the first Masshole reunion of many

Ever since before moving out of my apartment in Southie, my college/Italy trip buddy Zepko has been hyping up winters in Jackson telling me that there is nothing else like it in the country. And especially since last winter was lame, he mentioned that word on the street was that this year could be potentially epic. And after reading about La Niña, it seemed as though his promises wouldn't be too empty. Talking to him was influential in my not moving to Aspen or Park City. Having now been here for a few months, Zepko and Lancour decided to join me to end their cross country journey in Jackson. For Lancour it would be the 2nd or so time on skis and for Zepko it would be a return to the steep slopes of his youth. Both would end up having an awesome time.

For me, all the previous conversations Zepko and I had had were based mostly on imagining what Jackson would be like once I moved here. After buying the DVD, Switft. Silent. Deep, I was definitely able to better grasp what the hype was all about and understand the wild past that this place has. And now with Zepko in town, he was going to make sure that his Uncle Bill (recovering from surgery to reconstruct both knees) would take us into the backcountry. That's him leading the pack.

To get there we had to traverse around Rendezvous Peak and down to Pepi's Bench.

The hike up is rather quick and painless. Just 20 minutes of ascending gets you to the top where you can traverse as far north as you'd like or hit any of the many pow stashes below. This is what the hike looks like from afar (middle part of the pic moving up to the right). If you look close enough you can see the boot pack.

Once up there the views were being masked by clouds but every so often the sun would reintroduce itself and I would try and capture the moment.

After traversing past a lot of good terrain (Headwall and Casper Bowl), we finally dropped in and hit the Crags. Even if I didn't have first tracks, it was definitely steep and deep. I've already had more pow days this winter than I have had all winters past. It's a pretty addictive feeling.

It was a great first run of the day and capped off a day of many other great runs. Zepko definitely knows his way around the mountain. For example, I probably wouldn't have found this hut without him.

Of course in due time I will know a large part of the mountain but long time locals still hit lines they've never done before. There is just so much terrain to ski here and not enough time. Poor Snow King; it just doesn't get the love even with the steepest run in America. You can see it rising out of Jackson in the distance.

After some more tree skiing it was time to call it a day.

With an epic sunset on Rendezvous Peak it was a cap to a great day. I'm sure I'll see Zepko and maybe even Lancour this winter.

Giving Thanks

For weeks now, maybe even months, there has been a lot of hype around how our Thanksgiving was going to play out. Being that we have a relatively sweet set up here at 536 No Name Alley, we figured we would play hosts this year. And what better way to play hosts than to get a deep fryer.

  
Our guest list was extensive enough to include probably our favorite guest of the week Cuddie.

Cuddie is an Aussie Shepherd mix that we took care of for about a week while his owner was gone. He's an unbelievably obedient and intelligent one and a half year old that loves to play fetch and has a half blue, half brown eye. By the end of the week we all felt pretty attached to this mut. It was sad to see him go but being that we all started work just after we got him, he spent most of the days alone waiting for one of us to walk through the door and play with him. But in the short time we had him we all fell in love and were able to teach him how to almost to a back flip, or more like almost a 360.

But anyway, back to Thanksgiving. After loading up the deep fryer with enough soy bean oil we were ready to test it out with some frozen pizza pockets pieces.

Not wanting to skimp out on appetizers, we made some beer battered hand cut french fries just before tossing the seasoned turkey in.

With the addition of our neighbor's turkey and spicy corn mix, we had a large feast ready to be devoured consisting of: pizza rolls, mozarella sticks, french fries, baked potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cheese, asparagus, mushrooms and a pumpkin and pecan pie. Needless to say we were all stuffed after having gorged so hard.

With our stomachs at their breaking point we all made sure to digest properly with some heavy laughter thanks to Cuddie and his new friend, Leeroy (Jenkins), they became insta-friends upon meeting each other. Although a huge discrepancy between their body masses, they played rough house all night.

Even if the cooking could never compare to my mom's, it was definitely the best Thanksgiving I've had away from home, even if it was the only one I've had away from home.