Etsy & Rainy Days

As you probably know if you've read some of my previous posts, I have been making earrings lately. I've made mostly Alaskan Brewing Co. bottle cap earrings, but a few others as well. Years ago I dabbled in the earring making hobby but I just didn't get that into it. Now that I'm older (well, a little older), I've come to enjoy making earrings in my spare time (when I actually DO get some spare time! haha). I've made a ton for myself, and now I'm overflowing the bedroom with earrings so I've decided to start making more and selling them! I've sold a few pairs of the bottle cap earrings to friends and on Craigslist, and figured the time is right to put them online. I'm not really trying to make much money off of the earrings I make, but just enough to keep buying supplies (aka beer, for the caps of course :] and beads, crystals, etc).

Anyways, check out my Etsy shop HERE.

Aaaaand it rained today at the base of Eaglecrest. Kinda of a rain snow mix off and on all day. It was snow about mid-mountain on up, but it sure made for a soggy morning. After a couple hours it felt like I jumped in a lake. Dustin and I both were soaked to the bone. Luckily, we got to leave after lunch. It was nice to have a relaxing afternoon after working every day for a while. Definitely adding waterproof rubber rain pants to the list of things to buy. Judging by the forecast, tomorrow will be about the same as today. As long as there is fresh pow to slash up top, I don't care about the rain!

Why I Love Snow.

Today was another great day of teaching and riding. This morning I had an awesome lesson. It makes me feel so good to get people who have never snowboarded in their life to have so much fun and success on the snow. For the majority of people, learning to snowboard isn't easy. It takes a LOT of time, patience, and commitment to really get the basics down. So to those of you who have never given the truly amazing sport of snowboarding a chance, I beg you to give it a try! To me, snowboarding is much more than just a sport. It is a way of life... spiritual in a sense. The feeling of being on top of a mountain, snow beneath me, the heavens above me, and the beauty of nature all around me is more than words can describe. It really makes you appreciate this wonderful planet we can call home. 

Anyways, enough of my snow love rambling. Here are a few shots from today.

Christmas Eve Shred!

So today was pretty damn awesome! I'm really getting used to my new snowboard and I absolutely LOVE it! The Lipstick was definitely a good choice for this mountain. My friend and fellow instructor Lisa helped me explore some more of the ridge today. The sun was shining and oh my gawwwd was it beautiful! I think my heart literally skipped a beat when those mountains and water came into view. We even found a little powder stash that was so fun! :) Eaglecrest has such amazing terrain, and Juneau in general is just incredible. 

After some freaking AWEsome shredding, we helped with some of the Christmas Eve celebration at Eaglecrest. I helped the kiddies make owl ornaments and we watched the torchlight parade which was super cool, then Santa came and gave out presents to all the good little girls and boys :) What Eaglecrest does for the community here is just amazing.

Anyways, here are some pics from today!

First Ride

We finally made it out to ride our new boards for the first time. It was a really fun, good day! The hike up was a bit tiring in spots because our friends that we hiked with took us a different, steeper route. I actually liked that way better since it's more of a straight shot up the mountain. It was definitely more of a workout, but well worth it! Hiking up really makes you appreciate every turn on the way down.

Starting Thursday, Eaglecrest will be open every day through the first week of January. It will be good to get on a regular schedule, make some money, and ride every day! Having normally two days off a week will be a change for us since we were used to working 7 days a week throughout the whole winter season at Beech. When you love your job though, you look forward to working every day possible!

Here are some shots from today's hike. It's mostly just scenic shots, because once we started riding down the light was so flat that it was hard to see much from the GoPro footy. It was a super fun ride down and I can't wait till the next storm to really test my board in some deeper snow. 

Holy Snowflake!

We had some AMAZING snow this weekend. Definitely the BEST pow turns so far! I am in love with Alaska. In love with Juneau. In love with Eaglecrest. In love with EVERYTHING around me right now! I feel so beyond blessed to be able to be here in such an awesome place, working at an amazing mountain with such amazing snow. It just can't get any better.

Here are a few pics I snapped on my phone from the lift today. I'm in the process of getting some still shots out of my GoPro footy from yesterday, but my lens was frosted over half the time so I wasn't able to put a video together like I had hoped. 

Hooter Pow Turns

It was a good weekend at Eaglecrest. Got another lesson in along with some more training and clinicing. The Hooter lift opened up Sunday, and with all the fresh snow on the slopes it brought out lots of people! It got tracked up quick, but the half a dozen runs I got in after lunch was just magical! Even being on my short park board, it was still fun! My back leg was SO sore afterwards, and is still slightly sore today. All that back foot riding is a workout. I gotta do some powder leg workouts! haha

Now it's raining here in town, but still snowing up at Eaglecrest. I can't wait till the Black Bear and Ptarmigan lifts open. So much epic terrain up there just waiting on me! 

Happy shredding everyone :-]

Lazy Friday Ramblings

Figured I would do a small update since I haven't posted in a few days.

Nothing too exciting has happened since Tuesday. It's snowed. And snowed. And snowed :)

And more snow in the forecast!

