2014 Winter is a Wrap! Hello Summertime!

Who wished the winter away so fast? I sure didn't. It seems like this season flew by faster than ever. It was a great one though! Yesterday was closing day at Eaglecrest. My riding improved a ton, both in the park and all over the mountain. I reached a goal I never thought I'd reach: passing my AASI Level 2 Certification. Stoked to get that Burton pro deal now... among many other educational reasons, of course. :)

I did manage to injure myself a few times, although nothing super serious. First, my knee... then my chest/ribs. It was all worth it though. I'm still feeling the pain of a cracked sternum and ribs, but I am quite content with the way the season turned out. It was a great season with some great people, and I'm already counting down the days until next season!

Today was my first day back at Allen Marine. Yeah, HUGE break between jobs, right? It's ok though. I like making money and I'm stoked to get back into the summer routine. After the awesomeness of last summer, I can't wait to get back out on the boats and make this amazing wilderness my office once again. 

Our friend from back in North Carolina has been visiting us for a week now. It's nice to see a familiar face from back home and I hate to see him leave. It's been a fun week though!

I'm tired and don't feel like posting any photos at the moment, but you can see any recent photos on my Facebook page by clicking HERE.

Jib Jam & Slopestyle Events

I'll get to the exciting stuff first! I just realized I never got around to posting the Jib Jam edit! Sonny Pittman, who has been videoing and making awesome edits of the events, just posted the Slopestyle edit form last weekend so I'll post them here as well. I got a few clips in the Jib Jam edit, and I ended up winning the girls division. Since I cracked my ribs and I'm still out of commission, I didn't get to ride in the Slopestyle contest. Bummer, because it looked like tons of fun and more girls entered this time! I ended up handing out the prizes to the winners, so I have a short appearance in the Slopestyle vid! There is one more event in the Great Alaskan Terrain Park Series, the Wild Caught Banked Slalom, which is happening this weekend. I won't get to take part in that one either :( but I'll be sure and post the video recap of that one on here too!

Here's the Jib Jam edit...

Here's the slopestyle edit...

Thanks again to Sonny for the great edits, and to the sponsors: Sequence Boardshop, Borderline Boardshop, and Aurora Projekt

Great job Dustin and Sarah for organizing such fun events, and of course Eaglecrest for being the heart of it all! 

Reaching Goals

For the past four days a few of us have been in an AASI Level 2 snowboard prep clinic/exam. After learning tons of new stuff, nailing new tricks for the first time, and progressing my riding and teaching even further over those days, I am happy to say that am now a Level 2 certified snowboard instructor! Woohoo! It took quite a bit of studying and dedication, but I knew I could do it if I put my mind to it!

Thanks to all my fellow instructors and friends to helped me through this! You guys rock! 

Here's some eye candy for ya :)

^My shiny new bling :) 

^Starting the last day of the exam with a ridge hike! 

^Looking off the backside of the ridge at the beauty below me. 

^The crew! Photo by Lisa Miles

Sunday Shreddin'

Our instructor training got cancelled yesterday, so we decided to go shredding anyways! Dustin, Niles, Susan, and Lisa joined me for a stroll up Eaglecrest to get some good turns in. This was the second time using my Burton Spliff splitboard, and man oh man is that thing fun! I was worried about the float, since it's short for a split, but I guess Burton's 'nug reduction' technology works pretty well afterall. Although the fresh layer wasn't that deep, only a few inches, I could tell it will float just fine through the waist deep shred days ahead of me this season. It's getting easier going uphill in split mode. I've conquered some pretty steep pitches without my Sparks skins failing me. Only one tumble so far, but that was my bad technique at fault. I can't wait for the shred adventures this winter! I really wish Dustin had one too. If Santa is anywhere reading this post, then you know what I want most for Christmas... a split for my man! :) Oh, and lots of snow if you can make that happen too :)

I GoPro'd the ride down, but I was just holding it in my hand so pretty much all the footage is worthless for a video. My goal today is to hopefully get a few decent still shots out of it. I lost my one and only attachment clip for my GoPro, so I can't attach it to my telescoping pole I use most often.

I got a few photos to share though!

Elite 8 | Eaglecrest vs. Revelstoke

Holy crap. We did it! We beat Red Mountain, last years Ski Town Throwdown champion! 

That means we are thrown into the next round, TODAY, against Revelstoke BC! Now we are in the Elite 8, and if we win this round we will advance on to the Final Four! Once again, the voting lasts two days this time around. At the time of this post, we are leading by around 300 votes! Woohoo!

Here is a screen shot of our Eaglecrest fans showing all their love!

I could go into a big long blab about how awesome Eaglecrest is and list a load of reasons why you should vote, but I won't, because I'm sure you've already heard it from me. :)

Anyways, enough chitty chat. Click this: VOTE FOR EAGLECREST! and show your love!

Show Your Eaglecrest Love!

