Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Kronplatz Vlog

Sarah created a Vlog about our experience leading up to and racing at the FIS World Cup Women's GS race at Kronplatz, Italy. 




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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Road to Pyeongchang 2018 - Part 1

Training across the way on Furkel Pass, Italy


And we're back! World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland last year went well and now I've been named as the coach for Team Mexico in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. Holy shit!

I found out this news pretty casually over the summer while at Mt. Hood doing Party Beach Ski Camps. "You are the coach," Sarah said.

Fast forward to around Christmas time and I get a photo message with flight details, SLC > Seoul, Korea! What!?! It's happening.

So, again, last summer at Hood, Sarah was training with the camp she coaches for, Erich Sailer Camp from Buck Hill, MN. She told me she was feeling so good, like the way she used to ski a few years back. Fast, clean. Last run of the day, boom, there goes the ACL. Some great momentum halted, back to square one. Crushed.

View from Kronplatz, amazing Dolomites


Ever since Sarah's son, Lasse, was small, (he's 9 now) she had a dream of living in Northern Italy with her family, the Sud Tirol region, full time. She'd enroll Lasse and her kindergarten aged daughter, Resi, in school, having them learn German, fully immersed, and also get herself some world class training in this small but legendary village. Kastelruth, Italy is a gorgeous little town, nestled in the Dolomites, widely regarded by most skiers who've been here as the most beautiful region of the Alps.

The plan to live in Kastelruth continued, what it looked like changed slightly. Sarah has been focused on recovering her knee while across the pond, working with a highly regarded physical therapist and being a mommy to her kids as they adjust to this new, often times difficult, life in a foreign country with school in a new language.

Sarah racing SG at World Champs last year, in all borrowed equipment as her luggage didn't arrive on time.
Note the Swiss speed suit - the Swiss crowd loved this!


Seven months out of surgery she's back to the World Cup. I wanted to come over to Europe to do some races with her so that we can reconnect before the big show. I want to take this seriously and do the best I can do for her as her fifth and (so-called) last Olympics. I say "so-called" because, like I explained in a previous post, she's truly addicted to ski racing and may just compete forever. She's already talking, albeit with a laugh in her tone, about the 2019 Are, Sweden World Championships.

So here I am, in this cute little village in the Dolomites, ready to wake up at the crack of dawn to drive along winding mountain passes about an hour away, but about 10 minutes as the crow flies, to Kronplatz, Italy for the women's World Cup GS race.


Cool fog and sunshine through the rocky Dolomites on Furkel Pass



We arrived in Kronplatz a day in advance to do the "hill free ski", which turned out to be cancelled due to new snowfall. Usually before a World Cup race they'll let the competitors ski on the race slope to get a feel, without gates. Racers have differing views of this concept. Some like to take advantage of being on the competition slope, while others think its almost a disadvantage because their free skiing turn shape is different from how the course will be set, and it gives them a skewed view.


We call ourselves Team YAS KWEEN

Instead of the hill free ski, GS training was offered across the race hill on Passo Furcia/Furkel Pass. We arrived in Kronplatz in time for the free ski, but instead quickly hooked up with independent American skier, Megan McJames, and scurried up to training for a few runs to get their rhythm dialed before the next day's race.

Sarah, back in the day. Her post card on the wall at the cafe where we trained. 

They only took three runs, just to get a feel, but not over train so they can stay fresh and ready to rip tomorrow. We were done around 11:30, so we had the rest of the day to tune skis, have lunch, and check out the epic spa in our 4 star hotel!



5:00pm Team Captains meeting: coaches from each nation attend to represent their athletes, make sure all the athletes are accounted for on the start list, in the right order, get the scoop on what's happening on race day, present any questions or concerns, and socialize a little bit. At this particular captains meeting, there was a fully catered spread with wine and beer. They served hot food, a full wheel of parmigiano, nibbles and Prosecco! I love Italy.

Sarah is starting bib #54. There are 60 competitors. Ok, we got this. Its crazy to think that Sarah is technically the back of the pack with 14 points. Back home at a regular FIS race she'd be the points. Its all relative. Mikaela Shiffrin has 0 GS points, Tessa Worley has .03 GS points - insane.

Here we go! Another World Cup race! I am a World Cup ski coach. Pinch me. I feel like a badass. This is the top of the top. So professional. So much time, money, preparation and effort goes into these events.

