Snomoshredding: Spring Creek

Charly and friends snomoshredded Spring Creek today. What is sno-mo-shredding? Well, my dearest friends, snomoshredding is when you take a snowmobile, throw a snowboard rack on it, then ride it out into the backcountry to find powdery untracked lines of snow to ride down. To further explain just how brilliant the idea is, let me tell you that Charly told me early this morning(6am) that he didn't sleep at all because he was so excited to go today. As we began getting dressed, though, I opted out of it for today. Something just felt funny about it, and in the end, after eight hours of riding, Charly told me they only took two thirty second runs, got stuck in the pow a ton, and wiped using snowballs. With me wanting a warm day filled with hot chocolate and nursing my soar body from the previous days riding, it ended up being a good call, as I am not nearly as devoted to the sport as others are.

Despite it all, Charly talks of how nice just being out there it is. I love that he is an adventurer. I did miss out on them digging a pit in the snow to check the stability of the pack. It's something that has been on my wanting to do list for awhile now.

*This photo was taken on the first snowmobile shred day of the season, but it's of the same place they went to and so I thought I'd include it.

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas in Blackfoot with Charly's family this year, but hope to make  it to FL this summer and say hello to the 321. Charly woke me up to a white Christmas. Fresh snow, white fog, white branches, white power lines...even the black horse across the road held frost on his long ebony lashes.

Mama Hill introduced us to Quarto, we sledded, and one sister in law is due to have a child in a week while the other had a due date to announce. Her ninth! This Christmas week will be filled with days to Targhee, sno-mo-shredding (got some avalanche and backcountry hiking gear from Charly), and climbing in Jackson.

Amsterdam: around town

Amsterdam: bike ride

Dad and I rented some bikes and went for a five hour bike ride around the countryside. Amsterdam is the bike capital of the world, there are even stop lights for bike traffic. It's a bit hectic in the city when you're biking, but once you reach the open spaces of the countryside it's unreal how beautiful and wide open it becomes. Imagine children playing in canals, tugging themselves across to the other side with a rope that sits in the water and is long enough to sink to the canal floor, allowing little boats to go through, when not in use. The little houses that line the canals are so quaint and cute. I could envision myself with a wooden cutting board in the kitchen of one of them, slicing up green peppers and cooking...whatever the dutch cook.
We came upon a church in a little town where people took their unwanted items to the trash can in old, creaky, wooden wagons with steel handle pulls. We took turns going to the top and looking out at world (to keep our bikes and stuff from being stolen.)

Amsterdam LDS Temple

These posts are late, but they are here. I hope to get all of our trip out during this Christmas break, seeing as how I took this trip with my father back in August.

Good Tree Huntin'

Hand cut tree, carried by snowmobile. Presents with homemade named tags wrapped in butcher paper and tied with holiday ribbon. Homemade ornaments  from decades of time. One wet nosed, cold, happy, puppy.

                                            Merry Christmas