heavy week for us strippers. time to decompress with this nice little ditty that Scot sent my way. Thanks! happy Friday.

The Whole Enchilada: Top to Bottom – Moab, Utah from Phil Shep on Vimeo.

12/6, Snowy Range, WY…hahaha suckaz!

anyone up for a weekend trip to Bend, OR to hang with Wade and Vulture Cycles for his open house shin-dig? i’d like to go.

http://blog.vulturecycles.com/

Bacon Belt Buckle

Originally uploaded by i am indisposed

Would you, could you, in your pants?

This is a prototype for a bacon belt buckle. Cost on the finished product would be about $30. Color is antique bronze. The recesses are just a bit darker. It’s a standard belt buckle with a pin and loop on the back.

Who wants one?

-M

CHILLING:

“I did not have my AvaLung in my mouth but it was poised in position directly in front of my mouth. The impact from the snow pushed the mouthpiece out of position and I could not bite onto it. My ski poles had separated from my hands but there was 2 feet of snow between my face and hands. Snow had compacted in front of my face. The impact from the fall had knocked the air out of my lungs and as my body instinctively gasped for air, I swallowed a fare amount of snow and choked as I attempted to push the snow away from my face and to locate my AvaLung mouth piece. I located it and shoved it into my mouth, inhaled and got more snow into my lungs. Fortunately when I exhaled the snow blew out through the AvaLung and I started to breath though the device.”

via Skier Survives Tree Well Thanks to Avalung.

Diane Van Deren is one of the best ultra-runners in the world, and it all started with a seizure. In this short, Diane tells us how her disability gave rise to an extraordinary ability.

For Diane Van Deren, a charming mother of three, daily life is a struggle. But as soon as she steps outdoors, she’s capable of amazing feats. She can run for days on end with no sleep, covering hundreds of miles in extreme conditions. Reporter Mark Phillips heads to Colorado to get to know Diane, and to try to figure out what makes her so unstoppable.

via In the Running – Radiolab.

One…

Two…

Three!

Shit. We don’t even have WAVES in Tahoe!

-M

YouTube – Salomon Freeski TV S4 E16 Wave Skiing 2.0: JAWS.

Photo from Randy Tognoni on Facebook

Minor adventure on Sunday. We were skiing @ Mt. Rose and were about to load the Blazing Zephyr when the lift stopped. After a while they asked us to all move back, then they brought out coffee, then there was talk of evacuation.

Eventually, they sent someone over to unlock Winter’s Creek Lodge and we piled in there for free coffee and coco and $5 beer and the football game. Meanwile, Ski Patrol belayed everyone off the lift in a blizzard. They they called NDOT to come plow the access road so they could send in a shuttle. All tolled we were there for about 3 hours.

Some people came in REALLY cold from the lift adventure. One kid said it was the coldest he’d ever been in his life. My dad and I spent some loooooong waits on chairlifts back in the day, so I know how he felt. Another couple god bogged down in the snow and had to trudge DOWN the mountain carrying their boards. Almost everyone was OK with being warm, inside, watching TV.

Apparently a chair got wedged into the unloading station from the wind and they couldn’t get it out.

Mt. Rose Staff handled it really well and were very accommodating. No complaints at all. More than that, everyone impacted by this mini adventure was totally cool. No whining, no complaining, no bitching. Almost everyone there was a passholder and to be skiining Slide in conditions like that you had to be prepared anyway.

In my opinion, I’d prefer they err on the side of allowing us access to slide on days like that rather than be overly cautious and close it down. Maybe just have a “ski at your own risk” kind of warning that the lift could get shut down. Even if no one has to get evac’d you could still get stuck while they clear the road. Powder is worth it.

Check the Mt Rose Facebook Page as users post their photos, videos and stories.

-M

Chris King has decided to put their expertise toward another of my favorite things: Coffee. These espresso tampers are built like a headset, but with a stainless steel base. Too bad they’re not going to be available for this season, but should be in the spring, according to Bike Radar.