The race slope, Kronplatz 


Beautiful inspection, photo courtesy of Megan McJames
Team Mexico in the start at inspection


As we get to the start for inspection we ski by the greats, the top competitors from each nation, women from Slovenia, Czech, Italy, France, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Poland, Russia, Croatia and MEXICO!

The race hill is steep and slick, like most World Cup races, but this one is particularly challenging with a 61 degree headwall, double fall aways is it slopes to one side and the other, a few rollers, and a turny course set. Its technical skiing, which is good, Sarah is good at turning. She was a Slalom specialist and won a world cup at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, in 2005, (the year I graduated High School) which is coincidentally our next stop on the World Cup before the Olympics and before I go home to Salt Lake for a hot second before Korea.

We inspect the course pretty fast, no over thinking things. This is a race about good, solid technique; outside ski pressure, releasing the ski down the hill, maintaining a good line, out and back. You can see this point proven by Mikaela Shiffrin's first run, she leaned in, she fell. Bye bye.

Good, solid technique. Even on the World Cup its just that simple.

Mikaela ausgeschieden

We have about an hour and 20 minutes before Sarah's turn to go, so we take a free ski run down this gnarly groomed run thats crazier than the race trail, itself. Its super steep, crazy side angle rollers, and just the most beautiful fresh groom. I get follow cam of Sarah but need to stop before I eat shit and hurt myself! Then we wait. Ski racing is so much about "hurry up and wait". Like I said, so much time and preparation go into these events, and your race run is only like 2 minutes total. And thats if you even get 2 runs. The winner, Viktoria Rebensberg from Germany, raced for 2 minutes 9 seconds total. All of our effort for this race wound up with 1:10.63 seconds of actual racing for Sarah. This is how it goes.

Party Beach girls having fun at the start


One and done. Sarah took some time to schmooze in the finish area, greet old friends and fans, sign some autographs, "can I make selfie?!" little race fans exclaimed as we ski over to the gondola. We watch the second run from the finish area, and speak of the devil, Alberto Tomba, ski racing legend, "La Bomba" is there showing face! So many stars, its amazing. Then its back to Kastelruth to regroup, make a plan for Lenzerheide and reconnect with the kiddos before heading off to do it over again.

The international super star himself, Alberto Tomba!

We hope to train back at Kronplatz on the race hill before going to Lenzerheide, as this is the best and closest prepared slope. She needs to train on those icy, difficult slopes more. She needs more milage on World Cup level hills. Its funny to say that because she has raced literally countless World Cups, and FIS races in general over the years. Yet it was back to ground zero after her injury, so she really does just need the miles, the repetition to gain confidence. She was timid on race day at Kronplatz. Rightfully so, as it was her first race back on the big stage post injury. She also tunes her own skis from two years ago. The women she's up against have legit, brand new, dialed setups, service men, and so many more advantages.

But, as a wise, veteran ski racer once said to a group of eager young racers, "you need to have the memory of a goldfish." 3 seconds. Whats in the past is over and done. Forget about it and move on because right now is right now and tomorrow is a new day. You cannot dwell on mistakes. This is wisdom for regular life as well. All you can do is learn from your actions and use it moving forward. So thats what we will do. That is why we raced Kronplatz, that is why we will race Lenzerheide. We need to see where we are at, I need to see where she is at, so we can go into the Olympics with some good preparation.



Saturday, February 11, 2017

Happy Thank You More Please

This blog has taken a back seat to living my life in the present, however, I feel the time has come to give an update. So many things. I've traveled back and forth to Europe so many times, to Mexico, and across the US for the last several years and its turned my life around from the depths of pain, loss and despair. A breakup inspired some of the travel, the loss of my brother inspired a heck of a lot more. Starting a business, traveling much more, quitting my job, changing things up, opening myself up to the unknown, to opportunities I never knew I could have, taking a risk and creating more upheaval and change than maybe was healthy for me. Now I am here. Living my dream. Living a dream I hadn't even conjured yet. Now its here. It is everything to me. 

Here is a little excerpt, my response to some questions from a reporter from my hometown of Glens Falls, New York. #GFNATION who caught wind of my current situation. 