Unfortunately, only the Porcupine lift will be open again this weekend. Since Eaglecrest is reliant on 100% natural snow on the majority of the mountain, including the upper mountain, the light fluffy powder we've received so far isn't packing down and filling in as hoped. 

I never thought I would be picky in what TYPE of snow I was doing the snow dance for, but now we need some of that heavy, wet snow instead of the light fluffy stuff. 

I have faith in mother nature though, and I know she's not gonna let me down! Anyways, back to work this weekend and hopefully I can get a few more lessons on the paycheck. 

This latest earthquake in Japan (positive vibes to those victims) has got a lot of people thinking... the 21st is near. I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but I do feel like something significant is going to happen on or around that day. Unlike what most people think, I do not believe that it will literally be the 'end of the world', but an awakening, or enlightenment of humanity. The way things are going, humanity definitely needs some sort of help. This world needs to realize that we are all ONE. We need to treat the earth with respect, stop all this nonsense fighting among countries and ourselves, and realize that we are all connected in this amazing universe. 

I'm not going to get into it here, but if you really read the facts and myths behind the Mayan 2012 event, you will realize that it's not a 'doomsday' prediction, but the end of an era. On the 21st, when all the lovely planets are in line with the sun, and our galaxy is in line with the rest of the universe, we will leave this 'bronze' era we are in and go into a 'golden' era. Apparently great things happen during golden eras... the Egyptians built the pyramids, Atlantis was in it's prime, and the world as a whole is awakened and enlightened. With the technology we have now, it's hard telling what great minds might accomplish if greed and money hungry companies aren't in the picture.

Or, we could wake up the world exploding into a fiery ball of molten rock. Who knows?! 

Whatever happens, happens.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, snow-filled weekend! I know I will!

Snow & Sunshine!

We had an amazing weekend at Eaglecrest and we are SO stoked to have the opportunity to ride such amazing terrain! I've literally never seen, much less ridden, so much snow in my life. It just continues to blow my mind! We've decided that instead of waiting and saving up for splitboards, we need to buy powder boards as soon as possible. Our short little east coast park boards just aren't cutting it here. It's at the point that if we try to ride the boards we have in the amount of snow that's up there, it will become dangerous. We need more floating instead of sinking! We never had to worry about having more than one board back home, but here, a board quiver is a pretty much a necessity!

I also got to teach my first lesson at Eaglecrest over the weekend, and it went awesome! I LOVE the fact that we have two hour lessons instead of just one hour. The teaching terrain is amazing... plenty of space, perfect pitch for beginners, and I'll be able to get every lesson on the lift! No more hiking up and down a slope a million times and never having time to make it on the lift with first timers. The first lesson of the season always makes me smile. Every year, after going so many months without teaching, all I have to do is meet my students and it's like the summer was just a blur. The satisfaction I get by seeing someone go from never snowboarding before to falling completely in love with the sport is priceless.

Anyways, Eaglecrest is closed every Tuesday and Wednesday, so we had planned on sleeping in and chilling all day. When we woke up, it was such a pretty day we couldn't stand to stay inside, so that means you're about to get photo bombed! :)

Enjoy!

Opening Day at Eaglecrest!

Today was opening day! It felt soooo so so so good to ride groomed runs and making lift laps. Although only a small section of the mountain was open, we still had a blast. We had training pretty much all day but it was good to brush up on some stuff and get some riding in with other instructors. There were two rails set up and it was dumping snow the whole time.We even did a little rail clinic to end the day. Hopefully the whole mountain will be open soon. Lots of snow is in the forecast, so if mother nature cooperates, we'll be getting more pow turns in again very soon!

Awesome first official day of the season!

This isn't relevant to opening day, but below is a video that we saw at the avalanche workshop we attended a few weeks ago. This morning I saw where my friend Lisa posted a link on Facebook and I was super excited to be able to watch it again since I didn't realize it was available online. It talks mainly about avalanche awareness and safety but also has many great shots of the terrain available at Eaglecrest! Even if you have no interest in anything to do with avalanches, watch it anyways to get a glimpse of what our season is going to be like :)

The Other Side of the Signs: Decision Making in the Eaglecrest Backcountry from Southeast AK Avalanche Center on Vimeo.

A Drive on Douglas

Today we woke up with every intention of getting out and doing something fun, but just couldn't manage to get out from under the warm covers. Sleeping in felt SO good. Dustin was up before me, and I think I finally rolled out of bed around noon. After some breakfast we set out to run some errands, and ended up driving out the road on Douglas to snap a few photos since it was such a beautiful day.

Tomorrow is opening day at Eaglecrest! So excited! Even though only the Porcupine lift will be open, we'll still have fun. I can't wait for the whole mountain to open. I love hiking up to ride, and it makes the ride down seem much more meaningful, but I can't wait to finally ride a lift to the top so I can make way more than just one run a day.

Here are the pics I took earlier!

 I would LOVE to just slash down that face... looks like so much fun!

This guy made an appearance several times, but I couldn't manage to get a good photo :(