Pomerelle

On my way home from "home" I stopped off at Pomerelle, a ski resort outside of Albion, Idaho. It was a quaint little resort with two lifts and pretty panoramic views of southern Idaho. It only took a few runs to see the whole resort and then I became obsessed with hitting this one kicker. I realized that spinning switch comes more natural to me than spinning regular, so that was interesting.

What was more interesting were all the characters I saw up there! The majority of the people up there were rollin on free boards from beer or tobacco companies....(Bud Light, Corona etc.) I saw a few people in jeans. Almost no one had goggles. They didn't even have sunglasses! How could they see with the wind in their face? Hardly anyone had beanies and no one had a helmet. Gloves were also optional and everyone smoked on the lift. Not bud...but gross cigarettes! Someone built a little kicker on the run under the lift but no one was hitting the groomed kicker, except for me. The funniest part was that they wouldn't spin or grab, they would just launch themselves off the jump and land in the soft powder without even trying to ride out of it. Pretty strange! But, it was really fun to visit a new mountain and add it onto my life list of 100 resorts. (so far I'm still hovering around 20). I felt way over dressed in my purple pants and new Empyre hoodie, not to mention my new goggles! But the lifties were nice- always grabbed me while I was standing waiting for the chair. Not sure if they thought I was going to fall or what. Not my first rodeo....maybe I looked like a novice since I didn't look like some of hard core bangers and beaters they had there.

My drive home was also an adventure....my Idaho State Highway map showed that there was a road that connected Manta to the I-84...however, no such road existed. So, I took a lonely back country highway which was covered in snow until I hit the Utah border. (Where they are much more efficient at snow removal and use salt) I ended up getting back on the interstate and drove through my old friend Snowville, which put me at ease.

Once back in Salt Lake I stopped in and picked up the baby girl, who I had really missed. She had fun staying at Daddy's house and playing with her new boyfriend Boomer. (Aka Boom Town). There was some excitement at Dad's house- he got engaged over Christmas!!! Mischa will be the flower girl and Boomer will be the ring bearer. I'm so excited and happy for Josh and Andrea! Love is in the air!

A Muppet Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Yesterday Skip and I thought it would be great to go skiing...around 3:00. We went on a few really fun runs. We decided to swing into the lodge and sit in the sun and have a beer. We sat on the deck in 35 mph wind drinking our beer until mine kept spilling from the wind. We moved inside and enjoyed the rest. We started to notice that no one was on the mountain..."Oh, they're going home to have dinner and go to church..." I say. I couple little dudes came in and informed us that the lifts shut at 4:30 because of the holiday. WHAT? Since when? HUH? So, we had a really windy but cool run down to the bottom and we had the whole mountain to ourselves!

Today we slept in, Squirrel made us a good breakfast and we opened presents and posed like Muppets. Tonight, we're seeing True Grit. I'm going to nap with the boys and wait for Skip's turkey, pie and wassail...yuuuummm!!!!

(Allen got an air soft gun and of course attacked us with it. He scared the crap out of poor Biff. Conan and Bitch are used to being hit with foam bullets, but not my sweet little baby boys!)

The BRONCO NATION is Off to Vegas!

Another FUN trip for the Seymours!!! Skip, Squirrel and I loaded the Boise State "party" bus at 5:30 am Tuesday morning and allowed our bus driver to drive us through rain, fog, snow and slush all the way down to Las Vegas! Patron was imbibed (Skip's new favorite "treat") a nice bottle of Scotch was almost killed and we got there in record time.

Jimmy flew in from San Jose and we all headed down to the strip where we ate at one of my favorite restaurants; Canaletto, in the Venetian. I had a wonderful glass of Barbera, which is from the Piemonte region of Italy, where I lived. Skip ordered my favorite risotto dish and shared with me so I could get gnochhi. YUUM!

After an excellent dinner, we walked around the Strip, in the rain, and checked out the scene. Jimmy hadn't been there in 4 or 5 years! Much has changed! We all agreed how much we dislike City Center and how much we love the Bellagio.

As per norm, Allen and I were up to our usual shenanigans. I accomplished one of the funniest tasks that Allen has put me up to.....bombing Asian photography. The goal is to "poach" someones picture. Of course, Asians are the easiest, because they won't fight! My first mission was on the bridge over to Bally's. It was on a solo Asian girl getting her picture taken by her mom. I waited until the very last minute, right as the mom was pressing the button and I swooped in right behind her and got my mug right in the shot. AAHAHAHAHA HHHHHHAAAAAA AHAHAHA!!!! Of course, Allen and I laughed our heads off all the way over to the Bellagio gardens where my missions were even more challenging. I managed to get into at least 3 still shots and 2 video cameras. One lady even followed me and continued to tape me after I just blatantly put my face right in front of her video camera. She followed me with it and so I just stood there waving. Definitely the funniest part of the trip!

