Christmas, Family and Skiing

-
Back when my mom lived in New Jersey it was always fun to go home for Christmas and venture into New York to see the store windows decorated for the holidays, catch a musical, go to Rockefeller Center, and meet up with friends for drinks. But now that she lives in Utah I'm reveling in her proximity to one of my most happiest of happy places, Alta.

(Top of High Rustler run, Alta)

Of course, Christmas is all about enjoying family time. But just behind that is skiing. :)

This Christmas I hit it just right as I arrived early to enjoy a few days of girl time with my mom and sister before my brothers arrived AND in the middle of a thundering storm that dropped almost 3 feet of light and airy champagne-like snow on the Wasatch Range.

3 days of epic conditions on the mountain and 4 days of movies, games, eating, shopping, drinking and taking endless pictures of the first grandchild in our family; not a bad ratio.

I shared first tracks with my cousin Liz and her friend, Kim - both amazing female skiers - and a first walk in the snow with my nephew, Austin. Although he was carried for most of the way so saying "walk" is a stretch. Regardless, it was his first exposure to snow. I hope it takes. I'm here for you, Austin, when you're ready to shreddie!

(My sister, Brooke, with Austin)

I decorated cookies at home with my siblings and made ski videos with my friends on the slopes. Always with a ceremonial, celebratory beer to finish or start depending on the activity.

We played the card game Wizard over and over again at home, while on the slopes, we hiked up the Notch again and again to reach the steep and deep on the other side.
This Christmas was indeed a sublime mix of snow and family; of quality time and sleepless time; of shopping and relaxing. We even made it to the family party on my mom's side where the latest litter of newborns was photographed together and we finally had a representative from the Pinney clan. A first! That's my brother, Justin, on the left.

 Please don't move away from Utah, mom. Unless you're thinking....Colorado?


(View from my mom's balcony)

Comments

Unknown said…
it was indeed fabulous!!!!!!!!
1:36 PM
Rick Gaston said…
The kid is adorable, the photo of the mountains amazing. You are so seriously active, pretty darn cool. I just spoke to J-Few on the phone. I heard you already signed up for races.
3:17 PM
Jessica said…
That looks fantastic! Do you think your mom would want some visitors in March again??? :-)
4:28 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holy Ohlone

-
Image
You kicked my ass. I thought I was a strong uphiller and you beat me down. I knew I was a bad downhiller but you revealed it to be worse than I imagined. I looked at the course profile taped to my monitor every day for the last 8 weeks and I'm at a loss to say what registered. A lot of uphill, some downhill. If I'd crunched the numbers and calculated what it took to drop 1200 feet in just over a mile, or to cover 8 miles straight uphill going from 1200' to 3500' I might have trained differently, clipped my toenails almost off, and started doing nothing but hill repeats - up and down - on Willow Trail or Fillmore Street. But let's be honest - that's not generally my style. Not when left to train on my own, at least. I tend to gloss over the details. And so, while what I didn't truly take into consideration didn't necessarily hurt me, it did make for a long and challenging - though ultimately awesome - day. There's something about jumping into the unk...
Read more

Lessons Learned Planning for the Tour de Mont Blanc

-
Image
Random Thoughts and Tips After scavenging around the Internet looking at multiple blogs, websites and discussion groups, I decided to condense what I found to be the most helpful information and include some lessons learned from actually being on the trail. If you want to read about the actual journey and the highlights you can find that post here . For distances, huts, routes you'll want to use this TMB  site . You can make reservations here. Not everyone makes reservations but we did. We had a tight schedule to condense the trip into 6 days and didn't want to leave availability to chance. For planning and while on the trail, you'll want this Kev Reynolds  book . It gives great detail on the routes, the alternate routes, the sites you'll pass and the huts available along the way. We used it extensively before, during and after. If you're planning a trip anywhere around Mont Blanc in the fall do a quick search for " UTMB " and find out when the rac...
Read more