I am kind of cheating by just pasting the words below, but its a good taste of what I've been up to, my motivation and what the inputs are for the outcome that is my life right now.  

I have so many photos, too, and I will post them. But here are some words to share first. Read them if you want, follow me on instagram for a little different explanation and a little more multi-media. @skistrange 

Heres to attracting more positivity and endless possibilities into my life. I am so incredibly blessed, fortunate, lucky and grateful I cannot even begin to understand it. I saw this movie years ago and I loved the sentiment then, and I am realizing more and more how true it is. The film is called HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE. And its all about being happy, being grateful and asking for more, from the universe, from people in your life, from yourself. So, here's to that! Prost, Sante, Salut, Cheers, Chin Chin!


Slip crew in Cortina, Italy for Women's World Cup in January
Packed and ready to go to Europe for the winter, what it will bring, I had no idea



-------------------



I became a ski coach somewhat by default. It was in my blood since I learned to ski, fresh out of diapers at Gore Mountain from my mom, who was a ski instructor and then race coach there for most of my early childhood. She put me in the Ski & Play daycare program even before I was even ready to ski, just played all day while she taught, and then when I was potty trained (haha), I started the 1/2 day baby ski program and never looked back! 

Some days she would take me out of the daycare to go skiing either I was in front of her and she skied backwards on the bunny slope, or she'd take me up to Chatamac and Hawkeye trails to ski the bumps, holding me between her legs as I shrieked with excitement, exclaiming "Go faster Mommy!!" as her legs burned all the way down. I still remember that from age 3 and 4 because I loved it so much, and it clearly made a massive impression on me for the rest of my life. 

Not only was my Mom an influence on my love of skiing, but also my late brother, Jack Strange, who had a deep love for skiing and ski racing, and became my coach when I was rising the ranks as a J1 & 2 or now they call it U19 at West Mountain Ski Area

Jack inspired me, helped me develop my skills and truly showed me the passion and fun of ski racing. He worked so hard for us, my team, at West Mountain, and I look back and think, wow, he was so dedicated to being a coach. All of my peers growing up ski racing have a story about him, what he said to them in the start or during a day or night of training to inspire them to give it another go when they were down. 

I've looked up to and followed Sarah Schleper's racing career since I was a young ski racer, and I remember vividly watching her, Bode, Lindsey Kildow and Erik Schlopy race in person at US Nationals at Whiteface, I think it was 1999. However, I came to know Sarah personally, fairly recently. 

I started my own ski camp this last summer at Mt. Hood, Oregon. Party Beach Ski Camps. its all about having fun! Ski racing is really intimidating and people can get overly serious about it. We want to cultivate an inclusive and "judgment free" environment where kids can blossom their own definition of what it means to be a skier and ski racer. So, one of the families in my camp had also been to Sarah's camp in Austria the summer before. This last summer they asked that I take their kids over to join Sarah.

I found myself in Hintertux, Austria by myself, without the 2 kids I was supposed to take, through a series of mishaps and complications, which prevented the rest of the family from joining me. So I was there, without my pupils, but available to work if needed. Lucky for me, Sarah did need my help as her assistant coach got injured and had to leave early. So I stayed and worked with her for the next 5 days up on the glacier and developed a great friendship out of it. 

She is one of the most inspirational people I know. She continues to ski race because she loves it so much. She is fiercely competitive and she says her husband thinks ski racing is her drug, she's addicted. She continues to ski race with a family and 2 kids by her side. She puts herself out there even among nay-sayers or people who question her choices. I wouldn't say she doesn't care what the nay-sayers are saying, but that her love for the sport supersedes their doubts. She is racing here at World Champs because she CAN! Because she's found a new love of racing speed, Downhill and Super-G, and she has the opportunity to do it here on the world stage. I mean, if I still had the power that she has in her skiing, I'd continue to race too! But I have no regrets about my ski racing career. I feel that as far as I went with my ski racing has truly lent itself to the coach I am today. 





Being in Switzerland is absolutely incredible. Its gorgeous, fancy, mountains in every direction, incredible food, hospitality, its a dream come true. Especially because I am right in the middle of the racing. I am participating and finding responsibility and purpose on the World Cup. Not just World Cup, but World Championships. Its unbelievable. Being a ski coach in general is my dream job. Owning my own ski camp is my dream job. Coaching on the World Cup, especially just one athlete who is my friend, who has so many years of experience and a highly respected reputation is beyond a dream come true. Its like the dream I didn't really know could come true. Or my wildest fantasy that has become reality. 

