Merry Christmas!

Time flies. And so does the snow. And this past month, so did Trevor. At least I felt like I had. Apparently, that's what repetitive 1,000 ft doses of powder snow does to me. I don't know, I guess I'm still getting used to it, but it's becoming more natural and I absolutely love getting up high on some new terrain in the winter. What began generally as an idea and a dream a couple months ago has quickly become a reality. And sometimes I still feel as though I'm living a surreal dream.

The weekend of the 4th/5th, I was able to get in a few runs at the Ghee with Ron after work on Saturday and then Sunday was spent skiing Oliver in the morning before attending an Arts Council meeting that afternoon. I had plans to visit Portland from Dec. 8th-14th, but heavy winter weather snuffed out those plans and I instead spent that weekend doing what else... spending alot of time on skis in the backcountry. Saturday, Dec. 11th, we took a couple laps again on Oliver. Quick and easy. Sunday, it was back into the park (GTNP) for a trip up Garnet Canyon. Rapidly warming temps put an abrupt end to that trip as we began to encounter widespread areas of unstable snow throughout the canyon at 8,500ft.

The next weekend, Jay and Lisa put on a 5k/10k run in Teton Springs on Saturday so off I went to run a 10k.


After the run, MikeE and I took a Glory lap off Teton Pass and came home feeling utterly spent. But, of course, then it was Sunday and that meant going to the park for Big Powder Park Sunday! We ended up getting three laps on Maverick and calling it another great day.

I took the end of this past week off so after doing some Christmas prep on Wednesday, I took off on skate skis in Teton Canyon for a quick dusk jaunt upcanyon and back. Thursday, taking advantage of a midweek day off, we headed back into the park for a trip up 25 Short. Yep, another three big laps of soft fluff. How could I ever go back to resort skiing after this? Friday, Christmas Eve, we made for the summit of Housetop Mountain, but after 4 hours of ascending, we called it off and turned back having another 1 1/2 hours to go before reaching the summit and a dinner party to be back for at 5:30. That peak has a deceptively long approach. Maybe some other day when we have more time.
Which brings me to today. Christmas. And another early trip up Oliver before anyone else had arrived and an absolutely beautiful Christmas morning to enjoy.

And if anyone is wondering where the photos are, well, some of them are still in my camera somewhere up on Maverick where my camera departed my possession and became one with the frozen Teton Mountains. And that explains why the photos from the later trips are missing as well. So until I get a new camera, this will have to do.

Merry Christmas to all of you.


Also, a friend of mine sent this video link to me. Another brilliantly done short film.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

Donating Shoes to Africa

I've been meaning to put up this post for quite a while.



Last February or March, a dozen or so pairs of my old trail running shoes were stuffed into an oversize, overweight suitcase and flown off to Africa. This is where they ended up.









There are many organizations out there that take in used (but still in wearable condition) running shoes and send them over to Africa. Woontanara Aid just happens to be my local connection. From the sounds of it, collecting shoes and getting them to Guinea is logistically difficult for this particular organization and, at this point, it's not something that they are really focused on. Woontanara Aid recognizes the need for shoes over there, and they were happy to make room for mine, but their focus happens to be in other areas like education and health care.

My biggest request is to never throw away your old shoes unless they are completely, utterly unwearable. There are plenty of people in this country that would love to have a still decent looking pair of top-tier footwear. And there are countless other people in other countries much worse off than ours that may have never worn shoes in their entire life. So donate them. Either to your local second-hand store or maybe to an international shoe-specific charitable organization. Give the gift. Share the love. You may never know just where your old shoes will end up. But won't you feel good knowing they may cause a reaction like this?



For more information, please visit


http://www.woontanaraaid.org/

Here are a couple more websites for non-profit organizations that are shoe specific:

http://www.shoe4africa.org/

http://www.theashefoundation.org/