Life in the Mountains

You know, I didn't just magically hop through time and space to get from Petaluma in early December to sunny England in January. I spent an extended holiday back home with my friends and family in Idaho, and it was sweet. I've been living on the road, mostly in California, for the last 6 years, but Idaho has been, and will always be, my home. Again I find myself a bit short on words, so I'll just say that I love my family so, so damn much and I had one of the most wonderful holidays of my life this December. Here's a couple o' pics to help paint a wee picture for ya:

My home in Idaho:

These guys were literally eating out of my brother's hand by Christmas. Cool to see, but that might come back to haunt them when hunting season opens:

What with the snow and freezing temperatures riding outside meant putting the rollers on the porch, which I was not into. So I ended up doing a lot of this:

Got to do a little XC with the old man:

And here is my dad in true Idaho finery. I don't know if this look has made it to the runways yet:

This is Bald Mountain, the pride of Sun Valley and the scene of many of my youthful shenanigans:

These bad boys are the Boulder Mountains. They're only about 25 minutes from my front door, and I got to ski around 'em for my "job". Awesome.



It did, however, get really, really cold. Like below zero cold (that's -18 Eurostyle) That's frost on the inside of my car.

And that's frost on the outside of my face:

That was one of the coldest moments of my life. I was trying to do the double boulder and I ran out of daylight. I ended up having to ski with my hands in my pants. When I finally bagged it after the sun had set about 8 cars drove past me before somebody picked me up. I didn't take it personally; I mean, I probably wouldn't have picked up someone looking like that.

This is the fam (-broski) after a lunch at Galena.

And this is said broski. There's something funny about the angle of this shot, because in real life I am both taller and better looking than he is.

And this last shot pretty much sums me up. Instead of focusing on packing for my move to a foreign country in less than 24 hours I've decided to give myself an epic mullet. You can see the chaotic tailings of my closet-mining in the background. I only wish you could see the sinkful of hair.