Wow, that was a fun trip.\u00a0 Friends Craig and Kelly joined me for some fun in the snow, though ironically, more snow came down in NYC than in Jackson Hole.\u00a0 In fact, Craig and I were lucky to get out.\u00a0 Luckily, our flight left just 90 minutes late, but it was due to a mechanical issue.\u00a0 Two flights before us were canceled as were many more after us.\u00a0 Kelly left much earlier in the day, so her arrival was as scheduled.\u00a0 Some quick hits from the vacation are below:<\/p>\n
– I hadn’t remembered doing so, but in booking this trip using frequent flyer miles, I had chosen first class for the flights from NYC to Jackson Hole (one stopover).\u00a0 Previous to this, I hadn’t ever flown first class, so it was a real treat.\u00a0 I couldn’t help but think about the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is bumped up and Elaine vainly attempts to join him.\u00a0 I joked that Craig was suffering in the back with the goats and chickens.\u00a0 With a wifi-enabled plane, I was on-line doing a bunch of stuff and enjoying wine and nice meals.\u00a0 What a way to travel.<\/p>\n
– Jackson Hole hadn’t gotten any snow in some time, so we were treated to decent but not great conditions.\u00a0 And, it didn’t snow at all while we were there, so with unseasonably warm conditions, the snow quality itself deteriorated over the course of our stay.\u00a0 When soft snow begins to melt, it turns into a slushy mix which we sometimes call “mashed potatoes”.\u00a0 Then, when it gets cold at night, the slush freezes and the next morning, the surface is somewhat glazed and crunchy.<\/p>\n
– Craig is a skier as is Kelly.\u00a0 Sandie was going to join us (she’s a snowboarder), but she badly injured her wrist the week before and had to bail.\u00a0 I brought my snowboard and considered skiing, but it was too much fun to board instead.\u00a0 And, since I can go pretty much anywhere a skier can, it was no problem.<\/p>\n
– We hit every part of the mountain except the out-of-bounds portion which required some hiking and survival equipment, e.g. avalanche beacon, shovel\/axe, etc.\u00a0 A fair amount of the cliff terrain was closed off due to the lack of snow, but we still found some great spots.<\/p>\n
– On day one, I ventured past a “Cliff:\u00a0 Closed” sign and not surprisingly, found myself at the edge of a steep cliff.\u00a0 I managed to inch my way down on the snowboard until I found an area safe for me to jump.\u00a0 That jump was between 8-10 feet (or so I figure) and I landed in some poofy, loose snow.\u00a0 Some folks below were considering calling the ski patrol to help me, but thankfully, I managed to get down before they did so.\u00a0 God knows my ego wouldn’t have been able to deal with that.<\/p>\n
– On day two, I took two major falls on the same run, both of which involved all of my weight landing on my head.\u00a0 Neither felt good.\u00a0 This season, I began using a helmet and the decision to do so was very much validated at Jackson Hole.\u00a0 I had a headache all night and a sore neck thereafter, but the headache was gone by the next day.<\/p>\n
– On day three, Craig and I found a section off of the Sublette lift that was very steep, very tight between cliffs and trees, and full of great snow.\u00a0 We must have gone down this section 3 or 4 times in a row.\u00a0 I was giddy with how much fun it was.\u00a0 This area of the mountain was literally an obstacle course with rocks, boulders, trees, and other elements creating utter chaos within a steep pitch.\u00a0 Fantastic!\u00a0 At one point, I took a bad fall and twisted so hard that I pulled a muscle in my abdomen.\u00a0 As I write this, 3 days later, I’m still very sore.\u00a0 Oh well, it was worth it.<\/p>\n
– Day four was somewhat uneventful.\u00a0 We were all a little tired, but we still enjoyed every minute.\u00a0 We decided to take a long lunch at the top of the gondola lift given the bright blue sky and warm sunshine.\u00a0 Sitting outside and enjoying a meal was reminiscent of my days skiing in Iran with my family, and one trip I took with my dad and brother in Switzerland.\u00a0 Skiing in Europe and many other places is culturally different than in the US, or so I believe.\u00a0 There’s a relaxed holiday aspect to it where taking a two hour lunch while relaxing outside is par for the course.<\/p>\n
– With the Olympics on TV, and with Kelly’s love of hockey, we cut out early on days one and three to watch the US play.\u00a0 We visited the Mangy Moose several times over the vacation and watched both the semi-final and finals there, the latter of which was tremendous fun despite the outcome.\u00a0 When the US scored with 24.4 seconds left in the third period, the place went nuts!\u00a0 It reminded me of when my brother and I cut out early from skiing in Alta in 1990 to watch the NY Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship.<\/p>\n
– We made friends with a bunch of folks from Westchester and even ventured into the town of Jackson to join them for dinner one night.\u00a0 They were very nice and we’ll likely stay in touch.<\/p>\n
– I took a bunch of photos and videos which I’ll try to post later.\u00a0\u00a0 I asked Craig to take some videos of me with my camera, but they didn’t come out too well, and I’ve been letting him have it for failing me!\u00a0 I took some great videos though of both Craig and Kelly including quite a few of me behind and alongside them as we sped down the mountain.\u00a0 It was a major challenge to both navigate on the snowboard while keeping the camera still and pointed on them.\u00a0 I kinda felt like a professional videographer!<\/p>\n
Well, that’s it for my ski\/snowboard season, save for the ski-bike-run triathlon on March 20th.\u00a0 Next year, I’m considering Val D’Isere in France but we shall see.\u00a0 With my sister moving to Paris, it might be feasible.<\/p>\n
As for training, I did none of it while in Wyoming.\u00a0 Today is the first day back and I have a swim\/bike combo session planned for tonight, and a bike\/run combo planned for tomorrow night.\u00a0 I head to Chicago with some friends this weekend, so I’ll try to get in a swim session Friday afternoon before I leave, and I’ll definitely run both Saturday and Sunday while in Chi-town.\u00a0 Then, it’ll be just week until the Miami Triathlon, so my training will be light and easy as I try to stay relaxed but strong in advance of the first race of the season.\u00a0 Things are going to be crazy this month, but when (not if) I succeed at month’s end, I’ll be stronger for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wow, that was a fun trip.\u00a0 Friends Craig and Kelly joined me for some fun in the snow, though ironically, more snow came down in NYC than in Jackson Hole.\u00a0 In fact, Craig and I were lucky to get out.\u00a0 Luckily, our flight left just 90 minutes late, but it was due to a mechanical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}