I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity and this experience. I have to pinch myself on a daily basis. Even as I write this, I'm sitting in this gorgeously set dining room with white linens and silver as the sun shines through from snow covered pine trees and freshly covered gigantic rocky mountains in view. How did I get here? I ask myself. How am I so lucky to have attracted this experience, these kind of people into my life? I must keep it up, bring in more of this, because its everything I've ever wanted, everything I never even knew I could have, but that I've been striving for. 

So my main mission of this trip is to work my ass off, do everything I can to support Sarah, learn, listen, soak in, network, put myself out there, because then perhaps I can do it again. Maybe I can support Sarah again on this stage, or even bigger, the Olympics at Pyeongchang. If I can do the best job I can do, be there for her and help make things easier and smoother for her, then maybe she'll want to keep me around! She won't be racing forever (although she's certainly extended her career beyond most), I better do what I can to join her on this crazy ride before its over. 

I feel like theres a lot more I can say as coaching ski racing and inspiring athletes to love skiing as much as I do is just in my DNA, its deep in my heart and soul. Its everything to me. And its even more special to me now as I've lost my brother, a huge inspiration to me in regards to the love of skiing. He was my biggest fan and biggest supporter besides my parents, who have also always supported me and my "alternative" lifestyle and career choice. But I realize and fully believe that when you find passion in your work or just in your behavior and actions, the universe is unlocked. The universe is at my fingertips and the positive energy and love I have for what I do is reciprocated back to me. That is how I am where I am today. 

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Powder Post

Every year I look forward to working with Powder Magazine to try out next year's skis and write reviews for their forthcoming September Buyer's Guide. Powder has created such a unique and fun process, bringing in a bunch of ripping skiers from across the industry as well as all the brands that buy in to be featured in the magazine. Check out my posts from years past about Powder Week, the greatest week of the year.

This year in addition to the Powder Week "ski test" (they don't like to call it a ski test, but thats what it is), they invited me to participate in their outerwear test, Thread The Needle. Powder hosted this event at Deer Valley, Utah this year, basically in my backyard, which enabled me to have a little stay-cation while taking part in the event.

Much like Powder Week, Thread The Needle invites a bunch of ski apparel brands and an equal amount of ripping skiers to try on the gear and ski around in it in order to write reviews for Powder's gear guide that comes out in October.

Thread The Needle was basically a dream come true from a shameless "gear whore" like myself. Its basically a fashion show for next years outerwear from brands like Patagonia, Scott, Flylow, Faction, Eider, Arcteryx, and Armada, to name a few. I felt like equal parts model and princess getting dressed up and schmoozed by the brands I was paired with, ripping around the perfectly manicured groomers of Deer Valley for three days.

Skiing around in six or so different brands over three days showed me a lot about the construction of outerwear, fit, function and utility. Theres a lot of technical features involved in ski wear that you might take for granted. You obviously want a jacket to be waterproof yet breathable, possibly including ventilation like pit zips, easy to use and well-placed pockets, internal pockets for your phone, a hood that fits over your helmet and/or can zip off completely, and then theres more technical features depending on the use its geared toward, like if its a bulky puffy for cold resort days, or if its streamlined, and lightweight with strategically placed vents and zippers based on wearing a pack while backcountry skiing. No wonder they're so expensive!... and rightfully so.

A pleasant surprise and added bonus from the event was being named Powder POSSE "Duchess", which was awarded to me based on my sartorial prowess, enthusiasm, and representing "the most style and class." Their words, not mine. ;) The award for the Duchess is a gloriously bedazzled wizard staff/stoke stick/ski pole, which I own for the next year and intend on enhancing creatively for when I pass it off to the next Duke or Duchess next year.

Check out some of the clothing I got to ski around in during Thread The Needle 2016:


Flylow - their bib pants that I'm wearing are my favorite!


