Elation

Losing touch with the technological side of life can be very refreshing. You find yourself spending more time getting in touch with the realness. Unfortunately I'm not very good at embracing those moments. I'm trying to do better, but while you're on the road or in close living quarters you tend to get sucked into the digital escapade out of boredom. Thats my analysis. Once I'm out of the confines of our beloved minivan and back home in Utah, I definitely plan on spending some time in the wild...camping, biking, hiking, looking into the vast of stars above and philosophizing. Anyway, I'm not too sure what I'm rambling on about right now. Here are some in between photos of Mt. Hood-Mammoth over the past week...Packed like sardines.

Progression of surface enhancement gliders.

Step down hip at Timberline.

Nerd session.

Windell's BOB. Good ish.

Sessioning the Ski Bowl A Frame with Andy Mahre and the Hunting Yeit crowd.

Night mashed potatoes at Ski Bowl.

In the middle of nowhere. I don't get it.

The whip is getting some new shoes.

En route to Mammoth. Shasta in the background...

Winter...again.

Baker was rad, but it didn't last long. Sleeping accommodations went a bit a rye so we decided to call our Baker trip after an allotted 7 hours there. Definitely want to go back next year though. Jordan powered through the 9 hour drive, which was supposed to be 5 or 6, but due to a wrong turn we didn't end up in Hood until 3am. Thanks Jordan. Its now snowing, it has been snowing and the forecast looks like it will continue to be snowing...

Now heres a video that just came out from the Black Lips.

Centennial +1

My 100th blog post isn't this one, but my previous. So heres to 101. Anyway, that stuff isn't interesting. Got back on my sticks today. Shin still a little tender, but I wanted to get one more day in at Whist before we headed out to Baker. Anthony had "stuff" to do, so Jordan, myself and our newest arrival, Paco......went up and hit a little rhythm line... Fun stuff. And here are some other visuals from the past few days...
Rob with the gap to roof...Jordan with this little diddy...Tony with the gap to mega flat...

SHOVE OFF!

Been poking around Whistler the past few days. Getting some shots of this and that. Definitely some biz you won't see in those major budgeted productions. The Frank Zappa quote, "Art is making something out of nothing and selling it." somewhat applies to our journey. But I'm not going to be pretentious and claim that, so lets just see what happens over the next couple weeks. And on that note, I have been behind the lens, not in front of it during these past few days. I had an unfortunate misstep while walking up a rocky embankment. Which resulted in my shin looking like this...But with the help of a frozen bag of corn and a few days of easy living, I'm hoping to be good by the time we're skiing Mt. Baker. I've got about 32 hours to make that happen.
See you soon...

Squawking

Before I went to the Orage Masters, I took a trip to Lake Tahoe with my brother. He is sponsored by VISA!!! ha. Lame. Racers...psfff. Anyway, he brought me along to a San Francisco 49ers charity event. They put us up in a nice hotel and had their scantily clad cheerleaders welcome us. Gold mini-skirts and pom poms don't really feel too welcoming in mountain settings, but oh well.
We bailed on the first days events and went to a friends house and had an amazing day making candles, homemade pizza (in a real brick oven), other wholesome treats and playing with dogs. That definitely was the best day of the trip. Thanks Lauren and Elsa.
The next day we were obligated to go to the dinners, auctions and blah blah blah. Interacting with massive guys that would most likely be the pristine warriors of our current planet, if it weren't for guns completely negating natural selection of the human race. But if you want to read more about that kind of interaction, go to Grete's blog... www.greteeliassen.com. She recently attended a similar ordeal. But I did enjoying being a part of the event and it was real nice to spend some good ol' quality time with my good ol' quality brother.

I always enjoy boarding a plane from the tarmac. Feels more adventurous than walking down one of those weird portal arms.

And God said, "Steven create light!...in the form of a candle. Good job son."

My Mom's Dad used to own a pizza shop called "Heaps of Pizza". We were good at this...

Not my cup of tea, but I definitely wouldn't mind these guys' salary. Quality over quantity, right?? Right??

I skied Squaw Valley one day with Mike Wilson. We met up with Garrett Russell, Jason Levinthal and a bunch of the people that make up Line Skis. Good people, good fun. Too bad my camera settings were on manual and the barney photog botched the shot. This is as best as I could manage with some level adjustments...

Orage Masters

Drove 17 hours up to Whistler yesterday. The Surface Collab was extended a last minute invitation to the Orage Masters (www.oragemasters.com). We took it. Now here, being put to the test of the judges tomorrow. Peep the live webcast tomorrow after the jump...
http://newschoolers.com/web/content/pagetemplate/name/streaming/page/masters08

After that we're shoving off on the Joystick roadtrip. Whistler to Los Angeles and everywhere in between. Anthony Boronowski, Jordan Seldin, Paco Garcia, myself and maybe a dash of some other fellas throughout the venture. More to come as the clock ticks.