Treadwell

We found ourselves out by Sandy Beach again today, so we decided to walk out the Treadwell trail again and actually walk the entire thing this time. We saw lots of cool old building ruins and random pieces of the old mine equipment scattered around. The cave in site was cool... the water was SO clear and pretty. We also finally made it up to see the 'glory hole' which turned out to be frozen over. There were also a couple old cars turned upside down over the cliff to the water... hide-a-car gone wrong? 

 Here are a few shots from our walk...

And a few other random shots I took along the way...

I'm Finally Official! :)

Yesterday was the AASI (American Association of Snowboard Instructors) Level 1 snowboard certification exam at Eaglecrest. I passed with flying colors and now I'm FINALLY certified! I've been wanting this ever since I first started teaching 6 years ago but never really had my funds coinciding with the opportunity to take it.

I knew there would be an exam at Eaglecrest this season when we decided to move to the great white north, so I made a promise to myself that I would finally DO IT! Here at Eaglecrest, clinics and exams are much more plentiful than at Beech, so there was no reason for me not to take it. All the clinics and studying paid off, and now I have this nice shiny pin to show for it...

I'm considering going for my Level 2 next season, but I want to make sure I'm fully prepared going into it so there's no chance for failure.

Thank you Eaglecrest for the great training, clinics, and overall perfect environment to succeed, and thank you to all those who have supported me along the way. Only 2 more pins to go :)

Snowshine, Shit for Brains, and Crazy Cliffs

 I love snowshine, and thankfully it's happened a few times lately. When the sun is out and the pretty white clouds are still spitting out snow, you know it's gonna be a great day! How beautiful it is too! The sun makes the snow sparkle even more, and reminds me even more how much I love the snow, winter, mountains and snowboarding.

The past couple days have been EPIC riding days. A ridiculous amount of fun was went down, and will continue to go down as long as there is snow on the ground. So thankful for being in such a beautiful place, surrounded by awesome snow and amazing people.

To start things off, Dustin dropped Shit for Brains this morning with a couple other instructors. Super jealous but so proud of him! If I wasn't teaching a lesson I'd have been right there with them. It's a pretty gnarly chute off of Hogsback that is accessible by hiking from the ridge. I will try to update this post with a photo of the chute a bit later. Unfortuntealy when the guys rode it, no one had a camera on them. Convenient, eh?

Here are a few pics from the last few days. 

The one below is a photo of what I ended up going down yesterday, not necessarily by choice, either haha. Some friends and I were out enjoying the powder and somehow ended up at the top of the lookers left of the cliff in the photo. Only about a week or so ago I was down below that spot and there was some serious rock still exposed, but the last couple snowstorms have thankfully filled it in pretty well.
It looked a bit scary at first, but we figured what the hell, there's no hiking back up, so I might as well suck it up and do it, and it turned out to be pretty fun! MEGA adrenaline rush since it's definitely the steepest thing my board has ever touched. I wouldn't say I rode it gracefully at all... I got a couple sloppy turns up top, did a bit of a sideslip while secretly saying 'ohshitohshit' in my head, then a couple more decent turns at the bottom. I want to go back there when it dumps again and give it another shot, and hopefully a more successful one at that.

 

View from the chairlift.

  

Basking in the awesomeness of the moment. 

So stoked on the entire day.

The view off the east side. 

Happy happy happy.

On my way up Blackbear chair.

Frozen trees. 

Crazybeautiful.

Things Are Always Changing...

So it looks like we're moving! 

Not too far though... just down the street. The apartment we're in now has been great, but it's for sale and we've had to deal with a lot of showings. We don't mind having to leave and let random people wander through... much, but the fact that someone can buy it and kick us out within a month is a little stressful. If the housing market here in Juneau wasn't such a clusterf*ck, it wouldn't be so bad. When we first got here in the fall, it took us a whole month of hotel living and constant searching, calling, and driving around to even get this place. I like to describe the housing market here as a bit 'vicious'.

We were so lucky to have a friend from work give us a lead on a house that was coming available so we jumped on it. I thought the place we were in now had a good view, but this new place has an incredible view! We'll be even closer to the water with a much clearer view of the channel and the mountains, and we'll be in an actual house instead of an apartment. It's a small house, but it has a fenced back yard and is super nice on the inside. I'm just stoked on being able to have a garden this summer. Peppers, veggies, herbs, and strawberries will be plentiful in my kitchen!

Not sure when we'll actually be able to move though... hopefully sooner than later. We have to find someone to rent our place soon or we could possibly have to wait till May 1st at the latest. Since more people are looking for housing than what's actually available, I have a feeling we won't have much of a problem finding someone to take over the last month of our lease.

Then comes the headache of packing, moving, and unpacking! I hate to put Winter through another big change, but hopefully it will be the last big change for her for a while. She's been such a good kitty through the whole process. I can't believe how well she's handled moving across the country.

I do think spring is here. The past couple weeks have been amazing. Sunshine. Snow. Sunshine. Snow. Awesome.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for one hell of a huge snowstorm. We haven't really gotten a big one yet... just many, many small snows.

Ok, enough with the blabbering... onto some photos!

Wait, It's March Already?!

Today it really sunk in. It's March. We are 5 whole days into March. Where the hell did winter go?! It feels like we just stepped off the ferry yesterday. Even though back home, the arrival of March signifies spring riding and the end of the season, we've still got some winter left here. Although we still have over a month before the bullwheel stops turning, the snow will stick around for a lot longer. Just because we won't have the luxury of a chairlift doesn't mean we'll stop snowboarding! We'll be hiking and riding every chance we get. My goal this year is to snowboard every month of the year. In August, September, October... those months that the snow is the furthest away, still won't be THAT far away. 

I will find it. I will hike it. I will shred it.

Such an amazing winter is going to lead into an amazing summer, and I can't wait! 

Here are a few pics from the past week...

 Lisa and I on our way to find some untracked leftover pow spots... which was super successful :)

 Hiked up to hit the little windlip from the previous trip, but ended up going a bit further and dropping a wee little cornice instead. So much fun. This is the view from up higher on the ridge.

 

 Well this tree is rather... solid.

 

The crew from the Level 2 prep clinic I got to attend on Monday. So much fun and I learned quite a bit to help with my Level 1 cert coming up, as well as a few new things for teaching more advanced level lessons. Thanks Matt!