Another from Flylow

fun with Faction

little did we know Jesse and I would win Thread The Needle as Duchess and "Best in Class"

Taking this event very seriously

Duckworth - the yummiest merino wool base and light layers 

Scott touring kit

Scott big mtn pro kit

The winners of Thread the Needle, the Duchess and Best in Class 
The Duchess' wizard staff/stoke stick/ski pole

Patagonia super nice resort kit

One of my favorites from Patagonia, Powslayer bibs and shell jacket


Saturday, February 21, 2015

Creative Thought Matters


The winter of 2015 never really started in Utah. It ended with the New Year and has been asleep ever since. Given the lack of snow and spring-like conditions I’ve gravitated toward other activities besides skiing to keep me going. I never consciously thought I need to figure something else out since the skiing sucks, but looking back, I’ve done more with what the city of Salt Lake has to offer than ever before. 

Smog & no snow :(


It all started with the Sundance Film Festival. Historically, I never participate in Sundance because I’m too busy skiing and couldn’t be bothered. This year however, some opportunities fell into my lap that I couldn’t pass up. A world premiere screening of “Digging for Fire” kicked it off with a chance meeting of the star actor, Jake Johnson, from New Girl. Then I entered and won my office raffle for tickets to “Mississippi Grind” staring Ryan Reynolds.



Sundance reignited my interest in the arts that has dwindled since graduating from one of the best art, theater and dance liberal arts colleges in the country, Skidmore College. As Martin Luther King Jr. Day came around, our local independent radio station, KRCL, announced a screening of “The Night James Brown Saved Boston”. This documentary detailed the significance and influence James Brown had over the black population when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Paired with the unique draw and respect he had from white people, he was able to captivate an entire city, preventing more rioting and chaos from ensuing that had already taken many cities across the country.



From Sundance premieres to historic documentaries, the next form of entertainment came in the form of live music. Salt Lake City draws some pretty great acts from stadium filling performers to local indie bands. March Fourth Marching Band came to The State Room and of course I couldn’t pass that up. March Fourth is a difficult band to classify. They are part street brass, part funk, part drum line, part circus. I was first blown away by March Fourth at the Oregon Country Fair and never forgot their weird, electric, larger than life style. Their night at The State Room was beyond expectation, moving me to dance my ass off with a huge grin on my face all night long.







Too enthralled to get off the entertainment train, I remembered that Hozier was playing a long since sold out show at The Depot the following week. I had wanted to go to this show since finding out about it in the fall, but it sold out within hours of being announced. That Tuesday night my trusty wing woman and fellow live music fan, Keree, and I ventured over to The Depot just to check out the scene, maybe try our luck sneaking in and/or scalping tickets. Keree somehow slithered her way past the doormen and ran into the venue, while I was a little slow on the uptake and was turned away to fend for myself. Thankfully there were quite a few scalpers outside and I was able to score a ticket for $50. Earlier that day I took a gander at Craigslist to see there were any tickets available, finding some on sale for over $100. So for $50, I feel like I still managed to come out on top. Jumping for joy once I got in and reconnected with Keree, we took a celebratory shot for finding our way into a sold out show and jammed out to Hozier all night. It was such an amazing performance to witness because of his huge popularity right now, (his song, Take Me To Church was nominated for Grammy Song of the Year) but also because he played his entire album, no surprises, no new songs, and we were able to sing along the whole night.





Fresh off a live music buzz all I wanted was more. “What are we going to do this weekend?” My roommates and I questioned, “let’s see some more live music.” So to the Internet we went, searching for what’s going on in the small venues of Salt Lake. Even though it was a Wednesday and we were looking for weekend entertainment and I had gone out the night before to Hozier, we saw a cool sounding bluesy act playing at a venue we’ve heard so much about but had never been. So off we went to The Garage, one of the coolest bars I’ve been to in Salt Lake that shares its border with an oil refinery. Israel Nash headlined the night, a bluegrassy rock band with some awesome guitar. Yet the opener may have rivaled Nash for best of the night. Timmy TheTeeth, a local band, also bluegrassy, kind of stole the show. Although their sound wasn’t nearly as big or produced like Nash’s, there was something about their folky, acoustic set that was magnetic. After reflecting that I’d seen music three nights in the past 8 days I realized, just like any other big city, you can go out and find entertainment every night of the week here. Without the distraction and fatigue that epic skiing brings, Salt Lake City is actually a legit city with a pulse that has lot to offer.

