The Season Ender: On The Side Lines But Not Out Of The Game

So it has been quite a while since I last posted on this thing and much has happened…

The long and Windy Road to Recovery (aka little cottonwood)

Last I wrote I was well on my way to diving into teaching AIARE Avalanche courses through White Pine Touring, I was looking to Shadow some backcountry ski guiding companies in the Wasatch, and I was just about to sign a contract with Telemark Skier Magazine.
Well, as life often does… I got thrown for a BIG loop and many lessons to follow.

While doing some soul skiing up at Alta with Weston D. I tore my ACL.
No, it wasn’t that simple, but it was that strait forward. Before you ask- No I was not hucking my meat or skiing some spectacular line, I was simply enjoying the first significant storm after our January dry spell. We had about 15″ of fresh, slightly wind affected snow on top of a sun/rain crust. I simply hit the icy layer underneath and sat back, giving a bit of a butt check, when I stood up POP!

Madsen and Weston D. hanging out post surgery

That was the end of my season. It took about two weeks until my denial and that of my physical therapists broke down and we decided I should go in for an MRI. Of course the outcome showed a full tear of my ACL, with surgery and the inevitable end of ski season being the outcome.
It has been exactly one moth since surgery and I have been on a wild journey of sorts. I am not going to dive into the dark places I have gone or the emotional roller coaster that has been the product of a super athletic and physical being, being kept from the only form of meditation and emotional outlet they have ever known, but I will say it has been a struggle, one that I was not really prepared for, but I guess no one ever really is.

Behind the Lense

Since tearing my knee I have managed to do a few cool trips. I went and supported the Telemark Freeskiing National at Alpine Meadows. There, I was able to catch up with a bunch of my friends that I only really get to see when competing. It was actually a really cool experience getting to go to the comp, cheer on all my friends, film a bit for Telemark Skier Magazine, and have a place in the community even though I was on the sidelines (which has never really been my favorite position).

Lunch fest at the ski test

Last week after being cleared from using crutches I headed up to the Telemark Skier Magazine Ski Test in Powder Mountain. Of course I was not able to partake in the physical test, but after expressing my need and desire to stay as connected to the goings on of the industry to Josh Madsen ( friend and editor of TSM) we decided that I would head-up the writing of the 2012 Gear Review. This meant I would take notes at each nights debrief, compile all test sheets, and create an incredible list of the most tantalizing gear you must have! It was a super fun four days of obligatory libations being funneled through a plastic flamingo lawn ornament, AKA the BeerMingo accompanied with great new faces and tons of laughs not to mention a bunch of skis, binding, and boots that I am drooling to get on next season.

Weston D. filing out his test sheets

Tony Gill feeling the affects of a late night and an early morning

The Crew

Madsen and Cody Smith Pondering life

BEERMINGO!!!!

What's a Tele gathering without some dirt musicians. Alex, Zeph, and Madsen getting after it!

Alex scerinading the crowd

Again, being in the periphery has been a challenge, but through a hopefully increasing sense of clarity I have found that if I truly love this sport, then I just have to push a bit harder to make my physical inactivity disappear behind my motivation and drive to continue being relevant through other means.
There are so many lessons and realizations that I have had through all of this. That is not to say that I have become enlightened though it, more like dumbfounded by my own habitual behavior that now doesn’t work. I have gained a new awareness, that I have to learn some new tools, because the old tricks don’t work so well when trying to bend with the braided lattice that is life. So I am on another sojourn and I am sure lessons will continue to trip me along my path, but with each stumble I will gain more balance and continue to gain strength and perspective.

Huge thanks to all my friends, family and sponsors who have been so supportive!

Photo: Re Wikstrom

Telemark Skier Magazine Article- "White Crush"

The one thing that I have found on this crazy journey is that it is the unforeseen trips that end up to be the greatest. No matter how hard I try to plan my season before the crazyness starts there are always the opportunities that open up before me mid season, and it is usually those brief windows that open into incredible experiences.

Last season’s trip to Alaska was one of those windows. I was not planning on competing last year, I had decided that my real focus was going to be on working with photographers and pushing hard to get published in as many magazines as possible.

However, during the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show in Salt Lake City I bumped into
Lizet Christiansen, a fellow Rossignol athlete. She was reintroducing the Alpine meadows comp. to the Telemark circuit and was hoping to get some competitors signed up. I thought on it for a minute and then decided that I always say I want to inspire others and what better way to inspire others than to get involved in a competition that might attract a bunch of first time competitors.

So I told Lizet that she could count me in and I would see her in February at Alpine

As things so often do, once I made that decision the ball just kept on rolling. I soon received an email from Megan Michaelson, who prior was just a name that I had seen in Mags and a reputation that I had heard about. Her email, was inviting a list of people that I had never met (but some I had heard of) inviting us to stay at her mom’s house in Lake Tahoe for the comp.

I was shocked to receive such an incredible open invite, after all I had never met the girl and as far as I knew she didn’t even know I existed, let alone was planning on competing after my 2 year comp hiatus. But after making sure she meant to include me on the invite I accepted the open invitation with out ever thinking it would lead me to an article published in Telemark Skier and an incredible experience up in Alaska.

I went up to Alpine Meadows, competed and met some amazing people.