It was still september when the snow blanketted the Wasatch and I can think of no better way to welcome october than by loading the truck with skis, saucers, and a snurffer. Oh… and of course Merl, the dog and heading up to the Uinta’s to see what we could find.
The snow totals ranged anywhere from 1″ to 8″ across Utah, and the Uinta’s were looking promising. So, I put on all my new Trew clothing (they have to get broken in some how) brought everything needed incase we found a filled in spot that was actually skiable and started up the road.
As we drove past the Jourdenelle reservoir the skies broke and we could see the fall colors on Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort as well as the snowy alpine terrain of Mt. Timpinogos and the provo range.
After a quick stop to take it all in, we jumped back into the truck and continued on. As we headed up the Mirror Lake Hwy I couldn’t help but catch my self staring at the beautiful tapestry of fall colors, while driving through the lower elevations leading through the Uinta National Forest. 
As the road wound further up through the majestic range we suddenly were faced with a huge herd of cattle casually walking down the center of the scenic byway. I quickly slammed on the breaks, praying that I wouldn’t injure any of my bovine friends.
Weaving through the maze of cow
It was wild, as if we had just pulled up on a scene from an old western. There were cowboys driving the herd of at least two hundred down the paved path. As we weaved through the mooing cattle and yelled “Yah! Yah!” out of the truck window, I couldn’t help but get a sense of time a place, beyond heading up to go snurf, saucer, or ski, to being in a place that holds such a deep history and where so many worked, struggled, and died in an effort live and survive in this landscape. As we cleared the last of the cattle and hit the accelerator heading to our point of play, I felt so fortunate to be part of this environment, this mountain landscape, a place that to me represents play, peacefulness, challange and personal growth.
Wintery vista of Hayden Peak
It was with these thoughts that I summited the pass and roled over to the east side. With vistas that open to Wyoming and the High Uinta Wilderness, the snow grew deeper and the excitement of getting out of the truck and romping around was too much to contain.
We jumped out at Fehr Lake trailhead. After assessing, that while the snow was deep, it just was not quite enough to ski, we brought the only tools that could possibly withstand the versatile conditions that lay before. A Snurfer and a saucer. And in the great spirit of the late and great Shane McConkey, we headed off for an incredible adventure with our $4.99 plastic companions.
Slaying the Log slide on the saucer!
Pond Skimming on the Snurffer
Scoping lines for the coming season
The day was filled with side splitting laughter and an over all sense of freedom and excitement for the winter season to come. On our way home we stopped in to our favorite spot right at the gateway to the national forest, the Samak Smoke House. There Jen and Dave brewed up some hot coffee drinks and made some delicious sandwiches. A perfect way to end an incredible day up in the Uinta’s.
So every season about this time I go through my list of contacts and the past emails that I may have sent out in a dizzying haste the previous spring. I comb them for that potentially forgotten email that, while oh so important, some how slipped between the cracks of the shifting seasons. And every year I find at least one email that I forgot to follow up with or respond. This year that email came in the form of message from the team manager for Hestra, Melanie. She had written back to me in the Spring, that I would need to send her my info in a “month or so”- those words, by the way, are a kiss of death for some one who is afflicted with the “in the moment” syndrom, such as myself.- Anyway, I was doing my annual comb a couple of weeks ago when all of a sudden, my ears started to ring, my face turned bright red and my heart started to race. Oh Sh*&$ did I miss my opportunity to get hooked up with the only brand of gloves I will ever put on my hands?! There, staring me in the face was Melanie’s email and I had totally forgotten to get back to her. It was now three or four months down the road. So, with a heavy, yet tirelessly optimistic, heart I wrote back to her. 
I have always had an innate understanding of the phrase “timing is everything” and in this case it couldn’t have been more true. I got a response that afternoon saying that she was going to pick the team by the end of the week and could I get all my info in before then. Of course I could! So with the heist of a college student finishing the final pages of a term paper minutes before it’s due, I typed, cut, pasted, and linked my way through the forms. I sent it in that evening and waited.
During that waiting period, which happens when you approach any company about representing them, I tend to get hyper obsessive, checking my email just about every time I pass my computer. Maybe it’s that I am still a bit of a rookie who is way over zealous about anything that has to do with skiing, let alone the potential of getting to represent companies that I have yearned to be a part of since I can remember.
At any rate, about three weeks and a couple false alarms later, I got the Hesta team list and sure enough, the last name on the last team listed (the local team) was yours truly. So game on Hestra!
Posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago. Add a comment
We’ll I may have spent the past week sick, walking from my bedroom ,to the couch, to the steaming tea kettle and back to the couch, but there were a few highlights. With all the free time that shuffling around the house opens I have been able to properly obsess and start the planning for this coming season.
I have been speaking with a lodge up in BC hopefully planning yet another Women’s big mountain trip. (For those of you who don’t know, last season myself and six other women competed in The World Telemark Freeskiing Championships up in AK. After the comp. we jumped into our rental RV and headed up to Valdez with a for some real fun!) Anyway, super stoked for this next trip and I’m hoping that everything will pan out.
This week also brought a very exciting package to my door. I got all the new Trew threads that I’ll be rocking this season. They are so HOT! Not only are the colors Rad, but the fit is just perfect and I can’t wait to rock em outside of my living room.
Yeah… That’s Right…. They’re BIBS!!!!
Other than that, the first issue of Backcountry Magazine came out and the boys from TwentyTwo Designs suprised me for the second year in a row with using one of my photos as their ad for the AXL binding. Thanks guys!
Well hopefully this awful virus I’ve picked up will release me this week and I’ll get back to the usual summer activities.
Posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago. Add a comment