City Weekly is where we ended up finding the show at The Garage, but they list all kinds of events for every night of the week on their sight, which lead me to my next evening out. Switching gears slightly but still on the arts and entertainment kick, I noticed there was a free ballet showcase performance at the U the following night. Coming from a school where dance is one of the premiere majors I was curious to see how a large research university’s dance program stacked up. Most of the performances were beautiful, especially the co-ed groups. However one of the groups did a Britney Spears montage including Hit Me Baby One More Time, where they wore schoolgirl outfits and pranced around like ditzes who thought they were cute and sexy. I was disappointed that the student-choreographed number to Britney Spears wasn’t at all avant-garde or unique in the slightest. In fact, it was incredibly unoriginal. I’m sure they had a blast dancing to it, they looked like they were having a lot of fun, but I was left wishing they had put an ounce of creativity into it to produce something we haven’t seen before out of a popular hit. 


            
Regardless of the lackluster performance, I was glad I went to the ballet to experience a different kind of art that made me think. It made me appreciate where I got my education and how lucky I am to have witnessed some of the most talented young dancers, actors, musicians and performers at Skidmore College and among their peers in the industry today.


When it hasn’t snowed in a month, temperatures reach 65 on the regular and there’s just no motivation to go ski, you have to get creative to stay stimulated. Turning my focus from the mountains to the city is one of the benefits of living where I live. Salt Lake’s tourist board Visit Salt Lake boasts that it’s home of the biggest ski town in the country, where you can ski at world class resorts and après in the heart of a metropolitan city center. This winter has inspired me to explore this city in lieu of heading into the mountains. Although its been cool to experience the city's entertainment, I still pray for snow and hope that “Miracle March” will come through in the clutch moment, providing me with the legendary powder that drew me here in the first place.  

Monday, December 1, 2014

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving week was spent on a whirlwind tour of Colorado. From Boulder, to Summit County, to Cuchara (in the middle of no where, near the New Mexico Border), to Aspen and finally back to Salt Lake City. 

A level 200 USSA coaches clinic brought me to Winter Park, which lead into a couple days of coaching for Speedy's Thanksgiving Camp at Copper, that segued into a road trip from Boulder to Cuchara for Thanksgiving with my cousins and their friends' family. 

To say that Cuchara, Colorado is a very small town in an extremely remote part of the state is kind of an understatement. I barely knew that part of the state existed before my arrival. However, it blew me away. The family we visited lives at the base of Cuchara Ski Area, an old, run down, non-operational ski area lost in time. Their lifts last spun in 2000 and only sporadically throughout the 80s and 90s before that. 

Rather than brave the swarming crowds on Cuchara's main street of an antique shop, a pawn shop and a bar on Black Friday, I decided to do an exploratory mission up the ski area. Starting at a base of 9,248 ft elevation, I ascended about 1,400 vertical feet to their highest lift. With Banjo, my cousins' lovable labradoodle, in tow I picked my way through barely covered under brush and bushes, deeper wind drifts and straight dirt in spots. As I rounded a corner and began traveling straight up the main run the wind eerily blew the abandoned chairlifts, still hanging onto the lift cable for any hope of resurgence. 



Once I made it to the highest point where I felt I could ski down I took off my skis and hiked up the last 150 yards or so to the top lift shack. It was pretty windy that day with spotty snow coverage at the top, so I figured booting up the last bit to claim the summit was fair enough. 

Sitting on an old warped picnic table next to the lift I basked in the sun, feeling strangely at home on this mountain. The run down rickety lift reminded me of where I grew up skiing at West Mountain. The old school humble charm of Cuchara, and any small, grassroots ski area for that matter, evokes the feeling of my roots, where I fell in love with skiing, and where there will always be a special place in my heart.

The skiing actually sucked. But as it always should be, its about the journey, not the destination. Being on this quiet mountain reminded me that I love being outside, on my skis, exploring new places and being completely open to whats next with no expectations. 

It dumped at Copper a few days before Thanksgiving

Me and my wing-man, Banjo, en route to Cuchara

Cuchara at Sunset

Cuchara by day!

Cousin selfie
My cousin, Ryan, who owns Front Range Timber, a barn-wood reclamation company that is blowing up in Denver right now

Baby cousin selfie!

Obligatory Thanksgiving spread photo

and pie...

At the base of Cuchara Ski Area







Summit selfie with Banjo