It's that time again folks, we are in the Sweet 16 of Powder Magazine's Ski Town Throwdown! 

We are up against last years champs, Red Mountain, so we need all the help we can get! Stroll on over to THIS PAGE and VOTE for EAGLECREST! This time the voting lasts two days, so you have plenty of time to tell your friends to go vote too! :) Oh, and you can vote BOTH days!

It only takes a couple seconds, so why not? 

Eaglecrest has got more soul than a man playing the blues on a Memphis street corner. 

Yes, that's a lot of soul, and I've seen it first hand. People love snow. People love sliding on snow. People love powder. People love great terrain. People love EAGLECREST! Now click this link and show your love!

vote. vote. vote. vote. vote. vote. vote. vote. vote. vote. vote.

Week 1 Complete!

Today marks the end of week one of P90X! I survived yet again! The first few days were hell... I was sore in places that haven't been sore since my last round of the workout over a year ago. Even though it's just been a week, I already feel more energized and just good all over. I'm excited to continue the workout and hopefully feel (and see) some more results soon. I know you guys probably don't want to hear about my workouts on a weekly basis, but by blogging it I feel more motivated to finish and workout even harder to get better results. 

Now that the soreness (well, most of the soreness) is out of the way and my muscles are getting used to all that moving around, I can push it further in my workouts and make myself sweat even more. 

Enough sweaty talk...

The snow is flying at Eaglecrest and I can't wait to get some altitude on my splitboard. Dustin is working late tonight and helping make snow. Eaglecrest only has a handful of fan guns, but every little bit helps and the more we can get on the lower mountain, the sooner we can open up terrain. There's a good amount of snow up top, so I've heard... I might have to check it out myself tomorrow :) I have a 'rock board' just itching to get some early season turns. 

The moon is nearly full tonight and it was nice and bright out, so I went out to test the night settings on my camera again. I swear, one of these days I'm gonna get a decent aurora photo! Here are a couple shots that were surprisingly impressive coming from my little point and shoot Canon camera.

This was take on Fish Creek Rd (the Eaglecrest road) on North Douglas. No, that's not the sun, it's the moon. Really!

Shot of downtown Juneau from Douglas Island.

Eaglecrest Needs Your Vote! *updated*

***EDIT***
We did it! Big thanks to everyone who voted for us and now we're headed to the next round, the Sweet 16! On Nov 18-19 we are up against Red Mountain, BC. Don't forget to vote for us again! We made it this far, can't stop voting now!
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Hola! Last month, Eaglecrest beat Whistler in Round 1 of Powder Magazine's 'Ski Town Throwdown'! That means we made it to Round 2 and we're up against Mount Washington, BC. It's a tight race so head on over to Powder Magazine's Facebook page HERE  or click either one of the photos below and vote for your favorite island ski area! 

It will only take a second and your vote will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Pre-Winter Eaglecrest Hiking!

Today was bright and sunny with hardly any clouds in the sky, so we decided to hike up Eaglecrest to the ridge to get some sightseeing in for our friends that are visiting. It was kinda chilly, around 32*, but once we started that ascent we warmed up very quick. The views were amazing as always. There was a nice coat of snow about halfway up the Black Bear chairlift... one whole INCH! At least it's something :) I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

My Usual Long Overdue Blog Post :)

The past month has been AHHHMAZING! I love my job. I love being out on the water every day and seeing such beautiful creatures in their natural state. SeaWorld can suck a big one! I've gotten a few decent photos that I want to share with you guys. Before I start with the photos, I want to share this amazing experience that we are lucky enough to hear on occasion. On our boat we have a hydrophone we can drop in the water to hear the whales and orcas. The resident orca pods are usually pretty talkative and we've been able to hear them a few times. Humpbacks are a little more tricky, since they really only make vocalizations in Alaskan waters when they are bubble net feeding. And that was just what they were doing yesterday! We were on our way back from Excursion Inlet when we stopped at a group of bubble net feeding humpback whales that were a little south of Shelter Island. We dropped the hydrophone and this is what we heard!!

The sound you just heard is the call the whales make as they bubble net feed. In a nutshell, bubble net feeding is when a group of whales swim in a circle creating a 'net' of bubbles around a school of fish, then a whale (or whales) dive underneath and make that sound to sorta stun the fish, which drives them to the surface. Once they are at the surface, still trapped in that net of bubbles, the whales swim up and lunge out of the water eating all those little fish. Pretty cool huh?! And to top off all that, as we were leaving we saw four, yes FOUR different humpbacks whales breach one right after the other! Seeing a single whale breach is kinda rare around here, but FOUR?! I was speechless. Well, I take that back... I was yelling OMG, HOLY SHIT the whole time! Haha. It was the most amazing experience I've had all summer with these whales.

Now to the photos... 

Orcas in Stephens Passage

Humpback calf breaching

Silly sea lions!

