom safe and sound and totally was stoked the climb up and the ski down were such a rush! I can't to ski more in the Tetons.

Attempting to ski in the Tetons

The weather has been really funky lately, lots of rain and warm temps. There is still a ton of snow in the mountains, but the snow has not been setting up great for spring skiing. A couple of my friends and I attempted to ski the Sliver a sweet couloir on Nez Perce. We did not start early enough or the snow did not freeze, because as soon as we started to skin up the ridge of Shadow Peak snow started piling up on our skins. We tried to stop and put some wax so hopefully the snow would not stick. It only worked for about 10 minutes at a time. I felt like I was walking on stilts that weighed a 100 pounds. We finally made it to the top of Shadow after about 4 hours of skinning. We still had not gotten to the bottom of the Sliver and were exhausted from the first part of our skin. We decided to turn around because it was already 1230 and temperatures were only getting warmer. The views from the top of Shadow were still pretty amazing on one side you had the Grand Teton and Teewinot and on the other you had Buck and Wister. We had some pretty decent skiing half way down and then it became rotten wet snow. Not getting to the tope of the Sliver is frustrating, but now I want to go back and get it hopefully soon.
Two days later my friend hannah and I decided to get up early and go for Wimpys which is just a small sub peak, but is a great long run with a good pitch. It kind of reminds me of the Hobacks at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. We timed it perfectly and had no problems with snow sticking to our skins. We reached the top around 9:40 am it was so calm and quiet and we had amazing views of the Grand, Buck and Static Peak. We just took some time to enjoy the warm sunny day! We then skied awesome corn snow. I hope I will be able to have some bigger days in the Tetons soon!

Alaska and the Overall Title

I went to Alaska feeling pretty great about my last competition. I had a pretty good buffer for the overall tour points and I was really excited to ski what I wanted to ski and not worry how I placed. We got up early on Friday to see that it had snowed over a foot and was continuing to snow. Friday became a weather and an amazingly wet powder day and we all enjoyed an awesome powder day at Alyeska. Saturday we awoke again to more snow, but the visibility was not nearly as bad. This day marked the year anniversary of John Nicolettas death. We all loaded the tram and had an amazing memorial service for him and then we hiked up a little ways and all skied some very deep powder in his honor. The competition then started finally, I was so excited to finally ski, I picked out a pretty mellow line which I kind of regretted later because there was so much snow and I could have easily hit some bigger airs. In the end I was judged pretty hard and went into the finals in 7th place.
The next day was Easter Sunday and we woke to clear skies but the weather deteriated pretty quickly so we were on the hurry up and wait schedule. We finally were allowed to go inspect around 330 in the afternoon and they pretty much called the competition for that day. I was so bummed because I really just wanted to ski and be done so I could enjoy Alaska. As we were hiking up for inspection it was hard to see a foot in front of you. As we neared the top all of a sudden the fog and the clouds decipated and you could see the entire venue. We were able to see really well during inspection and I had this hope that we would be able to still compete. I picked a line that I was pretty excited about that had about three airs. I knew I needed a strong line to move up from seventh. They decided to try and run us so we waited for the helicopter. I could not believe that I was going to take a heli to the top of my run. As we loaded the heli I snagged the front seat which was awesome because as we flew to the top I was able to get an amazing view of my line and also the ride of my life. I was pretty pumped up to ski after the fast ride to the top. I ran third and felt that I had a strong aggressive and fun run. I skied what I wanted to ski not what I thought the judges wanted to see. I placed second and was so excited that Rebecca had landed her first win. I also in turn took the overall title. I could not believe that I had landed on the podium in every one of the comps this year! I look forward to going home and skiing some fun peaks in the Tetons.

Alaska

Coming back to Alaska is always such a great experience. As soon as I see the amazing mountains I realize why I was so excited to come back here. I am here for the "World Championships" of the Freeskiing World Tour. I am really excited to be back and have a safe and uneventful competition. Last year was really tough on all of the athletes so this year we are all very excited to come back and honor John Nicoletta. The competition starts tomorrow and will be broadcasted live both days at freeskiingworldtour.com. I am just really excited to be here with all my close friends, we have become family through the last couple of seasons and it is so fun to be able to come to Alaska and ski with everyone. The field is a lot smaller this year which I think will be better, but weird because some of the family of skiers were not able to make the trip. I am heading out to check out the venues now and am really excited to ski on my new skis.