On Wednesday morning I was able to have brunch with one of my best friends, Lisa. Her and I always have much to discuss. We got a lot accomplished as far as discussing our usual life and relationship status. I can't help but laugh when I compare the two of us and what we love in our lives. We are so different! (She shops at Prada for her Christmas presents and I shop at Gallensons) We love different kinds of people, do different kinds of things, yet her and I seem to really get each other. I miss Vegas everyday, but miss it mostly because of her.

Later that afternoon, all of the BRONCO NATION met at Sam Boyd Stadium on the outskirts of Vegas, in the rain, to cheer on our boys. It didn't rain the whole time, and because of my thick skin, I wasn't too cold. It was a fun game! I had a girlfriend from Salt Lake sitting on the other side of the stadium and peeps from all over watching our win. Granted, it wasn't the Rose Bowl, and it wasn't the best game they have ever played, but it is always really fun to see #2 score :)

The party animals went to the Hard Rock after the game to celebrate, while Jimmy and I hair dried our feet and stayed in and watched a movie. Apparently, Allen had the best night of his life the night before, and I haven't gotten the entire story, but he was satisfied with his Vegas trip!

The trip home went pretty fast and it was fun to spend the weekend with the fam. Now, it's time for more snowboarding and a chance to watch Allen do a 360 kick flip on his snow blades. I'll try to document that!

(The middle picture is of Allen learning how to poach a picture. I am teaching the young one the finer intricacies of photo bombing! It looks like he got the hang of it!)

Avy Class!

Since I am totally obsessed with snow, snowboarding, the mountains and all that that entails, I thought it would behoove me to take an extensive avalanche training course. And man, I was right!! On Wednesday night about 50 locals (mostly dudes my age that love to ride) met with some of the local avalanche gurus to discuss some of the main topics of the course. Today we met at 9:00am and went straight through until 6:00pm.

In the classroom, we learned about islands of safety, terrain triggers, hazards and characteristics, weather patterns, first aid, dog teams, the proper chain of events, how to safely set up a production shot in the back country, safe ascent and descent and sled safety. We stopped for lunch and then all met up at Powder Birds where we learned about heli etiquette and safety and then met with the University of Utah life flight team. That was interesting to learn about how to prep a proper landing zone and how to "package" the victim.

The rest of the day was spent in groups. We went to different stations where we learned how to find hidden beacons with our own transceivers, strategic shoveling, spiral probing, on scene emergency protocol and the organization of information, team members and others on the scene as well as belay techniques.

It was only about 10 degrees outside all day and my new boots weren't as warm as I wanted them to be and my feet were freeeezing. I even had feet warmers in. But, it was such an amazing day and I learned more than I ever would have imagined. After learning these life saving techniques, I feel incredibly confident that I could perform them on the scene of a real avalanche. The statistics of finding your friend alive is daunting, however. Within 15 minutes of finding and digging your victim out, if they don't have head and body trauma, 90% of them will live. After 30 minutes 50%, after 45 minutes 40% and after the "Golden Hour" only 30% will survive. There are about 83 avalanche deaths in the United States every year.

Tomorrow we are talking about recognizing snow pack and conditions and analyzing the risk of riding certain areas. We will be riding on the mountain at the Bird and digging "pits" to analyze the snow. I am really excited! Extreme weather is soooo fascinating to me and especially living in Utah, I have the opportunity to experience it. But, after all is said and done, I feel that this class was so beneficial. Now, all my riding buddies are going to be stuck listening to me and having me teach them all about finding ME with their beacons, how to shovel me out and how to make sure that I am alive if I make the wrong decision and end up getting swept up in an avy.

I will say though, my whole motivation for this stemmed from the inbounds avy death at the Bird two years ago when Heather Gross, a local skier, who was my age, was caught in an avy off of Baldy. She didn't have a beacon on and it took her sister and the other skiers who witnessed the slide an hour to find and get her out. Unfortunately, she had head and body trauma and probably hypothermia and by the time she was airlifted the hospital she had passed. I'm not saying that I could have found her any faster, since I normally don't roll with all my back country avy gear when I'm just cruising around the resort, but I do know that I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge in order to keep myself and my friends in a safer set of circumstances when we are out in the back country.

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The lower picture at the top of this post is of Mount Superior, which is right across the canyon road from the Bird. I feel confident about ascending this bad boy. I am going to obtain a detailed top map of the Wasatch and drop all kinds of new terrain now. I always want to "See what's on the other side" and the same goes for this. I know that Big Cottonwood Canyon is on the other side of that peak, but I want to see the panorama for myself. So, that's on the list for this year!

The first picture is of one of the Powder Bird helis. I have had heli riding on my LIFE LIST for a looooong time and I found out yesterday that as my Christmas present, I am going to go heli riding in Utah this winter!!!!!! I was so excited listening to the guy talk about landing on peaks and hitting fresh lines out in the middle of nowhere, I could hardly contain myself, knowing that in a few short weeks, one of those is going to whisk me away to some of the best powder stashes on the planet amongst some of the most beautiful scenery in the world!!!!! I am a LUCKY AND HAPPY GIRL!!!!!