What a difference a year makes

Ever since Ryan and I decided over a year ago that we were going to make the move to Jackson for the winter, Brian and Tamsen have been telling us to prepare for their visit at least once to ski the best the west has to offer. Back home my ski trips often consisted of waking up earlier than I did for work and driving up north at the very least 2 hours. No matter how little snow, it was always worth it.

Going further north to get the goods at Jay Peak or Sugarloaf involved even more car time, like 6 hours. It was quite the life rarely being in the city on weekends and often losing more sleep than I gained (the story of my life). It was a struggle to get in over 30 days in one winter without flying out west, something I never did, or logging ridiculous miles every weekend, something I became accustomed to. I was a hardcore east coast skier, for sure.

Living in Jackson has really spoiled me for several reasons. In addition to fighting the urge to become a powder snob, no more do I have to wake up before the sun comes up to get first chair (first Tram is usually another story) and getting to the mountain is only about a 30 minute bus ride with my buss pass, compliments of the Four Seasons, to the best skiing in the U.S. So needless to say when it came time to mix a couple of my ski buddies from back home and this new ski life, I was pumped for their arrival. Even while being out of the house from 6am until 8pm left little time at home to hang with Brian and Tamsen, we did find time to meet up on my shortened ski breaks. Here's a shot from Pepi's Bench with the tram in the background.

Thankfully Olmsted had a few days off to hangout with our visitors and take them over to the pass to ski some back country so they didn't have to pay $91 per adult lift ticket at the resort every day. From the sounds of it they linked plenty of deep, untouched S-turns.

It's amazing the transformation the mountain goes into during major holidays. There are actually lift lines, and really long ones at that, the mountain gets tracked out much faster than normal and in general it means a lot more craziness on mountain and at work. One of the few things I enjoyed during the holidays (other than the tips) was the live band JHMR hired to play in front of the gondola every day. It was cool to see a band play live out in the snow.

With what little time I actually had to hang out with our guests, we managed to enjoy some serious apres ski at the Mangy Moose with some live bluegrass music on their last evening in town. Even though I couldn't convince them to stay and enjoy the storm that was dumping on us, it was great to ski and go out for drinks after with the two of them, just like the old days.

Being their last night, I wanted to make sure we all went out and had a good time. And with Beth's arrival the same night, we decided to make it fancy and hit up a Thai place right in town.

And of course what's a fancy night for Mr. Fancy Pants without a fancy drink to go along with it.

Next time I see Brian, Tamsen, and Beth will be at Taylor and Andrea's western themed wedding in Portland next weekend. It's going to be a hoot. Oh, and I'll get to see a lucky lady for the first time in months too. One more week and then it's off to Portland. Can't wait.