Something spooked them and they jumped in the water

Humpback calf tail lobbing. Photo cred goes to Katie Harms!

This whale is nicknamed 'Spot'. Can you guess why? haha

Sea lions on a bouy. One guy is a climber.

Bubblenetters!

Humpbacks

Humpbacks

Humpback fluke

Now some non-wildlife photos. A few days ago my friend Alex and I hiked up Eaglecrest and out Pittman's Ridge a little ways. It's so crazy seeing the slopes with no snow. Most of the blacks that we ride on a daily basis are huge, jagged rock cliffs in the summer. A few trails I looked up at and thought, "how in the hell did I ride this on my snowboard?!" haha. 

Mt. Ben Stewart looking mighty fine :)

Looking off the east side.

Looking west towards Stephens Passage and Admiralty Island

Mountaintop ponds :)

Pittman's Ridge

Had to take a selfie :) haha

Looking towards Juneau.

A few snow patches were still hanging around.

One last thing, the thing that has me so stoked for this winter and has gotten my snowboarding withdrawals at an all time high is this thing...

 

Yes, Dustin got me a SPLITBOARD! Woohoo! I'm so excited! It's the Burton Spliff 148. I know that sounds short for a split, but it has 'Nug Reduction' tech which is supposed to make it ride like a 158. Now I can explore all kinds of new backcountry spots this winter. I still need to get the hardware, bindings, and skins, but I have plenty of time until the first snowflake falls. I have the best boyfriend in the world! He's so thoughtful :) 

Slushy Aurora Whales :)

Lots to talk about since my last post! 

The Slush Cup was an awesome event. After a leaky pond on Saturday, the event was postponed till Sunday so the pond could be repaired. I think it worked out for the better since all that muddy water drained out and they refilled the pond with pretty green/blue mountain lake water. There were lots of competitors, but only a handful made it across the massive 130 ft water pit. Dustin and I worked the 'Big Rippers Grill' with Tessa and Tommy and sold a shit ton of burgers, brats, and dogs. 

What gorgeous weather for the last day of the season!

Lots of spectators showed up to witness the soak-fest.

Is that a front flipping bunny? Yes, it is.

 

This guy SENT it!

We also FINALLY got to see the amazing, magical Aurora Borealis Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Words just cannot come close to describing how awesome it really was. I always thought the videos you see with the lights dancing around was super time-lapsed... which most of them are, but the best part is that they really DO dance around, just not quite as fast as they appear in the videos. It's a truly magical experience and I can't wait to see it again. This planet is one special rock in the universe. I tried to take some photos, but the aurora is super hard to capture on a point and shoot. Below are a few photos that others took from the same aurora event, but it's exactly what we saw with our very own eyes! 

Photo: Ron Gile

Photo: Frank Pierce

Photo: Frank Pierce

I also started training at Allen Marine a few days ago. I'll be mainly working full-time as passenger service and a back-up deckhand, but if a full-time deckhand position comes up then it's mine. I'm currently in deckhand training and have been learning all sorts of stuff about diesel engines, since part of the job is fixing stuff that breaks while underway. Just to be clear, I know absolutely nothing about diesel engines... three days ago. The training is pretty intensive, and honestly things seem a bit easier to remember than I expected. So far, if an alternator belt breaks or a fuel filter needs changing, this girl can fix it! I'm sure I'll learn a ton more over the next couple weeks and I can't wait. I want to learn everything I possibly can about how those boats work. I feel like I'll be pretty mechanically inclined after this summer :) What I'm even more stoked about is seeing whales and other Alaskan wildlife on a daily basis. How lucky am I?! What I feel like is a 'good omen' of sorts, is the whale I saw in Auke Bay before I went to my first day of training on Monday. Whales are such massive, majestic creatures! I wish I had a photo but all I had was my iPhone and it was too far away to really get a decent shot. Note to self: glue my camera to my side!

One of these boats will be my office this summer :)

Also, Dustin got a job with Eaglecrest working full-time over the summer on the mountain ops crew. He's super stoked about being on the mountain pretty much year round. This is an awesome opportunity to get more involved with Eaglecrest and I'm very proud of him :) Looks like he'll be getting a three day weekend all summer... I'll have to admit I'm a bit jealous!
Dustin also snapped this photo of our mountain view from the front of the house...

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Lastly, I want to say how heartbroken I am to hear the news of a good friend's passing today. If you spent any amount of time at Beech Mountain Resort, you knew the friendly face of Scott Dodson. He was a truly good man and was the foundation of that mountain. Dustin and I both have had so many good times over the years with him. Many of the memories I have that involve Beech also include Scott. If you needed help with anything, he was always there with a lending hand. He loved that mountain so much, and it showed. I can remember countless times where I've laughed so hard it hurt, all because of Scott. May he be eternally happy now, without pain or suffering, looking down upon his family, the mountain, and people he loved so much. Beech Mountain Resort will never be the same without him. Rest in peace, Scotty.